D&D Ability Score Generation

In over a decade of playing Dungeons and Dragons, I’ve runt he gamut of ability score generation methods. I’ve seen the extremely conservative 3d6 six times, in order method that was supposedly the traditional way of doing things from the original game. I’ve seen that evolve into 4d6 six times, drop the lowest, arrange as desired. My brother’s extremely liberal method of 4d6, reroll the lowest, drop the lowest, twelve times, arrange as desired produced the D&D equivalent of super heroes. Heck, I’ve even created a few methods of my own.

Recently, I tried experimenting with the standard point buy system presented in the 3.5 Dungeon Master’s Guide, much to the disapproval of my players. The rationale was simple. I once played a character with three 9’s in his ability scores, and he was the most distinctive and fun character I’ve ever played. The fact of the matter is that weaknesses are just as defining as strengths, and I personally believe a character without any weaknesses is inevitably going to be boring to play. Thus, I decided to try something new.

The system had one interesting and unanticipated side-effect. Players who had habitually played humans ran the numbers and figured out that racial ability score bonuses were all the more significant with standard point buy. Thus, the party ended up a great deal more diverse and, in my opinion, interesting, with only two humans out of the five of them.

Unfortunately, playing with such severe weaknesses turned out to be a major point of contention. I eventually caved in and let them roll their stats using the standard 4d6 method. Only the party wizard opted out of doing this, concluding that his high intelligence score was too good to risk losing, even if he might get rid of some low scores in the process.

In the end, ability score generation will depend on player tastes. Some will jump at the chance to tailor their scores manually, even if that means they’ll have a few scores lower than average. Others will prefer the excitement of random roll methods and the organic characters that they produce. As Dungeon Master, the only important consideration is whether or not everyone is having fun. Thus, from now on, when creating new characters, I will be asking my players how they prefer to generate ability scores. Everyone will still have to use the same method, of course, but at least they’ll have the chance to voice their opinions about it before the game begins.