this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2024
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3d6

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[5e] Dice Mechanic with Point Buy RNG? (ttrpg.network)
submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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Hello everyone,

I thought it would be nice to have a dice mechanic for 5e’s character creation with an output more similar to the point buy system, since the default dice mechanic leads to overall higher stats. This could be a system with the same output range as point buy as well as one that still offers the possibility of rolling very high numbers (16-18) but with a higher probability to roll very low than 4d6 drop lowest.

Do you already know of such a dice mechanic? Or could you maybe provide a source for the probabilities of a stat having a certain number in the point buy system, so as to make it comparable to 4d6 drop lowest? The latter would give a starting point to play around with dice.run in order to create a system as desired.

Thank you all very much in advance!

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

...you can accomplish your goal by calculating running totals based on 4d6 drop low as you roll, then re-assigning the final score(s) in your array deterministically to hit the 27-point limit per the optional point-buy rule, but you'll have to extrapolate point costs for high and low rolls not included in the point-buy table to make that work...

3 (-14)
4 (-10)
5 (-7)
6 (-4)
7 (-2)
8 (0)
9 (1)
10 (2)
11 (3)
12 (4)
13 (5)
14 (7)
15 (9)
16 (12)
17 (15)
18 (19)

(personally, i hate point-buy and the algorithmic gameplay it fosters: the base rule - choice of 4d6 drop low or standard array - provides an ideal distribution if players commit to their choice before rolling)