Helldritch
Hero
@Undrave
1) No jealousy there. I have been a DM since 1983. Almost always have been a DM first and foremost. So the jealousy about me not having the same easiness does not hold. What have I seen in many games where you pick your bonuses yourself, be it Gurps, Rolemaster, MERPG, Champions, Marvel and the various iteration of Vampire the Masquarade, Werewolf and so many others, is that as soon as this is allowed, someone, somewhere will find the optimal character build for such and such concept. In the end, if the DM does not enforce or ban some choices/combinations all characters will start to look alike as variations of the same optimal build but with different bland tasteless stories to justify the choices... And if a DM dares to ban/restrict some part or the entirety of the cheery picking process he gets the role of a bad, restrictive and antagonistic DM.
I have played all these games as a player. I am the kind of player that finds loopholes and use them to their maximum potential. It takes about two or three character generations to find them. We tested 5ed edition in combat simulations before doing a campaign. It took us about 6 weeks with different fights and character concepts. We saw the sorlock almost immediately. The Paladin/warlock got under the spot very fast as were the feats GWM and SS.
I have been burned enough times about these kind of character building methods to be extremely wary of these.
1) No jealousy there. I have been a DM since 1983. Almost always have been a DM first and foremost. So the jealousy about me not having the same easiness does not hold. What have I seen in many games where you pick your bonuses yourself, be it Gurps, Rolemaster, MERPG, Champions, Marvel and the various iteration of Vampire the Masquarade, Werewolf and so many others, is that as soon as this is allowed, someone, somewhere will find the optimal character build for such and such concept. In the end, if the DM does not enforce or ban some choices/combinations all characters will start to look alike as variations of the same optimal build but with different bland tasteless stories to justify the choices... And if a DM dares to ban/restrict some part or the entirety of the cheery picking process he gets the role of a bad, restrictive and antagonistic DM.
I have played all these games as a player. I am the kind of player that finds loopholes and use them to their maximum potential. It takes about two or three character generations to find them. We tested 5ed edition in combat simulations before doing a campaign. It took us about 6 weeks with different fights and character concepts. We saw the sorlock almost immediately. The Paladin/warlock got under the spot very fast as were the feats GWM and SS.
I have been burned enough times about these kind of character building methods to be extremely wary of these.