The way that it leads people to min max, and talk about what is essential, or what is necessary, or a dead end choice, etc., is one of the things I hate about the point buy system, and it's why none of my tables ever use it. It creates statistically boring, cookie-cutter characters, or it creates a propensity for players to do so.

I'm supremely not a fan of the latest suggestions that indicate Wizards might be trying to obliterate racial ability differences entirely... it just smacks of racial erasure more than anything else.

Small, slightly off-topic, rant incoming...


I've always felt that 5e DOES do a really good job of supporting the idea that anyone can be anything, if they're determined to do so.... while still maintaining an acknowledgement that Different Peoples, From Different Backgrounds, Are Different and that that is a Good thing that we should Acknowledge and Celebrate, not sweep under the carpet or try to erase. Erasing the differences between different races of people is doing no-one any good...

People of an orcish bloodline are naturally predisposed to grow larger and stronger than the average; they naturally put on muscle more easily, and lose it more slowly; it's not a crime to acknowledge that.
People of elven descent are naturally predisposed to heightened agility and dexterity than the average human metric; it's not a crime to acknowledge that. It's a good thing to acknowledge.

The orc who spends his youth growing up in a scholarly enclave and dedicates his life and career to bookish studies is still going to be weaker physically than the halfling prize fighter who has made her life and career out of pile-driving people bigger than her in a sandy ring. That's normal, and natural, and that's how the system works.

Here's the other thing: That bookish orc is still going to have that natural predisposition, to a certain extent; it's apart of who he is, and it's a disservice to pretend it isn't. The human sitting beside him who has lived and grown up in the exact same circumstance and made the exact same life choices, will probably still be less likely to win in an arm wrestle, even if the prize fighter would slam them both with two fingers each at the same time.

Beyond that: There's a maximum limit to how excellent a mortal can become, and it's the same for every race. So, the elven archer who pursues the goal of being the most precise shot the world has ever seen might have a natural inclination towards the skill, and may find that learning and training it comes easily... while alongside her, the dwarven lad who just couldn't stand one more day looking at mines has harder road... but when they both push themselves into the upper echelons of being the best of the best, and the limits of what a mortal can attain, they are ultimately able to reach the same pinnacle, without one necessarily being better than the other. That dwarf will have to work harder for it, but he can do it... and if the two of them had dedicated themselves to endurance training instead, the tables would be reversed... there is literally NO case of "You can never be as strong/smart/fast as that other person, because you are a halfling/half-orc/dwarf"; that criticism does NOT exist in 5e, and it NEVER has.

It's good to acknowledge that different peoples are, in fact, different: it's not a crime and it's not discriminatory; it's celebrating the things that make us different from one another, in positive ways, which is what we should be doing.

Rolling for stats has no down side in a video game; if someone WANTS to reroll until they get a roll they like, then they are the only one that is affected by that. This is not something that will lead to the game being balanced around it (like other non-optional mechanics people often complain about). This one is and remains entirely between the player and their own game. Another game of contemporary publication went so far as to allow players to just directly SET their ability scores, if they wished to... and you know what? It didn't lead to a huge influx of everyone setting everything to 18, and it didn't affect game design or balance. It just let people recreate characters they ran in PnP, or tweak a roll that they didn't quite like, and it was really well received. Those who wanted to play with a strong, heroic stat line could, those who didn't, didn't have to. Those who thought it 'feels like cheating' to reroll... didn't have to roll; they just use point buy or standard array, or take the first roll they're given.

We don't have that choice here. We're stuck with point buy: we can never have a 6, no matter how appropriate it should be for our character. I wanted to remake Tarabel, one of my previous characters, this play through, but I couldn't even come close because I couldn't bring three of my ability scores low enough (nor one high enough, but it was the low ones I was saddest about).