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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Alaxk Knight of Galt" data-source="post: 4705477" data-attributes="member: 4129">I wonder if this point buy stat generation is really all it is cracked up to be.  Sure, its "fair" when compared to rolling 3d6.  But 3d6 has the charm of making smart fighters, or charming rogue.  In 4E, you are punished for selecting sub-optimal point buys because average is bad.Let's jump in the way back machine and travel to those heady days of 1E and 2E.  An 11 Str fighter was fine.  He might not be a world beater, but he could easily hold his own in a fight.  In fact, he was just an average fighter and the game system doesn't punish you for being average.  It does reward you for being exceptional.  Get lucky and land a 17 in strength, well, here is a +1 to hit and damage.  Get unlucky and have a 9 in str, well hell, you can still be an average fighter  (it took a 7 in Str before you had a combat penalty to hit).  A character with a 16-18 stat was special in early editions.Returning to the world of today, a player playing a fighter who drops an 11 into strength will be laughed out of the room.  18 is average for a fighter strength now, not 11.  The game's math is built around this fact.  The game system's math punishes you for dropping an 11 into strength (to the tune of -4 or -20% on attack rolls) the equivalent to a 2 Strength fighter in 2E.  A -5% chance for 16 is still pretty harsh (the equivalent of a 7 strength in 1E or 2E).  Because of point buy stats, the average shifts from 10.5 (from 3d6 fame) to 18 (when you factor in +2 racial bonuses).  18 is the new 11 for point buy characters.  The flip side of this is that 10 is the new 3.  Imagine a world where every mage has Str 3 and Int 11 and every fighter has Str 11 and Int 3.  This is the world that 4E math expects.</blockquote>

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