pawsplay
Hero
Delta said:4d6 drop lowest was the default "Method I" since AD&D 1E.
Citation? My memory says it appeared in Oriental Adventures first.
In fact, that source comments that if you don't use that method you'll get "rather marginal characters [that] tend to have short life expectancy". (1E DMG p. 11)
I don't have the full quote in front of me.
I'm really curious what later source would have ever described 4d6 drop lowest as creating "super characters"?
It didn't say it created super characters, but rather, it had the tendency to. Source is the red cover text AD&D 2e.
Finally, the "deduction" that paladins and rangers were only played by cheating whiners is kind of just nonsense. I DM'd one paladin in my 1E games. He was very memorable, and the player didn't cheat.
He must have been lucky. Right off the bat, a 15 Charisma is in the top 10% of Charisma scores.... I am not exaggerating when I say one in hundreds of rolled characters using 3d6, in order, qualifies.