billd91
Not your screen monkey (he/him)
Is this different from other editions? What stopped the players from rolling and re rolling until they got their most obnoxious results? The DM, same as now.
D&D 5E Why no 16-18s allowed in Point Buy?
- Thread starter Stalker0
- Start date
Is this different from other editions? What stopped the players from rolling and re rolling until they got their most obnoxious results? The DM, same as now.
Tequila Sunrise
Adventurer
Okay, stupid question: Where is the point buy table, anyway? I've searched the Basic pdf, and I can't find it.
Tequila Sunrise
Adventurer
And, as has been true since the dawn of our hobby, there's a relatively simple way to get around 'You must keep your stat rolls!'
Abstruse
Legend
p. 9, first column, at the bottom. It's the badly placed table I talked about in my review, since it's a page and a half away from the rules for it.
mach1.9pants
Hero
Can a math person tell me what chance you have of rolling a 16-17-18 at least once in your 4d6 drop lowest?
I like the idea, makes high stats a goal rather than the base. 4E especially was bad for this, predicated on an 18 and a 14 or two 16s.
I'll stick with my 4d6 in order, swap two and re-roll one if wished.
I like the idea, makes high stats a goal rather than the base. 4E especially was bad for this, predicated on an 18 and a 14 or two 16s.
I'll stick with my 4d6 in order, swap two and re-roll one if wished.
CM
Adventurer
Most of my players have been playing D&D for 20 years or more. They like to reminisce about that old-school bastard DM they used to have back in the day who made people roll 3d6 and take them in order. I don't think any of the 15 or so gamers I know would want to go back to any method of stat rolling for any long-term game, as our games tend to run for 3-5 years and permanent character death is rare.
I'm glad for the lower starting stats and 20 caps. It makes feat vs. stat a bit more of a significant choice. This is a change I'd consider making to 4e if it didn't screw up a lot of the higher-level game math.
I'm glad for the lower starting stats and 20 caps. It makes feat vs. stat a bit more of a significant choice. This is a change I'd consider making to 4e if it didn't screw up a lot of the higher-level game math.
I think it's a good attempt at risk-reward. You can maintain absolute control with point-buy, but you can't get the very best stats. Or you can try for the best stats, but you have less control over the outcome.
Of course, people can reroll or whatever, but when you come down to it, there's nothing stopping a player from putting all 18s in all her stats in any edition. It's always been against the rules, but rerolling is also against the rules. Either people follow the rules or they don't. It doesn't seem worth it to me to worry about people who break the rules.
To me, 5E seems very "optimize for the common case" and leave edge cases alone or up to the DM's judgment.
Of course, people can reroll or whatever, but when you come down to it, there's nothing stopping a player from putting all 18s in all her stats in any edition. It's always been against the rules, but rerolling is also against the rules. Either people follow the rules or they don't. It doesn't seem worth it to me to worry about people who break the rules.
To me, 5E seems very "optimize for the common case" and leave edge cases alone or up to the DM's judgment.
Abstruse
Legend
A little higher than 9% of getting an 18, a .38% chance of getting two 18s. Don't know the rest, but someone did a detailed analysis here.
mach1.9pants
Hero
Thanks, looks like you have a 27% chance of having on 16 or higher. ‘You've got to ask yourself one question. Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?’
Abstruse
Legend
56.76% actually based on the table at the bottom:
| Highest at least | One | Two | Three |
| 18 | 9.34% | 0.38% | 0.01% |
| 17 | 30.07% | 4.03% | 0.34% |
| 16 | 56.76% | 17.85% | 3.26% |
| 15 | 79.40% | 42.16% | 14.13% |
| 14 | 92.80% | 69.01% | 36.29% |
mach1.9pants
Hero
Ha thanks, I didn't really understand what he was trying to say on the site.
‘You've got to ask yourself one question. Do I feel 50-50 lucky? Well, do ya, punk?’
‘You've got to ask yourself one question. Do I feel 50-50 lucky? Well, do ya, punk?’
Tequila Sunrise
Adventurer
Wow, the placement really is terrible. I almost want to take back my earlier comment that 'The 5e guys probably don't not want players to use PB'...
GX.Sigma
Adventurer
Approximately 57.8% chance to get at least one score of 16 or higher.
[sblock="The working"]Thanks to anydice.com, a roll of [highest 3 of 4d6] has approximately 0.134 probability of rolling at least 16.
In other words, there is a 0.866 probability for a given stat to have less than 16.
The probability that all six stats will have less than 16 is .866^6. That's about .422, or a 42.2% chance to have no 16s.
Of the possible 100%, you either get no 16s, or at least one 16 or higher. Therefore, the probability of getting no 16s, plus the probability of getting at least one 16 or higher, add up to 1. In other words:
1 - [probability of having all less than 16] = [probability of having at least one 16 or higher]
1 - .484 = .578
There is a 57.8% chance to get at least one 16.[/sblock]
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Lalato
Explorer
When I was 11 years old we re-rolled stats like a mofo! But I'm not 11 years old anymore (Yikes, I'll be 44 soon!), and I haven't met an adult DM that would allow such silly shenanigans. If you decide to roll, you roll in front of the DM, and you keep what you get. The only time re-rolls are allowed is if you roll something that is unplayable (as in the sum of your bonuses is negative). That said, I'm more than willing to play a character with negative bonuses... just to see how long the poor bastard can survive.
doghead
thotd
Agreed.
I also like the fact that you can't just take an 18 straight from the get go and abilities are capped at 20.
As for cheating with the rolls, there are ways to prevent it. Enworld's internal dice roller is pretty foolproof.
thotd
doghead
thotd
LOL. Yeah, so did we.
Been there.
Rain said:
Unfortunately this game died in the Crash of '06 and Rain never really got the chance to live fast and die gloriously. She remains to this day on of those characters I would love to bring back and play again.
thotd
Mistwell
Crusty Old Meatwad (he/him)
No they won't Crothian. Come on man. I've seen people do a few re-rolls, but two 18s would take on average 300 rolls! That's not common, and I doubt you've seen it happen often. Even one 18 is rare, and should require a full re-roll several times to even come up once.
In my experience, you get to roll one time through, and the only re-rolls are if you have a really terrible result. I have not seen a bunch of re-rolls since the early 1980s. And we've rolled out stats in every edition (at least some of us have in my group).
IronWolf
blank
The easiest way to prevent the re-roll problem is to simply do character generation at the first session and watch folks.
I've been playing and running a lot of DCC RPG. 3d6 in order. It feels odd at first, but if the rest of the group is doing it, the game is still a blast even with crappy stats. In fact, in a lot of ways, non-superhero level is a whole lot of fun!
I've been playing and running a lot of DCC RPG. 3d6 in order. It feels odd at first, but if the rest of the group is doing it, the game is still a blast even with crappy stats. In fact, in a lot of ways, non-superhero level is a whole lot of fun!
Agamon
Adventurer
Here's a tougher one. What's the odds on rolling 16+ on one stat and rolling at least equal to what would get from the array on the other five?
