D&D 4E Should Ability Scores in 4E Be Randomly Determined?

[Aristotle]

I would like to see the random options for character generation and advancement hilighted as optional rules either in a sidebar or in the DMG.

I *totally* get the old argument where a bad roll on an ability score, or a really low roll on hit points, was supposed provide a little extra depth of character. It was supposed to hilight a character flaw. A good point buy system won't allow a character to max out in every way that might benefit his or her class, but it will allow the player more control over how many low stats they have, and just how low they are. I'll design my own character. The dice can dicate his fate.

 

[Odysseus]

If i've got a particular character in mind for a campaign.I like certain ability scores. And points buy gives me that.
If I role randomly , It can be fun roleplaying wise. But I do find it limiting. As i'm not the greatest role-player(although I enjoy it) I tend to have to arrange my scores to meet my role-playing abilities.

As a couple of side points.
I think ability point scores should be dropped from feat prerequisits , they just encourage players to want higher ability scores.

As DM , in a game I was in a while back had an interesting system of balancing out abilities scores. The lower your ability scores the more luck points the character got. Which I found a really good way of balancing things out.

 

[Gort]

I think I find that the "array" system from Iron Heroes works best for me - you have a choice between three sets of scores - one that is balanced with 14 in each score, one that lowers a couple of the 14s to make way for a pair of 16s, and one that gives one 18 with the other stats lowered somewhat.

It means you can be good at everything, good at most things but focused somewhat, or completely focused on one thing, without players being able to dump charisma down to 6.

Did I mention that I hope this edition makes it unwise to dump charisma? Cause at the moment it's a goldmine of points.

 

[Lord Zardoz]

....See, I'd say those uses are all pretty suspect. Doing 3 points of Strength damage to a Str score of 15 isn't effectively different from doing 2 points, and that's bad game design.

It is different in as much as hitting 0 Str will render you helpless. If the next hit does 12 Str damage, than that single point of difference is reasonably significant. In terms of the ability bonus, it is not different. But as long as there is a use for the stats that is not purely related to their ability bonus, moving away from the 3-18 base is problematic.

It's a great bell curve, certainly, but it's only actually there as long as you keep rolling randomly.

While anyone who uses point buy is not going to roll stats very often, we still need the baseline for what average is so that when your PC's surprise you getting an unstatted NPC involved in something, its nice to know what the base average range for a given ability would be.

END COMMUNICATION

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

As the default? No. Point buy is what the designers use for playtesting (for obvious reasons); why wouldn't it be the default method?

With that said, I'd have no problem with having BOTH in the PHB; it's not like the 4d6 method takes much space.

 

[blargney the second]

Point-buy as default. Loads of other things as published variants.

 

[Malhost Zormaeril]

In our games, we usually go with point buy, but I've no beef with people who roll their attributes with dice. In fact, I half expected this next edition to do away with the 3-18 range altogether, although at this point in time it doesn't seem terribly likely.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

for the 3 to 18 vs -5 to +5, the main advantage of the current system over just using the mods is that there is a clear "floor". Zero is, well, zero. "-5 is zero" just doesn't work as well. You're gonna have people wanting their spells to reduce the enemy to a -7 dex.

The current system is a little quirky but it provides both a zero modifier as an average and a zero stat as a floor, and I like that about it.

 

[Cadfan]

Point buy is, in my opinion, objectively better.

But I recognize that many people love rolling for characters, and would go absolutely berserk if point buy became the standard and rolling became an alternative.

While I love shooting sacred cows, this is one I fear to kill.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

for the 3 to 18 vs -5 to +5, the main advantage of the current system over just using the mods is that there is a clear "floor". Zero is, well, zero. "-5 is zero" just doesn't work as well. You're gonna have people wanting their spells to reduce the enemy to a -7 dex.

The current system is a little quirky but it provides both a zero modifier as an average and a zero stat as a floor, and I like that about it.

Excellent point. It is intuituve that if you reach 0 Con, you are dead, 0 Str you cannot move, 0 Int is brain dead. Not so much for a -5 ability.