D&D 5E So the DM Let me roll stats ...

[Zardnaar]

But we had to do it on front of him. Order cleric curse of Strahd.

16
16
16
14
11
10

So went with Wisdom, con and strength. Under default array would have been 14,14,16 after racials and would have used medium armor vs heavy. Tashas was allowed so custom lineage and shadow touched feat probably fae touched lvl 4.

Basic plan is sitting back and buffing and blasting entering direct combat if required.

Other play got me to do his stats 18,14,14 best 3.

Another group playing also had rolled stats no idea what they were but DM she said no to one drastically overpowered set.

 

[aco175]

I find rolling stats (in front of the DM) does not automatically make a better set of stats. It would likely be worst with just rolling 3 dice instead of the general 4 dice drop one. I find the problem is with players and one getting crap stats and another getting great stats. Then there becomes rules for rerolling until you get better stats or suiciding your character so you can make a better one.

 

[TwoSix]

One thing for me is that if I’m rolling, I don’t walk in with any sort of a plan of what to play. Low stats are going to push me in a very different direction than high stats.

 

[BookTenTiger]

One thing for me is that if I’m rolling, I don’t walk in with any sort of a plan of what to play. Low stats are going to push me in a very different direction than high stats.

This is the reason I find rolling stats really fun... Rather than knowing exactly what my character is going to be like, I'm collaborating with the chaos of the dice!

 

[Andvari]

Back in school I once joined a D&D game where everybody but me had rolled their characters at home. We used 3d6 and I rolled some pretty average stats. Everyone else had at least one 18 and multiple 17s or 16s. I did not appear for a 2nd session.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I don't play with rolled stats because I have never, not once, seen anyone who does play a character with all (or most) stats below 12, but I certainly have seen them play a character with all (or most) stats above 12.

I feel like people who say the "like random" only seem to like random when it works out in their favour.

 

[Oofta]

For practically every story of above average stats there's a story of below average stats, frequently far below average stats. But we rarely hear about those except when it was Skippy the Baggage Carrier rolled a 20 that one time and saved the day. What we don't hear about is the other 99% of the game where they contributed far less in and out of combat mechanically (RP is independent of stats) than Gorgeous the Handsome and Strong who had the significantly higher ability scores. Also throw in that Skippy had a better life expectancy since he was rarely attacked since he hid in the back and wasn't ever a significant threat.

Ah well, off my soapbox. Rolling is great if it works for you, I've seen too many times when we just re-rolled until we had above average scores. It's not something I'd want for anything other than a one-shot.

 

[Zardnaar]

For practically every story of above average stats there's a story of below average stats, frequently far below average stats. But we rarely hear about those except when it was Skippy the Baggage Carrier rolled a 20 that one time and saved the day. What we don't hear about is the other 99% of the game where they contributed far less in and out of combat mechanically (RP is independent of stats) than Gorgeous the Handsome and Strong who had the significantly higher ability scores. Also throw in that Skippy had a better life expectancy since he was rarely attacked since he hid in the back and wasn't ever a significant threat.

Ah well, off my soapbox. Rolling is great if it works for you, I've seen too many times when we just re-rolled until we had above average scores. It's not something I'd want for anything other than a one-shot.

Deeds on how abused it is. Slightly higher than standard array is fine and some builds basically require it as to not ge punished in game (eg Monks, traditional clerics).

Resolving until you can start with a 20 or several 18s isn't kosher.

DM gave us the option of default array no point buy. If I rolled crap moon Druid time.

 

[Audiomancer]

Since I switched to online play, I’ve almost always used standard array, unless the DM specifies another method. It’s easy to do with DDB, and it never leads to accusations that I fudged my stat rolls.

In one game, the DM had me roll 4d6k3 in the VTT. I rolled slightly better than what standard array would have given me (rolled an 18 right off the bat, and my lowest roll was a 10).

 

[cbwjm]

I did manage to roll an 18 on 3d6 for an OSE game, first roll so I knew it would be a fighter type, ended up making a dwarf. Only other good score was dex which was just above average getting me a +1 bonus.

My necromancer I end up with a 17 intelligence but that was only because I took 4 points off my strength to get +2 Int. Technically only needed a 16 for the xp bonus, but figured I'd boost int to 17 because I wanted to.

Both of these characters otherwise have pretty average stats, not sure if any had a penalty, but only the dwarf was left with 2 stats of 13+