What do you think of this rolling method?

[Calthropstu]

4d6 drop lowest no rerolls.

Roll 6 times, placing each roll in a column making a grid format. No moving the numbers around, place them 1-6 as rolled.

Once done you will have 6 columns of 6 numbers. You can take any row or column as your stats, even the 2 diagonal ones. It turns 6 rolls into 14 sets.

[ryu]

Eh. I've always been the type of player that prefers certainty, or near certainty if such is not available. For clarification once you've picked your six numbers you can still dictate which goes to which stat correct? That would make this useful for someone who wanted a large number of good stats, but no reliably great ones. For anyone who more or less has a primary stat to pump as high as possible, a secondary to not neglect too much, and a tertiary which requires token effort, I'd always pick the standard point buy. This is because the dominant strategy of play is usually to shift deciding factors into sure things with tactical trade offs, as such is more conducive to planning.

[Firechanter]

We did this in an AD&D game couple years ago. 3d6 no less, very classic. With the extra twist that the players took turns rolling up the numbers, then each array was available to everyone, also multiple times.
Effectively it turned out that only 2 of these arrays were any good, so all of our characters had one of these two.

In a later 5E game, the same DM offered us the same method again, this time with 4d6dl, but chickened out when we rolled up an insanely good array (no stat below 15 or so), and relegated us to point buy. XD

[Calthropstu]

Eh. I've always been the type of player that prefers certainty, or near certainty if such is not available. For clarification once you've picked your six numbers you can still dictate which goes to which stat correct? That would make this useful for someone who wanted a large number of good stats, but no reliably great ones. For anyone who more or less has a primary stat to pump as high as possible, a secondary to not neglect too much, and a tertiary which requires token effort, I'd always pick the standard point buy. This is because the dominant strategy of play is usually to shift deciding factors into sure things with tactical trade offs, as such is more conducive to planning.

See, that is for roll playing. I want my quirky low charisma wizard with bad wis. "Hey everyone, WATCH THIS!" *fire breath in the tavern* oops...

[ArgentumRegio]

4d6 drop lowest no rerolls.

Roll 6 times, placing each roll in a column making a grid format. No moving the numbers around, place them 1-6 as rolled.

Once done you will have 6 columns of 6 numbers. You can take any row or column as your stats, even the 2 diagonal ones. It turns 6 rolls into 14 sets.

I'd have to run some spreadsheets to be sure but it seems you'd be assured of some choice roll-sets. Interesting concept though.

[Coretron03]

See, that is for roll playing. I want my quirky low charisma wizard with bad wis. "Hey everyone, WATCH THIS!" *fire breath in the tavern* oops...

Minor nitpick, wizards can't cast fire breath. I also wonder how a caster that thinks its a good idea to cast a insanely lethal (to average people) in a crowded area is still alive. Low cha and wis isn't a good excuse to nuke people while the wizard that has at least 15 int and isn't what Ii would call good roleplay.

I don't see how your rolling system enables roleplaying more then something such as pointbuy though and Ryu pointed out mechanical stuff, not which one is better for roleplay which you didn't ask for.

The rolling method its self seems ok though, as good as regular rolling.

[ryu]

See, that is for roll playing. I want my quirky low charisma wizard with bad wis. "Hey everyone, WATCH THIS!" *fire breath in the tavern* oops...

Except your average pointbuy wizard has both of those at or or near 8 due to not being stats he cares about anyway? And 8 is a bit below average, not raging special needs person incapable of understanding basic concepts? And, no, you're question pretty clearly pertained to roll playing considering that's directly the thing you're advocating over not rolling thing.

[CasualViking]

If you're not doing the character funnel - throwing characters into the meatgrinder, replacing them in five minutes when they die, and only getting invested in those who survive and rise - random rolls are a terrible idea.

[Crake]

See, that is for roll playing. I want my quirky low charisma wizard with bad wis. "Hey everyone, WATCH THIS!" *fire breath in the tavern* oops...

I sense a storm on the wind....

[johnbragg]

IT's not intuitive exactly what this method is supposed to achieve.

The most popular methods are fairly transparent as to what they (try to) do.
Point buy equalizes power among players.
3d6 and suck it anchors PCs to the mundane world around them
4d6 to taste achieves a balance of randomness and heroic power.
Arrays (elite array, commoner array, my own pet Heroic Array 18 16 14 12 10 8) are very quick and easy for beginners to manipulate.

[Manyasone]

Our group has always rolled 5d4 and at the end you are allowed to reroll one die

[Jopustopin]

Point Buy is great... but the stats are predictable and somewhat boring. If you have a low point buy it basically punishes MAD characters and rewards the wizard and druid. Bad method.
Rolling is alright... until you roll the stats for a wizard and want to play a swordsage.

Introducing the best of all rolling methods, The Team Roll Method!

All players roll 4d6b3 and the entire PC team's rolls go into a pool (so with 5 players there will be 30 scores all mixed up). The players themselves deliberate on who gets what stats. The MAD character will end up with several above average scores, the SAD character will get the highest ability score. Oh, and it's fun. Players love this method.

[lylsyly]

The group I play/dm in uses 10+1d8 and usually get good characters. :smallbiggrin:

I just did a quick test and discounting any row, column, or diagonal with a score less than 8 left me with;

8, 12, 10, 18, 14, 12 column
13, 14, 10, 16, 13, 13 column
8, 13, 13, 10, 10, 10 row
12, 9, 13, 18, 13, 17 diagonal

3 sets easily playable with one not so hot. Out of (effectively) 14 rolls ... meh. Of course, I am somewhat biased given my groups usual method.

[Calthropstu]

The group I play/dm in uses 10+1d8 and usually get good characters. :smallbiggrin:

I just did a quick test and discounting any row, column, or diagonal with a score less than 8 left me with;

8, 12, 10, 18, 14, 12 column
13, 14, 10, 16, 13, 13 column
8, 13, 13, 10, 10, 10 row
12, 9, 13, 18, 13, 17 diagonal

3 sets easily playable with one not so hot. Out of (effectively) 14 rolls ... meh. Of course, I am somewhat biased given my groups usual method.

Oh come on, play that 3. You know you want to!

[GrayDeath]

When rolling we usually use 2d6+6, roll 7 times, drop lowest roll.
Gives good to great stats, still a bit random, never got any complains.

The OP`s method, while a bit frontloaded, seems a great alternative for MAD Groups though....