Character Creation [Archive] - Wizards Community

Character Creation [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Alurvelve
12-06-06, 04:48 PM Just thought I'd ask here what everyone thought of this idea. We use the 4d6 drop the lowest die, and may reroll any ones that come up. It creates some high stats but he run high end games almost all the time. My question is what would yall think about allowing someone who rolled 4 6's to start with a 19 ability score?
Alurvelve
12-06-06, 04:50 PM Other thing we do is give out 1 skill point per 10 years of life. I know this shows favoritism to the longer lived races, but the points you gain much be put on a knowledge, craft, or profession. What do yal think about that idea? It never been an unbalanceing bonus for our games.
Lord Karsus
12-07-06, 12:30 AM Just thought I'd ask here what everyone thought of this idea. We use the 4d6 drop the lowest die, and may reroll any ones that come up. It creates some high stats but he run high end games almost all the time. My question is what would yall think about allowing someone who rolled 4 6's to start with a 19 ability score?

-That's the method I have always used, ever since I began playing D&D back in 2000.

-As for rolling a 19...Well, that is impossible. The highest you can physically roll using 4d6, dropping the lowest die, is an 18. I'd just have them keep the 18, and not give them anything special for rolling four sixes. I'm mean like that, though. ;)
ClobberinTime
12-10-06, 09:32 PM I think that having higher ability scores is part of the fun so go for it, why not give them a 24 for rolling 4 sixes?
GothicDan
12-10-06, 09:36 PM I like it.

I'm a DM of the idea that a little more power at lower levels keeps everyone more content in the long run.
Weiser_Cain
12-10-06, 10:12 PM I like point buy, just give them high point buy and they get what they want. I never liked the idea of getting shafted durring character creation, that's the DM's job.
Borris
12-10-06, 11:00 PM I usually go with a 28 point-buy. While rolling characters may be fun, it often ends up with two characters with total ability modifier in the 11-12 range, one with about +8, and a poor lad with a mere +5 total. I've been at both ends of the spectrum, and it's just not fun when the party's wizard has better Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, and Charisma than the cleric. A player shouldn't start with a weaker character just because of some bad luck. For the same reason, I use average hp/level instead of rolling hit points. A permanent lack of hp just because of a few bad rolls at early levels is not fun for anyone.
Alurvelve
12-11-06, 12:22 AM For Hp I do max at first level and for every level after that the players rolls and I roll and he gets the highest result.

When rolling up the stats i allow for 2 sets of character rolls (sometimes 3). Example pc rolls a 12, 14, 15, 17, 11, 15, 16, with my rules he can now dump the 11. And now he can roll another set of 7 numbers lets say he gets 11, 13, 15, 14, 12, 15, 13 and gts rid of the 11 also. So he now has to sets of stats to choose from. The way my players roll these stats above are considered low.
GothicDan
12-11-06, 12:37 PM Point-buy is also a thing I would use a lot. The very first game I ever played in was a high-level point buy (to allow us to be proficient in any class we chose). I believe it was 84 flat points, distribute as we wanted to.
HarperRanger
12-11-06, 12:57 PM My DM does 4d6, drop the lowest. He let us roll 2 sets and pick the best set. I didn't end up too bad.

Elf 2 Fighter/1 Wizard
Str: 15
Con: 14
Dex:14
Wis: 12
Int: 16
Cha: 11

Rolled 2 16's in my second set so that was the roll I took. After the race mod's for elf, I was pretty happy with what I got. But playing a wizard is a lot different then playing the treehuggers I've been used to playing.

HR
The Heretic
12-11-06, 01:37 PM If you want some really interesting character generating... Use the matrix system from 1E Unearthed Arcana
Diffan
12-11-06, 06:38 PM As a DM, I always used 4d6-drop the lowest and allow them to roll twice if they needed it. I also allow them to allocate two points from any one score. I've heard a lot of people say PB is better and while I can say that it's cool to have higher stats in the beginning, PB does make it more fair. My next campaign, I'm doing an epic level campaign where all my PC's will start with 36 points to put into their stats. It's high, i know, but at least it's equal. For you, I would say the highest he could go is 18.
LaEternale
12-13-06, 02:06 AM I use the 4d6 drop the lowest method too, but I like playing more RP and politicking games over combat oriented games. Combat is great, but I think the character interaction makes for a much more interesting story.

Also, I have a couple of eccentric players who like to, erm, customize exotically, so their high ability scores are usually offset by some sort of roleplaying quirk that gives them weaknesses. Nice balance that.
shiyongseng
12-15-06, 04:37 AM The 4d6 drop the 4th is good, but in the process I give them 1 loaded die so they at least get one 6. The loaded dice (set of 3 d6's) were a little expensive, but come in handy when I want to put players in their place. :evillaugh
Ramenth
12-15-06, 10:04 PM I generall do the 4d6, but I tend to allow people to re-roll multiple times till they get a score they're reasonably happy with.
Dark Wizard
12-15-06, 10:30 PM Point-buy is also a thing I would use a lot. The very first game I ever played in was a high-level point buy (to allow us to be proficient in any class we chose). I believe it was 84 flat points, distribute as we wanted to.

For 2e, my DMs often used 84 across the six stats. Just something about the way that worked out in 2e, you had one or two exceptional stats (~16 where you actually got a bonus modifier) but still remained balanced. For one game when we converted to 3e, we rolled regular 3d6 (DM still wasn't comfortable with 3e's 4d6 method, which in 2e was an optional high stat rolling method). In the party, I had the character with the lowest stats ... with a 92 point character. Die rolling can be funny at times.
WhrenKehrsyn
12-16-06, 01:51 AM I use a point buy usually around 36 points. I dont like to roll for the reason mentioned above, it sucks to have a player with below average stats and someone with very high stats. I do sometimes break the Charisma sta up into Appearance and presence on occasion and when I do that the number of points raises to around 50.

For hit points I have players roll a die size smaller and add 2 to the result. 1d4 hit die = 1d2+2, 1d6 = 1d4+2, etc. It helps all the characters hae a stronger hit point total and eliminates that 'I have hit points equal to someone 5 levels lower because I rolled 1's every level up'
Dark_beebles
12-16-06, 05:48 AM My dm either let us use 4d6 use the best..or 32PB before we made our char..if we chose to roll then you get 3 sets to pick from.

Also which was nice is he let us have Max hp at 1st and at least 1/2 every level (for example fighter rolls a 2..he would get 5hp that level). Which seems fair considering even if you use a average monster or average npc out of the book they have at least average hp. Most of the time without it..our tank would of had near the lowest hp..(yes we had a psion and a wiz in the party)..because he always rolled 1,2,3's..we kind of felt bad for him so i think that is the main reason the rule came around.
Yakostovian
12-17-06, 03:19 AM One method I allow, is roll 3d6 36 times, putting the stats (in order rolled) on a 6x6 grid.
Any one column or row may be selected. (or the 2 diagonals) but they must also be placed in order, or reverse order.
GothicDan
12-17-06, 10:21 PM For 2e, my DMs often used 84 across the six stats. Just something about the way that worked out in 2e, you had one or two exceptional stats (~16 where you actually got a bonus modifier) but still remained balanced. For one game when we converted to 3e, we rolled regular 3d6 (DM still wasn't comfortable with 3e's 4d6 method, which in 2e was an optional high stat rolling method). In the party, I had the character with the lowest stats ... with a 92 point character. Die rolling can be funny at times.

Amazing! :D
Blackheart
12-20-06, 04:20 AM Arise, Necropost, and let me have my say! *eerie Universal horror movie music*

Just saw this...it's a wily thread that tried to hide from me!
Anyway, going all the way back to the OP, since 3E came about, I've always used the 4x6=19 that you mentioned. Also, 4x4=4 in my games, to give the players an edge up in case of truly horrendous rolls.

Adding to the stories of amazing stats, during the course of making characters for a game, our DM foolishly said "Roll 10 sets of 7, reroll 1s and pick from those." All tolled, that equated to 350 rolls. Not one person started the game with anything over 15 because we all picked decent spreads over a high sprinkled amongst terrible lows. In hindsight, I guess it wasn't so foolish for our DM to make that ruling for character creation.

On a final note, "horrendous" is a fun word and I have an odd want to watch Creature from the Black Lagoon. =/

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Alurvelve 12-06-06, 04:48 PM	Just thought I'd ask here what everyone thought of this idea. We use the 4d6 drop the lowest die, and may reroll any ones that come up. It creates some high stats but he run high end games almost all the time. My question is what would yall think about allowing someone who rolled 4 6's to start with a 19 ability score?
Alurvelve 12-06-06, 04:50 PM	Other thing we do is give out 1 skill point per 10 years of life. I know this shows favoritism to the longer lived races, but the points you gain much be put on a knowledge, craft, or profession. What do yal think about that idea? It never been an unbalanceing bonus for our games.
Lord Karsus 12-07-06, 12:30 AM	Just thought I'd ask here what everyone thought of this idea. We use the 4d6 drop the lowest die, and may reroll any ones that come up. It creates some high stats but he run high end games almost all the time. My question is what would yall think about allowing someone who rolled 4 6's to start with a 19 ability score? -That's the method I have always used, ever since I began playing D&D back in 2000. -As for rolling a 19...Well, that is impossible. The highest you can physically roll using 4d6, dropping the lowest die, is an 18. I'd just have them keep the 18, and not give them anything special for rolling four sixes. I'm mean like that, though. ;)
ClobberinTime 12-10-06, 09:32 PM	I think that having higher ability scores is part of the fun so go for it, why not give them a 24 for rolling 4 sixes?
GothicDan 12-10-06, 09:36 PM	I like it. I'm a DM of the idea that a little more power at lower levels keeps everyone more content in the long run.
Weiser_Cain 12-10-06, 10:12 PM	I like point buy, just give them high point buy and they get what they want. I never liked the idea of getting shafted durring character creation, that's the DM's job.
Borris 12-10-06, 11:00 PM	I usually go with a 28 point-buy. While rolling characters may be fun, it often ends up with two characters with total ability modifier in the 11-12 range, one with about +8, and a poor lad with a mere +5 total. I've been at both ends of the spectrum, and it's just not fun when the party's wizard has better Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, and Charisma than the cleric. A player shouldn't start with a weaker character just because of some bad luck. For the same reason, I use average hp/level instead of rolling hit points. A permanent lack of hp just because of a few bad rolls at early levels is not fun for anyone.
Alurvelve 12-11-06, 12:22 AM	For Hp I do max at first level and for every level after that the players rolls and I roll and he gets the highest result. When rolling up the stats i allow for 2 sets of character rolls (sometimes 3). Example pc rolls a 12, 14, 15, 17, 11, 15, 16, with my rules he can now dump the 11. And now he can roll another set of 7 numbers lets say he gets 11, 13, 15, 14, 12, 15, 13 and gts rid of the 11 also. So he now has to sets of stats to choose from. The way my players roll these stats above are considered low.
GothicDan 12-11-06, 12:37 PM	Point-buy is also a thing I would use a lot. The very first game I ever played in was a high-level point buy (to allow us to be proficient in any class we chose). I believe it was 84 flat points, distribute as we wanted to.
HarperRanger 12-11-06, 12:57 PM	My DM does 4d6, drop the lowest. He let us roll 2 sets and pick the best set. I didn't end up too bad. Elf 2 Fighter/1 Wizard Str: 15 Con: 14 Dex:14 Wis: 12 Int: 16 Cha: 11 Rolled 2 16's in my second set so that was the roll I took. After the race mod's for elf, I was pretty happy with what I got. But playing a wizard is a lot different then playing the treehuggers I've been used to playing. HR
The Heretic 12-11-06, 01:37 PM	If you want some really interesting character generating... Use the matrix system from 1E Unearthed Arcana
Diffan 12-11-06, 06:38 PM	As a DM, I always used 4d6-drop the lowest and allow them to roll twice if they needed it. I also allow them to allocate two points from any one score. I've heard a lot of people say PB is better and while I can say that it's cool to have higher stats in the beginning, PB does make it more fair. My next campaign, I'm doing an epic level campaign where all my PC's will start with 36 points to put into their stats. It's high, i know, but at least it's equal. For you, I would say the highest he could go is 18.
LaEternale 12-13-06, 02:06 AM	I use the 4d6 drop the lowest method too, but I like playing more RP and politicking games over combat oriented games. Combat is great, but I think the character interaction makes for a much more interesting story. Also, I have a couple of eccentric players who like to, erm, customize exotically, so their high ability scores are usually offset by some sort of roleplaying quirk that gives them weaknesses. Nice balance that.
shiyongseng 12-15-06, 04:37 AM	The 4d6 drop the 4th is good, but in the process I give them 1 loaded die so they at least get one 6. The loaded dice (set of 3 d6's) were a little expensive, but come in handy when I want to put players in their place. :evillaugh
Ramenth 12-15-06, 10:04 PM	I generall do the 4d6, but I tend to allow people to re-roll multiple times till they get a score they're reasonably happy with.
Dark Wizard 12-15-06, 10:30 PM	Point-buy is also a thing I would use a lot. The very first game I ever played in was a high-level point buy (to allow us to be proficient in any class we chose). I believe it was 84 flat points, distribute as we wanted to. For 2e, my DMs often used 84 across the six stats. Just something about the way that worked out in 2e, you had one or two exceptional stats (~16 where you actually got a bonus modifier) but still remained balanced. For one game when we converted to 3e, we rolled regular 3d6 (DM still wasn't comfortable with 3e's 4d6 method, which in 2e was an optional high stat rolling method). In the party, I had the character with the lowest stats ... with a 92 point character. Die rolling can be funny at times.
WhrenKehrsyn 12-16-06, 01:51 AM	I use a point buy usually around 36 points. I dont like to roll for the reason mentioned above, it sucks to have a player with below average stats and someone with very high stats. I do sometimes break the Charisma sta up into Appearance and presence on occasion and when I do that the number of points raises to around 50. For hit points I have players roll a die size smaller and add 2 to the result. 1d4 hit die = 1d2+2, 1d6 = 1d4+2, etc. It helps all the characters hae a stronger hit point total and eliminates that 'I have hit points equal to someone 5 levels lower because I rolled 1's every level up'
Dark_beebles 12-16-06, 05:48 AM	My dm either let us use 4d6 use the best..or 32PB before we made our char..if we chose to roll then you get 3 sets to pick from. Also which was nice is he let us have Max hp at 1st and at least 1/2 every level (for example fighter rolls a 2..he would get 5hp that level). Which seems fair considering even if you use a average monster or average npc out of the book they have at least average hp. Most of the time without it..our tank would of had near the lowest hp..(yes we had a psion and a wiz in the party)..because he always rolled 1,2,3's..we kind of felt bad for him so i think that is the main reason the rule came around.
Yakostovian 12-17-06, 03:19 AM	One method I allow, is roll 3d6 36 times, putting the stats (in order rolled) on a 6x6 grid. Any one column or row may be selected. (or the 2 diagonals) but they must also be placed in order, or reverse order.
GothicDan 12-17-06, 10:21 PM	For 2e, my DMs often used 84 across the six stats. Just something about the way that worked out in 2e, you had one or two exceptional stats (~16 where you actually got a bonus modifier) but still remained balanced. For one game when we converted to 3e, we rolled regular 3d6 (DM still wasn't comfortable with 3e's 4d6 method, which in 2e was an optional high stat rolling method). In the party, I had the character with the lowest stats ... with a 92 point character. Die rolling can be funny at times. Amazing! :D
Blackheart 12-20-06, 04:20 AM	Arise, Necropost, and let me have my say! eerie Universal horror movie music Just saw this...it's a wily thread that tried to hide from me! Anyway, going all the way back to the OP, since 3E came about, I've always used the 4x6=19 that you mentioned. Also, 4x4=4 in my games, to give the players an edge up in case of truly horrendous rolls. Adding to the stories of amazing stats, during the course of making characters for a game, our DM foolishly said "Roll 10 sets of 7, reroll 1s and pick from those." All tolled, that equated to 350 rolls. Not one person started the game with anything over 15 because we all picked decent spreads over a high sprinkled amongst terrible lows. In hindsight, I guess it wasn't so foolish for our DM to make that ruling for character creation. On a final note, "horrendous" is a fun word and I have an odd want to watch Creature from the Black Lagoon. =/