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Vagnarok
2008-12-19, 12:38 AM
Ok, so I'm beginning a new campaign, and one of my players wants to play a character with awesome stats. I think his pally has an 18 str, 13 dex 14 con, 10 int 14 wis and 17 cha and it's level one. Before I knew that he rolled this char, I made all of my other players do 32 point buy, and they're really excited about their builds.

My dilemma: Do I make the Pally take his awesome stats down a notch, give the other characters a boost, or just let them deal with it?

Limos
2008-12-19, 12:46 AM
Just have him do 32 point buy. Tell him you'll throw a fancy sword his way if he agrees.

If he won't agree to change have him get raped by a platoon of goblins and then politely ask if he would like to make a new pally with 32 point buy.

Flickerdart
2008-12-19, 12:49 AM
Paladins...aren't that powerful. If everyone else is doing spellcasters or Tome of Battle, or pretty much anything, you're fine.

If he gets out of hand, he can always fall.

Kroy
2008-12-19, 12:50 AM
My player once tried to get a pally with three 18s, a 17, a 16, and a 14. He claimed he rolled it when I wasn't looking.

Edwin
2008-12-19, 12:51 AM
Or, ask the other players if they would like to roll their stats. That way, you can tell them that the paladin did that, thus explaining his high stat array, and you won't piss off the player of the paladin by removing said stat array.

Perhabs, to account for the possibility of poor rolls, you could tell them to roll two arrays, and pick the better, even. I personally, as a player, would much rather roll my stats, than use point-buy. That's just me, though.

Tequila Sunrise
2008-12-19, 01:00 AM
I'd have the paladin player restat using point buy. If it was your mistake that he didn't know the group is using point buy, you can apologize, but that is what the group is using. If he rolled before getting all the info from you, it's his fault. Btw, did he roll in front of you?

As an equally fair alternative, you could simply allow everyone to roll one set of stats and then let everyone choose which set to use. (Likely, they'll all end up using his stats.)

TS

monty
2008-12-19, 01:08 AM
Paladins really aren't that strong anyway. You'll probably be able to manage.

To make it fair, let everyone else roll their own stats, and take either that or the point buy.

Proven_Paradox
2008-12-19, 01:29 AM
You're the DM. If you want the players to use point buy, that's what they need to do.

Whatever you do, I recommend you remain consistent; if you make an exception for one player the other players may take issue. I would tell him to re-do his character using point buy (and also try to convince him to play a crusader, but that's another matter), especially since the other players all have builds done and seem pleased with them.

Note that if you make the other players roll, and they sudden find themselves with stats that aren't workable with their original concept (a fighter with 18 13 13 12 11 10 or a wizard with 14 14 14 13 13 8 for example) they are going to be bitter. At least, I would be--perhaps your players are different of course, but it strikes me as a bad idea to change what the majority has already done here.

Vagnarok
2008-12-19, 10:34 AM
Thanks for the tips.

Tequila Sunrise: yeah, he didn't roll in front of me, but he wouldn't cheat. We're all pretty honest folk when it comes to gaming. We don't see the point to cheating really


Anyway, I think I'm going to ask him how he would feel about doing a 32 point buy, and I'll probably end up giving everyone else the option to roll for their stats if they want to.

I'm trying to run a low power campaign, but I think I can get around high PC stats by subtly boosting ac, hp and checks of my monsters without giving anyone any good magic items.

Also, due to the homebrew that I'm running, Pally's are quite good, considering that the only caster I'm allowing the PCs to take levels in at first is Cleric. No wizards/sorcerers here!



Edit: Also, Limos, we joined on almost the same day and have nearly the same post count! Crazy

Hal
2008-12-19, 10:46 AM
I personally, as a player, would much rather roll my stats, than use point-buy. That's just me, though.

No way man. I'm terrible when it comes to rolling stats. With point buy, you're guaranteed that you can get at least one good stat. My tendency with rolling is to have my highest stat somewhere ~14-15, and my lowest stat ~5. The heroic feel is crushed when your best stat has only a +2 modifier and your worst stat is so crippling that there are shambling mounds looking at your Charisma score and thinking, "Dang, what's this guy's problem?"

Tokiko Mima
2008-12-19, 11:08 AM
Ok, so I'm beginning a new campaign, and one of my players wants to play a character with awesome stats. I think his pally has an 18 str, 13 dex 14 con, 10 int 14 wis and 17 cha and it's level one. Before I knew that he rolled this char, I made all of my other players do 32 point buy, and they're really excited about their builds.

My dilemma: Do I make the Pally take his awesome stats down a notch, give the other characters a boost, or just let them deal with it?

You might want to ask the other players how they feel about it. That way it takes the pressure off you and the Pally. Plus, a Paladin is something that a group should agree to and have knowledge of beforehand anyway, because they tend to step on the toes of darker themed characters.

Those are is some pretty unlikely rolls, though. How about you get that guy to buy you a lotto ticket, or go to the race tracks? I'm assuming he arranged them at the very least instead of 'roll in order,' used 5d6 drop two lowest and likely had more than 6 stats.

If I can plug my favorite system, I recommend a system of rolling 3d6 six times counting the lowest die result as a 6 and then arranging as necessary. You get a score of at least 8, with 14's being pretty common, and high/low rolls likely on at least one roll.

Noneoyabizzness
2008-12-19, 11:09 AM
I agree with edwin about the offer the other players a chance to roll. just let them keep which they prefer. (hedging them and giving them somethign of an advantage)

TheCountAlucard
2008-12-19, 11:40 AM
My suggestion? Ask your group about it. It could be that they'd rather get a chance to roll their stats, or they could want him to switch to point-buy, or they could even just accept the fact that he rolled really well, yet not want to change their own characters, but you're not going to know until you ask them.

By the way, humorously enough, one of my own players rolled what was, in my opinion, pretty well. He's playing a Human Ranger with a 15, 17, 15, 15, 15, and a 14. I'm not the least bit suspicious, because not only was I there for his character creation, I was the one who rolled the dice. :smallsmile:

KeresM
2008-12-19, 12:16 PM
Whatever you decide, make sure the same rules apply to all group members. If he gets to roll, allow them the option to roll. Otherwise, there will be hard feelings.

AngelOmnipotent
2008-12-19, 12:49 PM
Ask him to do a 32 point buy and if he makes a fuss then just let him have his character - it's better to slightly tweak encounters to make him use his stats rather than have a miserable player that could ruin the game for everyone else.

The main mistake is letting them have a full plate or a suit of heavy armor from the start of an adventure. At level one, even a paladin or a fighter, I would only let them have a Breastplate if they were -really- lucky rolling high on a d%. They wouldn't be able to buy a suit of full plate with starting gold anyway.

Sure he might have an awesome strength and charisma, but with an AC of 16 and a base initiative of +1 he's going to be going last each round. Unless he gets a surprise round or rolls high every goblin and kobold is going to go before him. Besides he's a Paladin with his LG goodness - an evil monster would naturally target him out of hatred unless a caster opts to walk up front :smallbiggrin:. Basic monsters don't tend to be smart enough to work out tactics while fighting, and just hit the thing they don't like the look of.

Just find yourself lucky that he didn't choose a Deep Gnome Monk who proceeded to roll 18, 18, 16, 16, 14, 12 like one person in my campaign did. Having a level 1 character with an AC of 25 while naked was tough to deal with, but considering I was only letting the people roll 3d6 to determine their stats I had to let him keep it out of sheer luck.

Devils_Advocate
2008-12-19, 01:15 PM
A player who makes a build without first asking the DM for character creation guidelines should fully expect that he may have to make a new build if the DM is using different character creation guidelines than the ones he used to make his character.

Seer
2008-12-19, 10:27 PM
You're the man. Make him use the point-buy.

As a player, he should have asked you before doing it, not after.

AslanCross
2008-12-19, 11:18 PM
My player once tried to get a pally with three 18s, a 17, a 16, and a 14. He claimed he rolled it when I wasn't looking.

My fellow party members in the Eberron game I'm in claim they rolled their stats. <_< The changeling rogue has 2 18s, at least 1 16, and no 0 modifiers or negatives. My Warforged warblade used 4d6 drop 1 (the rest used 5d6 drop 2), and my scores are Str 18 (+1 from level 4 stat increase), Dex 13, Con 18 (+2 from racial modifier), Int 15, Wis 10 (-2 from race), Cha 9 (-2 from race). I still kill stuff a lot better and make better skill checks than he does, for some reason.

I learned later that the rogue's player "rolls when he's bored" and archives the results "somewhere" and just picks from those. I'm surprised our DM didn't set him on fire.