doctorhook
Legend
I disagree. I think 5E is the most stat-insensitive edition this side of the millenium, and I have yet to hear any real-game horror stories of fighters crippled by their 15 Strength.
D&D 5E Stats, and how do you generate them
- Thread starter GMforPowergamers
- Start date
the Jester
Legend
Huh. Well, different strokes and all that, but so far the pcs in my 5e game have been doing fine, and most of them have at least one stat with a negative modifier. Several have had a score of 6 somewhere, but I don't recall anything lower... yet.
Although there has been quite a field of slaughter from time to time, it's more about bad choices than about low saves. The worst effect I have seen from low stats has been incredibly an easy-to-surprise party with lots of passive Perceptions in the 8 to 9 range, because they keep putting those guys in the front.
Mouseferatu
Hero
Someone already suggested something similar, but...
Have each player roll a full array of stats by whatever method you prefer. (4d6-drop-the-lowest, 3d6-straight, 24d6-drop-the-lowest-six-arrange-to-taste, whatever.)
Then either pick the best array of the six, and give the same numbers to each player; or lay out all six arrays and let the players choose which one they want.
Keeps the randomness of rolling without any chance of a serious PC imbalance.
Have each player roll a full array of stats by whatever method you prefer. (4d6-drop-the-lowest, 3d6-straight, 24d6-drop-the-lowest-six-arrange-to-taste, whatever.)
Then either pick the best array of the six, and give the same numbers to each player; or lay out all six arrays and let the players choose which one they want.
Keeps the randomness of rolling without any chance of a serious PC imbalance.
aramis erak
Legend
3 rolls of {best 2 of (1…4)(1…4)(1…4)}+7 which will result in (1…4)+(1…4)+7, for a range of ((1+1)…(4+4))+7 or (2…8)+7, for a final range of 9…15.
the other 3 rolls are one point lower, for 8-14.
giving a total range of 8-15, with a maximum {15,15,15,14,14,14} and a minimum of {9,9,9,8,8,8}.
Which is one pretty slick range handling.
The Crimson Binome
Hero
Here's one I've been considering:
Roll 3d6, in order, twice. Choose either array. Then, replace any one stat with a 15.
Roll 3d6, in order, twice. Choose either array. Then, replace any one stat with a 15.
Something like this seems like the most straightforward answer to me. It allows for randomness while making sure there's not enough disparity between PCs to upset game balance.
An even stricter version:
Each player rolls 6 scores and sums them. The PC with the highest total is done. Everybody else gets to increase their scores until their total matches his. E.g., we both roll and my stats total 78 and yours total 68, so you can add 10 points to your scores in any way you want.
This method is nice because that one guy who always rolls well (you know that guy) is now helping the rest of the party instead of overshadowing them.
Yes, I think races should be more fluff based and less crunch based.
The player who's frothing at the mouth: why are they excited about rolling for stats? What is it that they enjoy about random-roll? If they enjoy randomness, go with one of the methods that is random but ensures some amount of balance. If they enjoy rampant imbalance, now you have a problem. I wouldn't game with people who didn't understand the need for some amount of game balance between PCs. (It doesn't have to be perfect, just balanced enough that no-one feels marginalized.)
My personal favorite method is "Make up whatever damn scores you want. If you really think it would be fun to have all 18's, go for it." This has worked surprisingly well in groups where I have seen it tried.
GMforPowergamers
Legend
well of the 2 that really want to roll they both claim that it is randomness they want... but both also complain it is unfair if they roll low.
one is a blatant "I want high stats" type, the other I can't figure eout at all.
one of my players has recently gotten very rose colored glasses for looking at the past.
when ever anyone points out any imbalance he says we are exaggerating. I pulled up posts form our message board and showed him his own complaints and he some how ignores or disbelieves them.
example: in a 3.5 game he had 7 different compaints about another player (who isn't gaming with us anymore) cheating to get god like stats and being better then him. but he now says "That wasn't that bad I was mostly jokeing"
in a pathfinder game full of people I knew would cheat I just wrote down the stats I wanted, and just told the DM that who was horrified... the funny part was the guy across the table from me was "Warming up his dice" during our discussion until he rolled an 18 then "That was my first roll that counted" and no one blinked because that was always how he did it...
any who, last night we got togather and I suggested
your choice of array:
1) 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8
2) 14, 14, 12, 12, 10, 10
3) 16, 14, 11, 11, 10, 10
and one of the players pitched a fit that there where no 18's, and that the number's were way too low. I just now (before coming here) got a post on our private board asking If I could change the array choices to
1) 17, 16, 15, 13, 10, 10
2) 16, 16, 14, 13, 11, 11
3) 18, 16, 13, 12, 11, 11
or if we could just roll, because without the option of starting with a 20 5e is going to suck
the player in question said that his other friends told him that everyone needs to have a 16+ con also or even kobolds can 1 shot barbarians. He also suggested (I wish I were kidding) the following roleing method.
roll 5d6, reroll 1's and 2's drop the two lowest. Generate 13 numbers, take the 6 highest. if your highest isn't an 18 raise your highest to 18. if you have any numbers below 10
erm: what are the odds of having a number less then 10) raise it to 10... then add race mods... yea, he then went on to say we could do that 2-3 times each then take the set we want...so I quickly before coming here tried this... I did 3 rows pre race and got
1) 18,18,17,15,15,11
2) 18, 17, 16, 16,16,16
3) 18, 18, 18, 17, 17, 12
thalmin
Retired game store owner
Point out to him that, since the point-buy method AND the stat array method both have a max possible score of 15 (before racial adjustments), that is how the game is designed. If he balks, tell him it is too much trouble for you to similarly boost the stats and powers of every monster and NPC to similar levels, so to save time you'll just give the monsters an additional +5 to every roll you make for them, including hp/HD.
Similar Threads
