The official Player’s Handbook in Dungeons & Dragon’s 5e offers two suggested ways of discovering your character’s six attributes. You can either assign points from a balanced array of numbers or roll 4d6 and drop the lowest dice.
The method is to create PCs who are likely to be a bit more notable than the average farmer.
There’s a surprising number of alternative ways to create your attributes. Here’s just a few that Geek Native have heard about. Can you add any more? Share the details in the comments below.
- Roll 3d6 and assign the totals to your attributes in any order you want.
- Roll 3d6 and assign the totals to your attributes in the order they come in.
- Roll 4d6, drop the lowest in each roll and assign the totals to your attributes in the order they come in.
- Roll 4d6, drop the lowest die in each roll and do it 8 times. Assign the best 6 totals to your attributes.
- Roll 4d6, drop the lowest die and re-roll any total that is below 8. Assign the new totals to your attributes.
- Roll 4d6, drop the lowest die and swap any total below 8 with an 8. Assign the new totals to your attributes.
- Roll 4d6, drop the lowest die but reroll the entire collection if no total is above 15. Assign as required.
- Roll 4d6, drop the lowest die and reroll the lowest total until the cumulative total value is over 70 (or 75, etc).
- Roll 4d6, reroll 1s and drop the lowest die. Assign as required.
- Roll 4d6, drop the lowest dice, reroll 1s but assign the totals in order (optionally switch two stats as a final touch).
- Roll 4d6s, drop the lowest and assign as required however only one stat can be 16 or higher.
- Roll 2d6+6 and assign as required.
The variations go on but have you tried anything substantially different? Did it work?
DMs should think carefully about this phase. Character stats can set the tone for the whole campaign. If you are generous with the rerolls and minimum levels then you will tend to end up with more heroic characters. If you are strict then players might not initially be able to create the characters they had in mind. This in itself may not be a bad thing but some players may feel challenged.
Image credit: Michael E Herndone, shared under Creative Commons.
Your thoughts? Join the banter below or start us off with an insightful observation?
Had a dm do… Roll 3d6 and turn the lowest into a 6.that way its impossible to get less than an 8 or more than 18 and you tend toward some nice numbers so everyone likes their character. Then assign where you like. Backgrounds are rolled on the tables aside from the ability to veto a single outcome (chosen before rolling) on each table.
That’s a good way to do it; a heroic spread of stats and yet still random.
Feel free to use this script to automate this if you like https://github.com/JimHaughwout/roll_stats
Our group is play testing a life path character creation for Starfinder. As part of the process, we roll 3d6 straight down for each parent. Then take the best score from each ability for the character. This mitigates those super low rolls without getting too many high rolls.
That’s a good approach.
5d4+2 anything over 18 is either counted as an 18 or re-rolled. Average should be 10ish but IMHE most rolls were 12-15.
The average for this is 14.5. 1d4 average is 2.5, so 2.5×5 is 12.5, and +2 is 14.5. Those are pretty aggressive stats. You can also get basically the same with 3d6+4.
A very simple way to help get a playable character with one roll of the dice, is simply to roll 4d6 six times (taking the best 3 dice each time), then after you have rolled 6 times, add 2 to any one of those rolls whose score is 16 or less. Then subtract 2 from any other roll of your choice. This almost always gives you at least one decent score and (probably) one weakness you have to role play around. Here is a more complex way of rolling that give a high chance of at least one good score.… Read more »
Your system is actually nice. I added a variation. For each total under 10 roll a d4 and add the result to a total. The new total cannot go over 18.
I tested a few rolls and it is even more consistent.
We typically will roll 8 d20’s and drop the lowest two die. This seems to not be what is standard, I have liked this approach as its simple and nearly always gives you a really good and conversely a really bad score that you will have to roll play around.