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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 7243593" data-attributes="member: 29398">Overall averages of these two stat lines are 11.50 for the first one and 12.50 for the second.I'm not sure I agree with your math here.  4d6x1 gives an overall long-term average of 12.24.  Point-buy can give a higher average, as you've shown above with the 13-13-13-13-13-10 line, but only if you make the stats a) mostly the same and b) rather pedestrian.  As soon as you start varying the stats (which by default means buying higher ones) your average starts to drop because you're getting less bang for each point spent, until at the other extreme (15-15-15-8-8-8) you're down to an 11.50 average.For comparison, the standard array has a 12.00 average and straight 3d6 gives a 10.50 average.Compare this to rolling.  Rolling a particular set of stats is obviously going to give a different average every time, but almost half the time it'll be higher than 12.24 and almost half the time it'll be lower; with an occasional occurrence of hitting it bang-on filling in the last few percent.Every time the average is higher or the same (so, very slightly over 50% of the time) as 12.24 one can easily argue you've done better than point buy would usually give you.  The range between 12.01 and 12.23 is a more open question: you've beaten array here but are roughly in the range of what a normal point-buy might look like.  Anything at or below 12.00 means you've done worse than array and probably worse than most normal point-buys.So...I have to say the odds when rolling of a higher stat average are at worst flat and more likely slightly in one's favour over point-buy and certainly in one's favour over array; and this is in exclusion of any re-roll options.  Your point about not liking to gamble is fair enough, but saying the odds are against you in this case is, I posit, incorrect.Lanefan</blockquote>

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