Wierd rolls, need help for Bard

[Charge]

Hi, somewhat new, and am super-ly stumped

i want to play a bard, but i got (doing the 4d6 get rid of worst roll thing)

17, 17, 15, 15, 11, and 6

i put 17 in cha, and int, 15 in dex... but then im stuck. What should get 6?
i was thinking of getting human, but because of that one roll, should i pick a race that has a modifier?

[Tempest Fennac]

You could put the 6 in Wis (it doesn't affect that many skills for Bards and your good Will saves will help). I have a homebrew race of humanoid foxes which get a Wis bonus if you're interrested (I'll edit this post once I've found the link).

EDIT: I found it: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=95436 .

[Flickerdart]

6 will be your Wisdom. You get a good Will save anyways, so as long as you are not the party face and don't need Sense Motive, you're safe dumping it. Plus, the roleplaying potential! You're out of touch with reality, but everyone is compelled to follow you. 11 can be your Strength, and 15s in Constitution and Intelligence.

You are now the Red Mage. Enjoy!

Edit: Grr, ninja fox.

[Riffington]

There's a few options that are just fine. You just don't want to take the 6 in Charisma, Dex, or Con - you will hurt yourself badly.
Int is sort of ok, except you'll be short on skills. If you pick Int, definitely make sure you are human to compensate. Like Elan.
Str is totally fine to dump, you'll just suck at melee (which bards tend to anyway), and you'll have to pick a light instrument. Make sure you take Use Magic Device so that you can do something useful in combat whenever you'd otherwise use Strength. And there's nothing wrong with inspiring others to courage that you yourself lack.
Wis is totally fine as well. Your Will Saves are strong anyway, and while Listen and Sense Motive are great skills, you can just take a couple more ranks in them to compensate. It's true that a musician without common sense is a bit of a stereotype, but hey.

Basically, your rolls are great, and I'm jealous.

[Chronos]

A 6 strength isn't too bad, either, if you don't plan on doing much melee combat. And wis isn't just for Sense Motive, but also for Listen. Not getting surprised is a good thing.

Really, it depends on what you're planning on doing with the character. There are a lot of different ways you can go with a bard.

[Gorbash]

As others suggested, put 6 in Wisdom and you'll do fine. If I were you, I'd take Force of Personality feat, which lets you use your Charisma for Will saves, instead of Wisdom.

[LibraryOgre]

I agree with the consensus that Wisdom is probably your safest (whether this is 3.x or 4e). In 3.x, your training in Wisdom-based skills (if they're important to you) will eventually overcome the deficit. In 4e, your strong Charisma covers you for everything but skills.

[esorscher]

Put your 6 in Strength, and take Snowflake Wardance (Frostburn) at 3rd level. Your carrying capacity will suck, but you'll still be decent at fighting in melee.

Or put your 6 in Wisdom, take Snowflake Wardance, and kick ass at melee.

[Tsotha-lanti]

Definitely Wisdom. The penalty to skills is tiny - you can easily overcome it by just putting ranks in Sense Motive and Listen, if you really need those.

[Baalthazaq]

Those rolls would drive me insane... my OCD is losing it at all the odd numbers... and can you please please change the thread title to "weird"? Thanks.

As for what people have said: I'd rather do str than wis, then use a ranged weapon.

[Assassin89]

Those are good stats, trust me I rolled worse. Depending on how you want to play, place the 6 into strength or wisdom. Strength might be a better idea if you prefer not jumping, swimming, or climbing. Wisdom might be better if you do not intend to spot, listen, or sense motive.

If you do decide to dump strength, take the feat weapon finesse so that you are a little better at melee combat. You will still stay out of melee combat, but there might come times when you want to stab something with a rapier.

If you decide to dump wisdom, take the feat alertness to compensate for the -2 penalty to spot and listen.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

You may also want to take an age category. Being middle aged will add one to your mentals and subtract one from your physicals. Makes those far better numbers.

If that's too cheesy or poor fluff, then snag a lot of +1 to stat magic items(maybe even a Belt of Magnificance). Gal-Ralan(Fiend Folio, p150) is also useful for turning that odd Con into even cheaply, and it moves your save bonus off of the cloak, too.

[Tempest Fennac]

I wouldn;t allow that age tactic as a DM (admittedly, I use a different system for ageing penalties which sets in later while not benefiting anyone). If the odd numbers are a problem, you could just ask the DM to let you swap them around a bit.

[Baalthazaq]

I wouldn;t allow that age tactic as a DM (admittedly, I use a different system for ageing penalties which sets in later while not benefiting anyone). If the odd numbers are a problem, you could just ask the DM to let you swap them around a bit.

I dunno, as a bard he's taking the penalty to cha and int. He's not helping himself, he's just adjusting anyway. It's not a cheap trick, it's just rounding. Overall at level 1 he gets bonuses but later it makes no difference.

Plus it would help fix my OCD problems.

[Tempest Fennac]

I like starting at low levels (I'm cluless later on when playing or DMing) and I never think it makes sense for adventurers to start older then the minimum starting age. And I consider the amount of physical stat loss from ageing, the mental stat boosts and how it's the same for everyone to be ridiculous. One advantage to having them like that is that Charge could always boost them as he levels normally without any real problems (except for Int, unless the DM lets him retroactively add skill points).