The new stat total

bryn

Well done on the new update, lots of fixes, but I don't agree with adding a stat point total for when rolling characters. I know that most people roll until they get good or even mega stats but adding a total just makes it too easy and takes the accomplishment out of sitting there for an extended period to get a good roll (this sounds sad but at least you feel like you have in a way earned those high stats)

Am I alone in thinking this or do people agree?

JuliusBorisov

I think you're not alone but there're many posts on the forum where people like to see stat total. There's even a program for it.

For me, this feature doesn't spoil rolling for good stats - at least, the chance of, "I've rerolled in a hurry but the previous result was so good I miss it" is decreased. You still must reroll till you get good results - if you want a high score.
And for fighters you still have to wait till some high strength.

Also, there're many posts on the forum where people say they rerolled many hours but it was many years ago and now when they don't have much time (due to working) they don't spend it on rerolling. So, it helps a lot. And by the way, I'm one of these people))

Cerevant

Meh, I used to just keep rerolling until there were no stats less than 12 and added up the 1's digits. This is a little faster, but not much.

And it doesn't make it any less painful when you click past that 93!

Balquo

Very happy with it! Makes rolling much easier... not that I didn't enjoy it before.

April

I'd rather be playing the game than rolling stats for hours.

If this makes the stat rolling quicker then I'm all for it.

cyberarmy

I like it, after long hours of work, which is involving ridiculous amount of numbers, my brain stops working for a while

Wanderon

I like the stat total altho at first glance I'm curious as to whether the rolls were otherwise tweaked as well - considering how much faster I am able to roll when I don't have to do a running calculation of the total myself - it seems to be taking longer (more rolls) to get into higher numbers (85 +) than it did before but it may just be the class I am fooling with atm which doesn't have a lot of high minimums.

Kaltzor

Well, even if you're not out to fully optimize your characters stats, it still helps in getting a roll that will get your characters main stats high enough and the others to a point where they will not give out any penalties...

moody_mage

I like it. I wouldn't be against it being a an option which could be toggled on or off in the config though.

Djimmy

What's not to like?

Wilbur

I absolutely like it.

chickenhed

I have to admit that I like it. I was at a point where I could calculate it all in my head, for sure. But having the total really helps OCD people like myself who roll for days on end....

Eudaemonium

It is nice, simple, effective, allows ease of rolling, and generally makes starting new characters less of a chore. What's not to like!

PeteAtoms

I like it, as do 64/67 voters it seems

EDIT: As a solution for the 3 people that don't like - grab a post-it note and put it on your screen while you grind away rolling dem dice.

Messi

The OP is a joke post right? "the accomplishment out of sitting there for an extended period to get a good roll (this sounds sad but at least you feel like you have in a way earned those high stats)"

You are damn right that sounds sad, if you get feeling of accomplishment from sitting on your ass and pushing random number generator button for "extended perioid" you might want to rethink what you are doing. I'm sorry if that sounds harsh but that's the way I see it.

Rhaegar

I like it but I just cheat and use an auto roller now. Don't go for crazy stats but at least get above 90.

I refuse to dump stats. I hate it.

Silverstar

It doesn't change anything for me. I'll still be happy with what I now know is apparently "84" and can't imagine I'll bother rolling longer than I used to in the past.

What anyone else does doesn't affect me in any way.

Quartz

Rhaegar said:

I refuse to dump stats. I hate it.

Agree with this part. I typically don't take anything below 10 (e.g. Intelligence, Charisma) unless I make the decision to make that apart of the character. I had a Bard with a 3 Wisdom, and I played her very stupidly indeed ... pickpocketing just about everybody even though she kept getting caught, etc. But when people do dump stats like that and play it normal, that's just bad characterization. >_> I wonder how people even get remotely attached to their PCs when they act like that. Whenever I did, I would always obsess over NPCs (such as Xzar) and forget about my PC entirely.

Mykra

Quartz said:

Rhaegar said:

I refuse to dump stats. I hate it.

Agree with this part. I typically don't take anything below 10 (e.g. Intelligence, Charisma) unless I make the decision to make that apart of the character.

Agreed. 10 to me is a 'dump' stat.

And I love the tally. I don't go for super insane rolls, but it makes it really easy for me to find that nice mid-to-high 80s that lets me get the stats I want without doing the math in my head beforehand.

PeteAtoms

Silverstar said:

It doesn't change anything for me. I'll still be happy with what I now know is apparently "84" and can't imagine I'll bother rolling longer than I used to in the past.

What anyone else does doesn't affect me in any way.

80 to 84 is what I generally shoot for. I don't think I've ever made a character with 90+.

I think it all comes down to whether you want to roleplay or play hack+slash. Right now, the game accomodates both styles in satisfactory degrees (IMO, the roleplaying aspect isn't as great as modern RPGs).

DerDuKe

I like it (except for '< missing string [#13857] >').

TJ_Hooker

Huh looks like I'm the first person to post who voted against.

The biggest reason for me is this: a lot of people have said that if you're just going to sit there and roll until you get mega stats, you might as well cheat and set your stats using ShadowKeeper, because the results are the same. My counter to this is that if you've spent the time rolling, you've actually done something to deserve your good stats (a reward for your patience, if you will) which makes it different than cheating (in my mind at least). Adding a stat total makes rolling significantly easier (the amount of time you have to spend determining if you got a good roll is much less, so you can roll much faster), so you've done less to 'earn' your stats, which erodes my argument that it isn't effectively cheating.

Just my two cents. I don't care about this too much, so no one has to worry about me complaining about it all over the forums, as is the norm whenever anything gets changed.

Dee

I tend to agree, TJ_Hooker, although the other side of this is that it makes it easy to tell people, "Hey, this character has an 87 total", which gives other players a sense of the general strength of a character or build.

Personally, I like it because every character I build has a specific set of scores that I won't go below; knowing the total allows me to get to that baseline much faster, which allows me to start the game sooner (which ultimately is a good thing).

atcDave

It strikes me as a useful tool. I think there is a tendency to make too much of point totals, and I think it can diminish the fun of playing interesting, random, or mediocre characters. BUT, I always like more information, and I think the good outweighs the bad.

bigdogchris

If people are going to be rerolling for hours I suppose it can help a little to ease that.

Lifat

Again I'm one of those people who thinks it should have been optional. Don't want it? Don't use it. But personally I would ALWAYS use it. I even downloaded a program for it before it was incorporated.

moopy

Yeah, because adding up numbers in your head really really fast over and over again makes rolling a high stat more of an "accomplishment" ...

Sometimes I roll till I get the stats I want, sometimes I roll 10 times and take the best I got, but even on the times where I don't roll very much and take the best roll I have to ask.

1) Of my X (1-infinity) why shouldn't I take the highest one?
2) If I'm going to take the highest one, in my example of rolling 10 times and taking the best, why should I have to add the numbers up 10 times? I realize that only takes mere seconds, but why should I have to? How does that make it more of an accomplishment?

Edit:

Even if you are so hardcore you only roll once. Is it not nice to be able to at a glance say "Cool I rolled a 78" and know what you got instead of having to add up 6 numbers?

scriver

There's something weirdly enjoyable about rolling those stats for me as well, but adding them together was always a pain. That said, I'm used to the method of only adding the second digits together (meaning a good roll is at around 30, depending on class), so it will still take some getting used to.

@Messi -

Messi said:

sitting on your ass and pushing random number generator button for "extended perioid"

Dude, you basically described the whole game.

Zanian

I'm neither for or against. Rerolling is what made me ace math in elementary. ^^ My mind instantly adds the numbers together now, so for me it doesn't really make a difference.

moopy

scriver said:

Dude, you basically described the whole game.

QFT

Anduin

As a teacher I reject this loss of enjoyable mental computation on character creation! Our kids are gonna grow up not being able to count to 10! (Or 18!)

As a teacher with lots of marking. This is as useful as the answer book!