Character Stats House Rule

[Anonymous]

When creating the characters for our new campaign, I used a template based stat asignment system. I did this to speed things up and because I know my players would complain about a random system, even though I love doing things that way.

The system is based on 81 points (the average for the Heroic System), with a +10 total for bonuses.

The templates:

The Flawed Hero: 18,18,12,12,12,9

The Adept: 16,16,16,13,10,10

The Jack-of-all-trades: 14,14,14,14,13,12

The Jack-of-one-trade: 18,14,13,12,12,12

The players seemed happy and it certainly speeded things up, so I just thought I'd share it.

 

[Anonymous]

That looks good.

For my upcoming one-shot, I decided to go with:

16,15,14,13,12,11

Since they are all 12th level, that will adjust to

18, 17,16, 15, 14, 13, with an additional +3 to spread around.

Now, I'm aiming for really tough dudes, since this is a test-the-limits one shot, but if we decide later to run a regular start-from-first campaign I might use your suggestion.

 

[Anonymous]

DrSkull,

That's a good spread as well. I might call it the "Lots of potential" template and use it as well. It only starts with +9 total bonus, but all the odd numbered stats mean that it is quick to increase bonuses with stat increases.

 

[BhilJhoanz]

A guy on another board said he just lets his players pick whatever stats they want. He said they never take advantage of it and always get to play the character they want.

I mentioned this to the guys i play with and got: "WOOHOO! Straight 18s!"

Personally, I like the randomness of 4d6 . . . but typically end up with a spread similar to the ones you propose. i can see those as being handy for making NPCs though . . .

 

[Phil]

I tend to run character stats with a method one of my friends came up with.

Players can either: Roll 4d6, discard the lowest OR they can choose stats with a net +8 bonuses - ie they can up some of their high stats by taking low stats. Also, half the stats must be odd and half must be even so that they do have to think where they are going when it comes to increasing stats.

eg.

STR 18 (+4), DEX 15 (+2), CON 12 (+1), INT 9 (-1), WIS 10, CHA 15 (+2)

Basically I've found this enables players to personalise their characters without going over the top. For Conan I'd probably raise the net +8 to +10 or similar.

 

[argo]

... :?: ... :shock: :shock:

Sweet baby Buddah's left nut! 81 points!?! I mean, the max for the Heroic System (all 18's) is 96 points, the average is closer to the 30-34 range. I mean, I know that a conan game is supposed to have characters with good stats and all, but that is why they give you a +1 across the board increase at levels 6, 10, etc. Personally I perfer to have stats that seem a little more, uh, mortal than 81 points. I have found that 4d6, drop lowest has rarely given me a character I would consider "unplayable" and that 32-34 points is usually plenty for a "heroic" type game.

As always though, if you and your players are having fun then please, don't let some shmuck on the internet ruin your good time.







Good lord... 81 points :?

 

[Anonymous]

All 18s is a total of 108 points, isn't it?

The first poster's 81 points *is* average for the Heroic system, if you start with zeroes in all abilities.

The average amount added by the *dice* (6d10) is 33, but everyone gets 48 points to start with (an 8 in each of 6 abilities).

48 + 33 = 81.


Deadstop

 

[arcady]

Given how fast stats in Conan go up, I'm considering using less than DMG 25 point buy when / if I run the game.

15 14 13 12 10 8, by level 20 is 19 18 17 16 14 12 plus 5 more spread out between them (such as 19 18 18 18 14 12).

In my opinion, there's no need for stat boosting like that as there's no stat boosting magic items on -either side-. But to accomodate it, I'd want to start the stats lower than normal.

 

[S'mon]

I'm using best of either d10+8 or DMG 35-point-buy - ie player rolls the d10s and if they score bad they can use 35-point-buy instead. So far most have ended up with point-buy. That 81 points is the total number of stat points (ie a 10 is 10 points, 18 is 18), nothing to do with DMG point-buy.

 

[Samvail1]

We started new Conan characters last night using 84 points. They are beginning at 4th level and the +1 bonus is already added.

This gave me a Scholar with stats of 9, 10, 14, 16, 16, 19.

Not too extreme I think.

Looking forward to 6th level when I boost to 10, 11, 15, 17, 17, 20.

Sam

 

[argo]

All 18s is a total of 108 points, isn't it?

The first poster's 81 points *is* average for the Heroic system, if you start with zeroes in all abilities.

:?
Ah, ok. He isn't using DMG standard point buy.

Hmm, well those are still prety high stats though. By DMG standard we have
Flawed hero: 45 pts
Adept: 39 pts
Jack-of-all: 33 pts
Jack-of-one: 39 pts

Heh, I took one look at the "Flawed Hero" (not a very apt name btw :wink: ) and had to pick my jaw up off the floor. On a side note: this also illustrates why I prefer DMG point buy over 1-to-1 point buy.

I still stand by my position that a DMG buy of 28-35 points should be playable in a Conan game with my personal inclination leaning more towards 32 points. I think that, with the lack of buffs in Conan, 25 points is too low for adventurers. But, as I said before, if your group wants 45 points then please, go nuts.