Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
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Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer CreaturesFrozen SickD&D Beyond Basic RulesBasic Rules (2014)Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
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I play in several active campaigns with different DMs and run a couple myself. Across all of them, I’ve seen common house rules for ability score rolling that D&D Beyond currently can’t support. I’d like to request adding two optional, non‑default settings to help tables that use these rules.
1. Reroll 1s on individual dice
Many DMs—myself included—don’t like seeing a player’s stat roll tanked by a single 1 during manual-roll character creation. At most tables, if you roll physical dice and a die shows a 1, the DM simply says, “Reroll that one and keep the new result.”
Right now, D&D Beyond can’t reflect that. You either:
roll outside the platform and manually enter the final number, or
Abandon the entire roll block and start over.
A toggle that allows “reroll 1s” during ability score generation would let players use the built‑in roller without breaking the DM’s house rules. Ideally, this could be:
a player-side toggle for characters not linked to a campaign, and/or
a DM-controlled setting for characters created inside a campaign, so the DM can enforce the rule consistently.
This would preserve the fun of rolling while keeping things fair and transparent.
2. Reroll any total below a DM‑set threshold (commonly 10)
Another very common house rule is rerolling any total ability score that falls below a certain number—often 8, 9, or 10. This helps reduce the extreme swinginess of 4d6 drop‑lowest without abandoning rolled stats entirely.
As a player, I sometimes enjoy taking a low stat for roleplay reasons (e.g., a rogue with a 6 Wisdom who was effectively legally blind—great roleplay, but stressful for the DM). Because of cases like this, it would be helpful if:
The DM could set a minimum threshold, but
the player could optionally keep a low roll if they genuinely want it for character reasons.
This keeps the rule flexible and supports both playstyles.
Why these options matter
Right now, the only workaround is to roll manually, apply house rules yourself, do the math, and then type the final numbers into D&D Beyond. That breaks the flow and removes some of the excitement of rolling stats during character creation.
Adding these two toggles would:
support extremely common house rules
Reduce DM anxiety about unfair or unfun stat spreads
keep players inside the D&D Beyond ecosystem
Maintain transparency through the dice log
preserve the “mystique” and fun of rolling stats
These would be non-default, DM-controlled, and fully optional, so they wouldn’t affect tables that prefer RAW.
If anyone has concerns or alternative ideas, I’d love to talk through them. The goal is to find a solution that supports both DM oversight and player creativity while keeping the rolling experience fun and fair.
This is already possible with being able to enter rolled values, and being able to roll multiple arrays until constraints are satisfied... but I can see the value in adding the reroll 1s being an option, since this would reduce the need to reroll the array or to avoid the current alternatives.
Right now, I use the dice roller to roll each stat individually, and reroll the 1s immediately on a separate roll, recording all rolled dice to get a valid stat, noting each stat this way, then assign them manually.
All in all, this would be a nice QoL to include, and actually fairly simple to implement.
This feels a lot like a solution in search of a problem. Maybe it's just because in all the tables I've played at I've never seen a house rule for dropping 1's when rolling ability scores. I have seen house rules to "re-roll 1's" when rolling hit dice on level-up, but not with rolling ability scores.
The tables I've played at over the decades have used a variety of methods to generate ability scores. More recently, I've noticed standard array being more popular - I expect because it's straightforward for newer players and it guarantees a workable player character. Barely any tables I've played at have used point buy. When it comes to rolling ability scores, ages ago some tables I played at went with "roll a d20, that's your ability score" and hoo boy did that generate some interesting characters. I've also seen "roll 3d6, that's your ability score" which at least means a minimum score of 3, but can still generate some wild results. But the absolute most common method I've seen for rolling ability scores is "roll 4d6, drop the lowest" because it can lead to some interesting results but dropping the lowest roll out of 4 makes it less likely to get a terrible roll.
The flexibility of "roll 4d6, drop the lowest" already provides a solution for making sure ability score rolls probably won't end up catastrophically low. D&D Beyond even has the option to generate several sets of ability scores already. Honestly, if the idea of rolling a 1 on one of the d6's is that worrisome even with dropping the lowest and even with having the option to roll multiple sets, I'd recommend just using standard array instead of rolling.
Also, I don't know how much complexity would go into making your request work, but given it's just a house rule I don't know it makes much sense to devote resources to this when they're working on the bigger project of rebuilding the backend.
All that aside, I would be remiss if I didn't point out your post is giving strong AI vibes. Trust yourself more to formulate and communicate ideas. Folks are a lot more eager to engage with posts that feel like someone is communicating naturally and earnestly and put effort into making their argument.