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Message: <blockquote data-quote="tetrasodium" data-source="post: 8570570" data-attributes="member: 93670">I think it boils down to one of two schools of thought.  The smaller pool pointbuy & more restrictive rolling options* generate characters that need more magic items to reach a state of autopilot through combat quickly obtained through more generous methods with the inclusion of a few magic items.  characters using those alternate methods often needed magic items to add breadth & scope to what they can excel at  because their niche was somewhere they already excelled even before magic items could make them amazing at or they were pretty ok in a wide range of areas but needed magic items to be great at specific ones.  One school of thought treats the gm as little more than life support & tour guide for  super heroes who shouldn't have any power over things so rejects any mechanics that allowed them to do otherwise. The other leans more towards the idea that a gm should be empowered to shape things to some degree & recognizes ways that they can do so.I think they lay the groundwork for the answer and illustrate the shift.  Here are some quotes from the 3.5dmg section on 169/170:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">"1. Standard Point Buy: All ability scores start at 8. Take 25 points to spread out among all abilities. For ability scores of 14 or lower, you buy additional points on a 1-for-1 basis. For ability scores higher than 14, it costs a little more (see the table below). This method allows for maximum customization, but you should expect each PC to have at least one really good score"</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">""2. Nonstandard Point Buy: Use the standard point buy method, except that the player has fewer or more points for buying scores, as shown on the table below. Type of Campaign Points Allowed Low-powered campaign 15 points** Challenging campaign 22 points Tougher campaign 28 points High-powered campaign 32 points"</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">"4. The Floating Reroll: Roll 4d6 six times, discarding the lowest die each time. Once during this process, the player can reroll the lowest die instead. Arrange scores as desired. This method results in slightly better characters than the standard Player’s Handbook method does, allowing players to either improve a particularly bad score or try to get a very good score. For example, if the player rolled 4d6 and got results of 1, 2, 6, and 6 for a score of 14, she might choose to reroll the 1 to see if she could improve the score (and possibly even get an 18 if the reroll came up 6)."</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">"5. Organic Characters: Roll 4d6 six times, discarding the lowest die each time. Place in order (Str, Dex, Con, Int, Wis, Cha) as rolled. Reroll any one ability score of your choice, taking the new roll if it’s higher. Then switch any two ability scores. This method allows some choice but doesn’t let a player have all her ability scores exactly where she wants them. A character might have to learn to cope with unwanted clumsiness (just as in real life), or she may have a personal talent that isn’t usual for a member of her class (such as a high Strength score for a sorcerer)."</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">"</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">6. Customized Average Characters: Roll 3d6 six times and arrange scores as desired. This method produces characters more like average people but still allows customization. The player may reroll all scores if his ability modifiers total –3 or lower, or if he doesn’t have any score of 12 or higher."</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">"7. Random Average Characters: Roll 3d6 six times and place in order (Str, Dex, Con, Int, Wis, Cha). This is the strictest method. It frequently generates virtually unplayable characters, but it makes high scores very special. The player may reroll all scores if her ability modifiers total –3 or lower, or if she doesn’t have any score of 12 or higher."</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">"8. High-Powered Characters: Roll 5d6 six times, discarding the two lowest dice each time. Arrange as desired. This is just right for a high-powered game where the characters need to be really good just to survive***. The player may reroll all scores if his ability modifiers don’t total at least +2 or if he doesn’t have at least one score of 15 or higher"</li> </ul>Modern d&d rejects the idea that characters & their players need to bring their A game to survive & triumph while making every effort to disarm the GM of tools in their toolbox to influence things.  These methods all either conflict with those changes or worse provide the sort of power levels & resulting problems that occur when you add feats & a given level of magic items to a system designed to expect none of either.  Without a meaningful set of crafting rules in modern d&d like 3.x & even asd&d 2e a character with weaker stats can not expect to have a crafting framework they can leverage to fill the gaps.*4d6 drop1 is pretty darned generous **  vgtm survivors basically use attributes that fit this option*** in modern editions players just need to show up with a character & survival is almost guaranteed</blockquote>

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