D&D 5E Rolling for Stats

[NewJeffCT]

No its not. If for no other reason than that outlined in by the OP.

Depending on the characters, the game and the players, I would consider one of the following:

1. Give the 30 point guy 7 points to spend on his characters stats. This will reduce the spread to 8 points, but doesn't take away from the other players good rolls.

2. Give the 30 point guy an extra level.

3. Play through to an appropriate stopping point then offer the players to rework their characters, create a new one etc based on what you have learnt so far.

thotd

I'd go with option 1 to help out the 30 point player. Reduces the differences, but the other players can keep their good rolls. You can sell it to the good rolling players saying that the other player won't be as much of an albatross anymore. Is the PHB going to be that different in terms of character creation?

 

[Lalato]

I rolled 4d6 drop lowest in standard order (SDCIWC) last night for our new 5e campaign. Interestingly enough I ended up with the standard array, except the 8 was replaced by a 12.

Another rolled the grid. 3d6 on a 3x3 grid. SDC on one axis, IWC on the other. He ended up with two 16s, and lowest value 9.

We'll see how everyone else rolls. But we are already starting off with some extra oomph. Will be interesting to see if/how the DM compensates for it.

 

[Lalato]

Forgot to answer the OPs question...

I would start over, but if this causes a lot of strife at your table, go the route of adding to the lowest player.

An alternative solution is to average it all and let them all build with the avg point buy. It will still be a lot higher than normal for everyone.

 

[drjones]

For the starter one player rolled his own character so I had him roll stats (4d6 drop one) for a more old school feel, of course he rolled a 17, 2 15s and a 16, lucky bugger. And at L1 those stats have more punch than they might later. Not sure what I am going to do when we re-make characters with the PHB. I found the 4e point buy and no-negatives style very generic. Pretty much any character of class x was going to have exactly identical stats at every level unless a player actively sacrificed performance for being interesting.

So I would love to get some randomness back into the mix but I don't want the range to be too far out of whack. Balance is overrated in a co-op game but people still notice when Grognar does twice as much damage as Elfowin every round.

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

Finish the current thing, do a fresh start once the PHB comes out.

Yes, this is probably the best bet.

I prefer point buy and array myself, one big issue I have is they made those options less optimal than rolling in 5e.

A DM can always import the point buy rules from 3e or 4e. 5e is supposed to be all about modularity and 'rulings not rules,' after all.

What I like to do is have everybody roll stats but then let the players choose their stats from any of the rolls. That way you still get the random flavour of rolled stats but no one player has much worse or much better stats.

This does result in slightly higher average stats when using 4d6 drop 1, so I like to use the standard 3d6.

Also, I've wanted to try the potluck method for a while! It's the one roll-PB compromise method that actually manages to take the best of both and the worst of neither. (Mostly.)

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

I found the 4e point buy and no-negatives style very generic. Pretty much any character of class x was going to have exactly identical stats at every level unless a player actively sacrificed performance for being interesting.

Weird, I found the exact opposite: 4e's class-build structure finally allowed characters of the same class to have different stat priorities without players having to shoot their PCs in the feet for the sake of creative characters.

 

[Nahat Anoj]

I just started GM'ing and we have only played the first part of the starter set book. Everyone rolled for stats because that was the rule but now that I know more than I did, I would have used the point system. As it is now, my players have the equivalent of 37,30,45,43 from a point buy. Would you just let it ride or since the PHB is coming out, have everyone redo the stats with the point buy?

Does the player care? If not, then I guess you don't really need to do much. If so, I would probably just give everyone 45 points with which to buy ability scores.

When I get a campaign going, I plan on using rolled stats, but I will let PCs roll several sets of 6 and let them choose which one they want.

 

[YourSwordIsMine]

There is nothing wrong with rolling for Abilities. And from the sound of it, your players are ahead of the normal point buy anyway. Play the game and have fun.

 

[Uller]

There is nothing wrong with rolling for Abilities. And from the sound of it, your players are ahead of the normal point buy anyway. Play the game and have fun.

No. There's not. But I don't think that's what he is saying. He is noticing the disparity is overwhelming the balance between his players' characters. A problem that is amplified by bounded accuracy. There is something wrong with that. Point buys and standard help make sure the PCs are on a more even footing at the start.

 

[SilverBulletKY]

We're going to go with a 30 point buy - I think everyone is fine with it as they know it will make my life easier and they realize I spend hours preparing for the adventure with printing out maps, minis, etc etc. Plus they hadn't even picked out their archetype or subclass yet since the PHB isn't out yet so they really weren't finished with character creation. One character is a fighter with a barbarian background, but since the barbarian is a class now, he may switch classes completely and I'm fine with that as we're all learning.