Ability Scores

[Cuthalion]

I have a question. What do you guys use for your party's ability scores? 15 point buy? 25? 4d6b3?

Thank you. :smallsmile:

[EisenKreutzer]

We use 4d6b3. We also use the Baldurs Gate style of allowing full set rerolls until you have a set you're satisfied with.

[Fax Celestis]

Generally I do 4d6b3x8, keep best 6. Not a fan of point buy, but when we use it we use a 32 pb (18/16/14/12/10/8 array).

[Sian]

4d6b3 with 1 optional reroll, followed by a regular point buy

[squiggit]

I almost always play 25 PB and slightly more rarely 20PB. Rolled only once or twice in Pathfinder, not a fan at all.

[NightbringerGGZ]

It depends on who is GMing, but usually 20pb. One GM uses 15pb. I tend to prefer 4d6b3x7 done in a group setting. If somebody is really unlucky the group generally decides to let the person reroll.

[Fax Celestis]

My group's also toyed around with 4d6b3x7k6x3 (4d6, best 3, seven rolls, keep six, three sets) for the whole table: we roll up the three sets, and then everyone picks one of those as their array.

[CockroachTeaParty]

Depends on the game, really. Recently, I've been a fan of point-buy systems for fairness. It also helps when I'm auditing character sheets; I can see if someone's messed up the math easier.

I like to spring for the 20 point buy with normal games, or 25 if I'm doing something crazy/mythic. The 15 point buy is fine, in my experience, and I like to use it if I'm going for a bit more of a challenge, or if the characters have access to unusual advantages; for example, if I'm running Kingmaker I'm more likely to pick a 15 point buy, since characters have access to abnormal resources in the form of kingdom infrastructure, lots of time to make items/retrain, etc.

However, many of my players prefer rolling scores; there's something more engaging about it, and it helps make your character feel more unique.

[Cofniben]

I've mostly used point buy in the past. I've toyed with the idea for 3.5 to give Point Buy based on Class Tier (Multiclassing is limited by 4 levels per Tier example A Tier 6 can't multiclass into a tier 5 until Level 4) But I never got around to fleshing it out, but point buy mostly.

[Togath]

For pathfinder: 25 point buy
For 3e: 32 point buy
Never been a fan of random stats.

[Faily]

Have almost always rolled for stats. We find it more fun that way.

4d6k3. Sometimes roll twice and take the result you like best.

[BowStreetRunner]

I've been playing Dungeons and Dragons since 1984 and have played with most of the different options at some time or other. In my experience,

Point Buy is important when you have players whose personalities are prone to jealousy or whining. Sure, if that player happens to roll three 18s they will be fine - but as a DM you need to be prepared for the possibility they will roll rotten scores (even after re-rolls, etc.) and whine and complain because their character is weaker than the others. This really depends on the players.
Random Die rolls work fine when you have players with a high degree of maturity who will be content to play without complaining even if they get low rolls while everyone else has super rolls. I've seen some great role-playing and creative gamesmanship make up for poor attributes.
Pathfinder games need a lower Point Buy than an equivalent 3.5 game, since each character gets an additional +2 to one ability score in PF. If you assume they will apply this to their highest roll then that +2 becomes easily worth 6 points.
GMs who have trouble challenging their PCs (often because the PCs are better at optimizing than the GM) would do well to use systems that produce relatively lower PC ability scores. GMs who have PCs who constantly struggle might find it works better to give the PCs starting ability scores that are higher. This can be a subtle way to balance a difference between playing ability between the two sides.
Even if you are using random die rolls it is still possible to produce fairly consistent, average values without needing to resort to straight-out point buys. My favorite for this is 5d6, dropping the high and low die in each roll. You would be amazed at how much more regular the range of numbers becomes. While 18s are still possible, the frequency of several is very rare.
The reverse is possible as well, producing a wider range of numbers for those who want more interesting outcomes. I've seen (but not used myself) a game where you roll 4d6, dropping the high die for three attributes and dropping the low die for the other three.

[Ehcks]

My group was 5d6b3, with rerolls subject to DM approval. Mostly for me, because I couldn't roll abilities.

"Nine, ten, eight-"
"That's terrible. Start over."
"Twelve, seven, five-"
"No. You're doing something wrong. Try again."
"Three."
"Give me those!"

[Fax Celestis]

I do that too. On 5d6b3, three sets, my best set for my last character was 17, 14, 12, 12, 11, 5.

[Slipperychicken]

4d6b3 (we did x7 a few times) or 15 point buy, generally.

[Oko and Qailee]

In person? 4d6b3.... for some reason in my RL campaign (I'm the DM) all my part rolled really well, the lowest of them rolled the equivalent of a 35 pt buy.

PBP? 32 pt buy, when people are proposing sheets it's easier to just have them do 32 than spam the recruitment thread.

[DrGonzo]

We use 4d6b3, rerolling everything under 9.

[Gemini476]

Personally I prefer point-buy. Random rolling should be left to systems where it either takes a really short time to make a new character, or the things rolled for don't matter all that much. So roll randomly in Basic or AD&D, point-buy in 3E onwards since character death could make you a nonparticipant for the rest of the session.

But then I'm personally against player elimination in general - somewhat eurogamey, I suppose.

[Genth]

When I'm DMing, 4d6b3, then I arbitrarily give them one 18 and one 8. And they are not allowed to put the 8 in a score where they have a racial bonus. But that's quite specific to the games I like to DM, in games when I'm a player, usually just two sets of 4d6b3.

I'd like to experiment with the 30d6 method, where you roll 30d6 as a pool, and you can't put any more than 3 into one score.

[Vhaidara]

4d6b3 into point buy, min 25, is the standard, but I'm planning on switching over to: pick your scores, and justify them to me.

[prufock]

I haven't actually played a Pathfinder game yet, though I've incorporated some material into 3.5. We vary our ability score generation, depending on who is DMing or just our whims. I normally prefer point buy for the games I run - 25 for lower-powered games, 32 for higher-powered games. The group's other DM prefers rolled stats, sometimes allowing us to reroll all 1s.

[Kudaku]

We've used 4d6d1 but were unhappy with how large the differences were between players - had a character using a pb 20-equivalent and another character using a pb 43-equivalent in the same game. Needless to say the first player was feeling a little over-shadowed.

We've used GM-made arrays for the players to choose from. This is probably my least favorite method - players enjoying rolling or picking their own stats and this sucks the fun out of that.

We've used PB 20-28, which has the upside of being fair but the downside of creating very similar builds. I prefer PB to 4d6d1, but I get a little tired of every offensive caster ever having a 20 in his casting attribute.

In my latest game we tried a hybrid - 4d6d1, end result has to be between 15 and 25 pb, and resulting stat arrays are shared between the party. That means that Player A can copy player B's stat array (and rearrange it to suit him) and vice versa. It's a little fiddly to get started, but it has the upside that everyone's equally invested when everyone rolls ability scores. It's intrinsically more fair than traditional rolling since everyone can use each other's stats, and it creates more organic characters than pointbuy since you can't finely tailor your PB.

In the future we'll either continue to use the hybrid or go back to PB with a lower max attribute cap.

[Jgosse]

I use ability ranges when I DM. so people can choose which ever set they want.

18,16,14,14,12 or 18,16,16,12,12,10 or 16,16,16,14,12,10 and so on.

[Divide by Zero]

In my 4E game, we use 4d6, and you can switch to standard point buy if you don't like your rolls.

[waccio]

Usually 4d6b3.
Right now, im running a PF game, with a group of average players (no optimization or wathever) who tend to have troubles in teamfighting, so i let them roll 4d6b3 rerolling ones. Quite above avrg results with 2 outstandings (16+)