Stat Generation

[Chalkarts]

I'm about to start DMing a new Eberron campaign.
When I get the group together for session Zero I was thinking of doing stats a little odd to build group cohesion a bit. Each player rolls their stats in turn for all to see, the first set of 6 numbers that you roll that average (12 or 14?) is your set of stats. This could allow for some fun dump statting while still making sure no one completely gets the shaft.

The question is what average should I shoot for? i was thinking 12 or 14, does that seem right for making an average livable character?

[Sigreid]

I think you'd be better off polling your players to see how they feel about a system guaranteed to give them an average stat of 12-14 with a possibility of one or two stats being really high at the expense of 1 or 2 stats being really low. Other options might be the to start with something like an 8 in each stat and add a 1d6 or maybe a 7 and add 2d4 to get some variability but stats bound within a range.

[MoiMagnus]

The question is what average should I shoot for? i was thinking 12 or 14, does that seem right for making an average livable character?

IMO, if the goal is to have high enough stat to be interesting, I'd say that a good rule of thumb is being able to reach at least +3/+2/+1 (on three of the ability scores) after racial ASI is a good spot. So before racial ASI, that means "at least one 14, one 13 and one 12" as a bare minimum.

Averaging at 12 should give this result quite consistently.
Averaging at 14 should be fine too if you want for every player to be "lucky".

[diplomancer]

That's a bit of a weird doubt, to me. If you're in doubt between 12 and 14 as an average, just make it 13 :)

[Grod_The_Giant]

I think you'd be better off polling your players to see how they feel
This.

One good technique for making sure no-one gets screwed when rolling stats is to have each player roll a set of stats normally, but give them the option to replace the result with another player's rolls. It helps balance out good rolls, bad rolls, and rolls that don't fit the concept you wanted.

[ChaosStar]

Personally I like 'roll 4d6, reroll 1s, drop lowest'. You can get low rolls, but they will generally be in the range you want.

[Stabbey]

Personally I like 'roll 4d6, reroll 1s, drop lowest'. You can get low rolls, but they will generally be in the range you want.

They could be using that method for the individual rolls, all they said is that the average of the 6 rolls should be 12-14.

[Sigreid]

Personally I like 'roll 4d6, reroll 1s, drop lowest'. You can get low rolls, but they will generally be in the range you want.

The original post gave me the impression that what they want is characters that are solidly above average, but not to super human or mythic levels.

[Chalkarts]

Personally I like 'roll 4d6, reroll 1s, drop lowest'. You can get low rolls, but they will generally be in the range you want.

I was trying to think of a way to make stat generation be more of a group activity and take less time and someone gave me a great idea.

I'm going to have each player roll "4d6 drop lowest" once then pass the dice to the next player, and keep passing the dice until 6 rolls have been made and those are the stat rolls for everyone(place as needed).

I'm going to do that. It'll make every player invested in every other players rolls from the very beginning, might tighten the group up.