5.5e stats concern.

There's a pretty significant dropoff to the value of Constitution saves after you reach +9, as most Concentration saves are DC 10, but that's usually not a factor before tier 3 (get an amulet of health, a ring/cloak of protection, and proficiency, and you can get a +9 as early as level 9, but that combination of items and bonuses isn't likely until later).

Barbarian, Fighter, Sorcerer. That's all the classes that get Con save proficiency. So either you're in one of those at level 1 or taking Resilient: Con to pull that off.

Also Con is a pretty important stat even for a backliner, if you have an effective DM who has units that know to target the wizard and/or healer.

EDIT: I'm dumb and included Paladin for some reason.

Quote from Athanar90 >>

Barbarian, Fighter, Paladin, Sorcerer. That's all the classes that get Con save proficiency. So either you're in one of those at level 1 or taking Resilient: Con to pull that off.

 Resilient (Con) is a decent investment for a spellcaster... but usually not before tier 3.

I don't disagree. I'm also dumb and put Paladin on the list because I misread the saves on its preview pane, despite the fact I should know better. I have a Paladin 1/Sorcerer 19 in a server I play on that took Resilient Con specifically for that reason.

What is funny to me is I see stat conformity in barbarians the most. int, chr, wis all at 8 with str, dex, con all at 15.

With casters I frequently end up with the standard array even with point buy because the increased costs don't make it worth it imo.  There are no stats outside maybe strength I want to dump as a caster. The occasional anti social wizard here and there sure so maybe 2 8s and I have a whopping 2 spare points to bump something else. Personally I wish they gave you less points but did not have the increased cost for higher stats thing. mechanically a +1 is a +1 so the cost should be the same to go from 8 to 10 as 12 to 14 etc. But oh well, they wanted to enforce high stat rarity or wanted it to map closer to rolls rarity or something. 

I almost went off book a bit with my current warlock and was going to end up with starting stats like  str 8, dex, 10 con 14, int 16, wis 8, chr 17. But I wanted a bit more dex due to his background and i didn;t want to dump wisdom. Con id of maybe gone a bit lower but my last campaign I played a 10 con monk and I decided not to do that 2 times in a row. But hey standard array won and its str 8 dex 12, con 14, int 14, wis 10 chr 17

Quote from Deathmolar >>

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?

 First of all, that's just you and the people you play with. Or maybe the YouTube videos you watch. Literally nobody in my groups has ever done the 15/8 point-buy thing. In fact, one of the wizards in my game maxed strength before intelligence. Nor does everybody take alert and tough as their origin feats. (Also, because of background-based ASIs, I think you can only get the stats you want with the feat you want as a Crime Wizard.)

Secondly, the idea that's the way to be "most effective" has an incredibly narrow idea of what effectiveness is, and what the threats to a caster are. Specifically, it's assuming that stabbing is the only thing that happens to you. Wisdom and Charisma saves are actually quite common. Also, most casters operate in a party, and don't need to max out AC and HP because they have other people to fight on the front line for them. This lets them use their stats for skills, or other things. 

As for people not roleplaying the 8s, that's just bad roleplaying. Which isn't surprising if it's coming from people who are thinking about their characters entirely in terms of how to be most effective, instead of who the character is. But that's not most people who play this game.

Mostly, I think you've made a trap for yourself, where you do things because they're "effective", and it sounds like it's making the game less fun for you. You can stop any time.

Minmaxing is valid.

But HOLY TOLEDO, is a group allegedly being locked into a specific setup is not worth this level of gnashing of teeth(ironic, considering OP's username)...

Getting trapped in one build & playstyle is encouraged by engagement types online. Perhaps you need to mix it up?

Quote from Athanar90 >>

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.

 If you have a base Con of 8 you have a 50% chance of making a DC 10 Con save.  If you have a Con of 14, you have 65% chance of success.  Mathematically, it is a fixed percentage of 5% for every +1 bonus you get, but the effectiveness of that +1 bonus decreases the higher your base bonus is because the higher your chances of success are, the less often raising your chances of success is going to actually going to matter.

Or to look at it a different way, if you needed a Nat 20 to make a save and you get a +1 bonus so you can make it on a 19-20, you've just doubled your chances of success.  If you needed a 7+ to make a save and you get a +1 bonus, the increase is only 1/14th.