Using my new copy of the Book of Knights & Ladies (such a fantastic book!) my players decided to start a new campaign after a long while of playing other games, this time rolling their characters randomly for a more interesting and realistic game. I have three players for this campaign. In the interest of not revealing their real names (some of which I don't even know how to spell using English letters), and since we are already in theme, they shall be referred to from now on as Alein, Briant and Clegis.
As we understood it, and please correct us if we were wrong, random Attributes for new characters are generated thus:

SIZ is 3d6+4
STR, DEX, CON and APP are 3d6+1.
Dice were rolled, and presented here are the raw results:

Alein: SIZ 14,DEX 10, CON 9, STR 10, APP 11
Briant: SIZ 21, DEX 9, CON 9, STR 10, APP 14
Clegis: SIZ 22, DEX 12, CON 17, STR 17, APP 16

The ranges are... somewhat different, as you can see. In case you are wondering, the Attribute point totals we are dealing here with are 54 for Alein, 63, for Briant, and a mind boggling 84 for Clegis.
Now, I know Clegis since we were in the seventh grade. He didn't cheat. I would have caught him if he did, he isn't smart enough to (...) and it is completely unlike him in personality, anyway. He's just not the kind of guy who cheats on his attribute rolls during character generation for a roleplaying game. He was simply amazingly lucky on this particular evening (which is amusing, because generally he is by far the least lucky of us all).

As GM, you can see why this presents me with a problem. He rolled fairly, and by the method of essentially betting, has "won" those rolls rightfully. He risked getting very low results and had the good luck of getting extremely high ones. I can't just come and take away this character, or artificially reduce it's stats. It wouldn't be fair towards Clegis. What did he do wrong, after all? Nobody should be punished for being lucky with the dice, it's absurd.
But, I mean, just look at the character, by attributes. This thing isn't human. Clegis may consider playing a Saxon, and what would we do then? He would have a base damage of 7d6 easily, and as a Saxon who uses mainly two-handed weapons, that would be 8d6 most of the time... And think about the critical hits. Horses will be cut in half. A character like that crosses the line from "big human" to "small giant". It's borderline ridiculous.

If I let his character into the game such as this, the other players would never stand a chance. Sir Superknight of Kryptonshire will be racking all the Glory left and right before they can even get to the battlefield. If the both of them tried to fight him in the same time, they would probably lose! This... creature, is just that powerful. It's an inhuman demigod.

I need to choose between ruining Alein and Briant's enjoyment of the game and being unreasonably mean and unjust with Clegis. Both choices aren't very positive, in my opinion.

Do you have any suggestions as for what I should and can do?

Let nature take its course.

First, attributes are not the end-all in KAP... he's just as likely to take a hit as any other Skill 15 knight, and that hit might well end him before he's begun. This is especially true since he's "generally he is by far the least lucky of us all". Those stats might well balance out his general poor rolls.

Your other players may suffer short-lived initial PCs due to low stats (CON 9), so make sure they have a clear inheritance, but that just gives them the opportunity to re-roll and raise the average.

Above all, give him a fair shot with the character as rolled... that's the implicit contract in allowing rolled characters. Don't solve the problem speculatively, before it actually becomes a problem in play.

While good attributes do increase a knight's chances of survival, good traits and passions more often than not determine who racks up the most Glory. Your players knew what they were getting into when they rolled their characters. Uneven results are possible and mature players shouldn't have an issue. Still, I would put the matter before your players, rather than seek advice elsewhere. Let them discuss it and choose a course of action that is mutually agreeable.

(I personally modified the die rolls for attributes to skew slightly more in the players' favor, finding that 4d6 dropping the lowest gave an average of 12 and a considerable diminished likelihood of poorer rolls. I also gave anyone who rolled less than 55 the option to re-roll.)

Firstly, what the others have said. I don't think these rolls are a problem.

Good stats are nice and Clegis has clearly got some inborn advantages that make him well suited to the life of a knight, but he will need to match his raw talent with training (skills), character (traits) and attitude (passions) if he's going to be the real deal. The fact that he has it in him to be the real deal is part of the point of KAP - played absolutely straight and RAW, it should be possible (albeit quite unlikely) for a player knight to make it onto the Round Table and to be within touching distance of the canonically 'greatest' characters. Clegis might (emphasis might) be such a character and I don't advise that you try to arbitrarily close that possibility off.


Secondly, if you are worried about SIZ then the last thing you want to do is to make Clegis a Saxon since that would put his SIZ to 25. If you want to trim his SIZ then you should push for him to be a Pict from Jagent (and the player needs to be cool with that of course); which would drop his SIZ and APP by three points each.


Thirdly, since you are using BoKL chargen rules I should point out that you aren't following the design sequence. Stats and derived attributes are only generated once you already know the character's homeland, culture, religion, birth order, current class, traits and passions. I think there is active design intent in the order of that sequence and I recommend that you follow it.

Regards
Luke

As others have said, STATS are one thing only. If he has a skill of 15 and comes up against someone with a skill of 24, then he may never get a hit, so his awesome damage is moot. With a player that size, it is easy Rto have those who have a Hate Saxon of 16+ who fails their heraldry roll, assume their is a Saxon, and ....

Pendragon is about role-playing. Have fun. But to assume this PC is unstoppable, then put him in a battle where he is outnumbered, and he'll quickly see stats are not everything.

Robert Schroeder

The nice thing about Pendragon is that stat s arent nearly as important as they are in other games. everyone has low hp ( compared to a lot of other rpg games) , and when everyones armor is the same ONE lucky hit will take someone down. Major woulnds will soon have clegis whittled down to size :)..ALSO every year during winbterphase the other two characters are free to put points into attributes as well. Honestly i dont think Clegis is so good. The other players just seem to have amazingly unlucky roles! LOL :)

Do you have any suggestions as for what I should and can do?


Play it out
See what happens
See if it is even a problem

Oh, and be sure to use the rule for being oversized for your horse