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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Arial Black" data-source="post: 7227139" data-attributes="member: 6799649">We each have our preferences, true. But when we list the advantages and disadvantages of each method, we may state something as a fact about that method which is not actually true at all.You stated that 'point-buy lets me create the concepts that I want'. This may very well be true, in that only you know what you want. But you stated this as if one of the advantages of point-buy is that it lets players who use that method create whatever concepts they want, and that is demonstrably not true.And, no, it's not just about 'power-gaming' either!I could walk into a bus station and be part of a crowd of 100 people. If those people were all statted up in D&D terms for Str/Con/Dex/Int/Wis/Cha, there would be an infinitesimally small chance of every single one adding up to the same point-buy! Yet every single one would have six stats of 3-18, because this is the basis of that bell curve: it models the population.Every single one of those people, being an already existing 'character concept', is by definition a valid concept. But a tiny fraction is available through point-buy. They are all available through rolling!So, if what I 'want' is to play one of those concepts, then the vast majority will never be available through point-buy.Six stats, all ranging from 3 to 18. That's a lot of possibilities. Six stats ranging from 8 to 15 is a tiny fraction of that. Six stats from 8 to 15 which add up to exactly 27 points is a tiny fraction of that tiny fraction!So the idea that, when comparing rolling to point-buy, it's the point-buy method that lets you play the concept you want? No! Point-buy is much, much more likely to prevent me from realising a concept!"Oh, but it lets players play any concept they want as long as that concept adds up to 27 points" is the 'One True Scotsman' argument. It may be the more precise way of stating why you prefer point-buy, and it would at least be an actual advantage of point-buy: enforced balance. But that is not the same thing as 'point-buy lets players play the concept they want'.</blockquote>

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