I have to ask, what are people talking about when they say "min-maxing"? Because I get the impression we're talking about different things.
Thank you for pointing this out. It really feels like what a lotof the anti-minmaxers are saying is that they consider "being conscious of character stats and building a character with the desire to make them good at the thing they're meant to be good at." Sure, a 14-15 in a primary stat won't make a character unpalayble, but it will be a challenge. One that not every player is going to want to del with for every character. Sometimes that's not the story they want for their character. To bring up the racial ASI issue since I feel like that's an important aspect of this discussion, what if the story you want to tell about an orc wizard isn't about how difficult learning magic was for them? What if you'd rather their difficulty be in being a perfectly fine wizard but clashing with their family over being talented in intelectual pursuits rather than physical ones? Or hell, moving away from the popular orc wizard example, what about a dwarf wizard? Why should they be restricted to stories about their difficulties in magic? Or a dwarven bard who wants to record and share the songs and tales of glory of her people? What's so terrible and min-maxy about wanting them to be as good at the stuff their class does as an elven wizard is at the stuff their class would do?
Well, first, you can play those things without a plus two in your Int stat. You can still play a dwarf who's good at magic with a 15 Int.
And second, the reason it doesn't work for some folks is because it sullies the setting for an orc to have the same Int as a high elf wizard. Suddenly there's born a ground breaking genius orc, not because it's relevant to the plot or setting, no, but because Johnny just had to be the most unique'est.
If Johnny really wanted to play an orc who was estranged from his community because of his intellectual pursuits, he can still do that without a plus two to his Int. Rather than accepting that and really getting into the role though, Johnny needs to be equivalent to whatever race is greatest at magic because Johnny is Johnny and we all know how Johnny is.
That's why there are quite a few folks who don't necessarily enjoy gaming with Johnny.
