Stats, how you come about it!

[diaglo]

Okay, David, put your (proverbial) money where your (proverbial) mouth is! I know you've played in a whole bunch of 3e games both good and bad. Have you created every single one of your characters this way for every single game?

I'm really curious about the answer for this. If yes, I'd love to hear how that affected party balance -- and if no, I'm curious why not when you feel this strongly about it.

in the newer editions.. no, i haven't used this. all and i mean good and bad ones have used point buy. none of the other players nor the DMs wanted to go hardcore. but that doesn't mean i remain quiet about it. i ride them all day every day about it.

most used 25 or 28 pt buy. a few of the really bad ones went 32, 38, and even 42 pt buy. mang talk about really ticking me off.

i have refused to DM the new editions. although, i almost did very recently. ask JoeBlank or Olgar Shiverstone about that one.

as a player i want the dice in my hand. and i want to roleplay what i get. i have asked to roll hps at 1st lvl too. but again all the DMs denied me.

 

[DragonLancer]

We use 4d6 drop lowest six times and put them in the stat you want.

 

[vulcan_idic]

The group I game with generally prefers a slightly higher powered game. The method we generally use is the standard 4d6-drop-the-lowest, but with 1's and 2's rerolled; though we've seen a few variations on this... only 1's, and in one (rather silly game in the end) all 6's were rerolled - that was wild! THere was also another system that someone had us try one time that we liked but have never seemed to use anymore and I'm not sure why (other than the fact I don't remember it completely I mean) it involved a d4, d6, and d8... and there was something else to it - I'll call it the secret ingredient - which is the part I've completely forgotten about. Anyway, we tend to like to experiment a lot, keep what we like, discard what we don't and then try comething different.

 

[Lord Foul]

Point buy is nice because you don't have to waste time making characters at the table. Everyone has the same amount of points to use so they can create their characters the night before.

But as a player I like to have the dice in my hands and see what happens.

 

[Bran Blackbyrd]

I created this method of generating stats simply to make fun of my friend, who was constantly making up increasingly elaborate, convoluted and lame ways of rolling ability scores.
I ended up having my players use it to roll their PCs for my current campaign (FINALLY coming back from a very long hiatus). I roll most of my NPCs the same way.
Bad luck has a way of overcoming even the highest ability scores.


Roll 4d6
Out of those 4 dice:
Reroll All 1s
If you rolled at least two 2s, you may reroll all 2s.
If you rolled at least three 3s, you may reroll all 3s.
If you rolled a straight (1, 2, 3, 4 or 3, 4, 5, 6, etc.) you may reroll all the dice.
If you get the exact same result on all four dice twice in a row, you may trade in the resultant stats of both rolls for an 18 in one stat. Reroll the lost stat.
Drop the lowest die, of course.
Repeat seven times and drop the desired number, leaving yourself with 6 results.

The lowest you can get is 10 (2, 3, 3, 4) unless you choose to keep certain numbers. One would think that this method turns out uber PCs, but it just as easily (and perhaps more often) turns out extremely average PCs with lots of 13s and 14s.
The last time I rolled up an NPC with this method it came out 14, 14, 13, 14, 15, 12, 11.

 

[Sunglar]

Ok, here is the method I use. But first the caveat, I’m not math wiz, and this simply evolved out of a suggestion I read (in this forum I believe!) and I’ve used it for my last campaign. Everyone rolls 4D6, dropping the lowest die, eight times. They can discard ANY two rolls, if the sum of all remaining stats equals 72 they must keep the scores and assign them to the stats as they see fit. If not they can repeat the process.

I have NO idea if this convoluted arrangement affects the process in any way beyond being seeming complex and my group apparently liking it… How does it seem to you all?

 

[Arnwyn]

We use a custom (strange) method:

3d6 six times, plus 2d4 bonus points. Bonus points can be added to any of the six stats, but no score can be modified above 18. Arrange to taste.

whereas 36 I believe is what is recommended to Forgotten Realms.

Really? Where does it say that?

 

[BlackMoria]

Our group uses two methods.

Quick method - Roll 4d6 drop lowest. You have the option to carry over the 'dropped' dice to replace the lowest roll on a subsequent roll. For example, suppose the roll is 6, 5, 5, 4. I have the option to take the '4' over to another dice roll. Now suppose on a subsequent roll, I roll 6, 3, 2, 1. I can now use the '4' to replace the '1', giving me 6, 4, 3, 2. Drop lowest.

Our group likes this method because it allows one to use a terrific roll (one player recently had one roll of 6, 6, 6, 6 so he appreciated being able to carry over a '6') to affect a mediocre or low roll.

We use a longer method if the campaign is more prone to having dead characters. I call it a 'stat matrix'. Roll 4d6 drop lowest and do up 36 rolls in a 6 x 6 matrix. Now you have 14 complete character rolls to choose a character from - 6 rows 'across', 6 columns 'down' and the 2 diagonals. Replacement characters are created from the remaining rows, columns or diagonals; making for speedy replacement characters since you don't have to roll stats as you already have them.

By and large, our group likes the quick method to the matrix but we have use both in our campaigns over the years.

 

[Prince of Happiness]

If there is no score that is 15 or higher, they can re-roll the whole set if they so choose.

Point buy is nice and all, but makes for rather cookie-cutter characters. It's much more interesting to have random scores. Plus, if you have random scores, you can get lucky, and the thrill of rolling well should not be underestimated (the 15-or-higher rule helps reduce the crushing defeat of rolling poorly).

?!?! Why not just have them pick a stat with a 14 and roll a d4 then?

 

[Piratecat]

most used 25 or 28 pt buy. a few of the really bad ones went 32, 38, and even 42 pt buy. mang talk about really ticking me off.

*blink* 42 point buy? Good lord. Why not just say "take whatever stats you want"? You'd probably end up with lower average scores. A 42 point buy gives you an 16-16-16-16-10-8. That's crazy powerful. I think if you were really hard core, you'd have used 3d6 in order even for that game, no matter what the other players were using.

I use 32 pts for my high-lvl game. For a new campaign I'd use 28 or 30.