Your post hadn't showed up while I was writing. It was in response to jl8e. I'm stat agnostic. Whatever the DM/players want in terms of stat generation (from the "official" choices and a few variants) I'm ok with as long as everyone uses the same method.

My current players (duo) rolled stats (4d6 drop lowest) and both dumped INT. They think they are brothers. One is a gnome and the other is a dwarf.

Hilariously, they are also both valor bards and couldn't play those characters more differently. One melees with his spiked metal lute (reliving his glory days from Gloomhaven) and the other went all in with an animal companionship schtick at range.

This thread is 5 years old? Wow. 

Rolls don't matter. Pick whatever method players find attractive. It's the GM's job to provide a challenge, so whether your stat is a 16 or a 20 doesn't make any difference - the challenge will meet the ability, because that's the GM's job. Higher stats mean more dangerous foes. Maybe, just maybe, if you have better stats, your first encounter is upgraded from rats to goblins.

As an aside, the point of the game as a whole is to have fun. If players have more fun with higher stats, then that's the game.

as someone who prefers the 4d6 method:

i started out using the point buy system and it actually made me more of a power player. i tried optimizing the stats and i only had characters that were average to good in all stats. no weaknesses. it was boring and i hated it. do i love it if i get a high number with the 4d6 method? yes. do i love it when all my numbers are high? no, i actually hate it. and in that case if i can i will make at least one stat worse on purpose to balance it out. i like the 4d6 method because yes it can get my main stat higher than 15 but it can also get my dump stat lower than 8 and make my character have an actual weakness. i also like the randomness and i like rolling dice. for me personally it helps me create more interesting characters.

that being said, i have no problem using other methods if required and i get why some people don‘t want to use the 4d6 method at their tables. but not all people using the 4d6 method are power players and power players don‘t need the 4d6 method to power play.

With point buy, it's easier to min max than rolling, because you can dump some stats and push those points into others. It's one of the reasons why there's a cap to how high you buy stats. With rolling, it will push for more average values (although it does allow for a wider range - you can get 3-7 and 16-18 via rolling but with not point buy).

That said, as long as the table is happy, any method is fine. The are only issues that I see. The first is if one person gets very good stats (at least in what matters) while another gets poor stats, and do the first eclipses the second. Point buy reduces the likelihood of that, and also places the responsibility onto the player - if the stats are poor for your character, that's your own fault, not the dice. It's also pretty easy to adjust scores fairly afterwards if it's that much of an issue.

The second is if someone is suspected of cheating, you can verify that their stats are fair at any time. It takes a bit of work, but you can see and replicate how they got to where they are by allocating points, doing ASIs etc.

After some thought, for my next campaign, I'm going to offer three options. Point Buy, Standard Array (as a specific case of Point Buy), or get them all to roll 4d6k3 and form a matrix with the results. They then get to pick a line (up, down, left, right, diagonally) and use those as their array, they can't use the same line twice (so each character will generally have a unique array).

Quote from Linklite >>

With point buy, it's easier to min max than rolling, because you can dump some stats and push those points into others. It's one of the reasons why there's a cap to how high you buy stats. With rolling, it will push for more average values (although it does allow for a wider range - you can get 3-7 and 16-18 via rolling but with not point buy).

 

 Have you used the point buy in DDB?  It allows for the same point allocation as the standard array, and still has a max of 15 pre background bonuses.  At most you can get 3 15s. By having 2 8s.  You can't go above or below that in the creator.  15 15 15 8 8 8.  So after bonus background bonuses 17 16 15 8 8 8 is the final.  That's not extreme.  
Most are going to do a 15 14 13 12 10 8 or a 15 14 13 10 10 8.  So after background 17 14 14 12 10 8 or 17 14 14 12 10 10.  There isn't that much difference between the 3 examples.  Hardly game breaking. 

Quote from Linklite >>

With point buy, it's easier to min max than rolling, because you can dump some stats and push those points into others. 

 4k3 averages higher than point buy. 4k3 if you allow people to reroll terrible stats (aka every version I've ever actually seen used in a game) averages much higher than point buy (at least, 27 point buy).

Yes, the average is marginally higher (13v12.5), but the average doesn't minmax. Maybe you will get minmaxxed. Maybe you'll get straight 13s - good luck minmaxxing that. Point Buy allows you to minmax every time.

And yes, if you employ house rules, then you can get much higher. Perhaps you should argue that Point Buy should also have a more points to spend, since we're in house rule territory. No such house rules at my table though.

Quote from Linklite >>

Yes, the average is marginally higher (13v12.5), but the average doesn't minmax. Maybe you will get minmaxxed. Maybe you'll get straight 13s - good luck minmaxxing that. Point Buy allows you to minmax every time.

If we're talking minmaxing, point buy doesn't allow you to reach 20 in a stat until your second ASI. You can get there in one ASI with rolling if you hit a 16 or better out of the gate

This debate mostly comes down to which you think is worse: "minmax-ing" or simply the possibility of "min-ing" or "max-ing."

Simple solution.

At the beginning of a campaign, or when a new player joins your campaign, guve them this offer;

The DM rolls 6 ability scores, the player distrubutes the scores amongst their abikities as they see fit.if the character dies, or the player wants a new character, they use the same original 6 scores, and distribute them to their abikities as they wish.

After 5 levels, if the player wants a new character, dm rolls 6 new scores and player has to use those for the rest of the campaign.

Player must accept rolling for stats before the DM does the roll.

If the player just wants the challlenge of roleplaying unusual scores, then they've got a set of scores to work with for at least 5 levels.

If they are power gaming, then they will roll a character, and if they dont like the results they will charge every enemy they encounter until their charavter dies and they can roll a new charavter.  Repeat until they get good stats, then play to survive. But rolling one set of scores, and forcing them to use those same numbers on new characters will cause every power gamer to quickly lose interest in rolling for stats.

And if they conttinue to insist its just about roleplay and variety, tell them they can use point buy, but they get 27 minus 1d4 points to work with and see how much they want variety, anf how much its just "rolll and kill character until you get stats you want".

The other issue is while rolling for stats produces a bell curve of results, where the peak of the curve matches point buy, there is a decent chance (i think like 40%) they get a 16 or higher on at least one score. So i do 5 rolls with 4d6, choose the highest. And 1 roll that is a straight 3d6 and add them up.

Tell the player up front those rules and if they accept, roll and hold them to those scores. Any attempt to push for a reroll is them just rolling until they hit the jackpot, and thats no longer about being "random".

"Or interesting stats. I am right, if not specific. If you use SA, all dex champions will have nearly identical stats. So will all samurai. And Str EKs."

So, you point buy using 27-1d4 points.

Yes, you will be slightly weaker than the rest of the party, but if you only want variety, and not a power advantage over the others in your party, this would be fine.

"the point of the game as a whole is to have fun. If players have more fun with higher stats, then that's the game."

But the folks rolling 4d6 for stats also want to be better than anyone in the party, and that makes itess fun for the folks who did pointbuy.

With pointbuy, you can get high stats, by trading off other stats as low to balance it out.

If having 20's for all my ability scores makes me happy, then, no, i dont deserve all 20's for my stats. I need to go play a video game and enter a cheat mode.

"With rolling, it will push for more average values"

Except pointbuy average ability score is slightly lower than rolling average ability score

and that assumes you only get a single roll.

if a player whines and cries every time they roll bad stats, and convince the DM to let them reroll until the whiney player is happy, then the average "roll until the whiney player stops whining" ability score is goign to be WAY higher than point buy.

"This debate mostly comes down to which you think is worse: "minmax-ing" or simply the possibility of "min-ing" or "max-ing.""

Except rollers will kill their characters if they dont like the stats they rolled or cry to the dm to reroll, and keep doing that until they get a much, much higher set of stats than the average results from rolling stats.

Pointbuy, if you dont like your stats, you make a new charavter with the same 27 points to buy the scores you want.

Rolling encourages and rewards whining for rerolls.

There is no reward for redoing pointbuy. Its thr same every time.

Quote from Linklite >>

Yes, the average is marginally higher (13v12.5), but the average doesn't minmax. Maybe you will get minmaxxed. Maybe you'll get straight 13s - good luck minmaxxing that. Point Buy allows you to minmax every time.

And yes, if you employ house rules, then you can get much higher. Perhaps you should argue that Point Buy should also have a more points to spend, since we're in house rule territory. No such house rules at my table though.

 Goal post moving. If someone is making house rules that's their game to decide how it goes.  Point buy as in the creator isn't really min maxing.  You are really stretching the definition of it.

Honestly could care less about what system people use, and no one else should either. Its their game. Their preference, their choice.  Anyone's opinion here to the contrary is irrelevant. 

Quote from kenclary >>

This debate mostly comes down to which you think is worse: "minmax-ing" or simply the possibility of "min-ing" or "max-ing."

 No, it mostly comes down to which you think is worse: characters with fairly same-y attributes, or dramatic power differences between PCs.