So...many campaigns let players roll for stats. And usually it ends up with something like this:
Player 1: "I've got an 18/17/16/16/14/13! I can be anything!"
Player 2: "Well, I've got a 14 point buy. Have fun with the campaign."
That's an issue, because many players don't submit concepts because the dice are so horrible. And this got me (and lazyclownfish!) thinking, what could be done to keep the dice random but to get rid of the huge discrepancy in characters? Here's the idea, and please tell me if it does what is intended...
Dice Rolling System
12+d6 (13-18)
11+d6 (12-17)
10+d6 (11-16)
9+d6 (10-15)
8+d6 (9-14)
7+d6 (8-13)
1 Reroll allowed if you have no 16, 17 or 18.
If stats are still under 20pts, gain a bonus trait. If under 15 then a bonus Feat and trait. If under 10, then re-roll all dice.
No stats over 18 after racial. Final stats are lowered to 18.
The Best Result, with rolling all 6s, and +2 from race
18/17/16+2/15/14/13
That's godly. But I've seen people with better rolls in recruitment threads.
The Worst Result, with rolling all 1s and a 1 on the re-roll, and +2 for race
Impossible. It triggers a re-roll. :)
But if you still end up with an 11 point buy, you do end up with a bonus feat and trait. And that means soemthing.
The Average Roll, getting 3 or 4 for all rolls
15.5/14.5/13.5/12.5/11.5/10.5
If rolls are unlucky and no 16, get a re-roll. If all rolls are unlucky and falls on lower end, then get a:
15/14/13/12/11/10
18 point buy. Get a free trait to make up for your bad luck. Still have a 17 in main stat after race.
If rolls are lucky, and all fall on above average, you get...
16/15/14/13/12/11
28 point buy. Good enough for any class in the game.
What do you all think?
Does this do the job of keeping character creation random, while still keeping characters within the same ballpark?
Why not just use a point buy system at that point?
Because there is still randomization, but without huge power gaps
I understand why you're throwing the idea out there, but I really think that there are only two schools of thought and they are served by random rolling and point buy with no need for a third way of rolling stats.
Personally...I love the randomization, and I strongly feel that if you want that, you should be willing to deal with what comes to you. I think that rolling for stats, and then being able to choose which stats you apply your results to is enough of an equalizer.
Rolling extremes creates such interesting roll-playing opportunities, you know? :D My personal favorite is the crazy intelligent, ridiculously low charisma wizard...
A while back I created an ability score generator that more or less achieves your goal: it creates stat arrays within a given point buy range, while avoiding "flat" arrays that aren't really playable.