Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 crusaderbard Aug 03, 2014 2:39:55	I got a gaming group that simply hates low stats.  I have been running D&D for over 20 years.  I play alot of high fantasy style epic games.  But most of my players want all bonuses and at least one 18 for every character.  The idea of having a character with a stat with negatives is insane to them.  I look at a lot of books and novels with characters and I can see their point in some ways.  Outside of the sickly Raistlin, one is hard to find a low stat character in the novels or core books.  Take the heroes of the Drizzt series.  Their stats are insanely high.  Does / has anyone else had this problem, and if so what did you do?  Is there a way to roll stats and come out with above average stats, if so how do you keep balance with monsters?
#2 mrsrockguru Aug 03, 2014 3:52:04	crusaderbard wrote:
#3 Mephi1234 Aug 03, 2014 4:48:55	crusaderbard wrote:
#4 SilentSin Aug 03, 2014 4:59:34	crusaderbard wrote:
#5 DM_HEEGZ Aug 03, 2014 8:44:20	We rolled stats (4d6 drop low), and one of the elf PCs has two stats at 18 with racial bonus to Dex. Got the rolls on the third attempt, but obviously random. No negative modifiers, lowest score is a ten or eleven I think.
#6 Archon007 Aug 03, 2014 9:24:12	Sounds like your group doesn't like to start out at low levels and earn their advancement. Honestly, they sound like my 3 year old.. I wanna, I wanna, I wanna.    The best advice I can give you if you like playing like that is just make up your own standard array and they all get it. Keep in mind any published adventure would be underpowered for a group like that so you'll need to add monsters or difficulty.    Also, keep in mind the max attribute is 20 so starting with an 18 + racial modifier they are as good as they can ever be, so when they level they will be complaining on not being able to raise their primary stat, raising secondary stats! or adding a feat at every stat increase level which continues to throw the power curve out of whack.
#7 JDizzleton Aug 03, 2014 9:26:18	crusaderbard wrote:
#8 Archon007 Aug 03, 2014 9:25:53	DM_HEEGZ wrote:
#9 Archon007 Aug 03, 2014 9:48:51	crusaderbard wrote:
(Reply to #8) AaronOfBarbaria	Archon007 wrote:
#11 ArkPanda Aug 03, 2014 10:44:54	JDizzleton wrote:
#12 Razintarr Aug 03, 2014 12:54:09	Raising the stats of the players beyond the average has the effect that they'll overpower official adventures and mess up the encounter creator. A hard challenge will be a whole less exciting when the players have more hp's, make more saves and dish out more damage because of higher stats.    That doesn't have to be a problem if you give them encounters custommade for them. More enemies per encounter or higherlevel enemies for example. Give the players what they want, to be above average heroes. But it's the above average heroes that get tasked of dealing with the most difficult problems. A friend of mine dm's like that, and his campaigns are great. You get high stats, and you get overpowered magic items, but you know you're going to need those overcome the challenges of the adventure.
#13 DM_HEEGZ Aug 04, 2014 11:37:55	Archon007 wrote:
#14 Dyndrilliac Aug 04, 2014 16:50:48	The best response to this topic IMHO is in the Starter Set: anytime my players whine about not having super high stats, I show them the Commoner statblock. 10 in every stat, +0 modifiers across the board. Have 2-3 stats above 10? Then you're already above average. Either learn how to play your character to take advantage of your above average areas or go back to over-powered 4e.   In preparation for official adventurer's league play, I've been taking it a step further and force each character to use the standard score array (15,14,13,12,10,8) and my players cannot roll for HP - they must take the constant averages at each level-up as laid out by their class's description.