Too high of a distribution?

[Tvtyrant]

I'm thinking of running an 18, 16, 14, 12, 12, 10 distribution for an upcoming E6 game. My reasoning is that point buy tends to lead to heavily min-maxed stats, while rolled stats lead to slanted group balance. This way there are two good stats, three okay stats and a bad stat.

[Jack_Simth]

I'm thinking of running an 18, 16, 14, 12, 12, 10 distribution for an upcoming E6 game. My reasoning is that point buy tends to lead to heavily min-maxed stats, while rolled stats lead to slanted group balance. This way there are two good stats, three okay stats and a bad stat.

Decent enough. Note that giving everyone the same array isn't going to cause an imbalance of power between players of itself (other choices such as feats, classes, spells, skills, and so on might, however), regardless of what that array is.

[Flickerdart]

Be prepared to see a lot of 16s in Constitution. Other than that, seems all right, I personally would make it 18, 16, 14, 14, 12, 10 simply because anyone who needs more than three good ability scores is probably so lousy that a fourth won't unbalance anything.

[Tvtyrant]

Decent enough. Note that giving everyone the same array isn't going to cause an imbalance of power between players of itself (other choices such as feats, classes, spells, skills, and so on might, however), regardless of what that array is.
My thinking was more about how a SAD caster can get more out of two 18s (casting, con) than a mundane can out of anything. This way everyone has to spread out a little more, and there are more points for low level abilities. Am I making any sense? Probably not...


Be prepared to see a lot of 16s in Constitution. Other than that, seems all right, I personally would make it 18, 16, 14, 14, 12, 10 simply because anyone who needs more than three good ability scores is probably so lousy that a fourth won't unbalance anything.

I think I will do just that.

[Hylas]

More odd numbers!

[Tvtyrant]

More odd numbers!

Like wearing pajamas to work odd, or Senior Cardgage odd?
http://i.ytimg.com/vi/87T6jIK9QZg/0.jpg

[Jack_Simth]

My thinking was more about how a SAD caster can get more out of two 18s (casting, con) than a mundane can out of anything. This way everyone has to spread out a little more, and there are more points for low level abilities. Am I making any sense? Probably not...
As I said: Of itself, the stat array is not going to cause an imbalance in the party. Other decisions - like class selection - will, but the stat array won't.


Like wearing pajamas to work odd, or Senior Cardgage odd?
Odd as in 'not even'. So something like
18, 17, 15, 13, 11, 9
... although that'd just be used by casters starting at middle aged to become something like
8, 14, 16, 19, 14, 12
or some such.

[Mr. Zolrane]

I'm thinking of running an 18, 16, 14, 12, 12, 10 distribution for an upcoming E6 game. My reasoning is that point buy tends to lead to heavily min-maxed stats, while rolled stats lead to slanted group balance. This way there are two good stats, three okay stats and a bad stat.

So far a lot of the posters seem to be ignoring the fact that this is an E6 game, the main draw of which is that it's generally more balanced. By 6th level (whether we're talking about 3.5 or PF) we're beginning to see where the full casters gain an edge over the sharp stick enthusiasts, but it's not so overwhelming that the barbarian decides to go make a sandwich while the wizard blinks everything to death. MAD vs SAD is still a problem at those levels but not as much. Even with easy access to high CON the wizard is still probably not going to take more than 2 or 3 hits before he goes squish (and again, you're still at a level where a wizard getting hit is plausible). I think you'll be fine. I have no direct experience with E6, but based on my understanding I think you're good.

I will throw my hat into the ring for an odd number or two on that array. Honestly, it's kind of good if only for the fact that the players have a stat point to assign at 4th level that they otherwise wouldn't get any use out of.

[The Boz]

18, 16, 15, 13, 12, 9. There, two odd numbers, an 18, and one dump stat. I've always found that the dump stat says more about the character than the primary stat.