Quote from: Voros;1001782Always thought the 18/00 rule was pointless and removed it once I started GMing.

You never played Fighters then, at least in my 2e experience, to hit bonuses are nice, not necessary, it's the extra damage that counts.  That +6 is very nice at higher levels, especially if your Magic User (no one is perfect) miscalculates and it's up to the non-casters to finish off the fight.

I've rolled it ONCE, and every other stat was so mediocre that I decided to reroll the entire character, the DM decided to let me keep the strength roll, but reroll everything else.  I got a decent Con (I think it was 14 or 15, I forget) but everything else was between 9-12.  Character lasted longer in fights, until 9 level where we decided to play something else...  Cyberpunk 2020, and they wanted me to run it.

Have never seen it occurring naturally in the wild, but have seen many facsimiles of them that I were assured were real:)

Rolled it purely by luck once. Over the span of 2E lifetime saw it maybe twice or three times.

I don't have a problem with the 18/00 rules; in fact, giving fighters access to this is one of the main benefits of the class. But its so rare, statistically, that you either cheat or almost never benefit from it. I would rather get rid of weapon specialization from UA and give fighters some sort of sanctioned cheat to bump them into the 18/ percentile range.

Quote from: chirine ba kal;1002204STR 86, INT 98, CON 97, PSY 00, DEX 89, COM 12; rolled in front of M. A. R. Barker and Gronan (along with others in the group) one night in the spring of 1976. The 'custom of the house' was that you rolled right down the list in EPT, and what you rolled was what you got; if you didn't like any of the rolls, you did all of them over again. I rolled these numbers, in this sequence, and Phil told me that I was going to be a sorcerer and told me to come up with a PC in the next five minutes. (Or else. Subtle. Real subtle, was Our Phil.) And so my leaden alter ego was born.

I still have that pair of pink and white TSR twenty-siders, too, although they're a lot rounder after forty years.

Chirine baKal is remarkable in many ways, not the least of which are his attributes. I believe you rightlty have referred to him as "a one off" on the Chirine thread?

Quote from: Christopher Brady;1002373especially if your Magic User (no one is perfect) miscalculates and it's up to the non-casters to finish off the fight.

I see what you did there. :rolleyes:

These were all in AD&D 2e. I had an 18/92 STR Fighter/Thief, an 18/99 Fighter (samurai type), and, yes, I've had an 18/00 and it was witnessed by another player. I was playing in a friend's home brew game and he had us roll up our characters together to avoid cheating and make sure we got everything right. The other guy was rolling up a Fighter and I was rolling up a Cleric who was a northman/barbarian type, so the DM had told us I could roll for exceptional STR, if I got an 18, because of my background. The other guy had of course put the 18 he had rolled into STR and I had rolled well with a 17 and an 18. So, because my cleric was supposed to be kind of a badass, I put the 18 in STR and the 17 in WIS. The other guy rolled a 40-something for his STR bonus and I literally just tossed my percentile dice toward him and asked him what the result was. I got silence. I look up to see him just looking at me stunned and a little hurt lol. I look over where the dice had settled and.....00. I couldn't believe it.

With 3d6 down the line, I've never seen it.

Quote from: Shemek hiTankolel;1002391Chirine baKal is remarkable in many ways, not the least of which are his attributes. I believe you rightlty have referred to him as "a one off" on the Chirine thread?

Probably. Not knowing any better - this was 1976, remember - I asked Phil if this character was worth keeping, or if I should roll another s I had no idea what all the other players had for stats. (Phil's reaction was priceless.) In EPT, at least the way Phil played it, you rolled against your basic stats for things, so I tended to be able to survive or discover a lot of things when the dice needed rolling. Allied with my good memory, it did get us out of a lot of very sticky situations. So, yeah, I think he was pretty unique in both cultural and game terms in Phil's campaign.

Quote from: CRKrueger;1002435I see what you did there. :rolleyes:

Although, pun aside, it shows an interesting attitude; in our games, the Magic User might throw a spell to start things off, but never more than one; spells were scarce, so the longer you saved them, the longer you could keep exploring.  The fighters ALWAYS finished things off.

In fact, a lot of times there was a quick judgement of "Can the fighters handle this without magic?", again so that the magic will last longer.

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;1002577Although, pun aside, it shows an interesting attitude; in our games, the Magic User might throw a spell to start things off, but never more than one; spells were scarce, so the longer you saved them, the longer you could keep exploring.  The fighters ALWAYS finished things off.

In fact, a lot of times there was a quick judgement of "Can the fighters handle this without magic?", again so that the magic will last longer.

If I remember correctly, we were under the impression that once we defeated the...  I forget, it was something heavy, though, that we'd be able to retreat and recover.  Unfortunately, we were ambushed by the last of 'the minions', and it was up to the Fighter (me), the Thief and the Ranger to clean up.  We were pretty badly mangled by the end of it, but the 18/00 strength bonuses (in AD&D2e) actually helped make a difference and other than the cleric falling, we got out.  Don't remember if this was the bit with the dragon or not, though.  It's been a couple of decades, and my memory sucks to begin with.

Short term memory is the first thing to go, and I forget what the second thing is.

We used every method imaginable at one time or another. Straight 3d6 one stat at a time, 4d6 drop the lowest, straight rolls assign at will, roll for 7stats drop the lowest, everything. Never saw a natural 18/00. The closest I saw was my fighter, 18str, can't remember the method used but there was some kind of choice, it wasn't just straight rolls. My bonus then was 60. So 18/60 was the highest I ever saw.

Even without straight rolls that was considered to be a pretty awesome stat

Quote from: Willmark;1001633As it weaved in and out of here I figured this would be a good topic to discuss (and its probably been already discussed here) so sue me,

http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?37811-Classes-that-don-t-fit-the-game

The question revolves around 18/00 and how often you've seen it, legitimate or not.

...

In my roughly 15 years of AD&D gaming I've only seen it rolled once.  It was out in the open for all to see so legit.

Quote from: Zirunel;1002623Even without straight rolls that was considered to be a pretty awesome stat

As it should be...players who think scores like 14 to 17 in D&D are just blah have been given too many breaks even before the game starts!