This...or try playing a barbarian with 8 strength. D&D is a game that harshly punishes ineptitude, and greatly rewards competence. And not just strictly in character builds but also in power usage, party management...like try sending the wizard or the cleric up front to tank and see how that goes.
Also as usual people use extreme cases to defend minmaxing. Is a Str 14 barbarian inept? No, but minmaxer want you to think so.
This is so true. Especially on lower levels. Anyone rushing to main attribute 20 on level 12 is kidding themselves. Sure, pure casters are very dependent on their spellcasting attribute, but even then I think ending up at 18 should be plenty, most likely with an overall solid build you can make it work with 16 as well in cases like cleric, bard, druid,...
