How do you roll up the stats for a new character in BGEE?
franco
Member Posts: 507
We often talk about the PC characters we are using, but it might be interesting for us to discuss and share how we tend to roll the stats for our PC character once we have decided on gender, race and class.
- How do you roll up the stats for a new character in BGEE?91 votes
- I roll until getting total I like, then min-max to get maximum stats for certain abilities.42.86%
- I roll until getting total I like, then distribute stats according to role playing conception of character.32.97%
- I use a fixed number of rolls, then min-max to maximum stats for certain abillities.3.30%
- I use a fixed number of rolls, then distribute stats according to role playing conception of character.3.30%
- other. I have a more interesting way.17.58%
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Comments
Personally, I am not much of a power gamer but I do have very specific stats for each of my characters. My wizard, for instance is a very sickly and bookish sort so he has an 8-9 STR and a CON no higher than 12. Dex is usually 16 and INT is either 17-18 with 10s for the rest. Total is not high, but that is who he is.
Besides, I think most challenges are pretty strange. This just struck me as in that vein.
So oddly, I don't usually roll characters in BG at all. I have literally hundreds of characters I've played in PNP over the years, and that is always my starting point. I pretty much go straight to ShadowKeeper and type in the scores from old character sheets. That gives me that sort of variation exactly. And I love that I can choose a character who is strong, or weak or somewhere in between. And I know all those scores were dice rolls at one time or another. Some DMs allowed point shifting, some did not. Some characters are perfect for their class, some are pretty odd. I love the variation!
On occasion, I'll do it a little different and try to pattern a figure from book, movie or television. This also usually means Shadow Keeper.
There are two major exceptions to this. First, I have occasionally legitimately rolled for a best character. Then I'll play the min/max game and see just how good I can get.
Second, and this should make Spyder happy, I've done a couple of no re-roll challenges. I love those characters. I've got a halfling fighter going with a 15 wisdom as his best score. And human fighter with a 16 charisma as their best. Characters like that require more care and planning. You need to use good tactics and your resources carefully. That is gaming at its finest.
STR - 8
INT - 9 (only because that is the minimum allowable for the class)
Wis - 6
DEX - 17 (feets don't fail me now)
CON - 10
CHA - 5
Or how about the two fighters who always went around with Phineas Fingers? They absolutely weren't "Power" builds.
Yeah, I remember the random rolls well. Most of my DMs wouldn't let us move points, but we were allowed to move the stats around. If you rolled a 17 STR but wanted a Wizard, you could move that stat to INT, but you had to move one of your other rolls into STR. It worked very much like the system in ToEE (love that game). But not all of them were like that. One was very strict and you got what you rolled. He would 'Occasionally' allow one mulligan but even that was rare.
First choose the character kit that you would really like to experience most.
I predetermine the minimal roll total I want: 87+ (Imoen's number), 82+ (most good NPCs), 75+ challenge.
I also designate two stats as: a) primary ability and b) secondary ability. (For example: Fighter, STR, DEX)
Then I look for the very first roll that satisfies three conditions:
1. It must be at or above my selected minimal roll total.
2. It must give me an initial primary ability of 13 or better.
3. It must give me an initial secondary ability of 12 or better.
Then I distribute the stats as follows:
1. No ability may be reduced by more than 3 points.
2. No ability may be increased by more than 3 points.
That's it.
By using this method, for example, I would get a Fighter with STR of 15 to 18, and a DEX of 14 to 18, but no number is guaranteed. The other stats will be a bit more random, but you'll be increasing the ones you want to emphasize by up to 3. What is also interesting is that you might even sometime end up with a Fighter who has INT 14 (similar to Khalid). With this method you won't be maximizing, but you'll be emphasizing the stats that you think your PC's class should have, but you'll be introducing more variety and uncertainty.
However you do it. Everybody keep enjoying the game.
I do it this way because it's essentially the same as rolling until I get that number, just much faster. Clicking one button 50 times is not my idea of a good time.
Although I rolled a 100 once on vanilla baldur's gate a decade ago on accident. I felt like it was so wasted on him as a fighter! Then I realized by bg2 I could dual class to mage without setting myself to far behind. That was a bloody awesome character(literally bloody). The Genius Berzerker. I imagined he realized the benefits of berzerk on an intellectual level and decided to harness its power. Learning magic started as a mere curiosity. I always imagined my chaotic good character found a way with his magic to increase his lifespan and restore Aerie her wings, return Khalid to Jaheria and unscrabble Minsc's brain.
I used the autoroller once last week on a sorcerer, got a 100 then too. It was fitting. I figured that character could be a super evil sorcerer who somehow got a large portion of Bhaal's divine essence and it empowered him beyond the means of mere mortals from an early age.
Of course, I wimped out and played an elven ranger (this race/class combo has the highest minimums across the boards)
I also base my stats somewhat around my idea of the character. Recently, I made an elven fighter/mage specializing in bows. Instead of sacrificing other stats for strength, I took strength down to 13. Seemed kind of pointless to make a ranged fighter if he always has the option of going melee and being just as effective. This way, unless I get strength equipment for him, he'll always be more effective from the back with ranged weapons and spells.
I chose that the roll would be in the normal range 82+, as opposed to the super range 87+, or the challenge range 75+. The character would be a vanilla Fighter, with STR and DEX selected as the main attributes. Based on the rule, I stopped on the very first role above 81, with STR 13 or above and DEX 12 or above. The roll was:
STR 17
DEX 13
CON 10
INT 16
WIS 12
CHA 17
total 85
Based on the rules 1)no ability reduced by more than 3 2)no ability increased by more than 3, the final
stats for the character became:
STR 18/74.........+1
DEX 16 .........+3
CON 13 .........+3
INT 13 .........-3
WIS 9 .........-3
CHA 16 .........-1
It's a character that is perfectly playable and may be interesting. The next fighter you roll up would then likely be different statistically. Maybe STR 15, DEX 18, CON 16 etc. It is a random system that is determined by the very first roll that meets the basic conditions.
It's about the only way I can resist the urge to min/max.
Anyone care to discuss this idea?