ForceUser
Explorer
So what method do you use, and why?
We first started 3E with 4d6, drop lowest, in order. We allowed a single swap. As you might imagine, this led to a bit of frustration as players might roll the exact opposite of what they wanted to play. So we switched to 28-point buy from the DMG. We liked point-buy because it made sure all the players were generally on even footing, but we did develop a problem with it. Certain archtypes consistently emerged the more we allowed players to use this system: fighters inevitably had the 8 Cha, wizards the 8 Str, clerics the 8 Dex. It became annoying as everyone min-maxed their characters and characters with similar archtypes often had identical stats. We decided to try something a little different, a system gleaned from someone on these boards: we called it organic point-buy. Here's how it works:
First the DM determines the point-buy standard he's using for his campaign. We often go with 28 points. A player rolls 3d6 straight down in the order of the stats (Str, Dex, Con, Int, Wis, Cha). He might roll 11, 4, 12, 7, 10, 14. Next, he adds up the points as though he were using the standard point-buy system, adding points back for stats lower than 8. The above stats add up to a total of 10 points already "spent" - 11 (-3), 4 (+4), 12 (-4), 7 (+1), 10 (-2), 14 (-6). This character would then have 18 points left to buy up his stats as he desired, and he also gets a free one-time stat swap, such as trading Str for Cha if he wanted to be a fighter. But now this fighter has an 11 Cha instead of the 8 he'd have had if the player had used normal point buy. The stats are random enough for the DM so that not every character archtype has ideal stats, and flexible enough such that the player can still create a character he wants to play, within limits. Once stats are swapped and bought up, the character applies any racial modifiers as appropriate. If a lucky player rolls a greater than 28-point character on the dice, which is rare but known to happen, he gets to keep his uber stats and gets 4 freebie points to spend on point-buy; all characters always get at least 4 points to spend, even if they're over. In this way a player can always have some ability to tweak his starting stats.
We've been using organic point-buy for almost two years and its worked very well for us. The DMs are happy with the absence of cookie-cutter stats and the players are content to roll and fiddle. A player won't always get ideal stats for his character idea, but that's okay with us because most of us have several character ideas waiting in the wings. We have not encountered a better stat generation system than organic point-buy in our combined 20+ years of 3E experience.
We first started 3E with 4d6, drop lowest, in order. We allowed a single swap. As you might imagine, this led to a bit of frustration as players might roll the exact opposite of what they wanted to play. So we switched to 28-point buy from the DMG. We liked point-buy because it made sure all the players were generally on even footing, but we did develop a problem with it. Certain archtypes consistently emerged the more we allowed players to use this system: fighters inevitably had the 8 Cha, wizards the 8 Str, clerics the 8 Dex. It became annoying as everyone min-maxed their characters and characters with similar archtypes often had identical stats. We decided to try something a little different, a system gleaned from someone on these boards: we called it organic point-buy. Here's how it works:
First the DM determines the point-buy standard he's using for his campaign. We often go with 28 points. A player rolls 3d6 straight down in the order of the stats (Str, Dex, Con, Int, Wis, Cha). He might roll 11, 4, 12, 7, 10, 14. Next, he adds up the points as though he were using the standard point-buy system, adding points back for stats lower than 8. The above stats add up to a total of 10 points already "spent" - 11 (-3), 4 (+4), 12 (-4), 7 (+1), 10 (-2), 14 (-6). This character would then have 18 points left to buy up his stats as he desired, and he also gets a free one-time stat swap, such as trading Str for Cha if he wanted to be a fighter. But now this fighter has an 11 Cha instead of the 8 he'd have had if the player had used normal point buy. The stats are random enough for the DM so that not every character archtype has ideal stats, and flexible enough such that the player can still create a character he wants to play, within limits. Once stats are swapped and bought up, the character applies any racial modifiers as appropriate. If a lucky player rolls a greater than 28-point character on the dice, which is rare but known to happen, he gets to keep his uber stats and gets 4 freebie points to spend on point-buy; all characters always get at least 4 points to spend, even if they're over. In this way a player can always have some ability to tweak his starting stats.
We've been using organic point-buy for almost two years and its worked very well for us. The DMs are happy with the absence of cookie-cutter stats and the players are content to roll and fiddle. A player won't always get ideal stats for his character idea, but that's okay with us because most of us have several character ideas waiting in the wings. We have not encountered a better stat generation system than organic point-buy in our combined 20+ years of 3E experience.
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