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In some future 3.5 campaign I would like to try this random-roll point-buy hybrid:

step 1. Roll 3 ability scores using a random dice-rolling method.

step 2. Choose your other 3 scores via point buy, but you must still pay for the first three scores, and you can't shift points around to boost your random scores. If your first three scores are too expensive (e.g., you roll 18/17/17), you may keep one of your three random scores but you must reroll the other two until you can afford all three random scores while buying 8s for the other three scores.

step 3. Distribute the six ability scores according to taste. (Or you can randomly assign scores if you'd rather do that: 1d12 divided by 2 (rounded up) to choose the 1st ability, 1d10/2 (r.u.) to choose the 2nd ability from the remaining 5, 1d8/2 (r.u.) for the 3rd, 1d6/2 (r.u.) for the 4th, and 1d4/2 (r.u.) for the 5th.)

You'd get the best of both worlds: you don't get complete control over your character's stats but you could still pick up a high or low stat score if you really wanted one.

I imagine you could do the same for 4E if you wanted.

Maxperson wrote:

I never made that claim. My claim is that rolling > point buys.

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by ">". If you are saying that rolling will net you abilities that are higher in value than point buy, that is only the case if you choose to use point buy with low points. If you use a higher point buy, you can get much higher stats on average than rolling.

If you mean that ">" is "better", then that's just a matter of opinion. I see somethings about rolling that I like more and some things about point-buy that I like more. I happen to use a hybrid when I DM'ed 3E.

It's all opinion based, but I stated how we do it in order to show that the flaws with rolling that keep being pointed out can EASILY be negated.

There are flaws in rolling. That is why I use a hybrid to negate some of the flaws that I see. As for the point buy method, I do not see flaws in it. The reason that I like to use the rolling method with a point buy safety net is not because of a flaw in the point buy. I use the point buy safety net with the rolling method because of the flaws in the rolling method.

If I were to be given a choice to use strictly the standard rolling method with no modifications or strictly standard point buy with no modifications, I would always choose the point buy. For this reason I feel that the unmodified, standard point buy is better than the unmodified standard rolling.