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Now that the palyers have a history and have chosen the type of class they want (fighter, magic-user, cleric, thief) often with discussion amongst the group, it comes to the dreaded "roll of the dice".

This is an important time for the DM to understand something. It is not about pitting the players against the dice - it is getting something reasonable within the rules that the player can use to develop his character. It should not detract from the fun of the game but add to it. 

To that, my group employs many different character ability score techniques. I usually let my players decide how they want to create them. Here are just a few:

(1) 6x 4d6 picking best 3 die
(2) 7x 3d6 then choose the 6 they wish to keep (most often chosen method)
(3) 6x 2d6+6 (choose again)
(4) 6x 3d6 re-roll all...