Rolling characters...what's your favorite method?

[spunky_mutters]

4d6 drop one, of course. I think this averages out to what a 27 point buy would be if it were distributed evenly. i.e. it averages between 12 and 13, so about 3 13s and 3 12s (of course with some high/some low, you probably end up higher).

Point buy is good, as players always cheat on stats if they can. I can't really blame them, here they are making a roll which will seal their fate for the rest of the game, and there is no context for mitigating failure, and no decisions to help them out.

Stat pool: Takes a group that has no cohesion, and reduces them to threats and bullying inside of 5 minutes. It's fine as long as you don't leave the room. You're going to have one player being sweet-talked into taking 5 dump stats and a 13 in his prime req.

It doesn't matter as much in 3e as before. In 1e, good luck getting that class you want. And how about raising your scores in the future? Not going to happen over the course of normal play.

So I think initial stats, while contributing to the survival chances for the character, aren't the death sentence they were in 1e.

And as previously mentioned, when players claim they rolled straight 18s, just start tossing mind flayers at them.

 

[John Crichton]

We used to use the 4d6 method (3 sets of 6) and arranged as desired for years but I have changed it for when I run. Depending on how many players are in the group (smaller groups tend to need slightly higher stats to stay alive) they roll either 2 of 3 sets using the 4d6 method. If none of those equal +6 or more, the player has the option of taking these stats and arranging them as desired: 17, 15, 13, 12, 11, 9. Has worked well so far.

Or if he wishes, he can take whatever he rolled (even if the stats are somewhat low). My players don't know this but if any of them ever made a character with "lower" stats and worked out a cool history I would probably start them a level higher than everyone else. I'll see if anyone figures it out....

 

[Painfully]

I'm point buy all the way. It provides an even playing field for all the players, and eliminates any whining about bad rolls.

Simplicity is a DM's best friend.

Look up Wulf's Lazy Days Campaign thread in the Story Hour forum for another cool way to distribute stats though. No dice involved, and it prevents the party from having too many characters with the same high stat. It even adds room for a unique "special" item that can be chosen by players if they want to sacrifice a couple stat points for it.

Wulf's Lazy Days Campaign Story Hour

 

[schporto]

Well here's my screwey method...
1. Roll 4d6 in order.
2. If a roll comes up 5 or less reroll that stat.
3. If constitution comes up 10 or less, discard character and reroll everything.
4. The play can decide that they want to play a class. If the rolls don't meet that classes 'requirements' they can reroll the character 1 more time (ignore any constitution rerolls). The requirements are a wizard must have a reasonable intelligence, a fighter a reasonable strength, etc.

Now, my arguments for using this.
1. Forces some random distribution of power and abilities.
2. Nobody that weak, unintelligent, lacking of common sense, clumsy, or just damn ugly would've lasted long enough to become an adventurer or even bother doing so.
3. The constitution at 10 cuz I really don't think someone who gets sick all the time is going to go out trying to kill dragons.
4. Well it lets the players have a better chance at playing soemthing they like, or want to play.

-cpd

 

[Gyoza sausage bun]

1. Roll 3d6 6 times, no swapping stats around. Afterwards you can raise any stat by 1 by subtracting 2 from another stat as many times as you like.

2. Roll 3d6 36 times and place the results in a 6x6 matrix. Each player chooses a line of numbers (like a bingo card) to use as their stats. The stats stay in order but the line can go either backwards or forwards.

 

[Magius del Cotto]

And now a variant on the 4d6: The Yatzee rule.
This is something that I, personally, don't use in my campaigns, but one of the other DMs seems quite fond of it: roll 4d6, and if all of them are the same number (say, all 5s), you take the total of all four. I've actually only ever seen it happen once, and that was with my dedicated archer (or rather, sniper. Range increment is 330'), who has 20 for dex, and 15 for everything else (yeah, I know, I know...). Again, like most of my other methods, use only if you know what you're doing.
As to the stat pool system, I tried it out as a comparison with other systems (point buy and classic rolling), and everyone came out with the stats they needed, nobody getting all the big stats, but nobody getting all the small ones either. Of course, the only way to make sure it works is to try it yourself.

 

[Desdichado]

I actually prefer point-buy most of the time, but hey, it's your game!

The other method I've used (and liked) is to use 4d6 drop one. I have the players roll up 7 sets of stats, dropping on stat and arranging to taste.

 

[smetzger]

I'm looking for interesting character generation methods.
I don't care for the point-buy system - it's too bland, but I don't want to fall back on the old 'roll 3d6 and assign the stat's method'.

Any ideas?

2d6+1d8, 7 times keep best 6 rolls, arrange how you want.

Then take the whole parties lowest roll, the highest of this subset becomes everyones newest low roll.
Then take the whole parties highest roll, the highest of this subset becomes everyones newest high roll.

I believe that this combines the best of the random(you have variance in your ability scores) and the point buy methods (everyone in the party has about the same power level).

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

I like the 4D6, drop the lowest and must have at least 1 score of 14 or more. But I sit and watch them roll it, if they're ending up with bad stats then I'll start 'cheating' on their behalf and just give them a higher stat or reroll a few dice.

I've noticed that some people are quite 'hung up' on the numbers and I'd hate to ruin someones enjoyment of a game over something as silly as a low stats character....

 

[Wolfen Priest]

The reason why my group prefers point-buy is because we don't really get to start up new games that often, so when we do, it helps tremendously if we can have our characters developed beforehand, so we can just get started right away, after describing our characters to each other.

The other reason is that, as stated by others, when you only get to play once in a while, it really sucks when you roll up a lousy character, and it's even worse when yours is the one with the "worst" stats. Furthermore, randomness always seems to facilitate DM allowances so that everyone ends up with a totally 'un-random,' modified character anyway.

So just skip the pageantry of pretending to roll, and go with point-buy. It will be standard practice by 4th edition anyway.