Help me subdue my inner fedora

I got a bad array of stats for a new D&D 5th ed campaign.
The best stat after racial modifiers is 14, others are lower.
I made the character into a shapeshifting druid, so it will still have a decent combat impact regardless of the stats.
Still... When I see the others with their double 16s, 18s and shit.. I feel jealous.
How can I take off my fedora and not be a passive aggressive asshole?

This is why rolled stats are fucking terrible.

If you're with a GM who doesn't see reason though, OP, then... Fuck it, I don't even know. Pretend to believe the people who shout about balance not mattering in RPGs for some soothing self-delusion?

Is the sum of your bonuses less than 3? Have you asked your DM if you can reroll?

It's a new gm who I haven't played with before. I tried lightly pushing to allow for a re-roll of the stats, but the gm gave me some philosophy thing about how it's the lowest stats that make the characters really lovable and stuff. I decided to swallow my inner desire to argue, and just go with it. Maybe the DM's right. But my inner power gamer screams injustice at me. : P

wew lad

Try playing the underdog, the small guy that is going against the odds. Courageous and never faltering, that's what you are and that's why people like you; your positive spirit.
Sometimes character is more important than the numbers on the paper, baka senpai :^)

The difference between 14 and 18 is +2 to a roll, which is not much compared to the variance of a d20.

After racial additions, it's 14, 13, 12, 10, 10, 9, so it's a sum of 4. I lightly asked for a reroll, but the gm seemed optimistic about the array, despite my disappointment, and since the gm was so enthusiastic about the game, I didn't want to soil the fun with my grumpy complaints.

That is true, but when it's in an attribute like strength, the numbers add up quickly. Hitting, damage, two-handed bonuses.. Same is with spells and their DCs, bonus spells slots etc. It's not just for singular rolls, there's loads of mechanics based on the stats

That's what the GM thought as well. I'm not sure if you're being super sarcastic, but i'd love if I could do that. I'm just afraid that I'll feel resentful towards the others and eventually start acting like a dick.

Play the back-up character you don't really want to play. When this one dies roll a new one. If the stats are decent, play the actual character you wanted to play.

You rolled a bad attack roll? You wait until your next attack.
You rolled bad for your hitpoints for the level? Wait for the next level.
You rolled a bad set of stats? Wait for your next character.

This argument is just a variation of the stormwind fallacy, and it's still bullshit.

Low stats doesn't make a character more interesting, it's just an arbitrary mechanical penalty for no good reason.

Also, a character and the numbers on the sheet are one and the same. The stats and mechanics represent the character, so you can't really divorce them so easily.

>Rolling for stats
You deserved what you got for going along with that.

Or you could just play a good system. That's an option too.

All right. I felt like dismissing this as bad advice at first, but thinking deeper about it, there's a certain comfort to playing a character that's ..disposable I guess.

>Playing in games you don't want to play
I am both derisive of and sympathetic to your plight.

Damn, forgot thew trip on.
Try to die quickly then? Maybe be a little to confident about there being no traps or that you can tank some enemies? Try not to be too overt in your tries though.

I suppose these may or may not be true, but i'm already in this boat, so i'm trying to make what I can out of it.

Just roll with it

Old school DnD players had a saying for stuff like this: Backstory is what happens up until level 5.

And then we realised you could play games without wasting so much time on pointless bullshit.

Okay, so there seems to be two paths emerging here that somewhat make sense to me. By the way thanks for the help guys! I appreciate it.

1) Try to die, but make it subtle
2) Reach some sort of stoic enlightenment and cast away the shackles that make you want to be powerful to begin with.

I think path 1 is possibly depressive to play on until the death eventually takes place, and path 2 is cool, but I have no idea how to take the first steps

Rolling for stats in AD&D is fine, but rolling for stats in a system that's literally designed around point-buy statributes is retarded.

>but I have no idea how to take the first steps

Just play the character. You might have to be more careful than you otherwise would, but having to consider and think about your decisions is a part of the fun.

Then we realized that's retarded and adjusted our practices accordingly. Starting your characters at level 3 was not a 3e invention, and pointless rat-infested starter dungeons and DMPCs holding our hand is not something Baldur's Gate came up with.

I think you are wise to suggest this, but the thing I'm most afraid of is that I won't be making many of the choices; it'll be the more powerful characters that will move about and change the world, and I'll be left as some sort of background ornament. Maybe i'm delusional, though.

That's a horrible suggestion. Intentionally trying to kill your character because of stat lines is pretty much the worst possible way to deal with it.

As for OP's problem, I understand. It's especially bad because all of the stats are either average or above average which is the most boring way for bad stats to appear. If you can't reroll, the only option is to either stick with it or drop out. Having played a character with a +1, +2, and -2 with the rest being zero mods, its honestly not that bad. You can still contribute significantly, and the differences probably aren't major enough for you to feel weak unless you constantly think about it.

I know I'm power gamey enough to squeeze power out of the character regardless of the stats. It's more of a mental issue of jealousy that i'm fearful for.

I don't know about 5th edition, but in 3.pf attribute modifiers don't just mean numbers added to d20 rolls. Extra spells per day from the primary casting stat, undead turning attempts from Cha, and HP per level thanks to Con are pretty important. Raw attribute numbers also determine the highest level spell you can take, certain feat prerequisites, etc.

I had a player roll similar stats once. He was playing a minotaur barbarian. It was a dungeon crawl stone soup-based setting so I just let him find horn coverings only a minotaur could wear that boosted his str and con by 2 each. But begging the DM for a super special item probably won't work.

I also played a character with even shittier stats, I rolled it doing 18d6 on here and none of the stats were above a 12. I made him a cleric and only took spells that didn't have a save or roll to hit, they just fucking worked. He understood he was completely ordinary in a world full of extraordinary characters, and focused on things that Just Worked. And once he beat an entire barracks of men by pretending to be a wizard come to put on a show for them, casting fog cloud, running out the entrance and freezing the doorway shut

I don't think super special items should be begged for, or expected. They're something the GM might give, if he is sympathetic to low stats. Maybe there will be something like that. But yeah, that's the same way I picked my shit. Nothing that has a save, etc. Stuff that simply works, no matter what kind of scrub tries using them.

My dm personally prefers the randomness of rolled stats, but he has a rule that states that if your character stats total to be less than the standard array, you can opt to use the array if you desire. So far it works, as our weakest party member is still competent and out strongest got two good rolls

Tell your DM it's unfair how much of a gap their is.

5e is balanced around Standard Array, which is 15, 14, 13, 12, 10. Ask your DM if you can just use that instead. Level 1 characters shouldn't have a +4 modifier or higher, otherwise they kill everything in their CR range.

That, or ask if everyone can use the same roll instead, that way things are balanced. Whoever has the best roll, everyone uses it for their characters. If he whines, then he's just being a prick since he wants to be better than everyone else, so call him out on it.

There is literally NO reason why one player should have better stats than another, before modifiers.

rolled badly in D&D? take one of the top tier classes. having a wizard with mediocre stats isnt a bad thing.