Rolling all 18s

[Guilt Puppy]

We rolled characters for a new campaign recently... One player came out with two 18s. He ended up with a +5 in total modifiers: Slightly below average (for 4d6 drop). I considered letting him reroll.

Most 18s I ever saw was four, but that was with a really twinked out method that involved d8s and other atrocities (I think 3d8, drop the lowest, plus 1d4, 19s and 20s count as 18s... I do not know to this day what my DM was thinking, but my concept of ability scores has still been totally skewed by that game.) So that sure does not count.

That player sure had a strong wizard, though!

 

[Latency]

Best I have had was three 18's and the rest have been average.

 

[alaric]

The odds of getting 6 18's on 4d6 drop lowest is 2.479 * 10 ^ 10, or around 25 billion to one. Barring just sitting down and rolling dice over and over, or random character generators, chances are slim there is more than one person who has ever done this legitimately.

 

[Turgenev]

I did it once way back in the early 80s with the 3d6 method (none of this 4d6 and drop the lowest die stuff). I was rolling for each stat in order (back when Str, Int, Wis, Dex, Con, Cha was the order - i.e. 1st edition AD&D). I remember looking at the character and I couldn't believe it.

I scrapped the character on the spot and started over again. Why? For several reasons:
1) How could I expect others to believe it when I barely did?
2) I wasn't interested in playing a character with all 18s - I found such a character boring (still do).

Cheers,
Tim

 

[FungiMuncher]

Best I've actually seen has been three 18s.

I agree with Zerovoid's suggestion. I've seen two characters with all 18s, where the players claimed they were legal rolls. My only response was "Yeah, right..." I wasn't the DM in either case, so was POed when one of the DMs allowed it. Should've taken the clue and changed my character's stats!

FM

 

[John Crichton]

Nope.

This may sound pretentious, but I once rolled 4 18's along with 2 other (14's maybe) high stats and couldn't make a character out of it. I've always been into characters that are somewhat realistic (they have flaws) and at the time I simply couldn't attach those scores to a character. If it happened now I'd have to play a paladin or something that has a built-in reason why there would be a person of that magnitude walking around. Otherwise, it just makes things harder on the DM to balance things...

:: edited for clarity ::

 

[jaldaen]

I have never don it but I did roll three 18s, two 17s, and a sixteen for a Birthright character once... man that character was the man... I also rolled a great bloodline and some really good blood abilities for him... Best character I never got to play... Since at the time I was in high school and no body played Birthright...

Still I loved the Birthright campaign setting... it was the first time I rolled 4d6 drop the lowest as that was the recommended generation method for the setting... first and best thus far...

I'm going to go start rolling now... I'll update you all if I get something better ;-)

Jaldaen

 

[reapersaurus]

just to enter reality for a second:
what is more realistic?
That someone ACTUALLY rolled greater than a one in a billion roll, or that they're lying about their stats (a VERY common occurrence in gamers)?

Occam's Razor cuts deep, my friends...

 

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Never done it, never seen it done.

 

[tburdett]

Never done it or seen it. Never heard anybody claim it until I read this thread.

Using the method in Unearthed Arcana (based on class) I rolled many characters with three 18's, a few with four. Using 3d6 (re-roll the 1's) or 4d6 (drop lowest) I've never rolled more than three 18's.