Starting Stats..?

[Sadrik]

My next game where characters can create characters I am going to have them use a system where they can pick up to a +10 total stat bonus with no more than a single -1. Also they can have two odd stats.

So an example would be:
S 17 +3
D 17 +3
C 12 +1
I 14 +2
W 14 +2
C 8 -1

Total +10

It makes for a really good character but should be fairly balanced between all of the charaters.

 

[Timeron Malachi]

My usual method is to just let players pick their stats.

I think I'll tell my DM that next time I roll up a character.

 

[Li Shenron]

If you play a combat-based campaign, point-buy it's the best.

Having one character with much better stats than the others is fine if you can arrange the game so that the situation doesn't always require his class abilities. In this case it probably means to decrease the low-tactical battles and instead use encounters which require more use of skills and spells, so that it is not always the paladin to wipe the battleground out.

Otherwise you could just decrease the number of combats overall. However I guess your paladin is also the best spokesman of the party, so social encounters still probably make him the first actor.

BTW, paladin who easily turned against his friends because they didn't praise his god is an ex-paladin; you can make him an NPC and have the player roll a new PC.