Alternate Ability Score method tests

Post date: Dec 28, 2012 9:00:45 PM

Trying out 3 alternate ability score generation methods for 1e.

Ability Score Generation:

6x6 3d6 matrix:

1^st: Wants M-U

His best for int is either 8, 14, 10, 7, 11, 3 or 9, 14, 10, 10, 9, 7. He doesn’t actually have any that have 2 15s, so we could reroll (major pain) or bump. Bump isn’t bad, he could then take a 15 int & dex with the 2^nd score. He could also decide to go with a cleric, fighter, or thief with 16 prime req. Not bad.

2^nd: Wants Cleric

Column 5 gives 17 wis, 6 dex and 15 cha. Not bad, probably the best choice. Could do a pretty good F/M-U with 17 con too.

3^rd: Wants Thief

Best we can do is 13 dex, last column looks best 15 str, 13 dex, 14 con, could make an alright F/T. Not really any great alternatives.

4^th: Wants Fighter

Again this one doesn’t have any 2x15s. 12 str is the best we can do, at least one of those gets 16 con, but penalized with a 6 dex. Might actually be better off with the 9 str and 16 con one. If we bump to 15s the bottom row is probably best with 15 dex & con 10 str. One could also have an o.k. wizard or cleric.

5^th: wants Best

Again no qualifying 2x15s. Looks like Thief with 17 dex. Row 4 bump int for M/T, or column 4 bump str for F/T.

6^th: Wants Best

No qualifying 2x15s, infact only 1 15 in the lot. Looks like cleric or MU then, cleric better, bump dex to 15.

Don’t like this one much, most of the characters have goon squad low cha, and a hell of a lot of rerolling with only ½ of the characters qualifying. Hah, this is funnily enough almost the same as method IV.

The line method:

#1:16 12 7 12 16 11 13 9 7 9 16 4

#2 10 9 10 10 11 5 5 10 12 8 10 8

#3 10 10 6 13 14 11 13 13 13 12 8 16

#4 9 11 10 7 13 15 11 10 8 6 15 10

#5 12 10 9 10 8 10 9 9 5 14 9 6

#6 9 12 11 10 14 6 12 12 5 10 17 12

Immediately obvious 4 rerolls in that with no 2x15’s At least rerolling would be easier.

#1 wanting MU again takes 12, 16, 11, 13, 9, 7 crap cha again, can bump dex to 15, not a bad character

#2 wanting cleric takes – ugh. 12, 8, 10, 8, 8, 10 is the only thing I can see. Raise str & wis to 15, not so bad.

#3 wanting fighter again takes 16, 10, 6, 13, 14, 11. Pretty decent, especially if bump cha to 15.

#4 wants thief again takes 10, 7, 13, 15, 11, 10 – bump wis to 15, or possibly 10, 8, 6, 15, 10, 11, bump cha to 15.

#5 too many choices, probably either fighter or m-u, fighter looks better at 14, 9, 6, 10, 9, 10, bump str & con to 15

#6 M-U or fighter again. M-U can bump dex to 15.

Too difficult to parse, I don’t imagine some of my players could do it, too much rerolling or bumping, no possibility for subclasses and low scores again.

4d6 in order 3 characters to choose from:

#1 15 11 13 8 9 11

#2 14 14 10 9 13 14

#3 15 15 10 10 14 13

#3 is the only qualifier, can be MU with that o.k.

11 17 10 14 14 9

11 11 13 14 10 7

11 12 13 6 14 9

No qualifiers, Cleric for #2 bump dex & wis

16 13 16 16 9 6

13 16 10 13 16 5

16 17 10 5 13 10

# 1 dex and wis fighter or F/T.

9 11 14 15 7 9

13 17 12 15 14 15

6 6 9 14 15 18

#2 High Int Thief or M-U/T, with good cha.

8 16 12 11 6 10

13 13 11 12 13 15

13 13 9 9 15 11

No qualifying ones again, #1 for M-U, low con hurts, or #3 bump int or str for good con fighter or M-U.

15 13 13 12 11 14

10 11 10 14 11 12

15 8 12 17 16 7

F/T high con dex and str!

2 chose low cha guys, and 4 chose medium, I like this better than the previous two, but still wanting something.

3e “Organic” Method: (last # is the reroll)

#1 MU is fine, reroll wasted, high cha, switches that with dex or con most likely, or possibly int, still has a decent cha. Qualifies for Paladin if switches Int-Str, nice.

#2 Rerolls dex to 11, not a great cleric, bump dex & con to 15, looks a bit better, and unusual, can switch con or dex out for better wis, probably would, probably dex.

#3 low cha rerolled to 10, switches int with str and bumps to 15, not a bad fighter

#4 rerolls 6 wis to 16, Switch with dex. Can be good f/t

#5 reroll wasted, High Wis, can bump con to 15, probably wouldn’t switch anything, but could switch int, str or dex for another class.

#6 reroll wasted, cleric again, switch dex & str maybe.

That looks pretty good. Only two bumped, Only #1 switched cha out, and would have been fine even if I’d restricted switching cha, #1 might even qualify for paladin switching int & str. Switching out cha only once is actually lower than expected you’d expect 2x just randomly switching over 6 characters, so might be alright to allow it.

Only thing I don’t like is no low scores due to reroll one score. If it were reroll any other than lowest – let’s see that would be 5 dex on #2, but bump str to 10. o.k. for the cleric. 10 str 7 cha on the fighter which moves str to int anyway, also o.k. one of the 13’s becomes 16 instead on #4 probably dex anyway. Low wis fine on thief, also alright, #s 1, 5 & 6 unaffected.

Another alternate idea that would help eliminate rerolling/bumping – replace any one score besides your lowest with 15. #2 would still have to bump or reroll. #1 gets even better though, and it’s plenty good already.