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Message: <blockquote data-quote="delericho" data-source="post: 5783913" data-attributes="member: 22424">I've gone backwards and forwards on stat generation methods over the years. With random rolls, the fact that you invariably seem to have one PC much better or much worse than the rest is a pain (and even worse is when you have one of each). With point buy, there's very definitely a trend for characters to all look alike.Ultimately, the conclusion that I came to is that there is no "one true way". It's always going to be a matter of taste.Therefore:- The game should downgrade the importance of stats. In 3e and 4e (and PF), it is just too important to have the 'right' stats, and the difference between a "kinda-okay" character and an optimised one (or even a somewhat optimised one) is huge. You effectively need to get the right stats, or you're going to suck for pretty much the duration of the campaign. This means that random rolls are just not viable in those games, except for one-shots - stats are just too important to leave to chance.(And, actually, it has pretty much always been thus. Even in 1st and 2nd Edition having the right stats made a big difference. BECMI was a lot closer to the ideal, IMO.)- The game absolutely should support random rolls. These are much easier for new players to grasp (since they only need to understand the meanings of the six stats). And, the random roll system as written should be competitive with the point-buy system as written. (4e fails in this regard. According to the PHB, rolls are on average 'slightly' worse than point-buy. In reality, they're much worse.)- The game should also support point buy, for those who want that.3e actually had the right of it. The 4d6-drop-lowest random system offered was actually equivalent to 28-point buy on average, but the default point buy system was actually 25 points. The reason for the disparity was that a player using point buy was able to optimise (min-max) his character, and thus get more bang for his buck, while the random rolls were effectively 'blind'. That's about the right balance to hit between the two systems.(Whether either 4d6-drop-lowest or 25-point-buy was actually generous enough is itself a matter of taste, of course!)Ultimately, I don't think the game should advocate one method over the other (outside the Starter Set, which should definitely go "random rolls"). Both have their adherents, their benefits, and their weaknesses.</blockquote>

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