Rolling for stats. Need some advice

[billd91]

Ultimately, if your players aren't complaining, I'd let that sleeping dog lie if I were you. It may give the players the impression something's actually wrong with having negatives when they don't feel that way themselves. You may change their expectations, and not in a good way.

 

[Theone0581]

Well I think that it is important for my players to understand that there is such a thing as rolling too low, and as a fair DM I will allow them to reroll. I completely understand what your saying, and I am not disagreeing with you. Sometimes players do get negatives on their scores, but I don't feel that they should when the situation is out of their control*.

*of course within proper context, in-game anything can happen.

 

[Visigani]

Theone... what are the chances of getting a natural 18 on a roll of 3d6? To put it in perspective you're roughly 24 times more likely to get a natural 10 rolling those 3d6 than you are to get a natural 18.

With your new system? I suspect it'll be much much more frequent.

 

[Jackinthegreen]

Theone... what are the chances of getting a natural 18 on a roll of 3d6? To put it in perspective you're roughly 24 times more likely to get a natural 10 rolling those 3d6 than you are to get a natural 18.

With your new system? I suspect it'll be much much more frequent.

With his system characters are guaranteed a base 10. It's 2d6+6, reroll 1's, so it's a minimum of 2+2+6 for 10.

In all honesty, this pretty much negates the fairness that actually is rolling for stats. Rolling is fair because more than 50% of the time the standard 4d6 drop lowest will result in a score between 8 and 14.

Now, if you were to say you specifically want the characters to be at least average in every stat due to the campaign being high-powered or whatever, then I can see wanting to adjust it so no one gets lower than a 10.

If you want a compromise, do the usual 4d6 drop lowest and allow character to fiddle with the scores doing a +1 there, -1 here. Alternately, give them straight 12's or 13's in all stats then let them add and subtract how they want so long as it's a 1:1 ratio.

 

[Talonblaze]

The only problem I have with rolling is the unbalancing of the party. There is always that one that has super good rolls and one that got just above reroll to be crud.
It takes away the fact that it goes down to luck rather than building a character how you like it. (Past the feats and class stage.)

Makes it harder for the DM sometimes to make sure an overall weak party isn't wiped or that an overly strong party isn't gonna do the wiping.

 

[Jeffrie]

If you look on page 8 of your Player's Handbook, you'll see a section titled "Rerolling." It tells you that your scores are considered "too low" (and may be rerolled) if your highest score is 13 or lower.

I'm bad at this but. .. .

I think the odds of getting one 6 are one in 6 (16.66%?). The odds of two 6's = multiplied by 66 (36?). One in 36 rolls comes double 6.
The average die lands on 3.5 and 3.5 x 3 = 10.5 average. Adding another die (4d6 remove lowest) adds a 16.66% chance that one is higher? raising the average to 11.5.

The odds of rolling 3 sixes is 215 to one. Oh wait, i think i could find a link

On four dice the odds of a specific(6) 3 is 64 to one.

With your proposal the odds of getting either a 6/6, 6/5, 5/5, 5/6 are 1:8.5.
The odds of having a +2 ability bonus in a specific stat are 54%.
The odds of having no bonus in a specific stat are 8.5%
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

I've been dealing with this since about '78. I think the point buy is best, but don't expect the rolling of stats to go away. I have a favorite method, which i offer my players. (I always roll epically hot for the first abilities of my character.)

You can take the point buy(32)
or
You can get a sheet of ruled notebook player and start rolling 4d6 drop the one. Write the numbers from top of the page to the bottom. Highlight any 6 you want.

10
14
15
8
12
15
11
10
17
7
11
16
13
14
12
10
16
5
14

It hold the bell curve fairly well, and i've never seen it give a set of numbers greater or lesser than i could put up with. And it let's the kids roll the dice, but it's fair. Works every time.

If they're not happy with such an offer just give them whatever stats they want. It will be lower than what you've offered. heh

 

[GreyLord]

Rerolling of 1's isn't actually a bad idea, one that I hadn't thought of before.

In rolling up characters however, perhaps if their total bonus (+) is less than 1, they reroll, OR if you want a higher powered game...if it is less then 2 or even 3 they get to reroll.

Another option, if you want a higher powered game is to allow them to roll 5d6 instead of 4d6, they still can roll low, but chances are lower that they'll do so and they may even roll high.

Instead of reroll 1's, what I HAVE done is have them roll 3d6, they get to reroll one of the dice (edit: err...one die of the three) of their choice (so basically 4d6, but if they roll a low die, they can reroll it, typically this actually get's them pretty nice scores).

Another option is if they don't want negative modifiers, if they roll anything less then an 8 (wouldn't work with the one you presented, since he already has all his scores over an 8), they get to reroll that stat. Or you could raise that number arbitrarily so anything that gives a negative gets a reroll.

 

[kitcik]

Odds of an 18:

3d6 --> 216:1
4d6 drop lowest --> 62:1
2d6 + 6, reroll 1's --> 25:1
point buy --> 100% if you want one bad enough

Food for thought.

 

[Asmo]

If you know your players and trust them, just let them pick the scores they want and get the game rolling!

Asmo

 

[cormanthor]

For what it's worth, our campaigns have used the same rolling system for practically 15 years...

4d6, reroll 1's, drop the lowest.

This makes for decently powerful characters, keeps players happy, and is easy enough to DM around. For a while in 2nd edition (back when 25 was the CAP), we even allowed four NATURAL sixes (not rerolls) to yield a 19. This would be much less broken in 3.5.

Point buy is something we've offered, but it's not exciting enough to entice my players over.

If the players are still unhappy with their scores for whatever reason, they are allowed one other option: the DM rerolls. I make one guarantee, and that is an 18. Everything else is up for grabs. I've had about 3 characters to take the option. One of them had straight 13's and 14's.