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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Elder-Basilisk" data-source="post: 680710" data-attributes="member: 3146">WRT to an earlier question, the double effectivenss of stats other than strength:Dex: AC, Attack rolls (with ranged or weapon finesse), reflex saves, initiative. (In a one on one combat, hitting your foe more and getting hit less is an exponential advantage.Con: better HP, better fort saves. No exponential effect usually but more HP is a very big benefit.Int: More spells, higher DCs, more skill points (which means less sacrifices to get prestige classes in many games). More spells with higher DCs is an exponential benefit if you ask me.Wis: More spells, higher DCs, better will save. More spells with higher DCs is an exponential benefit if you ask me.Cha: More spells, higher DCs; More spells with higher DCs is an exponential benefit if you ask me.Also, WRT all of these except Con, the higher the stat, the more significant a small difference is.For example:1st level rogue: 14/16 dex/18 dex, chain shirt, buckler (AC 17, 18 or 19)vs. orc (+3 attack). Going from 14 to 16 means that his foe has to roll a 15 instead of a 14 to hit--eliminating 1/7 of the orc's average damage. Going from a 16 to an 18 means that the orc needs a 16 instead of a 15 to hit--eliminating 1/6 of the orc's average damage. If the rogue pushes his AC a bit futher (protection from evil, for instance), the effect is more dramatic. Then the difference between the 14 and the 16 is 20% and the difference between the 16 and the 18 is 25% of the orc's damage.Second example:1st level spellcaster with Int/wis/cha 14 or 16, spell focus and a save or die spell vs. an orc. Will +0From 14-16, the DC goes from 15 to 16 (1/6 of the orc's survival chance disappears).From 16-18, the DC goes from 16-17 (1/5 of the orc's survival chance disappears).If you add in a nonhuman race with a stat bonus, the difference is even more pronouncedFrom 18-20, the DC goes from 17 to 18 (1/4 of the orc's survival chance disappears). And the cleric/sor/wizard gets a second chance to cast the spell.That's why higher end stats ought to cost more.This isn't my experience. When I've played point buy I still see far more humans than any other race. Even in a weighted point buy system, the human bonus feat, skill points, and favored class: any are tremendously attractive features.It's worth pointing out that you run into similar difficulties building classes that benefit from more than one stat with non-point buy systems. If you roll 16, 17, 15, 7, 9, 11 you're probably not goint to be playing a monk. The difficulty is just moved from being luck dependant ("I rolled all 16's! Wow, that's a monk!") to construction dependent ("if I want to play a monk, I'll probably have to make a lot of sacrifices for combat-effectiveness.")</blockquote>

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