Rolling for Heroics; D&D Ability Score Rolling

I cannot recall a single Dungeons and Dragons session or campaign that took place with point-buy ability scores during my five years of play. Why is that? There certainly stands no power benefit to rolling scores, as most of the time they end up decidedly lower compared to similar point-buy characters. In spite of the mathematical evidence, there’s something naturally ‘right’ about randomly generated characters.

For one, they feel like real people. Not everyone is as talented as the next, and even heroes possess different degrees of epic quality. I recall a campaign a while back where the group’s rogue had no modifiers higher than plus one, and somehow, through teamwork and the desire for success, we managed to reach level eighteen before finally calling quits on the escapade. The reason we lasted so long wasn’t because the story was particularly enthralling (in point of fact, I remember it to have been terrible aside from the character driven elements), nor because we succeeded so brilliantly at every arc of the campaign (we failed quite a bit), but because every single character in that adventuring party felt ‘right’.

I understand that it’s a tricky notion, this naturally pleasing feeling of rightness, but unless you’ve experienced it I find it rather difficult to explain. That rogue, though marginally useless, was vital to the game. He’d concocted a rather inspiring back story explaining his shortcomings and innate failings, but supplemented that with a lifelong goal urging him to drive forth in spite of his weaknesses. The rest of us, ranging from one lucky fool who rolled a cumulative plus thirteen modifier to your average cumulative plus seven, enjoyed the added challenge of aiding the rogue in achieving his life’s meaning.

Finally, at level eighteen, we met up with the man who’d belittled the rogue through his childhood, had gone so far as to murder his entire family simply out of blind hatred. Defeating him was one of my greatest role playing moments; watching our rogue companion offer mercy and letting the man go free was perhaps the greatest. Few things compare to the image of that disheveled, beaten villain shambling off into the distance with nothing left to live for.

Now, I’m not saying this enjoyable role playing would have been impossible without rolling for ability scores. What I ‘am’ saying, though, is that random ability scores allow for a more natural, human element for a role playing experience. If you’ve never used this method, it’s outlined below (in a generic form). If you have, what’s your take on the rolling vs. point-buy ability score debate?

Rolling for ability scores: Take 4d6 and roll them. Drop the lowest result and add the remaining three. Mark this score down on a piece of paper. Do this until six results are acquired. Then, place your final results into your ability table as desired. (Another method, which an old DM simply lived for, was rolling 3d6 for each stat. Then the player would roll another 2d6. The highest result of the 2d6 was subtracted from the character’s worst stat, and the lowest result was added to a stat of the character’s choice. I remember we had one character with a strength of twenty two from this method, but an intelligence of three… good times role playing with that one, I assure you.)

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