D&D 5E (2014) Is Point Buy Balanced?

[Cergorach]

Is Point Buy Balanced?

Nope. Not in the least.

How unbalanced depends on the specific build, the player, the DM, the adventure, the style, the group, the mood, and the phase of the moon.

As long as the whole group uses the same generating method, everyone starts equal and the end result depends on the specific players/group builds.

 

[Thomas Shey]

As long as the whole group uses the same generating method, everyone starts equal and the end result depends on the specific players/group builds.

That's the key, of course. You can't entirely guarentee that the final result out of point distribution or even arrays will be balanced depending on other factors in the player's application.

But in the end, the result is at least in their hands; depending on the system they may need more or less understanding of it to get a decent result (though some systems at least try to make it so you have to work at it to produce a bad result).

But either way, you're not stuck setting the course of your character's fate by one roll of math rocks.

 

[MostlyHarmless42]

So if I recall correctly, I remember an interview awhile back where one of the developers was talking about how the game is essentially designed with characters having a 14 in their primary stat, due largely because people weren't garanteed to have rolled well or have been the best optimizers (yes this does cause issues for actually optimized parties).

That said, foe our groups, we tend to use point buy with 30 points, mostly give a slight bit more oomph to the average points.

More relevant to the topic, I feel it important to point out that while rolling techically has more possibilities, many of them are either unplayable or absurdly broken and should not be considered valid options. As fun as it is to envision all 18s, I sincerely doubt any DM would allow that character to ever see play at a table, and frankly anything that doesn't have at least one 12 (arguably 14) shouldn't even be viewed as a valid option to roll.

I heavily reccomend for those seeking to roll characters at a table, rather than just 3d6 or 4d6 drop one, you just do "2d6 (or 3d6) + 6" for scores. Or if you want a game where a 6 is a valid roll, use +4 instead.