If you roll dice for character creation (rather than point buy, standard array, etc) - do you roll 4d6, drop lowest, and assign stats at will (that's what I consider the "usual" method), or do you have your own system? What are the advantages of your system over the usual one?
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We've tried many different ways, 4d6 drop lowest (reroll ones, ones and twos), 5d6 drop lowest 2, etc...
No real advantage over others except maybe a lesser chance of low stats. 20 yrs ago nobody I played with liked low stats as we considered heroes to better then average, thats way they became heroes. Of course this was before point buy became common.
I like rolling for stats just to see how badly my rolls are.
I like rolling for stats just to see how badly my rolls are.
That's me to a T.
I tend to only allow two sets instead of continued rerolling. If you're going to let the dice decide, you don't get to wait for a set you like.
This has been my impression that a lot of people who ostensibly use random chargen use a lot of arcane rerolling or point-assigning schemes to avoid low scores. Seems to evade the point of random generation.
I had been using 4d6 drop lowest, re-roll 1 and 2. Now I'm trying 6+3d6 drop lowest. Always assign as you like. I find the benefit to be overall better stats, which makes for happier players and an easier time for me running (I don't have to be as careful when I start them at level 1. No housecats are likely to kill my players' wizards. :P)
Edit: I also offer an array, usually 18 16 15 14 13 11 for those who don't have luck rolling.
I had been using 4d6 drop lowest, re-roll 1 and 2. Now I'm trying 6+3d6 drop lowest. Always assign as you like. I find the benefit to be overall better stats, which makes for happier players and an easier time for me running (I don't have to be as careful when I start them at level 1. No housecats are likely to kill my players' wizards. :P)
I'm not math-savvy enough to figure out what would be the average rolls there. Would you say that's roughly equivalent to 20 point buy, or maybe 25 point buy? What's a typical spread?
I had been using 4d6 drop lowest, re-roll 1 and 2. Now I'm trying 6+3d6 drop lowest. Always assign as you like. I find the benefit to be overall better stats, which makes for happier players and an easier time for me running (I don't have to be as careful when I start them at level 1. No housecats are likely to kill my players' wizards. :P)I'm not math-savvy enough to figure out what would be the average rolls there. Would you say that's roughly equivalent to 20 point buy, or maybe 25 point buy? What's a typical spread?
According to someone who ran the maths in another thread, the 3d6 drop low +6 averaged 42point buy, and the spread was a 12 point standard deviation.
Another edit: I've never used point buy, so this is meaningless to me, I'm just reporting what I was told.
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Way back when (late 70's early 80's) my best friend and I joined a group of collage kids (we were 15-16, they were early 20's?). The GM had everyone one rolls stats in order 12 times then pick the best set, if you didnt have at a set with a least one 15 you could reroll all over. I think this way was straight out of the DMG.
At no time have seen a GM make someone play a set of stats where all were below 10. I read poster say they had to do this when rolling stats, sad in my opinion.
@ Jacob yeah someone in the other thread was talking about rolling 36 times, putting it into a 6x6 grid, and then choosing a row or column. My eyes glazed over at the very thought of it.
my little campaign book.
I'm writing that on my DM notebook.
One of the recurring themes of my other thread (about dropping to 7 in point buys) is how MAD characters get a raw deal from point buy. I think from this thread I am learning that random rolling is often a substitute for higher point buys but has the advantage of avoiding the worst excesses of min/maxing that one would expect from giving out all those points.
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3d6+2 and 2d6+6 are two methods I usually offer together with the player taking their choice of method. I have used many others also but whenever I do use dice rolling methods for char-gen, I put an ability bonus limit on the total. For instance I may make the "playable PC" range +5 to +10. Any rolled PCs that don't have ability modifiers that meet that total are unplayable and need to be rerolled. It prevents The One guy getting an 18,17,15,15,14,12 PC while someone else gets a 10,12,14,11,9,13 and having them play together. Everyone ends up with decent, playable stats with variation and similar power-levels.
I usually also add in caveats like rolling in order then switching 2 stats afterwards, or some such.
I used 4d6 drop lowest, but offer the option for a 22 point buy instead. Incase the player prefers that (after rolling), but disallow sores over 16 or lower than 8 in that case before racial adjustments.
It offers variety in characters which is a good thing mostly, though some characters might end up a bit more powerful than others.
* I also give my players 3+con hp, 2sp+int, and an extra feat a 1st lvl commoner could take. This reflects them not always having been a wizard, fighter etc., toughens them up a bit and adds a little versatility.
It is not directly related to this thread but many people hate starting out as barely better than a commoner, thus I added it.
* I also give my players 3+con hp, 2sp+int, and an extra feat a 1st lvl commoner could take. This reflects them not always having been a wizard, fighter etc., toughens them up a bit and adds a little versatility.
It is not directly related to this thread but many people hate starting out as barely better than a commoner, thus I added it.
That sounds like a sensible houserule, I'm bothered by how fighters only get 2 skill points (or if they dumped INT, as many do, 1).
I've often used 4d6 seven times, place six. If the set is just boring I allow a new set to be rolled. Has worked well.
I played a game of 4d6 drop the highest one time.
How did this work out?
We always do 4d6 drop lowest. Our rule is if your character has under +3 total modifier, you get to reroll. If you have a +3 or higher total mod, you have to keep it. This has resulted in one character being low-powered (+3 total mod) while the top player rolled about a +9 total mod I believe.
I don't have a problem with this - one of the roles of the DM is to try to balance things during play. The +3 total mod player is doing a ranged rogue based on throwing. His character ended up finding special gloves that made his ranged attack quite good. Even though he rolled poorly, he likes his character.
I rely on players to prevent the "suicide mentality" - where players that rolled poor characters try to get them killed quickly so they can reroll a new character. If it becomes a problem, I assess an experience penalty upon death, so the suicide players comes back a level or two lower than the rest of the PCs.
@Tormsskull do you mean 4d6 drop lowest in order, or you still get to assign stats as you like?
@Tormsskull do you mean 4d6 drop lowest in order, or you still get to assign stats as you like?
Assign as you like.
The first char in our group is created with 4D6 drop lowest, assign as you like.
Replacement chars (after a death) can use stats from a 6x6 table generated with 4D6 drop lowest. So that everybody has the same possibilities and can generate a replacement char without the GM checking the dice.
take your pick of the two sets or switch to point buy if you don't like either
How many points?