So a player presents a character with really high ability scores--what do you do?

[LordAO]

I always have characters roll in front of me. That way there is never any doubt or suspicion of cheating. That way you never have to be in the akward position of asking soemone to reroll or having to play the game with unneccessary or unfair suspicions.

But the scores you mentioned are not anything I would worry about. They are respectable, but hardly godlike. I once had a player who rolled 3 18's, a 16, 15, and 12! Now that is something to gasp about.

And also keep in mind that a characters ability scores really make very little difference overall. Even an 18 gives a meager +4 bonus. That is a helpful bonus, but largely insignificant in the overall scheme of things. People place way too much emphasis on their ability scores. In reality it's one's feats, skills, class abilities, spells, and gear that win the day, not their attributes.

If you are really that concerned about it, you may consider using point buy instead of rolling. That is really the only way you can control what your player's ability scores are, and it seems to me that you are very worried about things getting out of control. If you want to have the randomness of rolling then you must accept that some characters will have higher scores than others.

 

[Buttercup]

In the past, I've always had players use a modified point buy. But next time I start a campaign, I think I'll let them just pick their stats. I just don't think it's that big of a deal.

As long as they have a good time playing their character, and don't hinder anyone else having a good time, why should I care what their stats are?

 

[nopantsyet]

Players trying to "win" the game in any sense beyond trying to succeed within the game have not lasted in our game--it's just not enjoyable for them. So I'm not worried about that.

On the other hand, we gave up point buy because the machine-precision-balance style just wasn't doing it for us. Everybody wanted to go back to rolling. As far as "abnormal" scores, they don't exist. Anything can happen.

Uneven distribution makes for interesting parties. Players come up with personas for flawed characters. I try to make the tide of the game swing on good strategy and roleplaying, not just good rolls. Also, I reward experience for all encounters, not just combat.

It works out very elegantly: the better fighters do more and fare better in combat and PCs with other strengths take the reins in other situations. They've got to triumph in all types of encounters to succeed in my campaign. As a party, they are able to overcome obstacles and enemies they couldn't overcome individually.

Edit: typos

 

[Treebore]

Players trying to "win" the game in any sense beyond trying to succeed within the game have not lasted in our game--it's just not enjoyable for them. So I'm not worried about that.

On the other hand, we gave up point buy because the machine-precision-balance style just wasn't doing it for us. Everybody wanted to go back to rolling. As far as "abnormal" scores, they don't exist. Anything can happen.

Uneven distribution makes for interesting parties. Players come up with personas for flawed characters. I try to make the tide of the game swing on good strategy and roleplaying, not just good rolls. Also, I reward experience for all encounters, not just combat.

It works out very elegantly: the better fighters do more and fare better in combat and PCs with other strengths take the reins in other situations. They've got to triumph in all types of encounters to succeed in my campaign. As a party, they are able to overcome obstacles and enemies they couldn't overcome individually.

Edit: typos

See? Lots of fun and no stressing out about cheating. We are playing this game to have fun, stressing about how honest those stats are just wasn't worth stressing over, so i quit stressing. My high stat characters are very legitimate.
They just may be the 5th, 12th, or 18th set of stats i rolled using the DM's desired method. No DM ever told me I couldn't roll as many possible character stats I was willing to. If they did I wouldn't play unless he accepted the fact I wasn't going to play unless I had a character i would be happy with. If they are so up-tight about something as minor as what stats are on the character I probably wouldn't like their style of DMing anyway.

I haven't had this problem yet, so i don't know how true that would be, but, well, lets just play to have fun. The rules are secondary.

 

[Moleculo]

just out of curiosity, has anyone ever tried doing random stats via a draft? Like rolling 4d6/3d6 six times for every player and then doing round robin or something. That would be kind of interesting... hmmm...

 

[Numion]

just out of curiosity, has anyone ever tried doing random stats via a draft? Like rolling 4d6/3d6 six times for every player and then doing round robin or something. That would be kind of interesting... hmmm...

Or pair up the players. Then one of those rolls 12 times 4d6 drop lowest and arranges them in two sets of 6 rolls. Then the other player gets to choose which set he takes. The original roller is then left with the other.

 

[tarchon]

If PC stats are coming up to high, call up a casino and ask for a reference to a good cooler.

 

[Scarbonac]

Anyway,

I'd like to avoid simply 'proscribing' a method of character creation, something liek point-buy or whatever. But if a Cheracter's ability scores seem out of line (say, none under 12 and about 3 15 or better), what's the best way to handle it

Say "Cool; whatcha wanna play?"


But then, I wouldn't necessarily call those stats "out of line". As a DM, I frankly don't care how a player comes up with their stats (including having a drunken macaque pull them out of a hat). No one in my group is dishonest or abusive that way, anyway (except me ).

Stats don't make the character; the player does. Stats just provide plusses or minuses for mechanical interactions with the ruleset.

 

[DiFier]

Well if it is that much higher than the other PC's stats maybe find the average of all the PC's stats and anyone lower than the average can get bonus points to get up to the average. I don't think that good rollers should be penalized. but poor rollers will be totally outshined. and that can be disapointing.

I generally have poor luck with rolling stats for charachters. of the 4 charachters that I have rolled up in the last 2 years one regular campaign (once a week) a semi regular campaign (twice a week maybe) and two short 2 or three session quickies (I don't have the stats for the one anymore) I have rolled 11, 14, 15, 16, 10, 10, (not a bad starting point. the other PC is better but not by much); 10, 15, 10, 13, 15, 14 (again not bad, except that the other PCs all have at least one outragous stat. quite a few charachters with mulitipule stats of 16 or above) and finally for a one shot. 10, 15, 14, 14, 15, 13 (again not bad, but the other PC's had an 18 and 17 and two 17s. Now I know I shouldn't be complaigning. those are decent stats. a great point to start and they crush the elite array stats. But It really sucks when you are out shined. I like most of the charachters (less so the 2nd one)

I kinda wish there was a method where you started with the elite array and then added 1d6 or something not all the PC's stats would be the same but they also wouldn't be all that different either.

of course in our regular game the other player and I each create and play the other's cohorts. for her Cohorts I have rolled: 10, 15, 14, 17, 11, 13; & 12, 14, 14, 16, 16, 14.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

The quick and easy answer is the one that's been given: use pointbuy.

The second answer is have the players roll the dice in front of you.

The rest of the answer is that, if you insist on allowing players to roll dice to generate characters out of session where you can't see them, you will have problems with balance. (And don't buy those people who claim that stats don't matter to balance; in my experience, 36 point buy stats are roughly equivalent to a +1.5 ECL race when compared to 25-28 point buy characters; a 20 point difference would be like letting one player play a drow and stay the same level as the party full of half-elves (with a half-orc wizard)).

That said, nothing lower than 12 and three stats 15+ doesn't necessarily sound unreasonable.
12, 12, 13, 15, 17, 15 adds up to 42 point buy but isn't distributed in a very maximized manner for most purposes. 18, 17, 14, 11, 10, 8 is fewer points (in a point buy system) but most likely a much more maximized character). 12, 13, 14, 15, 15, 15 would also fit your description too but doesn't seem unreasonable. And, it all depends upon the other characters stats. If the other characters are statted like iconics, any of those characters are far better. OTOH, if the other characters are more 17, 15, 16, 9, 7, 11, those stats will fit right in.