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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FormerlyHemlock" data-source="post: 7134574" data-attributes="member: 6787650">Normalized arrays have a boring distribution. An individual array isn't boring--indeed, that wouldn't sense since any given normalized array can also be generated with 4d6 drop lowest. Instead, generate ten arrays that are all normalized. THAT's what gets boring: always playing in the same section of attribute space.A given PC who is 5'6" and has exactly one sibling of the opposite sex, two years older or younger, is not boring. Ten such PCs in a row are boring.This is why it's fun to sometimes use different stat rolling methods, e.g. 3d6 in order is fun sometimes.Edit: besides, why do you care about the sum of the attribute arrays? 3 + 18 has the same sum as 10 + 11 and 15 + 6, but they play out very differently.No, with rolled stats, unlike point buy, you can't trade "useless" stats for extra points in mechanically-useful ones, so a lot of the tension goes away. You may be allocating your 4th, 5th, and 6th worst stats among e.g. Str/Int/Cha (for an archer fighter or ranger), but you can't cannibalize any of those to boost your Dex/Con/Wis. (Actually at my table, boosting Int is about as popular as boosting Con, which is to say "not quite as popular as maxing your attack stat/AC but still quite popular". I think that is due to the initiative variant I use though, and the fact that players don't like feeling like "dummies" compared to the other PCs and monsters.)At any rate, my anecdotal observation from these forums is that the loudest defenders of "Int 8 isn't really very stupid" always seem to be point-buy advocates and/or stat normalizers.If you treat 3d6 as a bell curve, than Int 8 is (2.5/2.96=0.84) standard deviations below the norm. On WAIS, the standard deviation is 15 points, so Int 8 equates to an IQ of 88. The average high school graduate has an IQ of 105 on WAIS. Int 8 is dim compared to high school graduates. 0.84 SD below the norm is at the 20th percentile of Intelligence. You're not a drooling idiot, but you're used to being the dumbest person in the room.A single Int 8 character isn't remarkable (although it's kind of hard to roleplay well). A party full of Int 8 PCs and a single Int 20 wizard is ludicrous, but point buy encourages it.</blockquote>

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