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<blockquote data-quote="FormerlyHemlock" data-source="post: 6628512" data-attributes="member: 6787650">I have strong objections to point #4. Universe composition should be independent of PC design[1]. If I have a crashed ship full of CR 7 Stygian Skeletons with Blackrazor the sentient greatsword in the hands of a CR 14 Skeletal Warrior in the middle, that ship should be exactly the same whether the players are investigating with their 4th level PCs with medium stats or their 12th level PCs with excellent stats and xixchil biomodifications.Furthermore, if the players do investigate the ship with their 12th level PCs, the encounter will likely play out pretty much the same with Dex 20 as it would with Dex 18 or even Dex 16. Either the players will manage to defeat the enemy in detail (1-3 skeletons at a time, so higher Dex merely means a slightly easier combat and more skeletons defeated between rests) or they will approach the problem laterally (e.g. flood the ship by breaking the nearby dam, thus drowning all the undead, maybe--higher Dex has zero effect on this plan) or they will frontal assault (40-60 skeletons at a time, in which case your own personal Dex will boost your survival rate by maybe 10% so you die in 2.4 rounds instead of 2.2).Therefore, the logic chain breaks at point #3; it does not hold in the general case that allowing rolled stats weakens PCs built with standard array or point buy.-Max[1] N.b. when I say &quot;should be&quot; I am expressing a strong preference for my own games, not a moral judgment of people who enjoy customizing encounters to players. I wouldn't play in those games but clearly you would or you wouldn't do it. YMMV, etc.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="FormerlyHemlock, post: 6628512, member: 6787650"] I have strong objections to point #4. Universe composition should be independent of PC design[1]. If I have a crashed ship full of CR 7 Stygian Skeletons with Blackrazor the sentient greatsword in the hands of a CR 14 Skeletal Warrior in the middle, that ship should be exactly the same whether the players are investigating with their 4th level PCs with medium stats or their 12th level PCs with excellent stats and xixchil biomodifications. Furthermore, if the players do investigate the ship with their 12th level PCs, the encounter will likely play out pretty much the same with Dex 20 as it would with Dex 18 or even Dex 16. Either the players will manage to defeat the enemy in detail (1-3 skeletons at a time, so higher Dex merely means a slightly easier combat and more skeletons defeated between rests) or they will approach the problem laterally (e.g. flood the ship by breaking the nearby dam, thus drowning all the undead, maybe--higher Dex has zero effect on this plan) or they will frontal assault (40-60 skeletons at a time, in which case your own personal Dex will boost your survival rate by maybe 10% so you die in 2.4 rounds instead of 2.2). Therefore, the logic chain breaks at point #3; it does not hold in the general case that allowing rolled stats weakens PCs built with standard array or point buy. -Max [1] N.b. when I say "should be" I am expressing a strong preference for my own games, not a moral judgment of people who enjoy customizing encounters to players. I wouldn't play in those games but clearly you would or you wouldn't do it. YMMV, etc. [/QUOTE]

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