I think point buy is good for organized play because it minimizes, but doesn't eliminate, imbalance between player characters. When it comes to home play though, I really prefer random rolling. It's interesting how I'm returning to some of my younger biases when it comes to D&D.
I love point buy games like Hero and GURPS, but the idea of attempting the mathematical balance of Hero or GURPS in D&D rubs me the wrong way. As D&D has attempted to become more like GURPS and have a consistent rule for everything, rather than divergent subsystems like in older editions, it has become less fun to me. I thought that in some ways, the reduction in skills and clearly defined roles for classes, 4e was a step back in the right direction. But its inclusion of bounded accuracy, which was refined and transported to 5e, has been a shift away from the swinginess and unpredictability of earlier editions and I think it's the wrong direction for this game.
It's not a bad choice of direction for A game in general, but for D&D I think it is.
You weren’t kidding about coding! Wow!
Well, you went into more detail than I did. :)
Seriously, I only wonder what if you went with a straight point buy like the RPGA did back in the D&D 2E days?
I think point buy is good for organized play because it minimizes, but doesn't eliminate, imbalance between player characters. When it comes to home play though, I really prefer random rolling. It's interesting how I'm returning to some of my younger biases when it comes to D&D.
I love point buy games like Hero and GURPS, but the idea of attempting the mathematical balance of Hero or GURPS in D&D rubs me the wrong way. As D&D has attempted to become more like GURPS and have a consistent rule for everything, rather than divergent subsystems like in older editions, it has become less fun to me. I thought that in some ways, the reduction in skills and clearly defined roles for classes, 4e was a step back in the right direction. But its inclusion of bounded accuracy, which was refined and transported to 5e, has been a shift away from the swinginess and unpredictability of earlier editions and I think it's the wrong direction for this game.
It's not a bad choice of direction for A game in general, but for D&D I think it is.