Stats give you a guage of how good or not your character is. And wether or not someone else is better or worse. Handy in any sorts of contests or to determine limits like how far one can jump, etc.

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;1016837Will used to complain about that and I didn't really understand until I started playing Pathfinder; if it's not one of your strong points, there's no point in even trying to do something.  If my fighter Hassan, with a CHA of 8, ever gets trapped alone in a place where he needs to talk his way out, he's hosed.  Not "it will be difficult for him" -- he's just toast.  Now, played for COMEDY that could be wonderful beyond belief, but if not, he is TOTALLY helpless in that situation.

It wasn't as bad in Star Wars d20 because you could burn Force points to get a bonus.  And I did, like a sumbitch.

5e has nearly all the target numbers in the 10-20 range (eg saving vs a 20th level wizard with INT 20's spell is DC 19, saving vs a 1st level wizard with INT 13's spell is DC 11). I think this works much much better than the 3e approach, it means almost everyone has a chance to make the roll. Although I do find for Conanesque sword & sorcery it works even better if PCs add their Proficiency to all saves, so that even a WIS 9 level 20 PC rolls +5 on the wisdom save.

Not only are the targets lower, but it explicitly says the DM should call for a roll when he desires a random result. If the fighter has got to talk his way out of a place, and you deliver some good banter, you're not rolling! You were creative and entertained the table, why would I want to fuck that up with a bad rolll?

Quote from: Omega;1016919Stats give you a guage of how good or not your character is. And wether or not someone else is better or worse. Handy in any sorts of contests or to determine limits like how far one can jump, etc.

If you have skills you don't need stats.  If you don't have skills then stats are skills, just badly thought out ones that bunch a whole of arbitrary things together (Unless you're not going to roll - at which point you don't need stats). If you want certain classes to be better at certain things than use class as the mechanism - directly.

Typical D&D players, trying to win the game as usual.

Some of us like rolling up stats to see what kind of character it suggests to us.

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;1017031Some of us like rolling up stats to see what kind of character it suggests to us.

I find it works much better than having a player with preconceived notions of what his character will be. That tends to be a red flag that our ideas of a fun game will be incompatible, plus who wants a disgruntled player who didn't get to be the super hero of his mind's eye or, worse, a weak ref who caves to whiners.

Quote from: TJS;1016818Well presumably it matters if the 3-18 bell curve actually represents something, such as the general spread of ability in the human population.

I'm not particularly concerned with the stat generation system informing anything about the general human population. 99% of the 'people' in a game world have no need of stats. I do agree that I'd prefer a normal distribution simply because that could theoretically tell me how 'rare and special' one's character is. Thing is, once you include more than one normally distributed thing (2+ stats), or a 'roll up 3 character sheets and play the one you want,' nearly no one is going to able to (or at least bother to, as the number of threads with all of us lining up to explain how much stats education we've each forgotten indicates) suss out what a given stat distribution actually means.

I'd have preferred stats stayed at 3d6, and just given a base +1-2 to whatever the stats modified if the power level needs to be raised, but I understand why letting players have bigger numbers (even if the effect was the same) is a good marketing idea, even if it screws up a mathematically elegant distribution.

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;101681910d6, throw out the bottom 2, the top 2, and 3 in the middle.

Honestly, if somebody actually said they wanted to use some of these methods in my game I'd say "Fuck it, just put down any damn numbers you want if it's that fucking important to you."

Of course, I think the "stat bonus adds into every godsdamned thing you do" is one of the stupidest decisions in later editions of D&D precisely for the reason it leads to pants-shitting over stats.

Quote from: TJS;1016864I think if I was writing my own version of D&D I'd probably just remove stats entirely.

I'm sick to death of them, no matter how they're derived.  You want your character to be smart?  Play him like he's smart.

I think it's just on more choice with regards to how you want to structure a game. The way OD&D (w/o GH) did it, or we did in my first BECMI games (stats mostly good for the XP bonus and not much else, mechanically) helps solidify the character level as the primary arbiter of mechanical ability. Other game systems, particularly level-less ones like GURPS or Champions/Hero System, having meaningful stats that inform a highly-important skill system make a lot of sense. That's a long winded way of saying 'all ways are fine, just don't be surprised by what your method incentivizes.'

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;1017031Some of us like rolling up stats to see what kind of character it suggests to us.

I enjoy the B/X recommendation where rolling vs. stats is an ad-hoc 'skill' resolution mechanic, but overall the attributes don't inform things like combat all that much (at least compared to OD&D+GH, AD&D, and 3e+).

Quote from: Shawn Driscoll;1017030Typical D&D players, trying to win the game as usual.

There is no right or wrong way to play the game if the group is having fun. Go wrongbadfun on some other thread.

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;1017031Some of us like rolling up stats to see what kind of character it suggests to us.

I loved that too, the rolling in order and making it work, seemed more real.  4D6 drop one, rolled in order, but can switch one.   Another way we did it was 3D6 nine times, keep six and arrange as wish.

My method is to roll 3d6 and keep only the 6's.

Last time I started a session of D&D Basic, I started the game with the players in Zanzer's Dungeon... I told them they had been imprisoned and working the salt mines for three months and had already somewhat formed a bond of survival... Then I asked each of them to share why they'd been imprisoned... That went pretty well. Full credit to them.

Then I asked each of them to roll 3d6 in front of them and leave it on the table. I also rolled 3d6. Because all the players had certain classes they each wanted to play I let them decide among themselves to trade attributes or swap with what I had rolled. With their attributes being rolled together, I told them this process represented them working together to survive under the hard conditions of being underfed, dealing with their fellow prisoners, and the harsh work conditions of the mine. This started the game off right for us... And the game has just ended after 2+ years; second longest campaign I've ran.

I settle with 4d6 drop lowest. You end up with a fun character with almost always still some low stats for an interesting character.

I personally think 5d6 drop lowest will end up with some very high stats, especially after you add race bonuses etc.
I kind of agree if you want this, then as a DM, you might as well let players choose stat values and veto the results.

I'd leave it as is, straight down the line, (STR 9, DEX 14, CON 14, INT 15, WIS 16, CHA 17,) choose Vuman, up INT & CHA, pick up Grappler feat & Sleight of Hand skill, choose Fighter class, choose Soldier background for Athletics & Intimidate skills (the redundancy in Fighter skills, if selected, allows 2 open-ended bkrd skill selections for whatever I want,) and walk around in guard-standard issue padded armor wielding nets and clubs, maybe a blowgun. I'd take Perception & Persuasion for my free-choice bkrd skills.

Then I'll apply for police officer or something. This way I can wrestle suspected perps into restrained submissions, but not that well. I'll constantly Intimidate by yelling out, "Respect Mah Authoritah!" as they resist. More importantly I can plant stuff on them during with Sleight of Hand. Finally my Persuasion comes in to make sure my version of the story remains the prevailing one.

I'd probably level into Battlemaster, because I'd want to use my blowgun or net to trigger Battlemaster maneuvers that grant extra SD damage. Doesn't matter much about the ranged property, I can just improvise weapon them as needed. If possible, I want to net them and then use my club on them.

She's a LEO you'd like to have a beer with!

3d6 straight, or GTFO.

We have used straight 3D6, 4D6 best 3, 5D6 best three and various other combinations.

My preferred method for RQ/D100 games now is 4D6 best 3 (or 3d6 best 2 + 6 for INT/SIZ) rolled a number of times, then pick which roll you want for which characteristic.

It avoids the crappy situation where you rolled STR 5 and want to play a fighter.