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

[Lanefan]

When it comes to XP, I've never had to dangle any additional carrots in front of the noses of players. They're playing a game after all - if they wanted to sit home and drink they didn't have to show up to the game. Meanwhile I want the players to do what they want their characters want to do, not what I'm going to bribe them to do.

With a certain type of risk-averse player (with which I have far too much experience), if you don't either reward them for having their characters take risks or punish them for staying safe then one of two things will inevitably happen:

--- nobody wants to take any risks and the whole game grinds to a halt or near-halt
--- other characters take the risks and suffer for it, then their increasingly-resentful players have to watch as the non-risk-taker gets the same (or even better) rewards as they do.

The second thing there also allows a more competitive player (another thing I'm very used to) to all too easily game the system in the mid to long term by hanging back and reaping the rewards of others' risk-taking.

 

[Horwath]

If a character can earn xp for doing nothing, where's the incentive to do anything or take any risk?

The fun of playing the game, maybe?

we didn't use XP since 01 or 02 probably.

game runs so much smoother that way.
everyone is same level, new character comes in, also same level, gear if given to approximate gear level of the party, but limited to basis +X items if any magic items are allowed to new player.

it's simply not fun to play a character 2 or 3 level lower than the party, plus it's headache for the DM to balance that out for encounters.

also capstone leveling removes another mental load from DM on how to give what XP for specific PC for roleplaying.

 

[TwoSix]

With a certain type of risk-averse player (with which I have far too much experience), if you don't either reward them for having their characters take risks or punish them for staying safe then one of two things will inevitably happen:

--- nobody wants to take any risks and the whole game grinds to a halt or near-halt
--- other characters take the risks and suffer for it, then their increasingly-resentful players have to watch as the non-risk-taker gets the same (or even better) rewards as they do.

The second thing there also allows a more competitive player (another thing I'm very used to) to all too easily game the system in the mid to long term by hanging back and reaping the rewards of others' risk-taking.

Shouldn’t characters who don’t help simply get murdered at camp? I’m thought that was how your games rolled.