AD&D 1E What is the best way to generate ability scores for 1e AD&D?

[Maxperson]

No.

I've seen two 18s rolled fairly, but that was with Method V that was allowing up to 9d6 take the best 3. I've never seen a 18/00 claimed fairly or unfairly. I've seen some 18/96 ranges claimed that were probably cheating and not rolled in front of anyone. I think I have seen no more than an 18/48 rolled in front of me.

I've seen one 18/00 and rolled one 18/00, but neither of them were with 3d6. Both were 4d6-L.

 

[Mannahnin]

But with 3d6 x 6? No. That said, that's not even the recommended rolling method for 1e AD&D where the /00 first appeared for strength, so I think that method of rolling drifted into the minority.

Point of order- percentile strength for Fighters first appeared in 1975's Supplement I: Greyhawk to OD&D.

So there were a few years, at least, where folks were trying to get that on 3d6 down the line or house-ruled variations, before the AD&D Player's Handbook came out in '78 and told us that an AD&D character needed at least two scores of 15 or better to be viable, and another year went by before the DMG came out in '79 and offered several other official ways to generate ability scores.

Pretty sure that before the DMG came out an absolute ton of players were just rolling and re-rolling new sets/characters until they got one they liked. Of course, no doubt other tables forced folks to stick with one rolled set and prided themselves on being hard core.

 

[David Howery]

Btw did any of you ever experience a 18/00 or 3+ 18 scores rolled on the table in front of others?

Edit: with 6x3d6

never a 18/00, but I did once roll up a PC in front of others that had three 18s. Sadly, the other rolls were 3.3.4.

 

[Lanefan]

If rolling for 2e we used 7x 4d6 drop lowest, drop worst, arrange in order. That normally gives solid chars. 1st level = full HP and con boon if any. every level above, re roll 1s for HP 1 time, if it is 1 again you need to take it.

1e/2e had some problems concerning ability scores, It was very hard, outside of having tons of wish spells to raise one score.
If you worked with the original Raise dead spell it would lower your CON by 1 each time.
Fighter types used str to attack, not having an 18 in this score was a botched character more or less, you could not easily compensate with items even magical ones, the boon was 17 +1 +1, 18/01-18/50 +1, +2 18/51-18/75 +2+3, 18/76-18/90 +2 +4 ,18/91-18/99 +2 +5 and the jackpot 18/00 +3 +6 + to attack and plus to damage accordingly.

At low levels this wasn't a problem as most monsters had so few hit points. At higher levels, Gauntlets of Ogre Power and Girdles of Giant Strength started coming online, rendering your rolled Strength pretty much irrelevant.

While Con was a good all round stat, 17 or 18 or 19 (dwarves) only really benefited fighters.

Until you needed that system shock or resurrection roll...

Cherrry on top would be to roll HP, even on 1st level. That sometimes produced characters more squishy than a standard Call of Cthullu human.

We roll h.p. but we've added body points - nearly everyone has between 2 and 5 of these, they're intrinsic to the person and, once determined during char-gen, are locked in forever. They represent the hit points that, for example, commoners have. Your fatigue points are what you roll as a function of your class, and body-plus-fatigue gives your hit points.

Thus, the minimum hit points a PC of any adventuring class could start with would be 3: 2 b.p. + 1 f.p.

 

[Celebrim]

At higher levels, Gauntlets of Ogre Power and Girdles of Giant Strength started coming online, rendering your rolled Strength pretty much irrelevant.

Odds of either are really low if you stick to randomly distributed treasure. Maybe once in 10 campaigns.

 

[Lanefan]

Btw did any of you ever experience a 18/00 or 3+ 18 scores rolled on the table in front of others?

Edit: with 6x3d6

I've seen 18.00 rolled once, using 5d6k3 (18 is uncommon but it's the '00' that's the hard part!).

I've never seen 3 18s rolled but I have seen 18-18-17-17-15-15 rolled in front of me using 5d6k3.

And neither of those two characters made it through its first adventure.

 

[Maxperson]

I've seen 18.00 rolled once, using 5d6k3 (18 is uncommon but it's the '00' that's the hard part!).

I've never seen 3 18s rolled but I have seen 18-18-17-17-15-15 rolled in front of me using 5d6k3.

And neither of those two characters made it through its first adventure.

In a friend's homebrew game that split dex into dex and agility, using that method, I once rolled 18, 18, 18, 17, 17, 16, 15. Best set of stats I've ever rolled with that method. Haven't even come close since.

 

[Celebrim]

I've never seen 3 18s rolled but I have seen 18-18-17-17-15-15 rolled in front of me using 5d6k3.

Someone learned how to throw dice. Even with 5d6, that's a less than 1 in a 1,000,000 type roll if rolled fair. You probably haven't watched more than 10,000 characters (at most) rolled up in front of you, so, probably wasn't rolled fair.

 

[Maxperson]

Someone learned how to throw dice. Even with 5d6, that's a less than 1 in a 1,000,000 type roll if rolled fair. You probably haven't watched more than 10,000 characters (at most) rolled up in front of you, so, probably wasn't rolled fair.

I can't speak for him, but I rolled mine in front of 6 other players.

 

[Lanefan]

Someone learned how to throw dice. Even with 5d6, that's a less than 1 in a 1,000,000 type roll if rolled fair. You probably haven't watched more than 10,000 characters (at most) rolled up in front of you, so, probably wasn't rolled fair.

Looked fair at the time - I was standing right there - and the same player had rolled up and played various others before that that weren't nearly so crazy.

Were it that player's first character I'd have been somewhat more suspicious. Then again, it can happen: the very first roll for the very first character I ever played was 18, the people watching got all excited and I had no idea why...

I've probably had several hundred characters rolled up in front of me. Doubt I'll ever get to 10,000 though.