D&D 5E Stats, and how do you generate them

[GMforPowergamers]

so at the beginning of the year I am planning on starting a new game. It will be my first full campaign in 5e since the end of the playtest. I right now have the PHB and know my beautiful and wonderful girlfriend is getting me the rest of the books for Christmas. So I have been working on stuff with my group.

The big sticking points (meet the new boss, same as the old one) are alignments (not much you guys can help with here), worries about caster domanice/class balance (again not much you guys can help with) and generating stats (Man I hope for some insight).


SO a bit of background of the table... there are me and 5 players, 1 who has been playing since the early 80's, two who have been playing since the late 80's, one that has been playing since early 90's, and the little kid of the group who never used THAC0 in his life(and who only recently found out 1e and 2e didn't have feats). We have been a group since the 3.5 upgrade, and 1 of them was in the first rpg I ever played and the first D&D game I ran more years ago then I care to count. All of them have DM experience (with different levels of success).

2e, 3e, and all but 1 3.5 game we rolled for stats. We used a few different ways over the years (even 3d6 place as you get once). however we had in general 2 methods we went back and forth between the most...
1)the power game- 4d6 reroll 1's drop the lowest die, generate 7 numbers, drop the lowest number, make 3 columns and take column you like best then arrange to suit your class/race...
2)the more low key- 4d6 reroll only 1 d6 that comes up a 1 per stat, then drop lowest generate 6 numbers then arrange to suit your class/race.

when 4e came out none of my players liked point buy or arrays. SO we rolled stats. It went VERY badly. we had an eladrin swordmage who started with a 20 dex, 20 Int, 16 Con, and a str dump stat at 13... and a genesis warlord with a 14 Int, 13 Str, and 12 cha, and 9 Con in the same party with a pretty average wizard, and a ranger and rogue who were slightly better then the wizard but no where near the swordmage... starting campaign 2 and for the life of 4e we did point buy. Then came the playtest, and people started reminiscing about the awesome games we had with rolling, and all the different ways we did it over the years.

Right now we are playing a 2e retro clone (Myth and Magic) and we rolled stats and it worked well... especially since there are no stat increases in the game.

So I just assumed we would roll in 5e, and that is where the arguments started...

of the 6 of us (me and 5 players) we have the following:

2 don't care, will go with group thought, but one of them did say if they had to choose they would rather point buy...

1 doesn't want there to ever be any more imbalances and hates the idea of going back to rolling since he feels he is cursed with bad die rolling (He was the poor warlord in 1st 4e game)

1 is very worried about lack of balance and thinks for the first game we should do point buy

1 is wearing very rose tinted glasses and said "No one really felt put out by low stats" and some how even can justify when I pull up HIS old complaints that it is out of context. He really wants to roll for stats

1 is so gun hoe for rolling that he is frothing at the mouth over the idea of having to do point buy again...

so here I am stuck. Do I have them roll, or point buy or array?

The funny part is the 2 that really want to roll can't even understand the 2 that don't... there idea to compromise was "Let us roll and them do point buy" and when I said that wouldn't work because what they want is balance... they could not understand.

I hope someone out here has some words of wisdom for me...

 

[GMforPowergamers]

if it matters the PC want to be:

a half elf rogue (arcane trickster)
a human variant (for the fighter feat that gives maneuver dice) bard(war collage)/rogue(assassin)
either a tiefling or human (not variant) warlock (book/infernal)
an elf (either drow or eladrin) wizard
an elf Ranger

 

[delericho]

For my two most recent campaigns (one 3.5e, one SWSE), I offered each player a choice:

1) 4d6-drop-lowest, arrange to suit. Reroll if your highest stat is 13 or lower, or if your net modifier is +1 or less.
2) Standard array of 16/15/13/12/10/8
3) 28-point buy using the costs from the 3.5e DMG (that is 18 - 16pts; 17 - 13pts; 16 - 10pts; 15 - 8pts; 14 - 6pts; 13 - 5pts; 12 - 4pts; 11 - 3pts; 10 - 2pts; 9 - 1pt; 8 - free)

IIRC, every player actually ended up using the standard array.

Anyway, it worked like a charm, and I fully intend to stick with the same method (exactly as above) for my 5e games.

Edit: I forgot two caveats, both of which apply to option 1: if you want to roll, you have to do so in front of the DM; and if you choose to roll then as soon as the first die falls you can't change your mind.

 

[jrowland]

1) Use a simple roll method like standard 4d6 drop lowest, 6 times and arrange.

2) Standard array (15,14,13,12,10,8) sums to 72. If they roll above 78 or some other target number then they must roll again or use standard array. If they roll below 66 then they must roll again or use standard array.

3.) Allow them to drop a score by 2 points to raise a score by 1 point but no stat can be raised above 18 and no stat can be dropped below 8. Nice for a fiddle, but hard to abuse without becoming gimped.

That's what I have been using for years (well, its developed over years, but has been in place since mid 3.5E at least - with numbers appropriate to standard array of the edition). Worse case scenario is a sum 66 character (14,13,12,11,9,7 eg) with a sum 78 character (16,15,14,13,11,9 eg) which isn't too hard to swallow. I'd have a conversation with the players too in that someone with a sum 66 should choose an ideal race (stat bumps favorable to class) and a sum 78 can choose a non-favorable race and still be good (and will be a nice favor for the 66 sum PC).

My 2 cp

 

[Bupp]

The idea I've been wanting to try sounds like a good comprise. There are 6 of you total. Each roll up a stat using whatever method (4d6 drop lowest reroll 1s since you mentioned it.

Now you have 6 numbers. That's your array, everyone can place them wherever they want.

Everyone rolls, everyone has same stats, so they are balanced.

 

[MonkeezOnFire]

A compromise might be to roll, but also guarantee that 1 stat will be high. So generate 5 numbers, and the last number will always be a 16. To balance so that no one is over powered you could restrict that no rolled number could be 16 or above.

I've played 5e as both DM and player and have enjoyed rolling stats. Both games we've done 4d6 drop lowest. However, I've been lucky to see that everyone has rolled strongly. As a DM I always give the option to take the standard array so at worst your stats will be average. So far IME the characters that rolled really high don't outshine the others since their class still has weaknesses covered by the other characters.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Another method would be for all the players to each roll a set of of six scores using whichever method of rolling you want... then once everyone has rolled a set, you put all of the sets in front of the entire table and let each player choose which set they wish to use.

If all players want to use the same set (because it was much higher overall than all the others for example) they can. But if players decide to take different sets (because one might have a high primary score but many lower scores, while another might have several better-than-average scores which totaled up has more overall points), then that's fine too.

Overall, everyone's scores will be pretty close to balanced because I wouldn't expect more than two (or maybe three) of the sets to be selected and used. Some might take the higher overall total of points, whereas some might take the one with the highest primary even if the other four or five scores are weaker. But they get to choose what will work best for themselves and their character.

Everyone thus gets to have scores that are rolled, but no one's stuck with a bad set that they themselves rolled.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

4d6 drop lowest, assign as you will. None of my players or myself are interested in point buy. Stat bonus IME is behind intelligent play in determining character effectiveness so it works out fine.

 

[txshusker]

I personally like the array of 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8. Along with the racial bonuses, those lead to very capable modifiers and unlike previous versions, players can raise ability scores as they gain levels. A +5 to hit at 1-4th level is VERY sufficient - which usually happens if you're combining the best race for a particular class or a human. The average AC for those monsters is about 15, I would guess, so you're hitting a lot. A+2 modifier for a secondary ability and +1 to Con or Dex should be sufficient. Of course, they can choose to take a feat instead of ability score raising when it's time, if you're playing that way; but that's a different argument, I think.

The only drawback with the array is the class limitations when trying to maximize. A half-orc is probably the best race for a Ranger, but I wouldn't want to play a half-orc most of the time. A dwarf Barbarian, a tiefling warlock, a half-elf bard.... the racial bonuses can dictate which race to play for a certain class when starting with the array.

in the end, I think I would roll 4d6 7 times, keeping three the end result for the stat, and dropping the lowest final result. Then choose between that and the standard array. Pretty much what Monkeez said.

 

[HardcoreDandDGirl]

My girlfriend and roommate was just introduced to roleplaying through the playtest, and as such has no real baggage from other editions. She came up with a funny set of rules that for the most part worked out well.

we started with seven players. She wrote the basic array on three index cards, then passed blank index cards to everyone and let them choose there own rolling method from a list or point buy from the book to make 6 stats.

the list was: 3d6 drop lowest add 4, 4d6 drop lowest, or roll 20d6 drop 2 lowest then assign 3d per number generated.

then she took all the index cards, shuffled them, folded them up and put them in a hat. Then each player rolled a d20 and highest to lowest drew from the hat. Those where your stats.

I had not known how this was going to work so I was making a blade pact warlock half orc and took the roll 20d6 method so I could customize a lot, then ended up drawing one of the standard array anyway. So I made a human (Variant) fighter going for battle master instead.

one of my best friends was going to make a fighter (eldritch knight) but drew my card and said "Hell, this is just begging to be an assassin.