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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ariosto" data-source="post: 4800320" data-attributes="member: 80487">Point buy might make more sense than "roll and arrange". If the idea is to get more variety than usually comes from optimization, then a random factor applied to total points might help. If the idea is to start with a character concept and "build" it, though, then random factors are not notably helpful. The real ideal in that light is simply to assign whatever scores fit the concept. However, when everyone's concept is Suderduperman, that tends to make the whole ability-scores business irrelevant (as "the bestest" score ends up everywhere). So, some kind of game of trade-offs is a way to keep some interest. Maybe the real game is in picking a class, and ability scores follow from that (as opposed to the old vice-versa). Hence, Charisma-based zap-em powers for the Warlock and so on help to strengthen the link."Just roll 'em and play 'em" is suited to the opposite approach: that of discovering a character in the process. By way of speed, it's also advantageous for a game with a high mortality rate. I've had the experience in several (non-D&D) games of spending an hour or more generating a character that got killed in less than an hour of play -- in one case, in the first round of the first action!As I like (in D&D) the challenge of playing humanly vulnerable low-level characters, I don't like to spend much time generating their game stats. I think a corollary holds for many people: a lot of prep time suggests a low rate of characters getting killed.</blockquote>

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