I have ran some one-shots and had characters roll their stats on dndbeyond. Across the board their stats were too good to be true. Which is fine for a one-shot, whatever. But I'm planning on starting a campaign and want them to be able to roll their stats because thats what we like to do. So my question is , is there a way to see if the stats rolled were actually the first batch rolled or am I just going to have to babysit them?
You can roll dice in virtual tabletops, For instance, you could create a game in your chosen VTT, and have each players roll their sets of 4d6, which will show up in the chat, so you have that record of what they rolled, and how many times they rolled. That prevents them from just re-rolling sets of stats until they get an unusually good one. Then they can generate their characters using those stats.
Or, use point buy or standard array. Our table uses 4d6 (dropping lowest roll). But if you want more normalized stats and without the headache of ensuring all rolls are legitimate.
I have ran some one-shots and had characters roll their stats on dndbeyond. Across the board their stats were too good to be true. Which is fine for a one-shot, whatever. But I'm planning on starting a campaign and want them to be able to roll their stats because thats what we like to do. So my question is , is there a way to see if the stats rolled were actually the first batch rolled or am I just going to have to babysit them?
One method I've used (as a player) is this:
Have everyone roll sets of stats together at the beginning of session 0, using 4d6 drop lowest. Rather than everyone keeping the stats they rolled, they are placed unsorted into a 6x6 grid on a spreadsheet, with the DM rolling additional sets if there are fewer than six players
You then come up with a way to determine a pick order, and each player chooses a unique row, column or diagonal from the sheet and uses those as their stats. Generally everyone will be in the same range in terms of overall strength, but if someone has a particular build in mind they can target a set of stats that fits it -- i.e. a monk or barb that needs three or more good rolls, or someone that doesn't mind punting a stat or two to get an 18, etc.
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Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
With stats you pretty much either have to go with Point Buy (my preference), tolerate/overlook everyone cheating "getting super lucky on their rolls", or stand over them watching their rolls during character creation. You can just type whatever you want into DND Beyond so unless you closely monitor the dice rolls during creation AND keep track yourself, the only actual way to prevent cheating is Point Buy
I don't know if there is a way you can check if they are the first rolls. Are you playing in person? Could you possibly ask them to roll stats together in front of you to prevent the issue?
I know there are dice rolling bots in Discord which can do a random character, rolls it all in one hit.
Problem with rolling stats is that there is a likelihood of getting high (or low) rolls in every stat. But you know what you like to do!
Otherwise I would suggest running a session 0 for the usual rules outlay and premises, and for stat rolls. Say that no rolls from before the session will count, and all rolls have to be in the VTT. Run it a week or so before the session to let the players work out their characters.
If you really want to monitor the character creation then make sure each of the characters is in a D&D beyond campaign then have them each manually roll 4d6 6 times using the die rolling tool on the character sheet (not the stats rolling tool in the character creator since those don't go to the chat log). Die rolls made using the dice rolling tool are logged to the campaign chat log. The player can then take the best three die from each 4d6 and use that for their manually entered stats. You can then check that the stats rolled match the base stats they enter on their character sheet in the campaign.
The other ways are to have them roll in a virtual table top like roll 20 ... /r 4d6k3 ... and then check that these are the ones used in their beyond character sheet.
Alternatively, if you are on Discord, then a lot of D&D discords support the Avrae bot and the command !randchar can be used to roll a set of six die rolls of 4d6k3 ... if each of your players does this you can check the numbers rolled against the numbers on their character sheet. If they are in a campaign you set up, the DM can see and edit all of the character sheets.
If there is a concern about the honesty with rolls then there may be a deeper issue with your group. Discuss this with them.
The DM could roll the stats themselves, put it on a paper and have players draw from a hat, or have the player seated to the left of the PC roll stats for the PC that isn't theirs.
Ultimately, so long as each player has similar stats to the others it won't be a big deal; no one player will be overshadowing the others by much. Hell, give everyone 20's in each stat, then bump the monsters by a bit to even it out. Shift the challenge from "5" being easy to "10" or "15" being easy and move up from there.
Yes, the stats matter, but not as much as people think they do.
If there is a concern about the honesty with rolls then there may be a deeper issue with your group. Discuss this with them.
The DM could roll the stats themselves, put it on a paper and have players draw from a hat, or have the player seated to the left of the PC roll stats for the PC that isn't theirs.
Ultimately, so long as each player has similar stats to the others it won't be a big deal; no one player will be overshadowing the others by much. Hell, give everyone 20's in each stat, then bump the monsters by a bit to even it out. Shift the challenge from "5" being easy to "10" or "15" being easy and move up from there.
Yes, the stats matter, but not as much as people think they do.
Yes the stats matter and generally pretty much as much as people think they do.
A character that rolls poorly and has all 10 or below in all stats while another character rolls well and has all 16+ (with a 20 in at least one stat after species adjustments). It happens, I've seen it, it makes a big difference in play when one character has +5 to hit and +5 to damage and +5 to save DCs and skills at level 1 while another character in the same party is at +0. However, it isn't usually that bad. On the other hand, even +4 to +2 will make a difference.
The real issue with rolled stats is the extremes that can result that can make some characters less fun to play in a party (whether that is high rolls or low rolls). Personally, I like point buy to get different characters that fit the idea of the player while maintaining a balance among the characters. However, if using rolled stats, I strongly recommend using point buy as a base so that no matter what a player rolls they have a choice between the rolled stats and point buy. Point buy will at least tend to mitigate the biggest differences between a character with very lucky rolled stats and the party baseline.
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I have ran some one-shots and had characters roll their stats on dndbeyond. Across the board their stats were too good to be true. Which is fine for a one-shot, whatever. But I'm planning on starting a campaign and want them to be able to roll their stats because thats what we like to do. So my question is , is there a way to see if the stats rolled were actually the first batch rolled or am I just going to have to babysit them?
You can roll dice in virtual tabletops, For instance, you could create a game in your chosen VTT, and have each players roll their sets of 4d6, which will show up in the chat, so you have that record of what they rolled, and how many times they rolled. That prevents them from just re-rolling sets of stats until they get an unusually good one. Then they can generate their characters using those stats.
Or, use point buy or standard array. Our table uses 4d6 (dropping lowest roll). But if you want more normalized stats and without the headache of ensuring all rolls are legitimate.
One method I've used (as a player) is this:
Have everyone roll sets of stats together at the beginning of session 0, using 4d6 drop lowest. Rather than everyone keeping the stats they rolled, they are placed unsorted into a 6x6 grid on a spreadsheet, with the DM rolling additional sets if there are fewer than six players
You then come up with a way to determine a pick order, and each player chooses a unique row, column or diagonal from the sheet and uses those as their stats. Generally everyone will be in the same range in terms of overall strength, but if someone has a particular build in mind they can target a set of stats that fits it -- i.e. a monk or barb that needs three or more good rolls, or someone that doesn't mind punting a stat or two to get an 18, etc.
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
That was not what I asked but thanks.
With stats you pretty much either have to go with Point Buy (my preference), tolerate/overlook everyone
cheating"getting super lucky on their rolls", or stand over them watching their rolls during character creation. You can just type whatever you want into DND Beyond so unless you closely monitor the dice rolls during creation AND keep track yourself, the only actual way to prevent cheating is Point BuyI don't know if there is a way you can check if they are the first rolls. Are you playing in person? Could you possibly ask them to roll stats together in front of you to prevent the issue?
I know there are dice rolling bots in Discord which can do a random character, rolls it all in one hit.
Problem with rolling stats is that there is a likelihood of getting high (or low) rolls in every stat. But you know what you like to do!
Otherwise I would suggest running a session 0 for the usual rules outlay and premises, and for stat rolls. Say that no rolls from before the session will count, and all rolls have to be in the VTT. Run it a week or so before the session to let the players work out their characters.
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
DM's Guild Releases on This Thread Or check them all out on DMs Guild!
DrivethruRPG Releases on This Thread - latest release: My Character is a Werewolf: balanced rules for Lycanthropy!
I have started discussing/reviewing 3rd party D&D content on Substack - stay tuned for semi-regular posts!
Not what I asked but thanks for the response.
It kind of is I think, but to be explicit:
I think you'll have to babysit them. (see previous post for suggestion on how).
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
DM's Guild Releases on This Thread Or check them all out on DMs Guild!
DrivethruRPG Releases on This Thread - latest release: My Character is a Werewolf: balanced rules for Lycanthropy!
I have started discussing/reviewing 3rd party D&D content on Substack - stay tuned for semi-regular posts!
If you really want to monitor the character creation then make sure each of the characters is in a D&D beyond campaign then have them each manually roll 4d6 6 times using the die rolling tool on the character sheet (not the stats rolling tool in the character creator since those don't go to the chat log). Die rolls made using the dice rolling tool are logged to the campaign chat log. The player can then take the best three die from each 4d6 and use that for their manually entered stats. You can then check that the stats rolled match the base stats they enter on their character sheet in the campaign.
The other ways are to have them roll in a virtual table top like roll 20 ... /r 4d6k3 ... and then check that these are the ones used in their beyond character sheet.
Alternatively, if you are on Discord, then a lot of D&D discords support the Avrae bot and the command !randchar can be used to roll a set of six die rolls of 4d6k3 ... if each of your players does this you can check the numbers rolled against the numbers on their character sheet. If they are in a campaign you set up, the DM can see and edit all of the character sheets.
If there is a concern about the honesty with rolls then there may be a deeper issue with your group. Discuss this with them.
The DM could roll the stats themselves, put it on a paper and have players draw from a hat, or have the player seated to the left of the PC roll stats for the PC that isn't theirs.
Ultimately, so long as each player has similar stats to the others it won't be a big deal; no one player will be overshadowing the others by much. Hell, give everyone 20's in each stat, then bump the monsters by a bit to even it out. Shift the challenge from "5" being easy to "10" or "15" being easy and move up from there.
Yes, the stats matter, but not as much as people think they do.
Yes the stats matter and generally pretty much as much as people think they do.
A character that rolls poorly and has all 10 or below in all stats while another character rolls well and has all 16+ (with a 20 in at least one stat after species adjustments). It happens, I've seen it, it makes a big difference in play when one character has +5 to hit and +5 to damage and +5 to save DCs and skills at level 1 while another character in the same party is at +0. However, it isn't usually that bad. On the other hand, even +4 to +2 will make a difference.
The real issue with rolled stats is the extremes that can result that can make some characters less fun to play in a party (whether that is high rolls or low rolls). Personally, I like point buy to get different characters that fit the idea of the player while maintaining a balance among the characters. However, if using rolled stats, I strongly recommend using point buy as a base so that no matter what a player rolls they have a choice between the rolled stats and point buy. Point buy will at least tend to mitigate the biggest differences between a character with very lucky rolled stats and the party baseline.