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Message: <blockquote data-quote="David Argall" data-source="post: 597804" data-attributes="member: 4481">+1/-1 fine"+1 Stat bonuses are bad. They're very useful to characters with a lot of odd scores, much less so to someone with even scores, and encourage min-maxing, especially if you use point-buy."   This myth is quite common, obviously from the number of times it is repeated here.  But it is a myth.  +1/-1 is almost entirely useless  in a point buy system, clearly far less useful than +2/-2, and does not confur any advantage in a roll system.    In the point buy systems, the player can easily negate the routine benefits and costs of stat bonuses.  I want 2 stats to be 12 & 12 and there is a +1 or 2 on one and a -1 or 2 on the other.  No problem, I start with 11 & 13 or 10 & 14.     Thus the only benefit comes with the extreme stats.  I want something beyond the 18 the standard allows, so I take a race with a bonus there.  But a +1 only gives me bragging rights until I get to 4th level.  And I am now -1 in another stat, which means I am -1in net bonuses [unless the total buy is an odd number, in which case I manage to break even.  But the standards suggested in DMG are 15, 22, 28, & 32, and I doubt many have games based on 15.]  By contrast, if we use a +2, we not only get an immediate 20, but I get a +1 from my favored stat.  I also get a -1 from another stat, but I at least break even and have reason to think I am ahead.    Now when we roll the stats, we can expect to get 2-4 odd numbers, and it would seem we can use the +1 to gain on one while the -1 can be placed where it will not hurt.  This is true enough as far as it goes, but what it does is lower a handicap, not give the player an advantage.  Thus we can change 2 15s into 14 & 16, changing +4 into plus 5.  But any 2 even numbers totalling 30 is also +5.  Our number cruncher is not any better off than a player who just rolled even numbers all the time.  We have here another reason [of which there are many] why you should not roll stats instead of buy them, but we do not have a reason why giving a bonus of +1 is any unfair advantage to the player.</blockquote>

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