The average D&D character

[Particle_Man]

I did a wee bit of number crunching with a 1296 spreadsheet (for 4d6) and got these results for an average character: 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15.

But that did not take into account rerolling invalid characters (no stat higher than 13, and/or total modifiers less than 1).

I asked smarter people than I to crunch those numbers and they said that rerolls would count for 12.6733% of the results. So I arbitrarily chopped off the "bottom" 164 results from the 1296, and then split the rest into 7 chunks (as before) and the 6 midpoints now are:

10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16.

This is, I think, the average character stats for the standard method of chargen. For what it is worth, people might want to use this "new elite array" rather than either rolling 4d6 or using point-buy.

Details here:

[3E] What % of starting stats are illegal? - RPGnet Forums

 

[Darklone]

Thanks PM... though I still like to roll for PCs, that thing is nice for NPCs.

 

[DarkelvenSFi]

I think it's nicer rolling for PCs and NPCs. There are enough systems available these days to have the hard work done for you, so time shouldn't really be an argument; I'd say that having a system roll stats for you is even easier than deciding where to allocate pre-generated points.

Anyhow. Cheers for the info.

 

[Rhun]

When I first started playing 3E, I hated point-buy. Now I prefer point buy to rolling.
With that said, it looks like your averages equate to a 30 point buy character, which in most games is "above average." Good info to have. Thanks!