Which array?

[Where's the Weed?]

Do any of you guys offer your players stat array's?

If so, what are they?

I was considering using them with a built in 'reward' for choosing a more balanced ones, to discourage min/max-ing. Maybe the more balanced ones being of a higher point value. Is that a bad idea?

I want to ensure that players are not put off mad classes.

Thoughts?

[Conundrum]

Points if they want custom array if they don't like math or you don't like stat dump. 20 points works well for my group is 15 for others some like 25 a few go 10.

[Yora]

Since my games are always PB 15, I tell the new players that a good way to spend the points is 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8.

[Jayson MF Kip]

Pre-racial 18/16/14/12/10/10 with the caveat that racials cannot pull you above 20 or below 8 in any particular stat.

[Herbatnik]

I like PB 20, array 15, 14, 12, 12, 12, 12 . It ensures that players will have a flexible characters, especially when comes to use non-hack&slash method of solving problems. Some players have a grudge against preventing min-maxing, but it's for their sake ( "it's cheating! Why you used succubus knowing that we have dumped wisdom! It's metagaming!;P"

[blackbloodtroll]

Why in god's name is every low score some kind of sin?

Why is this "vanilla" PC more interesting?

[Theconiel]

I once used (20-point buy) 15,15, 13, 12, 11, 10.
I was starting a club, and most of the members were entirely new to pen-and-paper RPGs. I wanted to shorten the character creation process, which is why I imposed a stat block.

[blackbloodtroll]

I suggest this array.

9, 11, 12, 13, 15, 17.

[Conundrum]

Anything but roll for stats. Give them an even playing field to start I say!

[Aranna]

The last setup I used was one of a few options:
1- Elite Array
2- 15 point buy +no points earned for buying a stat down.
3- 4d6 drop low, rolled in order.

Oddly all my power gamers selected option one... and nobody picked option two. Perhaps I need to rethink options one and two. A few went with option three, so that seems fairly balanced.

[7heprofessor]

Stats are completely irrelevant in my games. I let my players choose whatever stats they want. I have tracked this data for 3 years with right around ten groups and the data dictates that the average player chooses stats right around the 24 point-buy mark.

I have had the extreme case where one player chose three 18s. He was poked fun at so much during the campaign that he asked me to have a creature attack the group that would lower his stats! I'm not condoning making fun of people, but I think it's crazy that it worked out like that.

Seriously, let people play the character they want. If they're all about having uber stats, let 'em. Just adjust the monsters accordingly.

I don't know if a new DM would be able to do that effectively, but after you play a few times it becomes pretty obvious that certain characters are more susceptible to certain attacks. I also roll behind a DM screen so I can make the monsters do exactly what I want them to do when I want them to do it. In an average adventure, I probably fudge two or three dice rolls just to make everyone have their time in the limelight.

That isn't to say fudging is necessary. I can build monsters and NPCs to challenge any build. Fudging is just way less time consuming!

Just forget the stats and focus on the story!

[master_marshmallow]

18 16 15 13 12 10

One boss stat, one good stat, one mediocre stat, two "hey it might be nice to get +1 skill/level or qualify for some random feat that may be useful to me" stats, and one dump, being the 10.

[GrandReaper]

We tend to play pretty powerful characters here (sometimes too powerful). I allowed my characters to select either of the following arrays:

Set 1: 17 16 15 13 10 9
Set 2: 18 16 13 13 11 8

I've found that the characters work very well. They're all versatile, the stat-ups are often meaningful yet characters aren't so versatile that they step on each others toes.

I also decided that players often lacked enough skill points to go "off book" so to speak, so at every level they received a skill point that had to go into a craft, perform (Bard excluded) or profession. They also selected a knowledge skill that there character automatically got a skill point in every level.