Ways to generate ability points.

[Thanee]

The problem I ran into thinking about this is the more points the higher scores cost, the easier it becomes to get the lower scores because you have to add more points available to try and even it out. You run the risk of everyone stopping at, say, 14 on all the stats because it just becomes not worth it to raise anything higher.

Ah, no, that's not what I meant.

I meant you pay what the stat normally costs +1, if it is even and higher than or equal to 12 (not raising every even step by one).

Bye
Thanee

 

[HellHound]

Actually, after years and years of gaming, most of my players LIKE having random rolls to help determine what their characters will be like.

We use the organic method (that I read somewhere)...

4d6-L
swap any 2 stats
re-roll any 1 stat.

 

[Darkness]

We use the organic method (that I read somewhere)...

4d6-L
swap any 2 stats
re-roll any 1 stat.

DMG

 

[cthulhu_duck]

We use the organic method (that I read somewhere)...

4d6-L
swap any 2 stats
re-roll any 1 stat.

We've been using the Organic method in one of my weekly games for the past couple of years - it normally produces playable characters that can tweaked (via the swap) to suit the player's desired choices. Occasionally though it produces a bad set of rolls, and I've been talking (as one of the GM's) about tweaking the method to include a 'minimal point value' as per an idea from an old discussion here where at the end of the organic method the player calculates the points the stats would be in PB, and if it's below a certain value then they can use PB points to bump the character up some.

The problem is, deciding just what the 'minimal point value' should be - 25? 28? 30? 32?

 

[francisca]

We've been using the Organic method in one of my weekly games for the past couple of years - it normally produces playable characters that can tweaked (via the swap) to suit the player's desired choices. Occasionally though it produces a bad set of rolls, and I've been talking (as one of the GM's) about tweaking the method to include a 'minimal point value' as per an idea from an old discussion here where at the end of the organic method the player calculates the points the stats would be in PB, and if it's below a certain value then they can use PB points to bump the character up some.

The problem is, deciding just what the 'minimal point value' should be - 25? 28? 30? 32?

If you generate a "bad" character this way, why not just let them re-roll, rather than tweaking the method?

 

[diaglo]

Me? I like randomness. 3d6+1 for each score and arrange IN ORDER of Str, Int, Wis, Dex, Con, and Cha, bay-bee.

that's too munchkin for me.

i still prefer the OD&D method: 3d6 six times in order. Str, Int, Wis, Con, Dex, Cha. no rearranging.

 

[Darkness]

If you generate a "bad" character this way, why not just let them re-roll, rather than tweaking the method?

Which is also the standard way to deal with this. (See PHB for details. You might tweak the exact parameters, though.)

 

[orsal]

that's too munchkin for me.

i still prefer the OD&D method: 3d6 six times in order. Str, Int, Wis, Con, Dex, Cha. no rearranging.

Why are you so partial to the order in which they're done?

I'm with you on the no rearranging, so some order has to be specified before the rolling. But I don't see how it makes a difference whether that order is SIWCDCh (OD+D/Basic), SIWDCCh (AD+D), SDCIWCh (3e), or any other order you please.

 

[diaglo]

Why are you so partial to the order in which they're done?

I'm with you on the no rearranging, so some order has to be specified before the rolling. But I don't see how it makes a difference whether that order is SIWCDCh (OD+D/Basic), SIWDCCh (AD+D), SDCIWCh (3e), or any other order you please.

I don't like change for change sake. so I'd prefer they stay the way they were first introduced in 1973 (before print) and then in 1974 in print.
edit: the only reason they changed order was due to the intro of the thief class in Greyhawk Supplement I.

 

[Chacal]

We use point buy for players and some NPCs.

For npcs, I've also used a little program that
-generates random stats
-"adapts" them to a fixed point buy ( optionaly prefering even stats)


Chacal