Rolling 18/100 Strength

[cptg1481]

18/100

Many years ago, probably between 1979-1980 (Basic and AD&D) I played a lot (every weekend all weekend) and did end up once with an 18/100 strength, the rest of the guy was not so good, I think a 15 and the rest 10-12. He was a fighter of course named "Rambo" (this was in fact "before" the movies, it was a twisted spin off from Randy (my name).

He was a cool character and a tank of a fighter...but alas he was to have as short lived life as a big burly fighter type. He got smoked in a one on one fight (I think with a harpy....?) at 5th level on trek to find a type of spell component in a wood filled with fey and next to which was our small base of operations.

The party was able to find my corpse after a few hours of searching and decided to have the druid reincarnate me. The DM ruled that I was to return as a Pixie. I was crushed because my guy would not be a masive damage machine any more, alas a house rule was only one return from death....I was stuck. As I began to redo my stats and realized that my STR would only drop by only a few, heck a pixie with a 15 was in my mind beter than the human w/18/00. I wanted to see how I could still play the guy.

I decided to be a good pixie, a champion of sorts, so I traded in my two-hander for a stilleto dagger of the same enchantment (like +2 or something) and wield it like a two hander. In the old rules magic armor shrunk or expanded to fit any creature so my elvin chain shirt was fine. I sought out the pixie royals and joined them as a knight errant. I got to champion the queen on several occasions and do cool fey stuff. I loved the character BTW, thus the story.....sorry.

Anyway, that was my only 18 let alone 18/00 and it lasted about four sessions....go figure.

 

[Hardhead]

I think it may be telling that more people claim to have rolled it themselves than claim to have witnessed it rolled by another! You'd think that it'd be the other way around, if no cheating was involved.

 

[d12]

I did this for my first D&D character ever. I named him "Link." I was playing a lot of Legend of Zelda at the time.

 

[John Crichton]

Done it once, seen it done once but the guy never played the character. Rolled pretty good to begin with, plopped down the stats, called the DM over, he leans in, I tell him this is for real and he needs to watch (always a thing of mine, gotta have the DM watch) and boom, 00. I had 2e chars with 18/xx STR before so it wasn't my first character with one but it was sweet to get it.

He hated that character, I recall. And I now know why.

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

+1 Strength means never having to say "Eighteen forty-three again!?"

I've never had an Exceptional Strength score above 60, but I played a lot of characters with a 19 Strength. The beautiful thing was, you didn't even need to be a Fighter to do it.

edit: Fixed omission.

 

[megamania]

I never rolled an 18 until recently. Then I rolled TWO! DM didn't see it and wouldn't allow it. Can't blame him but it was legit

Piquanta would have been an incredible Fighter/Psy Warrior with 18 in Str and Dex.

 

[orbitalfreak]

Haven't seen an 18/00, but I saw a 18/85 that was part of an all 18 set of scores. Also posted this in the other thread.

 

[Bagpuss]

I had a player roll it in front of me in a Birthright game, of course he then picked the race that had a +2 Strength bonus, making it 20. Most of his other stats were terrible however and he was a one trick pony. Still the one trick of hitting things with a big sword until they drop works rather well in AD&D if you have Strength 20.

 

[Hypersmurf]

I was the first to say anything, which was, "Dwarves can't have a 100." He rerolled. ( this is true per 1e PHB)

Actually, it isn't... he should have simply lowered it to 18/99 (dwarven maximum).

Character Ability Scores by Racial Type: (PHB p15)
As noted previously in the section pertaining to character abilities, the non- and part-human races must meet certain minimum ability scores, and some races have lower maximum possible scores as well. In order for your character to be one of these races, these minimums and maximums must be met. The minimum scores must have been generated in the initial abilities rolls, or if bonuses are given for the race, then the minimums must be met considering such bonuses. Maximums applicable are easily met, for the ability score is simply lowered to conform to the maximum.

------

On that note, anyone who complains that half-orcs got the shaft in 3E might have forgotten that in 1E, they were limited to maxima of 17 Int, 14 Dex and Con, and 12 Cha...

Regarding the original question - I've seen an 18/00 rolled once. The player was creating a female human ranger... when the 00 came up, she reevaluated her concept for a male...

+1 Strength means never having to say "Eighteen forty-three again!?"

Of course, in 1E, it wasn't that easy... Wishes only increased attributes by .10 once you hit 16... so to go from 18/43 to 19 required 6 wishes. Age modifiers couldn't raise an attribute above a racial maximum. You needed a Manual of Gainful Exercise to bump a full point, pretty much.

-Hyp.

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

Of course, in 1E, it wasn't that easy... Wishes only increased attributes by .10 once you hit 16... so to go from 18/43 to 19 required 6 wishes. Age modifiers couldn't raise an attribute above a racial maximum. You needed a Manual of Gainful Exercise to bump a full point, pretty much.

We never had Wishes in our games, and if we got them, we knew better than to use them.

I was referring to races that get +1 or more to Strength at character generation. "Roll for extended Strength? Nah, I'll just play an Alaghi." Or a Half-Ogre. Or a Minotaur. Heh. Or anything else that gave me an excuse to avoid rolling a random percentile and going straight to that sweet, sweet 19.