FrankTrollman wrote:Also, the prospect of getting things to randomly generate abilities still has value. I find it generates more interesting characters than Point Buy right through the inherent unfairness.
Essentially what this means is that on 3d6, one in 54 ability scores generates the maximum bonus. That would be one out of 9 characters having max bonus on something. On 4d6, pick 3 it's one ability score in 17, on 3d6 reroll 1s it's one ability score in 31.
I take this to mean that the "specialness" of randomly getting an 18 ability score is more important than the equal distribution of ability score points among pc's. I don't understand this reasoning. I played in a game once wherein another player and I both rolled up wizards. His total ability score points were in the 60's while mine were in the 80's. I thought that was crap.
I much prefer point buy for the fairness of it. Yes, this creates "cookie-cutter" characters which lessens the specialness of rolling well on ability scores, but I think it is necessary.
K wrote: You can have a well muscled mage and a smart fighter then.
I don't know about you, but I'm tired of stereotyped characters for the sake of "balance".
This is why people are sick of in point buy. Also, fighters with crap charisma piss dumbass dm's off. Of course dumbass dm's don't bat an eyelash when there are Sorcerers with great charisma's and crap strength scores.
I don't know how to fix this, but I do have some thoughts on the issue. I think it is important for all classes to have an equal amount of MAD. Especially in 3e, a monk has to have most of his ability scores be awesome to be effective, while an arcane caster can get away with crap stats except for one.
I think the ideal would be for all pc's to have an equal starting point of resources (ability scores or what-have-you), and an equal point of expenditure (no 3e monk vs 3e wizards). While at the same time not being bound to defining your fighter as stupid simply because of the limited ability scores.
I also have some unrelated nebulous thoughts about this which may or may not be worthwhile. Maybe you let players choose what their ability scores are to a limited extent, and choosing a high ability score has some benefits and drawbacks, while choosing a low ability score has some benefits and drawbacks. Like in Final Fantasy Tactics. For example, you have a Faith score, which is basically your magic score. The higher your faith score, the more powerful your magic is on other people. But it also determines how much you are affected by magic.
So, for example a Faith 90 (a 100 point scale) has powerful magic but is also affected by magic more than usual. And a Faith 20 person is little affected by magic while having little magical power of his own.
I don't know if this is feasible for a six stat system, or another type of system or what, but maybe someone can apply it to dnd in some manner. If it is possible to apply it to dnd's traditional 6 stat system, then people could just choose the ability scores of the pc they wanted to play. So if you wanted to play a super intelligent, charismatic fighter you could. And it would be no better, just different, from a stupid uncharismatic fighter.
Just some seeds of ideas. Hopefully they are useful.