Wow, do I hate rolling for stats!

[Jeff Wilder]

Pathfinder game, I rolled what would be 11 points in point-buy. Everyone else rolled between 15 and 20 points, except the guy who rolled about 28 points.

I went from feeling enthusiastic to feeling like my character might as well be named The Gimp.

 

[Dragonbait]

According to some fans of stat rolling you need to man up and deal with it.

I, on the other hand, hate the randomness.

 

[Filcher]

Your PC dies of plague at the age of 9, due to a low Con score. Continue to roll characters until you beat 15 points in the point buy.

There is a lot of value in low-stat PCs, but not if the player isn't excited about them. It should be a fun game, after all.

 

[Holy Bovine]

Pathfinder game, I rolled what would be 11 points in point-buy. Everyone else rolled between 15 and 20 points, except the guy who rolled about 28 points.

I went from feeling enthusiastic to feeling like my character might as well be named The Gimp.

The main reason I hate rolling for stats is that i almost always end up with a series of numbers between 9 and 11. I hate playing an Average Joe. That is what i am in real life! I play RPGs to be special in some way. I'd almost rather have a few stats at 5 than play a guy with 10s & 11s across the board.

 

[Dog Moon]

This is why in my games what we do is have everyone roll and then we take the best set of numbers and people use those. Allows everyone to be on equal footing to start out with and unless everyone rolls bad prevents anyone from having a really bad roll.

Now it means that everyone has the same stats, but this doesn't bother our group at all when compared to the above and still allows us to have the fun with rolling our stats.

 

[Aus_Snow]

I love it.

I've played my fair share of suboptimal PCs, and they have been no less memorable for it. A little more so, in some cases, if anything. Also, they've not only survived, but thrived as well, for the most part. Just a bit more challenging at times, is all.

Let's see if my luck is any worse than yours... (dice rolls yet to come)

edit: LOL! Yes, I'd say so. Mind you , that wouldn't be a keeper, right?

 

[ggroy]

Your PC dies of plague at the age of 9, due to a low Con score.

I once rolled a 3 for CON, using the "roll 4d6 and dropping the lowest" method for generating player stats. (ie. Rolling double snake eyes).

 

[Stoat]

There are games where its fun to roll stats randomly and adapt to the results.

IMO, 3rd and 4th Edition D&D are not those games.

 

[Umbran]

Do you hate rolling, or do you just hate rolling when you roll under the average of the group?

Some forms of game work well with the randomness, others do not. Sometimes, when handed a lemon, you can make some very fine lemonade.

As an example: years ago, I was running a 2e game, and we rolled randomly for stats. One player got a pretty decent set, except for one 6. He stuck to that set, though, and found he could put together a paladin out of it, if he put that 6 in Intelligence.

He spent a lot of time thinking how he'd play an Int of 6, coupled with a Wisdom score in the teens. He even did a bit of research, and came up with the idea of playing it as a learning disability. Ultimately it led to some of the best roleplaying I've ever seen. And it would never have happened if we'd used point-buy, as the player would never have thought of or chosen to build the character that way on his own. The stricture of the dice led to inspiration.

 

[amerigoV]

I would make a deal with the DM - you will play the PC just to see how long they survive on the condition that you can transfer the XP to the replacement PC you have waiting in the wings (ie, no penalty for death/replacement PC).

Also, see if the DM will give the group bonus XP if your character lives through each combat/session/adventure (with the caveat your PC has to do stuff and not just hide during combat). For extra XP, most groups will do the craziest stuff.

Just some ideas to make it interesting. Otherwise, as the theme song from M*A*S*H tells us, "Suicide is painless...."