Rolling for Stats First | The Many Ways to Build a D&D Character
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ก.ค. 2024
- The first in a new series highlighting the many, many approaches you can take to character creation! This is by far one of the most random, since it takes a lot of decision-making power out of your hands.
00:00 - Welcome to the New Series
00:44 - Today’s Approach: Rolling for Stats First
02:43 - What If You Roll Low?
03:43 - I Build a Character
11:03 - Final Thoughts
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I am a very old school D&D player. I played 2nd ed and beyond. Back when I first started rolling your stats in order with 3D6 was the way we did it. Kind of left you disappointed sometimes (a lot of times with my horrid history of dice rolling) but it helped us stretch our imagination and making things up as we went. I really appreciate this video it brought back memories of my younger days and the fun games we had. Keep up the series I think many newer players will enjoy and learn from them.
You are quite underrated! I think videos of this level of thoughtfulness and quality will soon be discovered by more people ^^
Thank you!
i really liked that idea. thinking on do that as a DM on my next campaing
also, there's a other way i learned how to roll for stats using a Brazilian RPG system (4D&T)
for each stat we roll 2d6 and add a 6 on it
that way the player get at least a 8 on his lower stat and if he get some luck, a 18 as a high stat
Really liked your channel ^^
Rolling like this was actually how I was taught to play when I was very young, and continued to use this method for years before I realized it wasn't the official ruling.
I know this was an old comment, but actually rolling in order like this WAS the official rule for the earliest editions of the game, which is probably why you were taught that.
The stat distribution looks a lot like Freya, my halfling swashbuckler rogue, except the strength which was a little better. It was really fun to play a young, daring, chaotic, not at all attentive style of rogue who really broke with the perfectionist idea of the class.
Really like this idea! Especially for one shot style characters. I just did a roll and 100% got a barbarian.
This is one of if not my favorite ways to do it. It stretches me in what kind of character I might build! It’s a lot of fun for me to discover my character as opposed to pre-conceive one.
I really hope this channel blows up for you. I love the attitude you approach these videos with. There are far too many cynical DM channels out there.
Thank you!
Whenever I'm rolling up a character just for fun, this is generally the method I use. I get some *fascinating* characters this way.
Amazing content....I may not play D&D specifically, I'm more into The Witcher TTRPG, Fragged Empire, Cyberpunk 2020/Red and L5R. But this approach to character stat generation is a great way to kind of let some dice fly and let character created organically builds a character you can be proud of. Keep of the amazing work!!!!!!!
Rolling stats in order first was The Way® in AD&D from the beginning. While there is some nostalgia for me in this method of character creation, I am deeply happy we don't have to do it this way anymore 😂 With that said, you are 100% correct that it can springboard character creation for those who have always used point buy, standard array, or 4d6 drop low and assign as desired. There is a serious element of "what will I get?" involved in this method, and not always a good one 😂
What a lovely video! It's so nice to see someone showing as well as telling!
This is a nice way of changing things up if you find yourself making the same sort of characters over and over. I personally like rolling for stats for that random element. Doesn’t always work in my favor, but I find as much fun playing up my character’s flaws as I do their strengths.
Matt Colville is really just telling you what all us old schoolers knew and did from way back in the very beginning of the game. Not that he isn't great, or that your video isn't good as well, but the history of this is way, way older than him for certain, so it's not his original idea by any means at all.
You did a good job here though, and thank you! 😊 🤓👍
Just tried this method for the first time and rolled really good.
Str 13
Dex 15
Con 14
Inte 12
Wis 13
Cha 11
I decided to go with a Tabaxi finesse fighter. That added +2 to my dex and +1 to charisma. That's a very strong character for first level, and will allow me to choose a feat, if the DM allows at 4th level. By choosing Superior Technique fighting style, I get to add one Maneuver from the Battle Master collection and a d6 superiority die at level 1. I chose Riposte. This will be a fun, lithe fighter leaping around the battlefield. I've added it to my backup character lists in case one of my PCs dies in a game.
With OD&D and AD&D, we rolled 3d6 in order. If the PC had low stats, they were dismissed as a farmer.
I am loving your content and am definitely keeping it tucked away for any time I get some friends into DnD/TTRPGs for the first time.
I still get a bit hung up myself on making characters so this is a great guide for anyone I think. Takes a lot of the pressure out of character creation.
I would've gone with dexterity paladin with that constitution score. The aura of protection would eventually help offset those negative modifers for saves and the versatility of focusing on dex for attacks gives you some ranged combat options as well. But if there's already one or two front liners in the party, bard would be my second choice.
with this stat spread, I think I would build a wood elf fighter that uses a bow and arrow, but this just furthers the point of how many different ways there are to build a character
You can HAVE a dumb bard. He doesn't have to KNOW stuff. Maybe he's good at Acrobatics, Performance, and Sleight of hand, and he just performs, and maybe picks pockets, or stuff like that. Heck, he doesn't even have to be musical. He could be an artist, or an actor or a MIME, if that floats your boat.
That's the beauty of D&D 5e. You don't have to follow the tropes, AT ALL, and just have a fun character who speaks to YOU, as a player.
Bards have a LOT of variety in what skill choices they can make, so you could have a bard who specializes in animal handling, for example. Maybe he's a sailor and knows how to handle a ship. That all depends on his background, and you're not there, yet. I just saw you deciding on a bard, even though you were saying, "Bards are supposed to know history and arcana!" Nope. You have your choice of any three.
He could be a musician who ONLY plays modern music and doesn't know about any stories older than five years ago. That's totally fine. Heck, that applies to lots of real-world performers, I'm sure.
Just tried this out and got these rolls:
STR 12
DEX 7
CON 10
INT 15
WIS 12
CHA 15
I decided to make them a Tiefling lunar sorcerer. Extremely smart and charismatic (final scores of 16 and 17 respectively) but squishy as hell. Then went for the Sage background to explain some of the shitty physical stats, and inspiration to flesh the character out started to come along the way.
Her name is Zaitari, I have an idea of her appearance and mannerisms and a vaguely formed backstory. Though if I ever do take her for a spin I’m fully prepared for her to die within minutes of the first combat 😅 and if she doesn’t I’ll have to invest in some score increases/feats to keep it that way
You have a way of making things that are complicated easily understandable. Keep it up!
Thank you!
Nice video! Not a fan of roll 3d6/4d6(drop) in order, personally. Only because I am old enough to have played in games where that was the only option and playing a cleric cause your best stat was a WIS of 14 wasn't lots of fun.
Still might be a fun exercise to see what I would 'have' to choose if 'forced' to.
agh yes the tuloc the barbarian reference
😁
That awkward moment when you decide that this would be a good idea and roll 3 ones and a two for constitution... time to be the glass cannon to be ended by all other glass cannons
Hmm. First thought on seeing those stats was a archer Fighter. And a Tiefling leapt to mind quickly too. Which is unusual for me? Never played one, not even really considered it. But I got a nice image of one here.
Which is not to say Bard doesn't work too! If anything, I feel our different approaches rather helps prove your point. We both looked at those numbers and our imagination started working towards building different characters :)
I think the modifier stats rolling is fun... Sorry, a friend thought of it and I don't know how balanced it really is, but it's still fun.
Take a d4 and roll it six times. That are your stat modifiers. For example, you roll a d4 and get a 1. You asign it to Dexterity. Now you have either 12 or 13. Three are going to be the higher number, while the other get the lower, you can decide. Let's say Dex and Con are the only you haven't decided. You can have either your Dex at 13, but your Con (with a 2) is then only going to be a 14. Or you give your Con 15, but then Dex get's a 12.
If you want negative stats as well and let's be honest have it a bit more realistic you can take a d6 as well and a 1 is -1, a 2 is 0 and so forth.
You can of course go higher with a d8, but then it get's a little... Too interesting.
This is the "Hold em!"
To save time everyone should roll once and all at the same time.
Start with a base number
Than roll 2D6 per stat.
The base number is given by the DM before everyone rolls.
Think of the base number as a pre rolled dice a Community die
Everyone uses.
A 4 base gets an array Between 6 and 16.
A 5 base gets an array Between 7 and 17.
A 6 base gets an array Between 8 and 18.
So everyone rolls 2D6 for each stat once and arrange them as you want.
Mike, turns out I've been eagerly awaiting your next upload -- Because the moment I saw you posted, I was super excited. Cheers!
Thank you!
I believe matt colville had the rule you had to have at least 2 15s. I wouldnt have this rule, but next time im going to play with rolling in order
dex con and cha honestly I'd say like a draconic bloodline Sorcerer if you pick a race with a cha boost you end up with a decent sorcerer that even has 16 ac .
You can also do random rolls for other things too! I collect, purchase print and make custom random dice charts they are VERY helpful!
gonna follow along with this method as watch the video to see what I get.
17 strength, 11 dex, 14 con, 12 int, 11 wisdom, and 18 charisma.
If I've ever rolled Paladin stats, it'd be now
After finalizing I decided to make them a Half orc Paladin. Acolyte background to keep things simple.
with your stats, you could also build
a Dex paladin or
a ranged fighter
Hmm I kinda start with stats for the most part. A bit of class ideas first and probably a few ideas on which races I’m considering, but I usually settle on stats first. Now, I don’t roll them because, to be honest, my main dm uses point buy. I have recently started up with a one shot and designed my most recent character to participate in that. For that one I just chose a race and subclass pretty fast given I had a general idea of the terrain (underground in an abandoned mine/deserted dwarven city). I chose tabaxi for the climbing given that. And I chose rogue with scout subclass because I was interested in playing it and haven’t before. And this was one of my first real experiences in rolling for stats. I decided it would help me outline the rest of the personality of that character. Weirdly? I rolled well. Not like +4s or +5s across the board, but still decently that I could place my numbers in the needed stats to be useful. Since I rolled up first, my stats set the range the others were expected to have with dm saying to roll again and try for better upon seeing how bad or good they were. That’s how the dm here did that. They were trying to keep us all roughly lvl with each other. I suppose that helps with encounters and also fairness otherwise.
And yes I know a tabaxi rogue is very cliche. But I thought it would work for this particular outline for the campaign I was given. It’s actually my first time using the race. My main character is a drow and my mainstay favorite races are harengon, owlin, and hexblood. And I usually prefer the ranger. But this is me trying an idea that was brewing in my brain for a while now. I’m glad my rolled stars kept up with it. Hopefully my tabaxi scout does well and is useful to the group. Made them an archer since I noticed a lack of it and thought the scout skirmisher ability would do well with that particular weapon.
I made a Half-Elf Rogue that has all of the Charisma skills.
This video brings me way back to the very first incarnation of D&D in the mid-late '70s - 3d6, rolled in order. :) I GM games using the 3.5 ruleset, and sometimes when generating random NPCs I do just this, roll 4d6best3 in order. Some more intriguing characters have evolved from odd combinations of scores.
Think I would've chosen Monk here but great vid - tempted to build my next character this way
I tried this out and while I rolled some good stats I don't think it's a good approach for me personally. It's still a neat idea and I'm sure it'll help others.
I shall roll up just such a character for you now.
STR: 10
DEX: 9
CON: 16
INT: 12
WIS: 8
CHA: 17
Hmm... this gives me the mental image of... a clumsy, hardy, bookish, inattentive and well-liked person who probably has a habit of going for longer walks than most would find necessary and coming back a little worse for wear, but with undiminished spirit. As for class... we could go for either Sorcerer or Warlock, depending on what sounds more appealing between the discovery of latent power derived from lineage or a pact made between the character and a patron who saw potential in a sheltered and exploitable accomplice. I'd go with Sorcerer between them, personally. Haven't played one of those before. Let's see... race... I tend to default to Variant Human, though the prospect of bumping that 16 up to an 18 has me considering otherwise... no, let's go with Variant Human. We can make it up later.
Yup, alright... Variant Human with the Actor feat, probably. As for background... let's say this person is a noble who likes to put on shows for friends and the common folk as well, making him or her a fixture of the community with many fans. Yes, I think that would be nice. What are your thoughts?
Sounds great!
\o/ Happy you like
14 Str, 15 Dex, 6 Con (!!!), 11 Int, 12 Wis, and 9 Cha. Very squishy.
I'm going for Rogue, no doubt about it.
Race - High Elf, which increases Dex by 2 and Int by 1, giving me 14/17/6/12/12/9 stats.
A very squishy rogue, but very deft and reasonably able to perceive things and figure them out, given enough time. As for the low hit points, well, if they can't hit you, they can't hurt you, right? My rogue will try really hard NOT TO GET CAUGHT. So, definitely taking Stealth as a skill.
My Urchin background, combined with the Keen Senses of my Elvish nature, and my Rogue class gives me skills in Acrobatics, Athletics, Insight, Investigation, Perception, Sleight of Hand and Stealth, making my character excellent for infiltration, exploration, investigation, and just plain burgling.
I rolled dice for the character traits, starting gold, and a character name.
Thalia Norwynn is a female High Elf, who grew up poor, on the streets of Sindarlin, the city of the Elves. She likes to squeeze into small places, where no one else can get to her. She believes that CHANGE is nature of things, and that the low should be lifted up, while the high should be brought down. She owes a debt that she can never repay to the person who took pity on her, when she was alone on the streets, and taught her how to survive in the city. The thief that took her in taught her everything she knows (currently) about burgling, as well as how to find the loot and what to take and what to leave behind. Finally, Thalia (being VERY squishy) would rather kill someone in their sleep than fight fair.
Her background is pretty basic: She was an orphan, without any relatives to take her in. The orphanage SUCKED, so she ran away, and tried to survive, but was too clueless to manage. A thief took pity on her, and took her in as his apprentice. It wasn't a wonderful life, but he was kind, and they didn't starve or freeze to death. Unfortunately, just as she was getting the hang of things, and thought she might be able to repay him for his kindness, and make his retirement years easy for him, he was caught by the Sindarlin city guard, and hanged. She can never pay him back. All she can do is pay it forward.
So, this Chaotic Neutral rogue is looking for someone in need, like she was, to help the same way her mentor taught her: by taking that young person on as an apprentice. But before she can become a mentor, she needs to continue to hone her own skills, and since she's always worked with at least team mate before, she's in search of a new team to join. She won't take on an apprentice until she's well established, herself, and has something of REAL value to offer her future adopted child.
Wow! That came together REALLY nicely! I look forward to playing Thalia, now! I have completed and printed out her character sheet! Now, she just needs to go shopping, with her 90 gp!
This is awesome! Thanks so much for sharing Thalia :)
4d6 drop the lowest is cool, but I prefer 1d10+8. Stats from 9-18 without the tendency for a bunch of stats in the middle of the curve.
you are awesome...great feed!!!
Thank you!
Tiefling or Half-Elf. Story of my life.
This!
Tried this method and rolled stupid high for Str and decent in Wis and Cha, so made a half-elf paladin who tries to balance healing and cooperation with kicking evil but.
In this episode, Mike shows off his mental math skills
This is a very underrated method of character creation. Although admittedly it might be something that just requires an old school outlook to appreciate. Back when I used to DM, I tried all sorts of variations with my group, but never really got them out of the mindset of deciding what to play before they even sat down at the table.
That’s a very hard habit to break, Monday’s video is kind of a response to it :)
I would have gone half-elf or tiefling sorcerer with those rolls
I would have gone monk maybe :) But that's just cause I think monks are awesome
What, no 3d6 in order; you know, go really "old school"!
This could certainly be a way to break "analysis paralysis", as you mentioned. I just have a bunch (30ish) of characters genned up on DnD Beyond. 😎🧐🤫
This is awesome! I just used this and I ended up with a Deep Gnome Wizard that is pretty B.A.!!!
Nice!
I like physical dice myself but if you're new, maybe you just want to use an online dice roller.
I've really wanted to try something like this, but it takes a particular kind of player to be up for it. My players like to come to the table with a concept to explore, rather than discovering an interesting character.
I'd be down for this style of character creation myself... if only it didn't involve rolling for stats. I've never experienced anything as painful as rolling for stats on a character and being stuck with a stat spread that's barely functional for the multiple years that the character sees service... and it's happened twice. It's especially tough because I hate powergaming, but it can feel necessary when you're looking at a grand total of +2 across the board with little to no synergy/min-maxed stats and you want to be an effective member of the party in combat - especially when some folks have rolled into a +10 total and the encounter DCs are balanced around that fact.
I've been thinking of a way to incorporate these ideas into point-buy, and I think I've got something that achieves a similar goal. You do point buy (or give a decent pre-made array to a new player) and have them roll a D6. Whatever they roll is where their lowest stat in the array goes. You keep doing this, re-rolling whenever you roll something a second time, until the stats are filled out. The idea is that it builds anticipation, revealing the character's strengths as you go, but still leaves the player in control of the type of character they want to play in terms of safely well-rounded vs risky min-maxed.
If that's how you feel about stats, you shouldn't play.
If I had that stat block I'd be starting with some sort of combat arms character that is range based and therefore dexterity over strength. I don't remember what paladins have for christmas versus wisdom in fifth ad since i'm mostly a second ed player. But if paladins are Christmas and not wisdom based on a range weapon paliden. Otherwise it would be a range weapon fighter. Though that's part light because bars are less a space class in my head.
I generally go in with a solid concept of a character I want to play (and typically do point-buy rather than roll!), but I think with something like a one-shot, this method of character building would be a lot of fun :)
I just discovered your channel and I enjoy your content.. I'm new to D&D only been playing for a year and haf ... I have a question the game I'm playing now I'm a 3rd level Sorcerer that Haf-Elf Haf-Aasim but on the next time I get to level up I would like to ad something cool..can you please recommend something.. ps so happy that I subscribe to your channel.
Thanks, Raymond! Hm if your DM lets you take feats, I’d suggest War Caster - it’s one of my favorites :)
My first time with 3d6 in order years ago was like... 18, 17, 15, 12, 14, 12. My second was 6, 10, 18, 9, 5, 11... I don't think we ever rolled in order again. 4d6 and a minimum aggregate help a great deal, though now I'm playing Pathfinder 2e and we don't really roll stats.
Ooh, boy. Let me tell the tale of one time I let rolls build my character.
DM insisted we roll stats for a 3.5 campaign, with the addition that we get an extra feat, but have to roll our first level of HP. My highest stat was a 13, every other stat was 9 or below. I asked the DM for a reroll, not allowed. So I figured "Throw the good stat into dex, play a rogue. At least then I'm a little tanky in AC, have the most important save for low levels, and can do damage and cover skills with class features."
For HP, I roll 2, 3, 1. That gives me a whopping 4 HP at level 3. At this point, I straight tell the DM that I need a reroll or this will be a suicide character. DM tells me to stop killing the mood and play the character I rolled. So I make my character's backstory.
Ashe always dreamed of being a great hero. He hailed from a very small village, and his parents were very supportive of him from a young age. Though not astoundingly strong, he was always good at solving problems in the village. Now, he seeks to honor his god and prove himself a hero.
Not a complex backstory, but the perfect set of reasons to get him killed. I needn't have worried, he never saw an action in combat. He's downed before his first turn. No one knew healing magic in our party, and he bled out before he could be saved. I was not upset.
After session, the DM asked me why I chose to play such a weak character. I didn't return for the second session.
This was really neat.~ I’ve tried building this way before in my free time. Though the one character I couldn’t figure out that I built this way in my free time was a character that I had rolled a nine in constitution. Every other stat was normal or amazing, but I couldn’t figure out what class the character should be. What would have been a good idea for such a character?
Oof 9 in constitution is hard to overcome… if you had good intelligence, I guess you could go with a wizard and just steer into the curve and have the lowest hit points ever lol - plus, they get Ability Score Improvement pretty often which would help overcome the low HP. Otherwise, a ranger or a ranged fighter might be good, since you could wear lots of armor to make up for it. Rogue could work as well. You really just want to play something that doesn’t have to mix it up in combat lol.
… Although you could play a circle of the moon druid and still get lots of HP via your wild shapes…
The other stats were an 18 in strength, a 16 in dexterity, an 11 in intelligence, a 13 in wisdom, and an 18 in charisma. I see. That makes sense about the playing something that doesn’t have to mix it up in combat.
I was using either the 4d6 drop the lowest (reroll ones) method or 2d6+6 method.
Hamilton
Rules out Artificer with 8 Int… not just wizard… also some homebrew.
A Dex based fighter could have been a choice as well.
I feel like it could’ve still been a rogue just with a limited skill set lol just stabs and hides 🤣🤣
fun video. but, I mean, a dex based paladin is right there... high dex, con and charisma?
Oooh I always forget dex based paladins are an option
I’m my experience the DM decides how to generate stats in game. When I DM I don’t allow rolling for stats. Too high stats are just as bad for the game as too low stats and rolling always seems to generate extremes in stats as well as between players.
Kind of unrelated, but has anyone checked their digital dice on D&D Beyond? I have a free account and I don't have access to the digital rolling feature anymore???
I hadn’t - are you still having this issue?
@@SupergeekMike It appears to have been fixed, thanks for checking back in!
I do love this approach but I don’t think it would be something I ever make mandatory for my players (nor do I think you were implying that). If someone comes to me and says I’ve played 100 different characters and this time around I just wanna be a squishy wizard I’m not gonna turn and say too bad your dice say your a barbarian now. Again i by no means think you are saying that you would either but I think keeping flexibly in most aspects of this game is what makes Dnd the standout that it is
What if no dice rolling at all. Think of what you want to play and then just pick a number between 10 and 18 with constraints. Say, one 18, a 15, a 13, the rest 12 or lower. Anything, in consultation with the game host that seems reasonable.
There are some numbers in the PHB that work for that - 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8. Of course, if you want more heroic fantasy characters, higher numbers would definitely help!
@@SupergeekMike Oh yeah, trusty the PHB. Thanks for the response Mike. Have a great night.
This seems fun in general, but it's odd to me that this is used for new players because that feels like the opposite of how I would ever consider this. If I had a group of experienced players that have all played together then everyone mixing up what they might play could be really fun. But in my mind, a new player probably has at least some idea of a concept that interests them. Someone that sits down and doesn't know the game but is looking forward to trying magic or just wants to hit things hard while they learn being forced into some other role because of stats just seems like a bad way to let them be invested, not overwhelmed, and pushes away the main thing I'd want to impress on someone new: that the whole point of the game is the freedom that a video game can't give you.
You are advocating using this for newer players, but then optimising character choice by your knowledge of classes: you have to know and have read up on each class before you can use this method.
Two things this is advising that I don't agree with (especially for new players): characters should only be built for optimal game play and you should know what every class does.
I think these are the primary reasons that stat generation evolved away from this method with each version.
assign between 70 (low power) to 90 (high power) total points, DO NOT ROLL!
Let your players know if there are natural or magical means to increase stats before you begin play.
Communication is very important, indeed!
A character stats are like the character DNA so
Point buy or standard array takes me out of the game.
WOW, these young kids, bro... listen! A 5E player earns only 10% of the XP from older versions of the game, this mean they have only 10% of the decision making experience. I find it so funny 5E players treat this edition like a bible that they constantly criticize.
Lol it’s definitely a very different game than older editions.
Stealing from Matt who? Rolling stats in order is how it used to be. That’s not new.