5.5e stats concern.

Why does every caster end up looking like this by level 8?

Point buy just seems broken to me. Why would you pick anything different? You just end up less effective if you do. Everyone takes Alert and/or Tough, then the occasional interesting feat.

Martial classes can afford interesting secondary stats because they often only need to invest heavily in two abilities. It's not unusual to see a fighter with good Intelligence or Charisma.

Casters, on the other hand, seem to converge on the same answer every time:

• Wizard: INT 18, CON 18, DEX 16
• Druid: WIS 18, CON 18, DEX 16
• Bard: CHA 18, CON 18, DEX 16
• Cleric: WIS 18, CON 18, DEX 16

With 8s in everything else.

People don't roleplay the 8s anyway. The 8 Intelligence character still comes up with brilliant plans, the 8 Charisma character still gives persuasive speeches, and the 8 Wisdom character still exercises good judgment.

Back in 1st and 2nd Edition we saw far more unusual stat arrays. Today, point buy seems to drive everyone toward the same solution.

When game design consistently produces the same stat distribution, you have to ask: why have stats at all?

Quote from Deathmolar >>

it would be nice to see the occasional wizard with a 17 str

Then make one. Nothing's stopping you

Quote from Deathmolar>>

Why does every character end up looking like this by level 8?

Point pick just seems broken to me. Why would you pick any different? You just end up being less effective to pick otherwise. Everyone gets Altert and or Tough. Then the occasional interesting feat. You could easily do away with stats in this game people don't play the 8's anyway, they are ignored. I suppose its gm's choice to use random stat rolls, but it would be nice to see the occasional wizard with a 17 str. We saw interesting variations back in the 1st and second edition days, not so much anymore.The game could be easily tooled to assume this stat distribution and then just get rid of stats altogether and bake that into the class. When you design a game and it gets to this point you have to ask yourself "why"? We wont even discuss the advantage that comes to martial classes that only need to invest in two stats.

• Wizard: INT 18, CON 18, DEX 16
• Druid: WIS 18, CON 18, DEX 16
• Bard: CHA 18, CON 18, DEX 16
• Cleric: WIS 18, CON 18, DEX 16
• 8's in other stats

 If people want variation, they'll choose varied options. I've never seen a level 8 character like that in my games.

You're lamenting a non-issue

It is worth noting that Point Buy was introduced back in 1995, so, even though you are invoking 2e as the "interesting" days, point buy is a feature that came from 2e.  It also is worth noting that there is some nostalgia bias here - folks have been min-maxing their stats for as long as the game has existed.  Point buy is one way to do that, but it is no different than allocating rolled stats. 

In addition, there are some other flaws with your post. 

For starters, it is a pure fiction to say that people do not play the 8s.  They might not willingly play them, but the way D&D works those 8s do end up having actual influences on gameplay.  Even just looking at your proposed stat spreads, half the classes you listed dumped Wis... which means they have a -1 to Perception and Insight, two skills the DM can call for all the time.  All of those classes you list dumped Strength, which means if they need to burn resources to move anything the DM puts in their way that is heavy, given their -1 penalty to Athletics.  One can go on and on about the numerous ways DMs can intentionally invoke the low stats an individual player has, making the choice to dump a stat meaningful. 

Second, if you are experiencing players who always take Alert and/or Tough, that sounds like a problem with your group.  Especially for all the caster classes you list, there are typically much better options for their limited feat choices.  This is particularly true if you have a well balanced party that can protect and keep enemies off of your casters. 

Third, your numbers do not even add up.  With starting ASI, the most you can get with point buy with three dump stats is 17 / 16 / 15 / 8 / 8 / 8.  You cannot, at level 8, get those to 18 / 18 / 16 / 8 / 8 / 8 while also taking "Alert, Tough, and an occasional interesting feat."   To get the stats you mention, you would have to take one of those as a Background feat... then take two rounds of +2 ASI without taking an actual feat at all.  Assuming you were doing that, I am not sure this is even the stat spread you would get - if you are wasting your feats on pure ASI, then you could easily bump your primary stat up to 20, and likely would end up with either a 20 / 17 / 15 or a 20 / 16 / 16.  

All told, people have been optimizing since day one, your examples are not even really that optimized, and you ignore the numerous ways dump stats do matter in actual gameplay.  This seems like a problem with your group, not a problem with the system. 

I'm not sure I've ever played a caster with those arrays.

I just played a wizard up through level 15 with a con of 10 and dex of 14.

Across the many games and groups I’ve played with since once 2014, I’ve only seen one person do the 15/15/15/8/8/8 stat line. So it seems my anecdotal evidence cancels yours out. 🤷‍♂️

I mean, with stats like that aren’t they failing saves left and right? Seems like a player should realize the folly of being a 1-trick pony pretty quickly.

Quote from Xalthu >>

I just played a wizard up through level 15 with a con of 10 and dex of 14.

I'm currently playing a druid with CHA as their third-best stat (after WIS and CON, granted) because they're a Pied Piper riff

Is OP the same person who started a topic framing their complaints about 5.5 as ruining the game earlier this week?

Quote from bthec18 >>

Is OP the same person who started a topic framing their complaints about 5.5 as ruining the game earlier this week?

 You can view someone's post history by going to their profile....

Quote from bthec18 >>

Is OP the same person who started a topic framing their complaints about 5.5 as ruining the game earlier this week?

 No they are a different person the person you mean was only on a one day old account and may have gotten a permanent bann for not following forum rules. The thread creator has a much older Account.

Back to topic.

Hm depending on witch rule is used in your campaign it is possible to not only use the standard array or the buy point system you can also roll out your array with the Dice waht can give you a hier stat total then the other two methods. Also depending on your chosen background in 5.5e you also ad some bonus stats to your char.

even without going into the number breakdowns, the "why would you pick anything different?" question on point buy is... not everyone plays the same way. They don't pick the optimal spread, because sometimes there is fun in playing a suboptimal character, or a character with quirks that enhance roleplay.

Buddy of mine played a halfling wizard who's highest stat was...strength. It fit his backstory. He was a farm hand who dreamed of being a wizard since he was a child, so a passing necromancer took him on as an apprentice until after a few conversations, Halfling decided he wanted to protect people, so necromancer sent him to the city to train under her brother.
but he had a life as a farmhand, so he let his stats show how he struggled to learn magic as a late initiate.
You can't play out those stories with optimal spreads. 

There is also that some people don't know what they want to be, so they do the old-school "roll stats in order" and then pick the classes that pick the spread. (I hate that method, but it is loved by some so I will vouch for it.) 

There is so much more to this game than the numbers and stat engine, that if you can't have fun with it, then not to be a dipstick, but "skill issue."   

If you want 'weird' stat arrays, rather than optimized, you need to reduce choice (though the arrays you claim to always see aren't the ones I see; it depends what you're optimizing for). Even if you don't have point buy, if you're rolling stats and roll a 17, but you plan to play a wizard, why would you put the 17 in strength? 

Quote from Pantagruel666 >>

if you're rolling stats and roll a 17, but you plan to play a wizard, why would you put the 17 in strength?

Because you want to play a buff wizard

I've never played a caster where I felt like I needed to have a Con score above 14.  Sure, it's great to have it as high as possible, but the higher a stat is, the less overall benefit there becomes from raising it.

Maybe if you want to focus on concentration spells

I started playing 1st edition.  I will say i recently played a ranger with cha=8 and he was basically "feral". Raised by wolves. Would crawl around on all fours and sniff things during social moments.

As to your question of max stat. The problem is the math pays off higher stats.  If you use str for tohit and dmg, then every +1 to strmod is another 5% chance to hit, and an extra point of damage.  

If you have a str of 10, i think it works out, roughly, to a 50% chance to hit an average target for your level. (Broad brushstrokes). A +5 means you have a 75% chance tohit. And an extra 5 points of damage per hit.

For spellcasters, its even worse because most spells use saving throws, most spells do NOT add spellcasting modifier to damage, and for some really powerful spells, if the target makes the save, the spell has no effect and you burn the slot. So casters need every last point of ability score for spellcasting to be effective.

Most cantrips are absolutely terrible for damage, a flat 1d8 or something, and zero damage if the target makes their save.  Weapon damage is something more like 1d8+4. 

The only thing that makes a caster effective is their spell save dc.

If youre doing utility spells that have no save, like a ranger's hunters mark, you can dump wisdom. But any spell that has a save needs a his abikity to do anything.

"Wizard: INT 18, CON 18, DEX 16"

Also, thats several levels of asi's and feats to get to thay point.

A wizard could start out int17, con16, dex15

Level4 asi: int+1, dex +1

Level 8 asi: int+2

Level 12 asi: con+2

I dont think ive seen anyone build that. First of all, dumping your wisdom hurts your saves and wis and dex saves are the most common saves.

Second of all, high dex helps with mage/light armor, but for casters, isnt worth it unless you wanna melee/cast, which i never understood. 

And third of all, half-feats are usually offering things more interesting and powerful and unique than a bland asi.

When i play a caster i usually do 3 half feats and max my spellcasting abikilty by level 12. Which means my other stats only have a single 16 and everything else is 14 or lower

PCs are more than merely the distribution of their Ability Scores. What a player does with them makes all the difference.

You can even test this yourself. Run a oneshot with one group using pregenerated PCs, then do it again with a different group using same pregens. I am fairly confident that even if you arrive at the same end, there is a good chance that the road taken there is going to be a little different. 

Quote from bthec18 >>

Maybe if you want to focus on concentration spells

 Even then, the higher your bonus to constitution saves already is, the less  benefit you'll get from getting an additional +1 because you're already going to be succeeding on more saves.

Quote from 6thLyranGuard >>

Quote from bthec18 >>

Maybe if you want to focus on concentration spells

 Even then, the higher your bonus to constitution saves already is, the less  benefit you'll get from getting an additional +1 because you're already going to be succeeding on more saves.

 Each point is a 5% increase (additive) to the odds you pass the save, with the caveat the save needs to be one you can pass. The point matters 1/20th of the time.