TechFindings

A key part or creating a character in any roleplaying game is to roll (buy or assign) abilities (or stats, or whatever they are called). In D&D there are 6 of them, and the basic idea is that you roll 3d6 for each and get 6 values in the range [3,18].

Abilities follow the Character forever so they do matter. Even if you are not into Character optimization, it is often more fun if your Character does not suck and if there is a level field.

Rolling

There are different ways to roll 3d6 in a way that it gives decent results. D&D 5e suggests rolling 4 dice ignoring the worst (and it is a good method). The problem with rolling is that given any method there are better and worse outcomes. And there are outcomes that are more or less suitable for a given class (or type of Character). In the end, if the player is not happy he may just decide to start over, and nobody wants unhappy players before the game even starts.

Buying / assigning

In order to avoid endless rerolls, and that some Characters genuinely and forever are better or worse from day 1, there are many ways to buy/assign stats. D&D 5e suggests two methods, both allowing abilities in the range [8,15]. To me, that is a bit dull.

I have seen other games or methods where characters end up with 18,18,18,5,3,3 and such stats. That is quite ridiculous.

Proposed Method

I suggest you assign values from a given standard range, and then apply “buffs” to them (5, or at your DMs choice).

Standard value   7    9   11   12   14   16
Modifier        -2   -1    0   +1   +2   +3
Buff            ---- +2 ----   ----- +1 ------

What this means is that 1 buff (of 5) can raise the one of the low values (7,9,11) two steps, which gives it a better modifier. However, to get a better modifier with one of the higher values you need two buffs. Also, getting 18 is possible, but only for one single ability.

I think it is reasonable that Characters can have som bad abilities and some strong abilities, and this enables modifiers from -2 to +4.

Compared averages

Different methods have different averages.

   3d6                     10.5
   4d6 (ignore worst)      12.2
   2d6+6                   13.0
   D&D 5e standard range   12.0
   Proposed Method        ~12.7  (12.5 with 4 buffs)