What stat method do you use??

[Majere]

Bah I forgot to add as a corollary
We always let you assign rolled stats as you like.
If you roll 14,16,11,8,10,12 then you can put them anywhere you want. That way your rolls cant spoilt any character ideas you have, you just have to assign the scores to your ideas. Stat buy gives that flexibility anyway.

 

[Norfleet]

Here's a system I've heard which shows promise: You roll 18d6 and arrange in 6 groups of 3 to your taste. Then the following rules are applied:

1. You may pick any die. Give the DM a quarter. Give the person who rolled it a quarter. If you rolled it, give the DM another quarter instead. That die must now be rerolled by the rolling player.

2. You may pick a die owned by another player. Pick one of your own, which has an equal or greater value. Both must be rerolled by their respective players.

3. The DM may give the player a quarter to make him reroll any die.

4. You may trade a die with any other player's die, with whatever arrangements you can reach with him. The dice to be traded must have different values: You cannot trade dice with identical values. Once traded, the traded dice are not subject to bribery and cannot be rerolled: They can, however, be traded some more.

5. A die with a value greater than 3 may be hurled at another player. If the targetted player, or another player, is hit, he may hurl the die back at the owner, but not at other players. Regardless of whether the die hits or misses, the die is returned to its owner and the value of that die is set to 1.

6. A die with a value of 6 may be hurled at the DM. The DM may hurl the die back at the owner regardless of whether he is hit by it. Regardless of whether the die hits or misses, the die is returned to its owner and the value of that die is set to 1.

This continues until everyone agrees to stop and move to the next phase of character generation.

 

[Nifelhein]

I think I posted it already:

4d6 drop lowest in order.
After all is done check for helpless and if okay you can change two scores, by exchanging their numbers.

You do whatever you want for sure, but not like you want, keep the pc random and also allows for good roleplaying tips!

 

[SnowDog]

IMC we use our own special "standard array". From our house rules doc:

Stats are not rolled nor bought. You will receive a set of values which you may assign freely among your stats. These are 17, 16, 14, 13, 12, 10.

Slightly overpowered, sure. But we have fun.

We adopted this system after one game where a player (uhm, my player) rolled so phenomenally above the others that it was a bother for the DM for the remainder of the game. We decided that next time, we'd do something more balanced.

 

[Wombat]

My feeling about stats is this:

Point-Buying stats gives a lovely illusion of equality, but it ain't necessarily so.

Since different games give greater and lesser emphasis to different stats, skills, and abilities, "equality" is, at best, a vague notion. If your game is combat-heavy, then INT and CHA have very little impact; if your game is puzzle-heavy, STR might see little use.

I am currently working on a method of combining rolling and choice for character stats, backgrounds, etc., so that there is some "control" mixed in with the random elements, sorta like life.

Just a personal take, YMMV, usw