Seems like an awful lot of work.
With flipping the die for every six you have in column B there is a one in column C and vice versa. Each row will add up to 13--always. (If I understand your system correctly).
Wouldn't just be easier to say: write down six 13's for each +1 you add to that you have to subtract 1 from another stat.
Anyway, I just go for point buy. I never liked the fact that someone could get lucky on the first six dice rolls of a campaign (that might stretch for years) and their character will always have better abilities better than mine.
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There was a method I saw earlier that I liked, but wanted to change a little. Roll 24 d6, drop the 6 lowest, add them up, and make your stats from there. I like this for 2 reasons: I like rolling lots of dice at once, not only is it oddly pleasurable, but my dice also work better in large numbers. I've never figured out why, but the more dice I roll the higher my average is.
Time to add them up. Pick ANY number from Column 1, column 2 and them column three. When you picked a number, it is no longer usable.
Score 1: 6+6+5=17
Score 2: 6+2+4=12
Score 3: 6+3+6=15
Score 4: 6+1+1=8
Score 5: 6+3+4=13
Score 6: 6+2+5=13Total Modifier = +7
This is really just a modified point buy:
(pick any score from 8 to 18)18 5 points
17 4
16 3
15 2
14 1
13 0
12 -1
11 -2
10 -3
9 -4
8 -5
Score 1: 17 4 points
Score 2: 12 -1 point
Score 3: 15 2 points
Score 4: 8 -5 points
Score 5: 13 0 points
Score 6: 13 0 points
Total: 0 points
Most recently it really depends.
I have 3 types of rolling.
Gritty Fantasy (Low Power)
15-32 Point Buy.. depending on group.
Normal
1d6+12 x6
High Fantasy (High Power)
1d6+12 x5, 1d8+12 x1
I always give my players an option when rolling stats.. They could use the method that I gave them, or they can roll 4d6 (Drop Lowest, Reroll 1's) with each member of the group rolling, and the group picking which set they would like to use.
Roll 4d6. The result is how many points you have for point buy with standard costs.
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The new system I've been working on starts with a base of 18 then you divide that by PI and that gives you your standard number. Then you take your standard number and multiply it by the largest possible number you can achieve before racial modifiers. This number called the substandard number is then divided by PI and results in your new base number. Then I subtract 1 from the new base number for each ability score. Then because I'm mean I subtract and additional six points so my players aren't overpowered. This new number called the decimal point number. Then I round the decimal point number to the nearest one's place and subtract 1 to provide balance. The new number is the number of points allowed to purchase abilities using the standard costs.
It works wonders.
I have several ability score generation systems;
987654: you assign 9 dice to one stat, 8 to a second, 7 to a third, 6 to a fourth, 5 to a fifth, and 4 to the final stat. Roll that number of dice for that stat, take the highest three die rolls add them together for that stat.. these are your stats, now decide on a class.
Hereditary: this works just like 987654, except you roll two sets, one is your mother, the other your father. Take the average of the two sets for each stat, add 1d4, and subtract 1d4 (rolled separately).. these are your stats, now decide on a class.
Point buy: 15 point buy with +1d4 added to 5 stats and +1d6 added to 1 stat of your choice.
Now I must say, the group I play with likes higher stats all around. We are not really interested in playing "Your S@#~ty Life d20" with a bunch of 10's and 11's. Plus less character death, which I have yet to see result in positive things.
987654 is a sort of left over from first addtion unearthed arcana, where your class dictated how many dice you rolled for a stat. It can create some interesting characters. Chance becomes a huge part of what your character's stats add up too.
Hereditary is a half joke from the 2nd ed carnal knowledge guide, the averaging thing is how you are supposed to find out the final stats of your child. Oddly while chance is still a part of character creation, this creates balanced stats.
The point buy is to give some choice while still giving a chance for odd stats. Otherwise every character is built for the class. I created this for the people that wanted more control over there character's stats... the min-maxers. The only bad result being that no one buys 18, only 17 and adding 1d4 to the roll, the min-maxers love to do this.
Interesting ideas. I liked 987654 in particular. Nice high-powered characters. In real life, I'm full of 10s and 11s (and even a 9!). I'd rather not be that way in D&D.
I've always used point buy for a simple reason: balance. At the same time, I lament the lack of randomness and how easy it is for some players in my group to power-game it (AKA dump Charisma and some even do Wisdom).
I may consider a change and discuss it with the group when we start a new campaign (which should be a while from now).
Roll 3 stats and then plug them into point buy.
Random AND equal.
We use a bit-random point buy system:
- 10 + 1d3 pts for the 'gm-hates-u' campaigns
- 13 + 1d4 pts for standard campaigns (instead of 15)
- 17 + 1d6 pts for high difficult campaigns (instead of 20 pts)
- 23 + 1d8 pts for epic campaigns
Sometimes we used the 4d6 - (the lowest) per stat, but with a minor change: take the difference from the second highest total generated scores and your effective total, then you have this number as points to distribute to your scores (1-1 basis), not exceeding 18 before any racial modifiers.
New thing I thought up after experimenting for a while.
Take a set of cards: 9 9 8 7 7 6 6 5 5 5 4 4. Put em in a stack, shuffle, draw six pairs, apply on a score of choice. I used two 8's and two 5's before, but that was too high powered. Switching one 8 for a 5 gives me nice scores.
Rolling up in a game, starting this coming weekend, 6 + 2D6 for each Stat. nteresting...
Hereditary: this works just like 987654, except you roll two sets, one is your mother, the other your father. Take the average of the two sets for each stat, add 1d4, and subtract 1d4 (rolled separately).. these are your stats, now decide on a class.
This is great. I am going to advocate for this the next time I play in a one-shot.
I enjoyed 7d6 drop 3 highest
I enjoyed 7d6 drop 3 highest
So with a really good roll you could end up with abilities in the 19-24 range? That's an odd system, I have to say.
Minimum 4, average 14.
Granted, it's only about 0.046% of the time you end up with a 20 or higher. The number of 19s or higher is still only about 0.64%. So I guess it's a feasible system for the most part.
In fact, if my calculations are correct, you've got a worse chance of getting 18 or higher (1.1%) with this system than 4d6 drop lowest (which gives a 4.6% chance of an 18).
Curious.
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We used to roll 3d6 six times for each ability score (keep the best of course), in order. That meant rolling first, then choosing race & class. Of course, the order then was STR, INT, WIS, DEX, CON, CHA.
I really would prefer to roll, but I also usually play PFS. I am part of a campaign, but that was also point buy.
15pts Point Buy, with a free +2 to one single stat that has not already got a modifier (so no doubling up your racial modifier, or buying off a racial penalty)
Generally, we run 20 or 25 point buys. Our GM for our recently started Kingmaker campaign decided he wanted to try something different this time around. He had all of his player's roll the standard 4d6 drop lowest method. He then took all the arrays we generated, pitched the one with the highest total mod, and allowed us to select from the 3 best of those arrays left. Made for an interesting tweak on char gen. Prevented us all from just taking the best one, and the next best 3 were all pretty evenly matched.
We used to do straight 4d6 drop lowest and assign, but at one point people had an issue, so we started the following:
Everyone roll as above.
Calculate that average total score of each character (usually around 70 - 80 points).
Every character who rolled BELOW the average was allowed to add points to his rolls up to the average.
This made people a little less jealous of the high rollers (since their scores were raised as a result), but kept the high rollers from feeling like they've been punished (for some reason point buys really p****d one or two people off).