Point buy + 1D6 Character Creation

Here's a system I used in the 40 Cities homebrew back around '83 and a couple times later in D&D to split the difference between point buy minimaxing and random rolling. It lets you weight in favor of the stats that are important to you, without getting assurance they will excel.

For a classic six attribute 3-18 bell curve PC, assign 42 (or 45 or 48, up to maybe 50  if you are a generous GM aiming for more heroic-scaled PCs) at between 2 and 12 points in each attribute. So you are basically point buying the first two dice of each attribute. Then roll 1D6 for each attribute, in order, no swapping or rerolls, and add it to the assigned value.

I rather like where this falls on the build vs luck spectrum. I don't remember seeing it in any published games, but somebody has probably done it at some point.

Rules from my Pacificon OD&D game

With just the three little brown books, thieves were not an officially supported class with trap disarm and backstab tables etc. Had someone wanted to run a thief, I was prepared to invoke the "even a Balrog" rule to cobble together a simplified thieflike class on the spot, or shade a fighting man who goes light on the armor to have some on the fly advantages for it that would be thief-like. Notably, I wanted to avoid the percentile thief skill tables, and wanted trap evasion or disarming to be the old school figure it out what you are doing and maybe roll a D6. While I announced and described the rule, it did not come up directly as nobody really opted for anything too far outside the box.

Among the houserules in my long 70s high school D&D campaign (after my first megadungeon game imploded on bad DM calls) I developed an elaborate spell point system. One of its features was to make utility spells generally cheaper than combat spells, so a beginning mage could take a couple Light spells or Read Magic and still cast Sleep, if maybe a bit weaker on the number of orcs it would knock over. It felt too "advanced" and too cumbersome to use for this one-off though, so I went with the simple expedient of saying mages could memorize one 1st level combat spell and three utility spells, and told them which counted as combat spells (just sleep and charm person on the original short first level list). This worked pretty well, giving mages some fun magic to do without wiping too many encounters with Sleep. Not exactly sure how I would scale it up with levelling, but it might be worth some effort to knock together a variant that has the same property of simply adding more utility magic while keeping combat spells on the strict Vancian memorization limits. 

Since an original cleric has no spells at first level, I gave the cleric a couple scrolls of cure light wounds as backing from his temple superiors for his mission.

Hit points I did with the original all D6s table, but I had any roll below 4 on the first hit die be a 4. So no two HP PC fighters or 1 HP clerics or mages. Monsters did not get this bump, so a goblin might be a 1 HP wonder.

Stats I had them roll 3D6 for each statistic, no swapping, but let them bump one up to a 14 if they had no rolls of 14 or higher, which would both give some opportunity to customize towards a class and make up for poor rolls. If they were notably bad, I gave one re-roll of the whole set of stats. Only one guy ended up using that chance and he ended up keeping the original set of rolls since the rerolls were worse. So this is almost as tough as the original system.

Damage was 1D6 for normal hits by any weapon, with a natural 12 to hit being a max damage crit. But the Chainmail man to man 2D6 to hit tables give some widely varying chances to hit based on weapon/armor interactions, with two handed swords being awesome pretty much across the board, and daggers and short bows being quite good against lightly armored targets but poor against heavy armor, so fighting men had some serious advantages in combat with the full range of weapons available, but magic users are surprisingly good against very lightly armored targets like the mook goblins they faced most often in the castle ruins and first dungeon level. In general weapons that would do more damage in later D&D tend to hit more often on this table so get a net effect in the same direction.

Stat bonuses were a bit more liberal than the original but less than Greyhawk. STR 13-15 got +1 to hit, 16 - 18 got +1 to hit and +1 to damage, for instance. Also gave high strength characters a +1 on the door opening checks. These bonuses are bigger than they seem, given the 2D6 combat bell curve and 1D6 universal weapons damage.

I ruled the one inch space on the floor grid was 3.3 feet instead of the more typical 5 feet in current rules, so we could have the classic close order 3 man wide in a ten foot passage formation, fighting a couple ranks deep if the second rank had appropriate pole weapons or a short first rank. I was planning to penalize greatswords that didn't give themselves lateral swinging space, but didn't end up enforcing that, might do it if I was to run with Chainmail combat tables long run.

I played the sequencing pretty much like Chainmail man to man with very long weapons getting first swing advantage on closing, and short weapons getting first swing and potentially extra swings at the end of the round if the length difference was really big on subsequent rounds, with initiative on a D6 deciding move order and and swing order in cases where the lengths were close. So everyone moved and/or did ranged attacks by initiative order, then all melee attacks took place by hybrid length/initiative order. Magic did not get high enough in level or frequency this time to make me deal with whether higher level spells took longer, could be interrupted, spells were slower to cast from scrolls, etc.

Cinematic declarations were either handled in colorful descriptions of the results of standard rolls, or with off the cuff D6 or stat based rolls to succeed if trying to achieve some affect outside the ruled bounds like a knockdown or disarm or a tricky move like surfing down the stairs on a broken door. Yes, there were a couple of characters doing multiple wipeouts on the winding stairs down to the second level at the end as they kept failing to emulate Legolas's shield skateboard prowess.

House rules handout from my '85-89 D&D nostalgia game

I've edited it a bit from the original in the course of typing it up again, but this is the gist of how I ran the campaign.
This game uses the three little brown books, and specified bits of Greyhawk. Some of the monsters and spells from Greyhawk will be introduced as well. I'm leaving out Blackmoor and later additions.

Character classes

Fighter
Magic User
Cleric
Thief
period.
All humanoid races can be any class. No level caps. Human society is dominant over half the map, and race relations problems will make up for the tactical benefits of non-human races.

Alignments

Alignments are the old three value Law, Neutrality, Chaos system, interpreted this humanocentric way, since this is a campaign world with a shrinking human realm bordering on an growing magical one:
Law: Believes that humanity and human social order is basically a good thing. Neutrality: Neither for nor against the continued existence of humans. Chaos: Inimical to human life.

Experience Points

Experience points will be given out for monsters killed at a rate somewhat over original canon, and for treasure spent after the adventure on carousing/training/charitable donations/etc. Money saved for a rainy day, spent to gear up, hire muscle or fortify will not give experience points. Magic items will give some experience when used at first. There will be roleplaying, painful lesson, and quest rewards. I have some rules of thumb for calculating XP, but I'm not going to spell out formulas.

COMBAT

Damage

• unarmed humans 1D3
• most normal weapons 1D6
• heavy crossbows 2D6
• most monster attacks 1D6
• special monster attacks: as noted in book 2 or by DM fiat

Chance to Hit Modifiers

Melee Weapons

• +1 Two handed weapons
• -1 Small weapons (dagger and handaxe)
• -1 Using two weapons, primary hand
• -2 Using two weapons -secondary (usually left hand) attack
• -2 Unarmed attacks by men & similar
• -1 Improvised weapons

Missile Weapons

• 0 Short range
• -1 Medium range
• -2 Long range
• +1 Crossbows

Situational modifiers

Helmetless men: A.C. averaged with A.C.9, round down (stronger)

Attack Roll conventions

To begin with there will be no fumbles but a roll of 1 will always miss. A roll of 20 will always hit, the hit will be for double damage if the attacker could hit on a 19 or less. The 20 will also entitle the attacker to a reroll for a 19 or 20 for an instant kill.

Number of Attacks/Actions

Characters who attack on the men attacking table will get to attack once for each level group they have. A level group is the set of levels which all attack with the same To Hit number. Thus a fighter gets two attacks at level 4-6 and three at level 7-9, etc. Fighters and some monsters may strike great blows. If they do so, roll only once to hit and if successful, do the damage of the sum of their normal number of blows. Thus a superhero can strike three times for 1D6 or once for 3D6.
Actions such as drawing a weapon take up the time of one attack. Some actions, such as rummaging around in a backpack for a potion, will take longer.
Rate of fire with missiles depends on the weapon. Self bows can shoot once per action if the minimum strength requirement for the weapon is met. Otherwise, they take an extra action to load and draw, or are impossible to shoot. Crossbows take a number of actions to load based on their power.

Bow	Min. STR to shoot	Min STR to shoot each action
Shortbow	3	7
Composite Bow	7	12
Longbow	8	13

Crossbow	Actions to reload
Light crossbow	2
Heavy crossbow	4

Initiative

Each character rolls 1D6 and act in the order of high roller to low roller in each combat round. If desired, a group may choose to act together on the leader's roll, the choice being made before any dice are rolled. Dexterity, wound status and situation may modify the rolls. If acting as a group, the modifiers that apply to the most negatively modified character in the group are used.

Attribute effects on combat

Strength has the effects tabulated in Greyhawk.
Dexterity modifies a character's initiative, melee, and missile attacks, and defense as detailed in the table below:

Dexterity	Modifier
3	-2
4-6	-1
7-14	0
15-17	+1
18	+2

HIT POINTS, WOUNDS, AND HEALING

Hit Points

Dice as per original D&D, not Greyhawk 4-6-8. Characters have bonus hit points equal to one half of their CON, round up. Monsters are hjit dice listed +5 H.P, unless under one hit die, then bonus is 0-4 based on size. Hit dice will be rolled anew at each level, the new hit point score being used if it is higher than the old.

Wounds

There will be no hit location rules in effect but I don't want the okay until you are dead phenomenon so the table below will govern wound effects on the characters. Calculate the threshold values for the character at 1/4, 1/2, and 3/4 of the total hit points.

Fraction HP lost	Effect
1/4	Roll 1D20: If over CON+Level then character takes a -1 on all rolls, reduce movement rate by one class (3"). Else no effect.
1/2	Roll 1D20: If over CON+Level then character takes a -2 on all rolls, reduce movement rate to 1/2 normal. Roll again with a second failure resulting in incapacitation for 1D6 turns. If first roll is successful, inflict the penalty given above for 1/4 loss roll failure.
3/4	Roll 1D20: If over CON+Level then character takes a -4 on all rolls, reduce movement rate two classes (6"). Roll again vs 2D6 turn incapacitation, at end of which, roll again vs 1D6 day incapacitation. If first roll is successful, inflict the penalty given above for 1/2 loss roll failure, without the incapacitation roll.

For NPCs if CON is not rolled or specified, assume it is a 10.

For minor NPCs in large melees the effects are simplified:
1/4 Roll 1D6: run away on 1 or 2
1/2 Roll 1D6: Pass out 1D6 turns on 1-2, then -2 on all rolls. Run away on 3 or 4, -2 on all rolls. 5-6 -1 on all rolls.
3/4 Roll 1D6: Pass out 2D6 turns on 1-3, then -4 on all rolls. Run away on 4 or 5 at -6" speed, -2 on all rolls. 6 -2 Keep fighting at all rolls.

If runaway impossible, fight on on 1-3, surrender on 4-6.

Healing

Natural

1/4 hit points restored per week's rest if CON roll is successful on 1D20.
Skilled aid can add bonuses to the roll. Bad conditions will subtract from the roll.
Roll of 1: Special recovery, get 1/2 back.
Roll of 20: condition worsens, lose additional 1/4 hit points. If reduced below zero by this loss, save vs illness and death on this table:
Roll 1D20:
Under 1/2 CON - character falls only to one hit point, not killed, not crippled.
1/2 CON to CON - Reduced to one hit point, shock to system reduces CON by 1 permanently
CON +1 to CON + Level - Reduce to 1 HP, CON -2 permanently, DEX and STR -1 permanently
Over CON + Level - Death by illness and infection

Magical(Clerical)

I'm not running healing as a quick combat tactic in this one.
Healing magic puts the recipient into a trance in which they will heal at 1 pt/turn until the total effect of the spell has occurred. If the healing is by clerical spells, the cleric must closely attend the recipient, maintaining concentration throughout, or the spell stops healing.
Magical healing in one day totalling over the character's CON can overload the character's system. Save vs magic or lose one point of CON for each multiple of CON exceeded. This loss is permanent.

Magic

Magic spells will be learned and cast in the basic fashion with spells memorized and cast once, with some allowance for casting unmemorized spells and casting over your maximum number at increased risk for flexibility. A die roll will be required to cast a spell successfully.
Magic users must roll less than or equal to INT + level to cast spells successfully. Clerics roll vs WIS + level. If failed, the spell is not normally lost from memory and can be reattempted.
A roll of 1 is a critical success. The spell works and is still retained in memory. If unmemorized, no spell is wiped from memory to provide the "slot". If overcast, no damage is suffered.
A roll of 20 is a critical failure. The spell fails and is lost from memory. Unmemorized spells will wipe a same level spell from memory. Overcast spells will inflict double overcasting damage to the caster.
Unmemorized spells: You may attempt to cast a spell you know but have not memorized for the day. There is a -2 penalty per spell level to the roll. Spells to an equivalent number of spell levels will be wiped from memory by the successful cast or a critical failure. Normally this would be one spell of the same level, but multiple lower level spells or a spell of higher level may be burned off for the magical energy.
Overcasting: Spells can be cast beyond the stated limits in the rules. They are cast as a minus as unmemorized spells. The caster will take 1 hit point damage per level of spell if the attempt fails and 1D6 hits per level of spell if the cast works, due to the extreme strain upon the caster's body and psyche involved. First level clerics can cast first level spells only by overcasting.
Preparation: A spellcaster can improve chances of success by using ritual and preparing the spell before casting it. The bonus will be up to 1D6 rolled secretly by the DM. The spellcaster must remain concentrating on the preparation, gaining 1 point per full turn up to the secret limit (turns beyond are wasted), expending 1GP worth of magical supplies per turn per level of spell.
Duration: Spell durations, where imposed by Greyhawk, will apply.
Area effect damage will be a hybrid between doing full damage to everyone in the area and dividing up the damage among the targets. Damage spells such as fireballs and lightning bolts which do not specify that the damage is to be applied to each target will divide the damage among their victims rather than apply their whole damage to each. Dragon breath and other such large area weapons will be applied the same way. Add 2D6 per target in the area over one to the total damage before dividing damage among the targets. So a five die fireball on one ogre does him 5 dice, minus half if saved. A five dice fireball on a group of 6 orcs will roll 5 + 10 dice, but divide the rolled damage by 6 to apply to each orc. The orcs will save individually to reduce damage.