To reroll or not to reroll...

[Adumbration]

The other day, I rolled stats for a Duskblade I'll be playing in a week or so. I rolled obscenely high. 18, 17, 16, 15, 14 and 11. Admittably, we had relatively high rolling method, 7 times 4d6, drop the lowest each time, and you may reroll a single roll.

Now, what I'm asking is that whether I should reroll these stats. It's a first level campaign, and I've heard that Duskblade can be quite powerful. We're also allowed flaws. I'll be playing with a ranger and a shugenja, and we're all relatively new players.

I don't want to overshadow my friends in combat or otherwise. I asked my DM, and he told me that it was up to me. Should I reroll?

[Ellisande]

Could you do the reroll first, and then chose whether to use it? (I'm picturing something like 11, 9, 9, 8, 5, 3 )

Seriously though, unless you have a history of showing up your friends horribly, I'd stick with the solid rolls you have. If you start to show them up in play, you can always tone back your playstyle, throw a few of your buffing spells on them, or give them a larger share of the loot. I think as long as you're conscious of the risk and how your fellow players are feeling--and in posting this, you show that you are--you should be fine.

[Fenix_of_Doom]

Could you do the reroll first, and then chose whether to use it? (I'm picturing something like 11, 9, 9, 8, 5, 3 )

That wouldn't be a problem, with those rolls you can rerall again anyway.

To the OP; I wouldn't reroll, if you don't want to overshadow your friends just divide them sub-optimally, e.g:
STR 11
DEX 14
CON 16
INT 18
WIS 15
CHA 17

[Serpentine]

I would suggest that if you don't want scores that high, it might be worth just asking the DM if you can subtract them down to the numbers you do want. I mean, it's one thing to add points whereever you want them, but it's not exactly to your advantage to remove them...

[Swooper]

Obscenely high? To me, that looks quite nice, but not obscenely high. I guess it's a matter of perspective though, since my group lets you roll until you're happy with your stats, and we're one persistent bunch I can tell you For reference, I'll soon be starting a campaign with a character that has stats of 18, 18, 16, 16, 14, 12. Admittedly, very high, but those are not the highest in the group...

Hrm, yes. Don't reroll. If you really want to, ask your DM to let you lower some stats a bit, no reason you shouldn't be allowed to do that. But having good stats won't make you overshadow the other players in my experience.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

That wouldn't be a problem, with those rolls you can rerall again anyway.

To the OP; I wouldn't reroll, if you don't want to overshadow your friends just divide them sub-optimally, e.g:
STR 11
DEX 14
CON 16
INT 18
WIS 15
CHA 17

I like this solution personally, just because it gives you a more fun character. Stats are fairly unimportant in the long run, avoid flaws and nova-striking and you should be fine.

[Adumbration]

The funny thing is... Even though I don't want to shadow my friends, it's hard for me to go sub-optimally. I don't know why, it's that I see something, and think of a way of doing it better, and the fluff comes pretty naturally after that.

We're playing wood elves, all of us, a thing set by DM due to the setting (a wood elf village). The wood elves have +2 to Dex and Str, and -2 to constitution, charisma and intelligence. We know, in most other sources the penalty is only to con and int, but the DM's Monster manual says otherwise, so we'll go with that.

My idea was a Duskblade with a scythe (to my defence, I didn't pick out the greatsword), fairly well placed stats (18 to int, though), 2 flaws for Power Attack, Cleave and some other feat. I was planning on novaing with True Strike and Blade of Blood.

Now, obviously, I'm not going to do that, thanks to this thread.

I'll probably still go with the stats, but a little less wellplaced ones, the scythe, leave out the magic to weaker spells and fewer flaws. Does that sound good?

[LotharBot]

If you're the party's only melee character, use the stats you have as well as you can -- specialize in what you're good at, and let the DM worry about making encounters where your melee skills don't always dominate. If the ranger is focusing on archery, don't worry about overshadowing him -- he'll have his opportunities. If he's going to be melee as well, maybe you should nerf yourself a bit. In either case, I would stay away from anything that gives you True Strike, at least until the ranger is walking around with lion's charge / arrow storm / hunter's mercy.

I don't think you should avoid flaws entirely... but I think they're better used for flavor than for twinking. Don't take a meaningless flaw and a powerful feat. Instead, take a flaw and a feat that are somehow related, such that you can describe both in one sentence.

Here are some sample pairings (not all appropriate for a duskblade):
* Shaky (-2 to ranged attacks) and Improved Initiative. You're twitchy and always on edge, unable to steady a bow but always ready to act.
* Vulnerable (-1 AC) and Power Attack. You're more concerned with clobbering the other guy than with protecting yourself.
* Inattentive (-4 spot/listen) and Iron Will. Your focus is inward, which gives you a strong sense of self but a poor sense of your surroundings.
* Poor Reflexes (-3 to reflex saves) and Improved Toughness. You have a large and robust frame, so you sometimes struggle to avoid punishment but can take a lot of it.

[Adumbration]

Yes, I probably should've mentioned. The ranger is focusing on ranged, and getting the greatbow as soon as he can afford it. The shugenja is focusing on healing spells.

Oh, and thanks for the suggestions. I really like the idea of flaws relating to the feats they give.

[Draz74]

I like the "assign these scores nonoptimally" solution. You could be the first Duskblade in history with a decent Wisdom and Charisma! That should help you develop a pretty novel character concept.

EDIT: Put your 18 in CON. It's one of your three most important stats mechanically (along with STR and INT), but unlike the others, it's hard to make your party feel overshadowed simply by defensive power. They'll probably just be grateful that you never seem to keel over and die when you're sucking up damage for the team. (Also, you've got a racial penalty to overcome.)

The 17 or 16 will have to go into INT, so that you still have sorta decent casting even after another racial penalty.

Then ... it depends. Do you want to have unusually high WIS for a Duskblade? Or CHA? Or both? You can get away with any of these. Do you want to be a nimble swashbuckling elf type rather than a macho warrior? It's sub-optimal, but possibly fun, and you can pull it off if you put, for example, your 16 in DEX and 11 in STR. (Racial bonuses to both of these, remember.)

[valadil]

Wait and see how it plays out. You can always reroll later. You can't go back to the uber stats you gave up though.

[Artanis]

Don't reroll. You said yourself that you guys used a high-powered rolling method, so it seems to me that there's a decent chance that the other players' stats could very well be just as high as yours...or maybe even higher.

In short, never judge stats based on their values. Judge them based on where they are relative to everybody else.