I've always liked point buy, because this approach theoretically enables me/my players to create a version of the character we have in our heads. Except when too few points are available or certain conceits aren't really offered by the system. Even so, this approach makes it more likely that you can play the character you fancy playing, while also making the game feel "fairer".

That said, as I get older and time to play gets scarcer, I can totally appreciate the value in sitting down, throwing some dice, the idea of saying "right, I have the stats to play a wizard. I'm calling him Elmo" and then getting stuck into the game is increasingly appealing. Emergent characterisation doesn't have to be any less valid or interesting (and may* encourage greater variation in play styles).

(*Idle speculation)

I don't know if it was mentioned before, but since different players have different tastes (and some have tantrums), it can work well to offer a choice of character creation methods, with some apples/oranges trade-offs. I regularly do this even with point-buy systems, including offering to let people roll (though I tend to tweak the odds of scores, since the games I play - TFT&GURPS - have the attribute scores very important).

E.g. a GM might offer a choice between:

* Draw a random pregen from set A of the DM's pregens.
* Choose a pregen from set B of the DM's pregens.
* Choose a generic pregen from set C, and personalize it.
* Choose a stat array from a list and personalize it.
* Point buy, slightly less point total than stat arrays have.
* Roll random 3d6 in order and take what you get. GM gives some other boon.
* Roll 3d6 but pick which roll is for which attribute.
* Roll 4d6 drop lowest die.
* Roll random 3d6 character, up to three times, pick one.
* Roll 3d6 and pick which attribute, with up to 6 re-rolls, but GM gives some major starting disadvantage (e.g. your character starts as a slave, a wanted criminal, or has enemies hunting him down, or is cursed, or something).
etc

At this point theres quite a few options for generating stats. And you can cull a few more from other RPGs.

As mentioned in another stat gen thread here. One I thought was neet was the system in Starships & Spacemen.

Roll in order. But you assign each stat as you roll. So say you roll a 10. Do you put it in a tertiary stat or an unimportant one? A bit of press-your-luck element there.

Though still my personal favorite is from BX and OD&D. Roll in order and then shuffle points on a 2-for-1 basis. Want to bump your 14 STR to 18? Thats going to cost you 8 points from other stats.

I much prefer rolling. I like surprises.

Quote from: Omega;878486At this point theres quite a few options for generating stats. And you can cull a few more from other RPGs.

As mentioned in another stat gen thread here. One I thought was neet was the system in Starships & Spacemen.

Roll in order. But you assign each stat as you roll. So say you roll a 10. Do you put it in a tertiary stat or an unimportant one? A bit of press-your-luck element there.

Though still my personal favorite is from BX and OD&D. Roll in order and then shuffle points on a 2-for-1 basis. Want to bump your 14 STR to 18? Thats going to cost you 8 points from other stats.

That could be interesting.

Quote from: mAcular Chaotic;878539That could be interesting.

That 2 for 1 trade was a lot easier to pull off harmlessly in AD&D than in 3rd edition or later design. Before 3rd, there was, in the vast majority of situations, no meaningful difference between a 14 stat and a 10 stat, giving pretty good room for optimization.

Roll and arrange for me. Did so since the first time I picked up WFRP, and I've always asked GMs if I can roll for my stats, even if they are using arrays or point - buys. I just like to take my chances.

Quote from: Rincewind1;878981Roll and arrange for me. Did so since the first time I picked up WFRP, and I've always asked GMs if I can roll for my stats, even if they are using arrays or point - buys. I just like to take my chances.

Yeah, me too.  If they don't have a way to have me roll for stats or don't want me to, then I'll just randomly pick out of the pregen pile, or have the GM give me one.

Rolls. Always rolls.

Quote from: RPGPundit;879924Rolls. Always rolls.

Doesn't that cause balance issues in 5e?

Quote from: mAcular Chaotic;879957Doesn't that cause balance issues in 5e?

No? Why would it?

Quote from: mAcular Chaotic;879957Doesn't that cause balance issues in 5e?

About as much balance issued that we saw in either 3.PF or 4e. In 5e it raises the baseline abilities of most characters who roll, with the exception of those that roll terribly. The ones that rolled in our D&D games (regardless of edition) almost always had better arrays to dole out compared to those who went with the point-buy/elite array of 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, and 8.

The ones who choose the latter were often the ones who had a history of just rolling terrible for starting characters. For me it was two guys who just were horrible and always had a max stat of 13 and most were 8 to 11's. When you compared them to the guys who rolled 17, 17, 16, 14, 14, 10 it created a significant disparity among the players AND caused more work for me as the DM.

As I've noted before. In the current group I am playing in I have the lowest overall stats of the group. But bemusingly I have the most HP of the group. More than Jans Half-orc Fighter. In fact she has the lowest HP of the group.

Even if you roll poorly you can probably boost your prime stats up eventually to compensate.

And assuming really abysmal rolls. You can just ask to re-roll, use array or point instead. Or ask someone else to roll for you.

Or just not give a fuck about wether you have a +1 or not and the other guy does. (Really wide discrepencies though I can well understand being a little disconcerting.)

Quote from: Batman;879983About as much balance issued that we saw in either 3.PF or 4e. In 5e it raises the baseline abilities of most characters who roll, with the exception of those that roll terribly. The ones that rolled in our D&D games (regardless of edition) almost always had better arrays to dole out compared to those who went with the point-buy/elite array of 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, and 8.

The ones who choose the latter were often the ones who had a history of just rolling terrible for starting characters. For me it was two guys who just were horrible and always had a max stat of 13 and most were 8 to 11's. When you compared them to the guys who rolled 17, 17, 16, 14, 14, 10 it created a significant disparity among the players AND caused more work for me as the DM.

That's the kind of balance issue I meant.

That and 5e's base bonuses are fairly static so starting off with +4 is pretty huge.

Quote from: Batman;879983...When you compared them to the guys who rolled 17, 17, 16, 14, 14, 10 ...

How about the guys who roll the opposite: 4, 4, 5, 7, 7, 11?