But yours certainly will. 5d6 drop 2, 4d6 drop 1 and 3d6, with the ability to swap rolls is pretty much guaranteed to result in higher than standard characters. Even 4d6 drop 1 averages higher and yours is a LOT more generous than that.
As far as the 18 Str, 18 Int guy goes, yeah, I'm struggling to think of a historical figure that is as smart as Einstein (note, the MAXIMUM human Int at 1st level is 16, so, yeah, your character is smarter than Einstein) AND is stronger than the strongest of humans.
So, no, I don't think die rolling somehow increases realism. I'd actually say it goes very much the other way, because you wind up with ludicrous results like an 18 Str, 4 Con character. What does that even look like? I'm super strong, as strong as the strongest human ever can be, but I get winded walking up a single flight of stairs? Huh?
3d6 swapping rolls won't.
And anything that allows you to drop the lowest die makes it even more unlikely to roll a 4.
While it could happen, two 18s (without racial modifiers) would be very rare, although the probability increases the more dice you roll (then drop). The 18 and 4 character even moreso because of the bell curve nature of rolling dice.
Also, the maximum human Intelligence at 1st level remains 18 as it has since the beginning of D&D. It's 16 only if you opt to use the standard array or point buy systems. Note that the "default" in 5e is roll 4d6k3, with a statement that "If you want to save time or don't like the idea of randomly determining ability scores, you can use the following scores instead: 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8." The point buy is a variant. In AL, rolling isn't an option as far as I know, so in that case the maximum is 16.
AD&D defined the categories, with an 18 as genius, and a 19-20 as supra-genius. So no, you aren't smarter than Einstein. Furthermore, what makes you think that Einstein didn't "get smarter" (gain ASI's) during his from when he started? Strength is easier to consider. You maximum lift is 30x your Strength. So an 18 is 540 lbs, which is a bit less than the world record of just under 580 lbs. The 16 Strength is a full 100 lbs less. And the strongest human ever is also not limited to 18 in the game. The natural limit is 20, which is actually pretty close (max lift 600 lbs) (19 is 570).
The argument against how unrealistic two 18s are seems entirely irrelevant to me when
every standard array character in the world can have two 18s by their third ASI (two for every race except humans). And if you're going to mention time and training, keep in mind that using the 5e rules as written, you can reach level 20 in 33 adventuring days. While adventuring days don't equate to calendar days, you're still talking months to potentially go from a 16 to 20 in an ability score in the game world.
Which leads to another controversial opinion - I'm still on the fence about allowing ASIs (versus feats/skills and other learned things). Level advancement in my campaign remains glacial compared to RAW.
Yes, something like Strength makes some sense, since you can train to be stronger. But I'd argue that the training required to go from, say, being able to lift 480 lbs and 540 lbs requires an enormous amount of time dedicated to nothing but training, can't be achieved by most regardless of the training, and even those that reach such a pinnacle can do so for a very short period in their lives. So adventurers that are out adventuring are probably not putting in the training needed (and for that matter, the proper sort of training didn't exist in a pseudo-medieval world anyway).
So in addition to our horrible preference for rolling dice, in order, they very well might be the stats
for the rest of your character's life. You'll be happy to know that I don't use the AD&D style modification of abilities due to aging. Instead, you start suffering from ailments such as impaired hearing and/or vision, contracting diseases, dementia, or permanent levels of exhaustion. Oh wait, I lied. Checking my table it's also possible to lose a point in a random ability (10% chance).
And that 57-year old grizzled veteran? He doesn't quite have what he had in his prime. I've even seen a comment that somebody else made someplace that it would be interesting if you lost levels of your class due to old age. More food for thought...
We're such gluttons for punishment!
