So I just started a campaign with 5 players. We did the normal 4d6 drop the lowest and everyone had pretty decent characters. When everyone showed up for day one however, I threw a curveball and gave everyone the option. Droll 21d6, drop the 3 lowest and if you roll under 60 total, you reroll everything. Now you have 18 dice where you can arrange them in any order you want to make 6 stats. 3 of the 5 chose to do this. So now we have a Warlock with 18 Cha, but only 5 dex and 6 STR. We have an Arcane trickster rogue with 18 dex and 18 int but very low wis and cha, and a wizard with 18int and something like 7 con and 6 str. This really gave people the option to fully control the flaws and strengths of their characters, while still having the element of luck that people love so much. The 2 that choose not to do it had rolled very well on their initial stat rolls and didn't want to risk losing it, but they had fun watching the choices people made while trying to arrange 18 dice into 6 stats.
What we found with this is overall, these players have a few points lower stats then the people who did 4d6, because obviously rolling 24d6 and dropping the 6 lowest has a chance to be far more average. But they much more enjoyed being able to control arranging their stats so they had some very good strengths and nice roleplaying weaknesses. It is basically a way to do "point buying" while still letting players feel like their dice rolling matters.
I did a few searches on google, but couldn't find any mention of this stat system. I don't think it's going to be unique to me, but I still wanted to share if anyone else is curious about doing it. I think from now on, I'll be moving forward with this method.
It's kind of a point buy system - save that the amount of points is variable ( depending on the Player rolls ), and points have to be allocated in 1-die-roll-lots rather than completely fluidly.
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The people I am dming for like the randomness that rolling comes with, but still wanted a little more control over stats. So this was my solution. I'm not worried about balance, as everyone playing has no issues feeling under or over powered.
It's an interesting approach! And if it works for you guys, then great, and thanks for sharing!
As others have said, I think for me, this is more an illusion that they're randomly rolling, rather than just point buying, with so many die to allocate exactly as they wish. But I guess it's exactly what you set out to do.
So is this method to roll 21d6 or 24d6? You mention both in the post.
Also, the more dice you added / dropped the lowest for, the higher the average would be. Standard Deviation would also decrease, but because you are dropping the lowest, you are further reducing the chance of getting lower values (and effectively increasing the chance of getting a higher value).
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So I just started a campaign with 5 players. We did the normal 4d6 drop the lowest and everyone had pretty decent characters. When everyone showed up for day one however, I threw a curveball and gave everyone the option. Droll 21d6, drop the 3 lowest and if you roll under 60 total, you reroll everything. Now you have 18 dice where you can arrange them in any order you want to make 6 stats. 3 of the 5 chose to do this. So now we have a Warlock with 18 Cha, but only 5 dex and 6 STR. We have an Arcane trickster rogue with 18 dex and 18 int but very low wis and cha, and a wizard with 18int and something like 7 con and 6 str. This really gave people the option to fully control the flaws and strengths of their characters, while still having the element of luck that people love so much. The 2 that choose not to do it had rolled very well on their initial stat rolls and didn't want to risk losing it, but they had fun watching the choices people made while trying to arrange 18 dice into 6 stats.
What we found with this is overall, these players have a few points lower stats then the people who did 4d6, because obviously rolling 24d6 and dropping the 6 lowest has a chance to be far more average. But they much more enjoyed being able to control arranging their stats so they had some very good strengths and nice roleplaying weaknesses. It is basically a way to do "point buying" while still letting players feel like their dice rolling matters.
I did a few searches on google, but couldn't find any mention of this stat system. I don't think it's going to be unique to me, but I still wanted to share if anyone else is curious about doing it. I think from now on, I'll be moving forward with this method.
Why not just do Point Buy? This seems overly complicated imo
DM: The Cult of the Crystal Spider (Currently playing Storm King's Thunder)
Player: The Knuckles of Arth - Lemire (Tiefling Rogue 5/Fighter 1)
It's kind of a point buy system - save that the amount of points is variable ( depending on the Player rolls ), and points have to be allocated in 1-die-roll-lots rather than completely fluidly.
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
The people I am dming for like the randomness that rolling comes with, but still wanted a little more control over stats. So this was my solution. I'm not worried about balance, as everyone playing has no issues feeling under or over powered.
It's an interesting approach! And if it works for you guys, then great, and thanks for sharing!
As others have said, I think for me, this is more an illusion that they're randomly rolling, rather than just point buying, with so many die to allocate exactly as they wish. But I guess it's exactly what you set out to do.
Basically nailed it. It's point buying, with a hint of randomness and a little more swing in min/max stats essentially.
So is this method to roll 21d6 or 24d6? You mention both in the post.
Also, the more dice you added / dropped the lowest for, the higher the average would be. Standard Deviation would also decrease, but because you are dropping the lowest, you are further reducing the chance of getting lower values (and effectively increasing the chance of getting a higher value).