What's your highest total L1 pre-racial stat sum?

[Sixchan]

Can't remember for myself. Once saw a guy roll 18 18 18 18 18 17 once, though.

 

[Norfleet]

I have a special d6-rolling grip that basically yields anything I want. It's disturbing, and I've been thrown out of at least two casinos because of it.

I can flat 18 on an 3d6 x6, let alone 4d6 drop lowest. One time I played in a one-shot game, back years ago, I got to about the third stat, while everyone stared, and asked the DM if I could just choose my own stats now, or if he preferred to have me finish rolling. He opted to let me just pick my own stats out of the air.

I always played thief, the class of the d6. I'd be absolutely horrific as a rogue in 3E. So many d6ses.......my preciousssssssss.....

All super-stats isn't all that fun to play, you see, but better than, then stats in the wrong places.

 

[Bob5th]

Well best I have had is.

17, 16, 17, 16, 17, 16

And I rolled them in that order.

 

[krunchyfrogg]

Best I ever rolled was 4d6, drop lowest, keep in order: I rolled all 14's.

Never played the character, and I still don't know what I'd play if I did play the character. When I rolled the stats, we were still playing 2e, and 14's don't give you anything in 2e. In 3e, it's a pretty powerful character!

Put me in the "Point Buy" group. That's the only way to go. I played in a "Roll your stats" group recently, and it worked, but only because the DM used an online dice-rolling method where you couldn't cheat.

Amazingly, the stats were not that high!

 

[Ravellion]

My current Ranger has Str 15, Dex 17, Con 16, Int 16, Wis 13, Cha 14. We roll using the organic method in the DMG: 4d6 drop lowest in order, then switch one set of two stats around if desired.

I used to be firmly in the point buy camp, but I could always guess people's stats if they named their Class and Race with 90% accuracy. This I found undesirable.

Rav

 

[cptg1481]

FAIRNESS?

FAIRNESS?

I can totally understand the theory of the point-buy system of creating characters and its inherent fairness; however, I don’t understand how this thirst for fairness has not spilled over into the other random variables of the game.

I ask a general question; why is it acceptable to absolutely suspend the randomness of game variables generation and the inherent “luck” associated with their creation in the name of “fairness”, while once the character creation process is completed, the suspension of “fairness” is willingly shelved until needed in the future creation of characters?

I guess I feel that the character creation process is fair regardless of the method used as long as the same standard method is used for all involved. Is this faulty or untrue? Now I’ll admit that all of the characters created using “random” methods will not be truly “equal” in terms of stats but they were (depending on your DM I guess) created using a fair method of creation applied evenly to all players.

I don’t suppose that anyone will ever change my mind about point-buy methods and I don’t want to attack anyone’s preferences here I’d just like to hear the logic behind the “all character’s must be created with the same stat potential” theory.

I mean I guess that to me life’s not fair, I’ll never play linebacker for the Bear’s and perhaps said linebacker will never appreciate the fine art of interrogation (my specialty). I don’t know where this is going but I have a few questions for the hard-core point buyers out there.

1. After creating these “fair” characters why do you then accept the “unfairness” of rolling dice at all? I mean why not simply give everyone “points” to spend applied to the median roll of the appropriate dice with a weighted scale towards the higher rolls like when generating characters. I mean instead of rolling a D20 just give everyone a “to-hit” pool and let him or her decide how and when to “spend” these points. No randomness, all characters would have the same potential for success.

2. Wouldn’t this truly make the game more “fair” I mean there would be no more “hey, man that’s the third 20 you rolled tonight bill, your guy is kicking butt, but I’m in a roll 3 slump”. We’d all have the same potential the only difference would be how we “spend” it?

3. I guess the bottom line is why is one set of randomness OK and the other not?

Disclaimer: I only seek clarity here it is not an attack on you or the way you like to play our hobby. I will not respond to any flame wars. If you care to respond cool if not cool too I just want to hear some input from those who think or play this way. It probably won’t change how I play…I m just curious.

 

[Impeesa]

I have a special d6-rolling grip that basically yields anything I want. It's disturbing, and I've been thrown out of at least two casinos because of it.

I can flat 18 on an 3d6 x6, let alone 4d6 drop lowest. One time I played in a one-shot game, back years ago, I got to about the third stat, while everyone stared, and asked the DM if I could just choose my own stats now, or if he preferred to have me finish rolling. He opted to let me just pick my own stats out of the air.

I always played thief, the class of the d6. I'd be absolutely horrific as a rogue in 3E. So many d6ses.......my preciousssssssss.....

All super-stats isn't all that fun to play, you see, but better than, then stats in the wrong places.

Don't suppose you'd be willing to share that technique...? You know, for academic purposes.

--Impeesa--

 

[Cedric]

A tad bit of slightly off-topic info...

The smart gambler who knows the method he speaks of will just try to get one of his dice to come up "6" and will let the other die fall where it may so to speak.

He will then maintain a small bet on the pass bar and bet most of his money on the "field" as he has a greater chance of return for this bet.

Note that while this method is certainly not enouraged by casino's, they do not disallow it either.

Manipulation of the dice beyond this will get you removed though...

Now back to your regularly scheduled post where I say...

My best ever was 18, 18, 17, 17, 16, 14...this was 1st edition, with a monk that had psionics and later dual classed to wizard and became a 7/9 monk/wizard before being retired at the request of my GM.

Cedric

 

[Darklone]

I don't know about d6, but we had a player who loved to roll nat 20s on his d20... 5 in a row? No problem.

My favorite stats have been (race elf)
15, 20, 14, 12, 11, 14.

 

[Christian]

Re: FAIRNESS?

3. I guess the bottom line is why is one set of randomness OK and the other not?[/I]

My disclaimer: I prefer rolling stats to point-buy.

My answer: As I understand it, the concern is with the difference between campaign-long rolls and individual-incident rolls. Here's a reverse analogy: Suppose that, instead of rolling a d20 every time you swung/fired a weapon, you rolled one d20 at the beginning of the campaign, and that was your attack roll for that character for the rest of his life. Obviously, the character who got stuck with a permanent '1' is pretty much hosed, while the lucky guy with the '20' is born to be a combat god. It's perfectly 'fair' in the strictest sense-everyone got the same chance to roll that d20. But it sure isn't going to be very fun ...

Now, this is obviously stupid. And using an 'average' roll for every 'to-hit' would be obviously pretty stupid too. Aside from the fact that a certain amount of randomness puts the fun in the game, the fact is that so-called hot and cold streaks always even out in the long run. So will hot and cold streaks in chargen, of course-but the 'long run' there is a lot longer, because you don't do it as much, especially if you're trying to maintain a continuous long-term campaign.

So, to maintain fun & interest in a long-term campaign, you want to ensure that you don't have the equivalent of characters with the permanent '1' and '20' attack rolls. An easy way to do this is by using point-buy; but IMO this has too strong a tendency to result in 'cookie-cutter' characters, so I prefer to try to achieve the goal in a less heavy-handed manner.