Arial Black
Adventurer
Just started two new campaigns: one for Pathfinder's Serpent's Skull, and one for 5e's Dragon Heist.
For Serpent's skull, The DM had us roll 4d6, re-roll all 1's until they weren't 1's any more(!), keep 3, six times, arrange to suit. Pretty standard apart from the re-roll 1's bit, which I thought was exceedingly generous, although I couldn't find it in my heart to complain....
I rolled, in the order I rolled them, 14 14 11 15 16 12. I've had better, but I'm happy with that array. The weird thing is, I was looking forward to re-rolling lots of 1's (and imagining the re-rolls all coming up 6), but I only rolled two of them the entire time! Statistically unlikely, but never mind. Most of them were 3's, 4's and 5's. Out of the four players my array was third best. Only one 18 was rolled, no 17's at all, and I think one 16 each.
I decided to wait until the other players chose their class and race before I chose mine, on the grounds that they were new to Pathfinder while I have a lot of PF experience. However, as a group we've been playing together since 2e, and have played the same 3.5e campaign for over 15 years, so they were familiar with the class concepts, just not their execution in PF.
One chose a half-orc cleric of Gozreh. Another chose a halfling cleric of Nethys, and the third (with the worst rolled array) an elf rogue (so his one 16 became an 18 Dex). I chose a human (Mwangi) ranger, put the 16 in Str along with my racial +2, and ended up with Str 18 Dex 15 Con 14 Int 12 Wis 14 Cha 11, intending to go the TWF route.
One reason we roll together is so that we end up with a balanced group, so two out of four choosing cleric surprised me. I was even more surprised that both players were okay with it and didn't want to choose a different class, but it's their choice and I think we'll be okay. The DM said he'd play a DMPC (don't have a collective Warp Spasm out there! We've been including them for 20 years and we avoid the pitfalls) and would wait to see what we chose before he made the DMPC, but seeing our choices he's making a human sorcerer.
Last week I joined a group starting Dragon Heist. They all seemed fairly new to 5e, with not a lot of experience (even the DM). The DM wanted to use the official rolling rules (4d6k3 six times) but was concerned that someone rolling low may be discouraged. In most 5e campaigns I've been in, hit points are rolled on level-up but if the roll is lower than the set amount we take the set amount instead. Translating this to rolling stats, I suggested that we all roll stats using the official method, any player who is unsatisfied with their rolled array can opt to scrap them and use point-buy instead; a sort of safety net. The DM agreed.
There were only 3 players present: me, a guy new to 5e, and the DM's mum! The mum had a pre-gen gnome cleric apparently downloaded from WotC for her by her daughter, the DM. That left just me and the new guy, and another player will join us next week.
The dice gods were kind! In the order I rolled them: 16 15 14 16 17 8. I felt I deserved the 8, because that's an astonishing array, and much better than my PF PC, even though there were no 're-roll 1s' shenanigans! The dice don't care! I was very pleased! I set out to create a Hexblade warlock, and decided on a half-elf City Watch Detective. After racial mods: Str 8 Dex 16 Con 14 Int 17 Wis 16 Cha 19. I could have started with 18's in Dex and Cha and leave no odd numbers, but I aim to get Elven Accuracy at 4th.
The new guy rolled....astonishingly poorly. I think he got one 14, and the rest 11 or below. Never mind, he can discard them and use point-buy. But no! He insisted on playing the rubbish he rolled, and chose a dwarf charlatan archer ranger!
I'd have taken the point-buy option in a heartbeat!
For Serpent's skull, The DM had us roll 4d6, re-roll all 1's until they weren't 1's any more(!), keep 3, six times, arrange to suit. Pretty standard apart from the re-roll 1's bit, which I thought was exceedingly generous, although I couldn't find it in my heart to complain....
I rolled, in the order I rolled them, 14 14 11 15 16 12. I've had better, but I'm happy with that array. The weird thing is, I was looking forward to re-rolling lots of 1's (and imagining the re-rolls all coming up 6), but I only rolled two of them the entire time! Statistically unlikely, but never mind. Most of them were 3's, 4's and 5's. Out of the four players my array was third best. Only one 18 was rolled, no 17's at all, and I think one 16 each.
I decided to wait until the other players chose their class and race before I chose mine, on the grounds that they were new to Pathfinder while I have a lot of PF experience. However, as a group we've been playing together since 2e, and have played the same 3.5e campaign for over 15 years, so they were familiar with the class concepts, just not their execution in PF.
One chose a half-orc cleric of Gozreh. Another chose a halfling cleric of Nethys, and the third (with the worst rolled array) an elf rogue (so his one 16 became an 18 Dex). I chose a human (Mwangi) ranger, put the 16 in Str along with my racial +2, and ended up with Str 18 Dex 15 Con 14 Int 12 Wis 14 Cha 11, intending to go the TWF route.
One reason we roll together is so that we end up with a balanced group, so two out of four choosing cleric surprised me. I was even more surprised that both players were okay with it and didn't want to choose a different class, but it's their choice and I think we'll be okay. The DM said he'd play a DMPC (don't have a collective Warp Spasm out there! We've been including them for 20 years and we avoid the pitfalls) and would wait to see what we chose before he made the DMPC, but seeing our choices he's making a human sorcerer.
Last week I joined a group starting Dragon Heist. They all seemed fairly new to 5e, with not a lot of experience (even the DM). The DM wanted to use the official rolling rules (4d6k3 six times) but was concerned that someone rolling low may be discouraged. In most 5e campaigns I've been in, hit points are rolled on level-up but if the roll is lower than the set amount we take the set amount instead. Translating this to rolling stats, I suggested that we all roll stats using the official method, any player who is unsatisfied with their rolled array can opt to scrap them and use point-buy instead; a sort of safety net. The DM agreed.
There were only 3 players present: me, a guy new to 5e, and the DM's mum! The mum had a pre-gen gnome cleric apparently downloaded from WotC for her by her daughter, the DM. That left just me and the new guy, and another player will join us next week.
The dice gods were kind! In the order I rolled them: 16 15 14 16 17 8. I felt I deserved the 8, because that's an astonishing array, and much better than my PF PC, even though there were no 're-roll 1s' shenanigans! The dice don't care! I was very pleased! I set out to create a Hexblade warlock, and decided on a half-elf City Watch Detective. After racial mods: Str 8 Dex 16 Con 14 Int 17 Wis 16 Cha 19. I could have started with 18's in Dex and Cha and leave no odd numbers, but I aim to get Elven Accuracy at 4th.
The new guy rolled....astonishingly poorly. I think he got one 14, and the rest 11 or below. Never mind, he can discard them and use point-buy. But no! He insisted on playing the rubbish he rolled, and chose a dwarf charlatan archer ranger!
I'd have taken the point-buy option in a heartbeat!
