NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Christian" data-source="post: 232703" data-attributes="member: 381">OK, that was somewhat interesting ... Here's why I posted this. I did an exhaustive mathematical analysis of the 3d6 6 times base generation method, laying out overall total score distribution. Obiously, the average will be 63; but how does it split up toward the edges?I noticed a very interesting thing as I put in some dividers for the natural split points-the ones I listed in my poll. For example, 25% of characters generated this way had a total attribute score of at least 69; since the point-buy method starts with a base total of 48 and (below 15) charges one point per attribute point, you need 21 points to build characters that will sit in the 25th percentile. Likewise, you need 25 points to hit the 90th percentile, 28 points to hit the 95th percentile, and 32 points to hit the 99th percentile. By some remarkable coincidence, these are the suggested point-buy totals in the DMG. (I'm not certain on that first one, as I can't find my book. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> )I imagine that Jonathan Tweet had a hand in this ...I couldn't do an exhaustive numeric analysis for the rolling methods-just doing one for the 3d6 method left MS-Excel gasping for air. An approximate analysis showed that using 4d6-drop lowest  method, 95% of PC's will be in the top 60% of the population, and the average total will be 73, in the 90th percentile. You may notice that the average is precisely the same as a 25 point buy ...Anyway, I thought this might be useful information. If you're using 32-point buy and also feel that the PC's should be in the top 10% of the overall population, you might try to find a way to reconcile your intuitions, 'cause they don't match. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> This doesn't seem to be a hypothetical problem. IME, most people in the point-buy number polls/discussions liked 28 and 32, whereas in this poll, most people liked 25 and 28 (although they didn't know that's what they were saying they liked ...)Oh-and for the three people who picked the last option-that corresponds to a 16-point buy. Make sure your armor is in good condition before you announce you're using that system for your next campaign. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /></blockquote>

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