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Fearfrost
Sergeant
518 Posts
    
 | | 12/29/2005 6:11 PM |
| which method do you all prefer
1) point buy where DM give you points based on the power level of his campain(or his evil whim)
2) the old 3d6 and live with it
3) the 4d6 best 3 and assign as you see fit
4) some variation I have seen alot of different variations
-x number of d6 which you can pick any number to roll for a score use the best three and your stuck with the result (x is usually assinged by the DM)
- also seen a score assingment system you get 6 numbers( again DM sets them) and assign them as you see fit.
I find I favor the point buy as you can get some real good scores for your primary stats but it leaves you "hurting" in other areas.
What do you guys prefer? Why? | |
Asystole is a stable heart rhythm | |
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Grim
Sergeant
482 Posts
| | 12/29/2005 6:57 PM |
| | We have always gone with the good old 4d6 drop the lowest. Other ways just seem odd after doing it that way for so many years. That said, I am going to try a d12+6 eight times, drop the highest and lowest next time around just for kicks. | |
I am a leaf on the wind...Urrk!!--Wash, "Serenity" | |
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mordantos
Underboss
1210 Posts
| | 12/29/2005 8:16 PM |
| quote:
Originally posted by Fearfrost
2) the old 3d6 and live with it
Ah, old school "suck it up" ΖD]
Can really be fun with the right group of players, as you will see low IQ Wizards, weak Fighters etc. And races will become very stereotypical (since everyone will be using Racial stat modifiers to get better at what they do...)
quote:
Originally posted by Fearfrost
3) the 4d6 best 3 and assign as you see fit
Like the randomness, but also like the ability to arrange things so if I want a Fighter, I can make strength my highest stat. | | | |
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IanB
Commander
3112 Posts
| | 12/29/2005 8:33 PM |
| We played a 3d6 in order game, the characters were hilariously lame. "Ah, my high stat is an 11!"
Right now we use a sort of hideously complicated method where we make a 6 by 6 matrix, roll 4d6 drop the lowest, fill the matrix like that, and then have to take the stats in order (or reverse order) from one of the rows or colums.
Yeah, kinda goofy. It sort of bridges the creation philosophy between player choice and having to make do with stuff in order like the old days. | |
Anson on WotC boards | |
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ShadowLord XT
Commander
2632 Posts
Plane of Shadow
| | 12/29/2005 9:09 PM |
| | 3 | |
Disipline is the only way to overcome chaos.
Champion of Half-Golems
Knight of Golems
"This world is made for love and peace" - Trigun
"anyway..shadow..you've figured women out. KUDOS." - raye_kino16 | |
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glumag
Warlord
5968 Posts
| | 12/29/2005 9:23 PM |
| The system we've always used is:
Take a free 18 for any of your stats;
Roll 4d6 pick best 3 and repeat 5 times;
If satisfied good if not you can re-roll all of them again but you must take what you get.
It made it fun for the players and the DM...10 years later we are still using it. | |
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maijstral
Underboss
2105 Posts
| | 12/29/2005 9:49 PM |
| we use a version of 3 similar to Glumag's.
Roll 4d6, drop the lowest, 6 times. Do that 3 times for 3 rows of stats and you pick whichever row you want (no mix and match between rows) then put the numbers wherever you want. | | | |
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Gunthar
Commander
2938 Posts
| | 12/29/2005 10:06 PM |
| | 4d6, re-roll the ones once OR if you play a single-class human (no dual-classing, still play 2E instead of that number-crunching, min-maxing abomination 3E) then 4d6 and a d4 to add to any one stat. | |
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Sjofn
Sneak
141 Posts
| | 12/29/2005 10:11 PM |
| | The block method Ian described ends up sort of odd sometimes ... like I have a ranger with some weird stats (10 wis, 17 cha) (I'm obviously playing the no-spell-casting version :P). Most likable ranger ever! | |
God Save the Horn Players | |
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ickthegreat
Warrior
291 Posts
| | 12/29/2005 10:24 PM |
| most used: the 4d6 best 3 and assign as you see fit
the most fun: roll six sat, made six colmems
1 1 1 1 1 1
2 2 2 2 2 2
3 3 3 3 3 3
4 4 4 4 4 4
5 5 5 5 5 5
6 6 6 6 6 6
after that pick one of each row but you can only use each colnem once | |
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| Knight of Argenis
Corim Danex
Warlord
6802 Posts
West Valley City, Utah
| | 12/29/2005 11:47 PM |
| We did 4d6 drop lowest die six times arrange as desired
We did three sets of stats and picked the set we wanted to use. Not very many 18's. The DM needs to give monsters max HP instead of suggested HP for this to work, I think. | |
"Look to God and live." Alma 37:47
Vindicated Champ of Hippogriff (Arcadian Hippogriff) and Uncommon Horse | |
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Lab Monkey
Commander
4136 Posts
| | 12/30/2005 12:15 AM |
| We do this:
3) the 4d6 best 3 and assign as you see fit
I used to allow my players to have an 18 in 1 stat and then do the remaining 5 stats by the method above. However, I found it shifted the power curve too significantly at lower levels and my players were breezing through 1st to 4th level encounters. So I just go with the standard method these days.
There was once a thread on the WotC Character Optimization Boards where someone crunched the numbers and showed that 4d6 drop the lowest was superior (resulted in higher average ability scores) to point buy unless the DM gave out absolutely obscene amounts of points.
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Wayne
Underboss
1371 Posts
| | 12/30/2005 12:25 AM |
| I use a self-created linear point-buy in which the utility stats (Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence) cost slightly more than Wisdom and Constitution, which cost slightly more than Charisma.
I'll never use random character generation again. I am 100 percent convinced that players don't want random rolls ... they just want the possibility of rolling incredible stats, combined with the possibility of cajoling or PC-suiciding their way out of mediocre or lame stats. | |
Jeff "Wayne Laredo" Wilder | Email | Have/Want List | Trade Policies | Are You an Ethical Trader?
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Pale Rider
Underboss
1023 Posts
London, Ontario, Canada
| | 12/30/2005 7:33 AM |
| I did something a little different in the last game I DMed.
Every ability stats with an 8. Roll 8d6 recording each number rolled. Then add the die rolls to your stats one by one. The entire roll of the die must be added to one ability score and you can add as many dice as you like to each ability up to a maximum of 18. The DM also has the option of granting you a few re-rolls if you completely tank the rolls. For example taking a human fighter I might roll 1, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 5, 6. So the stats might look like this
Str 8 +6 +4=18 Dex 8+4 = 12 Con 8+4+5=17 Int 8+1 = 9 Wis 8+3 = 11 Cha 8+3 = 11
It made for some fun characters and really gave a sense of building the character from the ground up but with a healthy dose of randomness. | |
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Vrecknidj
Warlord
10425 Posts
United States
| | 12/30/2005 9:49 AM |
| I prefer point-buy primarily because it fits well with my conception of fairness. I don't like playing in games where the luck of the dice really grants some players extraprdinary characters (whether or not that happens to happen to me). As a DM, I give my players the choice between point-buy, and some dice-rolling options that all generate the same averages.
Once upon a time, an old DM of mine used this system, which is pretty good, really. Roll 21d6. Reroll any die exactly once (you would, for example, reroll every 1, probably every 2, and perhaps every 3). Discard the three lowest results. Arrange the remaining 18 results into six groups of three, of your choosing.
This generates a fairly healthy distribution of scores over 13, and grants a fair number of 17s and 18s, but isn't so top heavy as to ruin a campaign.
Edit: for a while there, after the first Unearthed Arcana came out, we were toying with other possibilities. I remember this one. Generate two scores using 12+1d6, generate two scores using 6+2d6, generate two scores using 3d6. Arrange these six scores to fit your abilities however you'd like.
Dave | |
Knowledge Arcana editor issues 5-9, Phoenix Lore Magazine editor, assistant editor for Rite Publishing;
My Trade Thread and My Reference Thread; Winner of WBC IV, IX and XIII; Rule #0: bshugg is always right! | |
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Link
Warrior
314 Posts
Netherlands
| | 12/30/2005 10:44 AM |
| I always use 3)
but I am thinking of using point buy: Too often I have parties where one or two of the PCs have three scores over 15, and the rest of the PCs not.
The "roll three rows pick one"-method sounds good also. Maybe I'll try that. | |
trade reference thread
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| The Mighty
jai
Commander
3235 Posts
| | 12/30/2005 11:08 AM |
| quote:
Originally posted by Vrecknidj
I prefer point-buy primarily because it fits well with my conception of fairness. I don't like playing in games where the luck of the dice really grants some players extraprdinary characters (whether or not that happens to happen to me).
I too like the players to at least *start* on equal footing ... [:)] | | | |
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cyderakk
Warrior
313 Posts
| | 12/30/2005 11:22 AM |
| screw that point buting system
thats not even D&D as far as i'm concerned
we do the 4d6 drop the low dice | |
Later | |
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Zenako
Commander
3468 Posts
| | 12/30/2005 11:27 AM |
| Over the decades many systems have been used...
The general favorite tends to be the 4d6 choose 3 for six stats to be arranged as you prefer. With 3.0 this was slightly modified so that if the net results of all your bonuses is not at least +2 then you can ditch the character matrix and reroll. Or you can take the default matrix of possible stats the DM has available which is something like 15,13,13,11,10,8 which gives a net of +3.
My problem with the point buy systems that have been used is that you tend to end up with very stereotypical charactitures. Strong fighters are seldom wise or smart, and vice a versa. The system strongly encourages pumping prime stats up as much as is reasonable. | |
Built the addition for this addiction, now on to the "gaming table" project....
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Malin Lug
Sergeant
742 Posts
| | 12/30/2005 11:41 AM |
| In our current game... each player is given a choice. Roll 4d6, drop the lowest arrange to taste, or roll two collumns of 3d6 and pick and choose. The 4d6 inevitable comes out on top.
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"Are you not entertained?" 
Champion of the Common Bar Wench
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aron1
Sergeant
415 Posts
| | 12/30/2005 12:21 PM |
| | My group generally does the point buy method, with fairly high point levels (in the 40s or even 50). But then, we don't get many magic items, so it all balances out. | |
Champion of the Thoqqua | |
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Fearfrost
Sergeant
518 Posts
| | 12/30/2005 4:46 PM |
| | On a side note anyone remember an old dragon article about having a hopeless character. IIRC it was a class that you were if your scores were not good enough to be any other class. This was in the day where you had to have an 11 in your primary stat to even be that class. I remember it being a joke of course. | |
Asystole is a stable heart rhythm | |
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Monsoon28
Underboss
2313 Posts
Toronto
| | 12/30/2005 6:03 PM |
| | Option 3, if you don't like the rolls, roll a second time. If you still have a 'sucky' character, then go with the point-buy system. | |
"I was sittin' here eatin' my muffin, drinkin' my coffee, replayin' the incident in my head, when I had what alcoholics refer to as a moment of clarity." - Jules Winnfield
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Ack
Underboss
1476 Posts
| | 12/31/2005 12:48 AM |
| I have traditionally played higher powered campaigns..
4d6, re-roll 1s and 2s, take the best 3.
I still roll like crap tho. latest character had 2 11s. :( | |
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bshugg
Underboss
1832 Posts
| | 12/31/2005 9:28 AM |
| Standard 4d6 drop one. Only roll 1 set. most of the time.
An interesting and dynamic way I have used before is:
Write all 6 stats on a paper like:
Str
Dex
Con
Int
Wis
Cha
Then hand the roller 18-28 D6's to "spend" based on how powerful you want character creation to be. they pick what stat to use them for and roll it, then line it up next to that stat. Each stat can only use the 3 highest rolls lined up next to it. This way the players can balance their character as needed.
For example on my first die, for an expected fighter, I choose strength and roll a 3. I place that next to the Strength row. I can then choose strength again and roll and place a second die next to it, or try to roll for other stats first. near the end I may have rolled a 5 and 6 on my wisdom, so I don't assign any more dice to it as 11 is good enough. I can use the dice to attempt to get higher rolls on my primary stats.
This way creates a interesting way to roll up characters that is fun to watch, and lets each player customize how they want their character to be made. | |
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nyjastul69
Commander
2711 Posts
Rhode Island
| | 12/31/2005 9:56 AM |
| quote:
Originally posted by Zenako:
My problem with the point buy systems that have been used is that you tend to end up with very stereotypical charactitures. Strong fighters are seldom wise or smart, and vice a versa. The system strongly encourages pumping prime stats up as much as is reasonable.
This is one of the reasons I don't really like point buy methods. They also make my dice cry. I see their utility for tournaments, but I don't use them for my home campaigns. 4d6 drop the lowest. If I'm planning a 'high powered' game then I let the players generate 7 scores and drop the lowest one. | |
In the constellation of
Cygnus, there lurks a
mysterious, invisible
force:
Rush | |
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Vrecknidj
Warlord
10425 Posts
United States
| | 12/31/2005 10:38 AM |
| How about 5d4-2? Roll it six times, put the six in whatever order you want. This will generate an awful lot of 9, 10, 11, 12 scores.
I thought once about requiring all my players to start with three 10s and three 11s, and then allowing them to add a point to an ability score at every level for a while.
I was looking at my old Basic book yesterday and thought that the method in there was pretty cool. Roll 3d6, that's your Strength. Roll it again, that's your Intelligence, etc. through all six scores.After you have your scores, you pick a class that's suited to the scores. Wacky.
Dave | |
Knowledge Arcana editor issues 5-9, Phoenix Lore Magazine editor, assistant editor for Rite Publishing;
My Trade Thread and My Reference Thread; Winner of WBC IV, IX and XIII; Rule #0: bshugg is always right! | |
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Ack
Underboss
1476 Posts
| | 12/31/2005 12:58 PM |
| quote:
Originally posted by VrecknidjI was looking at my old Basic book yesterday and thought that the method in there was pretty cool. Roll 3d6, that's your Strength. Roll it again, that's your Intelligence, etc. through all six scores.After you have your scores, you pick a class that's suited to the scores. Wacky.
Welcome to "Ironman" D&D. Its a ton of fun for a one nite shot running thru a 1st Edition module in a nite.
Why is it so fun? Answer this riddle -
"Pearl on black velvet, jewel of the sea
unchanging yet e'erchanging eternally"
Well, its fun to me. and that riddle is from one of the dungeons.. its the last 2 lines of it at least. but I can remember it like it was yesterday having a whole week to figure it out. | |
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| Knight of Argenis
Corim Danex
Warlord
6802 Posts
West Valley City, Utah
| | 12/31/2005 1:01 PM |
| quote:
Originally posted by Vrecknidj
I was looking at my old Basic book yesterday and thought that the method in there was pretty cool. Roll 3d6, that's your Strength. Roll it again, that's your Intelligence, etc. through all six scores.After you have your scores, you pick a class that's suited to the scores. Wacky.
Aw... but that forces some serious role playing though...[)] | |
"Look to God and live." Alma 37:47
Vindicated Champ of Hippogriff (Arcadian Hippogriff) and Uncommon Horse | |
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Pale Rider
Underboss
1023 Posts
London, Ontario, Canada
| | 12/31/2005 2:44 PM |
| quote:
Originally posted by Ack
Why is it so fun? Answer this riddle -
"Pearl on black velvet, jewel of the sea
unchanging yet e'erchanging eternally"
Well, its fun to me. and that riddle is from one of the dungeons.. its the last 2 lines of it at least. but I can remember it like it was yesterday having a whole week to figure it out.
The moon? I hate obvious "riddles" like that. | |
Completed Trades: Crescent Hawk, Vimes, demagogue, vidman, Eric is God, Strachan Fireblade, FungiMuncher, Dudeeehm, Shasack, gausse, kyrin, nyjastul69
Champion of the Remorhaz | |
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Pale Rider
Underboss
1023 Posts
London, Ontario, Canada
| | 12/31/2005 2:45 PM |
| quote:
Originally posted by Corim Danex
quote:
Originally posted by Vrecknidj
I was looking at my old Basic book yesterday and thought that the method in there was pretty cool. Roll 3d6, that's your Strength. Roll it again, that's your Intelligence, etc. through all six scores.After you have your scores, you pick a class that's suited to the scores. Wacky.
Aw... but that forces some serious role playing though...[)]
That is the funniest thing I have read around here in a while.
Low stats=good role playing. I'll have to remind my players about that. [:p] | |
Completed Trades: Crescent Hawk, Vimes, demagogue, vidman, Eric is God, Strachan Fireblade, FungiMuncher, Dudeeehm, Shasack, gausse, kyrin, nyjastul69
Champion of the Remorhaz | |
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wolfsbane114
Warrior
327 Posts
| | 12/31/2005 3:14 PM |
| | In my group we use the 4d6 method re roll 1's and drop the lowest. We then assign the results as we see fit. Works great for us. | |
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| Knight of the
Round Table
Thenameless
Warlord
11444 Posts
The Fortress of Solitude
| | 01/01/2006 5:38 AM |
| | I prefer point-buy for fairness, but not rolling doesn't feel like D&D. Rolling mirrors real life better too; some people are born stacked, while others really do get the shaft. That's why it's nice to see a deaf & blind person become the most famous composer of all time. Perseverance still means something. I guess that's what good roleplaying is for. | |
Over 270 successful online DDM trades. | |
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orcdoubleax
Sergeant
694 Posts
| | 01/01/2006 8:07 AM |
| My favorite is 3d6 in order. No reroll or alternate.
The problem I found is getting four people to agree to it.
As a DM I general end up doing the 4d6 arrange as you like or point buy.
I find the underlying problem is not the power of the PC's as this is easy to adjust with the CR of the encounters. It is the perception of how powerful the PC's are by the players.
There is a little secret to D&D that far too many players have forgotten. YOU DO NOT WIN OR LOSE AT D&D. The idea is to roleplay a party that works together to try to stay alive and achieve goals. You get nothing special for being the most powerful member of the party. | |
Yes I am Gelatinous.
www.gelatinousdudes.com
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Zenako
Commander
3468 Posts
| | 01/01/2006 11:17 AM |
| To deal with the old unevenness of stats from a rolling mechanism, in my home brew campaign I ran for close to a decade (Just went and looked up some old data, 258 play sessions over 9 years) I used the following system. (short version)...
Pick a class you want to play, roll dice. Each stat had a different number of dice associated with the roll depending on the class you wanted to play, so for example, for a FTR, they would get 4d6 keep all, while for CON and DEX it was 4d6 top three, and the other stats were something like 3d6. The character had to have a certain minimum point total when adding all the stats together or the player could ditch it. There were also some special rules for players wanting to play a Paladin, Bard or Druid, and they got rolls, with a minimum result guaranteed, that would meet the class minimum. Now, once the character was rolled you added up the stats and substracted them from 100 point. That left some number of points to spend on skills which were kind of like a cross between 3rd edition skills and feats. More powerful than 3.0 skills, but less powerful than 3.0 feats. All characters got additional points equal to their level as they went up, with certain bonuses adding in more points. (Its been a while but I can dig up the whole system if I want to). Every class also started with a certain number of points to spend to fill in the abilities of that class beyond those that were dictated as being required.
Bottom line, if your character had great stats, then you probably had very few learned skills to start with, if you had medium to poor stats, you probably had lots of skills to start with. My rationale was that people only adventure when they feel they are ready. The natrually gifted character heads out the door as soon as they can, while the average guy studies a bit before he thinks he can handle things. It worked out pretty well.
In fact, for some of the stats, you were not required to choose the highest three rolls, merely three rolls and a few players would choose lower rolls to net them more skill points if they felt the trade off was worth it. That they even did that was indication that the system worked.
Each of the 4 core classes got a 4d6 stat in the traditional prime stat (Ftrs=STR, Cleric=WIS, MAge=INT, Thief=DEX). This was a way for someone to get the extreme stats. I had a few characters stat with a 20 in their prime stat, maybe a 21 once.
Back when I developed this system I was strongly influenced by Runequest, C&S, and even Tunnels and Trolls to some degree. Armor worked in different ways, with it having two parts, Defense and Absorbtion. No armor gave the highest DEF bonus (like 10), but 0 absorbtion from hits, while plate armor only added a point or 2 to defense but would absorb like 6 points from every hit. Movement was related too. BUT what this meant was that having high strength to cut through armor was even more important for fighters. IF fighting a horde of Orcs all wearing chainmail that absorbed 4 points, those guys doing d8+8 were in far better shape than those doing d8+2, in fact way better. Normal against unarmored foes would be 12.5 vs 6.5 or about a factor of slightly under two, while against chainmail it was 8.5 vs 2.5 or a factor of a bit over three to one.
Got the highest level characters up to level 20 or so. | |
Built the addition for this addiction, now on to the "gaming table" project....
http://www.maxminis.com/hw_list.asp?user=Zenako last updated 29 May 2006
Set Status: in a nutshell = all of all
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If I seem scarce at times...blame DDO - Sarlona | |
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Zenako
Commander
3468 Posts
| | 01/01/2006 11:57 AM |
| Got curious and went back and dug it out. Had to install a MSWord converter to bring the XYWrite file into word. IF you remember XYWrite you have been doing this stuff for too long...self included...
However here goes...
STAT MATRIX GENERATION OPTIONS FOR CHARACTERS
Random Generation:
Simply roll 4 D6 and choose the highest 3 (4>3) for each stat in the matrix of characteristics and see where it leads you. Using this method it is possible to generate any of the character classes, provided your stats meet the minimum requirements for the given class (see the table below).
Specific Generation:
Decide which character class you wish to play before rolling, and use the stat matrix table below to generate the stat matrix. If you roll below the minimum requirement, you simply take the minimum for that stat. Using this method you may not generate a Paladin, Druid, or Monk as these classes have minimums of 15 or more, but it should be noted that it is only possible to get a stat higher than 18 for a character by using specific generation (see the fighter, cleric, mage and thief tables).
<br> Str Int Wis Con Agil Quick Char<br>Random 4>3 4>3 4>3 4>3 4>3 4>3 4>3<br>Bard 4>3(12) 4>3(13) 4>3(13) 4>3(10) 4>3(12) 4>3(10) 4>3(13) <br>Cleric 3>3(6) 3>3(6) 4>4(9) 4>3(6) 3>3(3) 4>3(3) 4>3(6) <br>*Druid (6) (6) (12) (6) (6) (6) (15) <br>Fighter 4>4(9) 3>3(3) 3>3(6) 4>3(7) 4>3(6) 4>3(6) 3>3(6) <br>Mage 3>3(3) 4>4(9) 4>3(6) 3>3(6) 4>3(6) 4>3(3) 3>3(6) <br>*Monk (15) (10) (15) (11) (15) (10) (6) <br>*Paladin (12) (9) (13) (9) (6) (6) (17) <br>Ranger 4>3(13) 4>3(13) 5>3(14) 5>3(14) 3>3(6) 4>3(6) 3>3(6) <br>Thief 4>3(6) 4>3(6) 3>3(3) 3>3(6) 4>4(9) 4>3(9) 3>3(6) <br>
(The values in parenthesis are the minimum stat requirements)
* = cannot be predetermined, must be randomly rolled, and meet requirements.
There exists a minimum characteristic total for the first seven stats of 83 points. Any character which has less than this total can be rejected at the player's option and a new character may be generated.
The Power statistic is calculated by rolling 2D6 and adding one half of the INT roll (round down) of the character. Power does not count towards the 83 point limit. The size of the character is derivative from other stats and the background of the character. Consult the size formula to determine size.
ENIGMA CHARACTER CLASSES:
This table shows the starting unallocated mastery points for each character class at first level. Each character also gets additional mastery points which are equal to 100 - (sum of primary stats) with negative results equal to zero. Characters have some choice in the starting skills, for example weapon Proficiencies. The character will be able to decide what weapons he or she wishes to be proficient with. A few of the classes are restricted in the choice of weapons that they may begin play with. Mages will get to decide which colors of magic they start with.
CLASS FREE SKILL POINTS
BARD 0
CLERIC 12
DRUID 10
FIGHTER 12
MAGE 8
MONK 0
PALADIN 12
RANGER 9
THIEF 7
So you can see that a character with 100 stat points would get only the starting skills plus the character class skill points to allocate, while a "minimum" character with 83 points would get another 17 points to spend. Those skills could be quite important and especially so at lower levels. | |
Built the addition for this addiction, now on to the "gaming table" project....
http://www.maxminis.com/hw_list.asp?user=Zenako last updated 29 May 2006
Set Status: in a nutshell = all of all
In Process trades0), (Sig last updated 05/29/06) 300 plus Completed Trades -
If I seem scarce at times...blame DDO - Sarlona | |
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Jeb McDonald
Sergeant
402 Posts
Central New Jersey
| | 01/01/2006 12:46 PM |
| We do a modified version 3--roll 4d6 6 times and keep the best three dice.
Before rolling, the DM decides the power level of the game. He may say, "minimum total stat modifier is +5." Roll 4d6 six times keeping the best 3. If the total stat modifier (before racial adjustments) is below +5, then start over.
Nobody likes playing a seriously weak character unless everyone is playing a seriously week character. Actually, some folks might like to play a fighter with an 11 strength, but nobody will want to adventure with that fighter unless the entire band are misfits. | |
The man who thinks he can, and the man who thinks he can't are both right. Which one are you? | |
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wildmage
Sneak
123 Posts
| | 01/01/2006 10:59 PM |
| I like bshugg's suggestion about sequentially rolling d6's for a particular stat. I also agree that point-buy and rolling 6 X 4d6, drop the lowest, then arrange as you choose both select for "stereo-typical" ability scores based on starting class choice. Point buy systems excel at putting all the PC's on a level playing field but also tend to give each PC a very similar ability score array where the only variations come from which scores go where based on class choice. I suppose Wayne's point-buy method could lead to more variation in the resulting score array since the players have to make additional choices besides picking which class they want (and hence which abilities to boost).
I was thinking that the following might allow for some variation while still getting ability score arrays similar to the 4d6 method. It's over-laid on top of "iron man" D&D and hence would allow for an 18 Str fighter with a 16 Int, but a 12 Dex. Basically you roll 3d6 for each individual ability score. Then you get an additional 6d6 to "spend" as you see fit in an attempt to raise certain scores by replacing the lowest of the original 3 rolls with a higher one (this is the same as bshugg's proposed method if you allowed a total of 24d6 and required that at least 3d6 be spent on each ability). The total number of dice rolled is still 6 X 4d6, but the first 6 X 3d6 are individually set for each ability, you can't choose what goes where. Then you could pick a class (which will likely be influenced by your original 6 X 3d6 rolls) and decide where to put the next 6d6 in an attempt to raise key ability scores.
I have the following questions:
1.) Does this sound decent? What would you add/change?
2.) If you choose to put more than 1 of the final 6d6 into one ability, should you only be able to replace the 1 lowest die from the original 3d6 role for that ability, or take the top 3 roles overall?
For example, I've chosen to play a fighter and have 14 Str (rolled 4, 4, 6), if I can only replace the lowest roll my best possible strength would be 16, but if I can take the best 3 out of the dice I choose to try for Str I might get an 18. Only replacing the 1 lowest die better approximates the 4d6 drop lowest method, but your chance of improvement on any one score is capped even if you wanted to put all of the final 6d6 into attempts for a single ability. | |
Champion of the Bone Naga
(There's just so much roleplaying to be done with a large skeletal snake!) | |
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orcdoubleax
Sergeant
694 Posts
| | 01/02/2006 7:05 AM |
| Not that I would recommend this to anyone playing a serious game, But one time in a one off game we just rolled D20's in order. It was just for laughs and worked ok for one night. They choose their classes based the idea of having the standard four areas covered.
There was the fighter with 20 Str, 17 Con and 3 Dex. He was basically played like Andre the Giant.
There was also the wizard with 4 Con and 2 Chr. He was played as being always sick and always complaining about it.
The poor clerics best skill was a 13 wis. Everything else was less then 10.
and finally the 1 int rouge. 10 str, 19 dex, 12 con but 1 int. He then took a halfling who was often mistaken for a trained monkey. | |
Yes I am Gelatinous.
www.gelatinousdudes.com
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yack
Commander
3254 Posts
Gatineau Canada
| | 01/02/2006 9:37 AM |
| I have them roll 4d6 and lose the lowest but you have too put them in order. (old school and new school mixed)You name the ability and then start rolling.
Yes I'm a semi mean DM but I think it leads too more interesting characters and not perfect characters per class.It helps control "power gaming" alittle. | |
Champion of the Peryton
Vindicated Champion : Pit Fiend, Devourer
DW: Duergar Priest
RPG Only!!!! The Drumming Drunkn' DM | |
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