Ability dice rolling

There are many DMs out there who do this differently. I was wondering what you do.

I ran it this way:

Roll 4d6 drop the lowest roll. (reroll 1s)

You could pick one roll and add it to your classes most needed score (rogue=dexterity)

then you put the rest in order of the sheet.

Example:

I am playing a rogue,

I roll: 17, 12, 14, 10, 18, 11

I put the 18 in dex

then the 17 has to go in Strength
12 in con

and so on

We roll 4d6, dropping the lowest die, 7 times, dropping the lowest score. Each player rolls 3 sets of stats this way and then chooses one set. Makes for more powerful characters in general, but they're supposed to be heroes, not farmhands.

I usually let my players re-roll constantly, no 1's or 2's (for above reason). But once the game picks up a bit more, the rolling method gets a bit more strict and less lenient.

We roll 4d6, dropping the lowest die. I use to make them roll for the ablility and call it before they roll.But thats just mean.. I like Wraithbornes idea.

Oops, forgot to mention it was 4d6 drop the lowest. I tried going organic with character creation, but nobody really liked it, and we ended up with the same classes so many times I eventually just said forget it. But now mulligans are getting so bad I'm considering just making NPC's for everybody

Wraithborne wrote:

We roll 4d6, dropping the lowest die, 7 times, dropping the lowest score. Each player rolls 3 sets of stats this way and then chooses one set. Makes for more powerful characters in general, but they're supposed to be heroes, not farmhands.

I use the same rules of creation except i do 4d6 (dropping the lowest) and 10 tries....But if you encounter a set of stats that is likeable you have to take them.(you cant roll on to try to get a better set...if you like 15's all the way across, then you are stuck with them)

Almost forgot....due to one guy back in the day who insisted on rolling on a book and anything that fell off of it didn't count, I allow one roll during the process to be declared "Clearly off my surface" and re-rolled.

I am now trying my hand at DMing

My rule is that you roll 4d6 drop the lowest and appoint in order on sheet

As many have said: 4d6, drop the lowest, arrange to fit. I allow for up to six sets to be generated, but once a set is decided upon or passed there is no going back.

I know that the six sets seems a bit absurd, but you really have to see how my rolls usually turn out. I usually have to use til the fourth set to just get multiple numbers over 12.

Yeah with the 10 rolls that i allow when i am DM, we usually get some pretty powerful initial stats. (adventurers are supposed to be powerful in my mind :) ) Really though there have been no really extremely powerful characters rolled. All depends on luck whether you roll for stats once or 20 times

Personally, I think that if most players are given the opportunity to make exceptional, but not absurd, characters they will be happy to do so. Most folks that I've seen talking about it enjoy having a reasonable chance of success across multiple, although not all, areas of action.

I remember a Vampire: The Masquerade game I was in. The Storyteller had allowed me quite a bit of free rein to describe and utilize one of my disciplines (Thaumaturgy) and I was going out of my to try not to abuse the situation.

Sure, a few players will go crazy with the unbridled power, but if there's a bunch of that, then the difficulty of the encounters gets bumped or the DM starts taking things away...and most people realize that and are willing to settle for a bit less than Absolute Power!!!

It's the reason that most adventurers/heroes would be exceptional I tend to lean a higher-point point-buy. Average is nice, but I think the key I like is everybody has the same stuff to work with. I'm just trying to think of that perfect number, 32's great, but not awesomely exceptional for the kind of games I like to run. The kind of games where you can't complain about the fact that you died, because you had plenty of good stats, but it's still challenging/difficult and less straight up combat-themed.

Wraithborne wrote:

Almost forgot....due to one guy back in the day who insisted on rolling on a book and anything that fell off of it didn't count, I allow one roll during the process to be declared "Clearly off my surface" and re-rolled.

Am I correct in guessing that he rolled one die at a time?

When I was 12 (or thereabouts) I used to do that in order to have a chance to either A) knock a low die off the book or B) knock a low die onto a hopefully better number.

While I could come up with that strategy, the possibility of generating three or four sets of stats was completely alien to me.

I Have My Players Roll 5d4 6 Times And Reroll 1's.It Gives Heroic Characters And I Can Use Good Monsters With 100% Or Higher HP's.

I Hate Playing a Weakling,So I Assume The Same For My Players...

I roll 2d20 and take the higher of the score and assign it to one score and so on.

You let scores go up to 20 without racial bonuses?

Pinky Narfanek wrote:

Wraithborne wrote:

Almost forgot....due to one guy back in the day who insisted on rolling on a book and anything that fell off of it didn't count, I allow one roll during the process to be declared "Clearly off my surface" and re-rolled.

Am I correct in guessing that he rolled one die at a time?

When I was 12 (or thereabouts) I used to do that in order to have a chance to either A) knock a low die off the book or B) knock a low die onto a hopefully better number.

While I could come up with that strategy, the possibility of generating three or four sets of stats was completely alien to me.

He did it for all of his dice rolls, be it stats, attacks, damage, whatever. I don't allow players to roll stats one die at a time, mainly because it gets on my nerves.

stats should never be rolled 1 at a time, which is my RULE! on my games let it be twilight 2000 or d&d

I like to roll 4d6 and drop the lowest, arranging in any way. The player must accept any set of scores that contain at least one 16. Sometimes the most amazing sets can be achieved this way, but always consider there's nothing free in RPG's without a fight! An above-average set should be challenged. Sitting back on 18 CON etc is plain annoying for a DM and can easily breed inter-party envy.

Over the years I’ve gotten a lot nicer when it comes to stat rolls. Now-a-days I usually have my players roll 4d6, seven times. They re-roll 1s, drop the lowest die from each roll and drop the lowest roll from the set. Then they can roll two complete sets and choose which set to use. They can assign the attributes to the abilities in any order that they want.

Yeah, it makes exceptional characters fairly often. But we’re talking about the heroes of the world who can (or will soon be able to) raise the dead or even create a massive fireball. These are not your average every-day schmucks.

But, the method that we use to for abilities also depends on the campaign. Lots of times I’ve changed it up. Here are some examples:

One time we did a campaign where the characters were average-Joes trying to become something special. For that campaign I had the players roll 3d6, six times. No re-rolls, no dropped numbers, and only rolling one set of numbers.

Another time we did a campaign where the beginning of the campaign was kind of a self-discovery adventure. The point was to create a character without a chosen class. Then they adventured and roleplayed their way to class selection. For that game they rolled 4d6, six times. They dropped the lowest die each time and then assigned their abilities in the order that they were rolled.