Random Point-Buy?

[Kichwas]

As others have said, point buy tends to result in a bunch of players with identical stats.

I always use point buy both when I run and in the games I play in (with a preference for 28 these days), and I've never seen this problem.

I always get very diverse results.

 

[Conaill]

I always use point buy both when I run and in the games I play in (with a preference for 28 these days), and I've never seen this problem.

I always get very diverse results.

Ditto. This sounds more like a straw-man argument from people who haven't really used point-buy all that often. Besides, even if people woud pick identical sets of stats, what's wrong with that? Even if you gave everyone the default array, people would still assign the stats differently. And more importantly, they would play different characters! If people play identical characters, that's purely due to a lack of imagination, NOT because of the stat generation method. I've seen a player use rolled-up stats and still play the same character over and over again.

 

[takyris]

Ditto. If the other guy absolutely hates the idea of having the same stats as the rest of the party, give him 25 points, not 28. There. You rolled for him, and you didn't roll quite as well. Problem solved.

For a one-shot, mind you, I'd have no problem. But for a long-term campaign, it just irks me profoundly to end up with an average character standing next to gods who rolled better than I did One Time. If most of the "I wanna roll people" really wanted to roll and let fate pick the results, there wouldn't be a rules (and usually additional house rules) allowing rerolls or "best character of five you roll" or whatever.

 

[Psion]

I always use point buy both when I run and in the games I play in (with a preference for 28 these days), and I've never seen this problem.

I always get very diverse results.

I've seen it, but perhaps not in the way you mean. Two characters by different players or of different classes might be different, but I find that concepts of the same class or by the same player tend to be pretty close, perhaps verying by a 2 points here or there.

It's not so much, as I see it, that the PCs are carbon copies, but I rarely see some interesting choices that might be less than optimal under point buy, like a charismatic warrior or a strong mage. In point buy, the player have to decide whether or not it's worth surrending a few points where it won't do them as much good. In rolled, you might have some points locked up in a stat and merely run with the concept.