Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 ostrakon Sep 04, 2008 23:25:28	I'm letting each individual player choose between the following: a) 26 (or 28, maybe even more. I'm not sure yet) point buy. b) An 18, an 8, and 4d6 dropping the lowest for the other four stats. They are warned that they will receive no help from me if the roll crappy for the other stats, and assured that if they roll well, I won't punish the party for it. (And I mean it.) I roll the stats for them, as I have two players who mysteriously never roll lower than 16. Do you think this is fair? The overarching theme of the campaign I'm trying to run is that they must make their decisions very carefully. Usually, I run a game that has the PCs following orders from some higher power, and that's always more or less what our entire playgroup has done, even when we switch DM-hats.I want my campaign to be player-driven: they have a clear goal in mind, but it's their decision how to get there. They inform me what their plan is, and I adjust accordingly. This way, I'm more of a referee than an adversary. So the first choice they have to make is character creation. Do you take the guaranteed better-than-average stats, or do you roll those dice? Which would you take? Should I add some sort of incentive to the dice roll?
#2 wyld_mutation Sep 04, 2008 23:42:47	Uhhh... The 18 means they'll almost certainly start with a 20. Which is a pretty good incentive right there. I'd take the roll. But I'm known to roll 2-3 18s on my stats anyway.
#3 yamishinobi Sep 05, 2008 17:39:11	Uhhh... The 18 means they'll almost certainly start with a 20. Which is a pretty good incentive right there. I'd take the roll. But I'm known to roll 2-3 18s on my stats anyway. i've been known on occasion to roll anywhere between 2-5 18's and all others above 14 (usually 18's or 16's) and every roll i get seems to be an even number. but i don't get that many dice campaigns. but it is fun for people to watch me roll a suboptimally classed rogue who ends up an adolescent female demigoddess of cats (3.5) usually 6th and lower level arcane spells spontaneously, usually stuff that helps stealth, or grants combat advantage by making foes flat footed. as her dual finesse keen rapiers (light weapons) crit with my high rolls (15+ usually) for double plus sneak using some houserule the dm accidentally applied, heck he one time allowed keen and improved cirt to stack, damage was 10-20x3 + triple sneak. they blamed it on my high stats, technically it was thier house rules that made this possible. and thus, i am forced to use point buy, (friday group of homebrew fiends) or have somebody roll an array in my place. saturday group i used point buy since i started that one in december, friday one is so disorganized, but more idiotic humor comes. jokes out the wazoo.
#4 salla Sep 05, 2008 18:10:48	Point Buy, no second thoughts. If you're in a campaign where you 'have to make all your decisions carefully', leaving your stats up to the most fickle of women, Lady Luck, borders on the suicidal.
#5 wyld_mutation Sep 05, 2008 18:26:07	Which is perfect. I'm a gambler... So I'll take luck. *proceeds to win lottery* My personal favotrite is 5d6 drop lowest 2. If you roll 5 6's you get a 20 for that roll.
#6 stanks Sep 05, 2008 19:46:11	I personally prefer point buy because that way all characters should have stats that suit them and are relatively even. It can unbalance a campaign if one person rolls obscenely well and another has a bad night on the dice. My preference is also based on always rolling poorly for stats, but strangely my dice like sneak attacks...the number of 5-6's I roll then... As an aside, dont run a high-powered campaign, run a tough campaign...but thats another issue.
#7 ceiling90 Sep 05, 2008 20:57:23	I actually like 6d4, drop the lowest for high powered campaigns, as it seems to make everything a little higher; averages about 10 to 20 versus 3 to 18.