Suggestion: Make it so you earn an extra reroll/reroll undo every 10 days played

[Kavrick]

I've heard concerns voiced about min-max archetypes they feel would come with a point-buy system

I just want to point out, any system that ever existed can be min-maxed. People min-max the current system via stat prioritization and suicide. People min-max the super obscure skill system that only the Vets now how to game. I feel as if making it so everyone starts on the same, level playing field is easily worth a couple of people min-maxing a system they're already min-maxing.

[flurry]

I have found the single reroll and prioritizing stats are every useful to avoid such disappointments.  The new stat improvements will help too.  I avoid backgrounds and descriptions that paint me into a corner with the character.  The strongest elf alive?  The most agile dwarf in the Known?  The greatest swordsman to grace the Nak on 75 years?  What type of characters are you speaking of...fighters, raiders and enforcers that have massive strength, incredible agility, 125 hp and maxed wisdom because of a touched subclass?  Or the other way...you want a character with very poor agility and wisdom? The clumsy, dumb gladiator? 

I completely agree that the reroll (and reroll undo) and prioritization give us more control over stats than ever. They mitigate the randomness, and I hope that trend away from randomness continues in other ways.

To clarify, I didn't mean that concepts are rendered unplayable with bad stats. If a concept truly requires outstanding stats of some kind, that should be a special app. Having said that, the disappointment some people feel when getting meh stats with a combat role is understandable. And I don't want people to start out already feeling disappointed because they came up short in the stats lottery.

[RheaGhe]

Took a lot of time to think on this. And posted a bit on discord about it.

Came up with 3 real arguments for and against point buy. And came up with an alternate solution that might work better than pure point buy. A kind of best of both worlds.

Removing a lot of context from those points.
Cons
1. Point Buy is very mechanistic. And leads to hyper optimization of characters over playing to story. In short it leads to justification as means, rather than means as justification. IE I have X stat, this is why, not This is why I have X stat. The order there is important.
2. Point Buy would lead to a need to file away at the niches, no longer would you be likely to see terrible, or absolutely incredible for example. The costs would be prohibitive in a balanced system to include those ranges.
3. Point Buy allows for some truly grotesque builds that would because of hyper optimization allow for 0 karma griefing that would be prevented or more easily noticable in the current systems.
Pros
1. Point buy would allow more agency by the player to dictate roles and allow greater freedom of choice in player builds.
2. Point buy would equalize a bit the field of play, it would become your choice, rather than randomnesses choice whether or not your characters were statistically inclined for combat for instance.
3. The nature of pointbuy would open up a bit more the information on race statistic ranges, and allow better comparisons to be made. At least in an ideal system where enough information was given to a player to provide them with an educated choice.

I would propose a hybrid system.

Stats are rolled as they are now.

Then 1 is subtracted from each stat.

And you are given the option to rearrange those 4 points. With a max of 3 put into any one stat.

In our current system that would not overbalance and allow too much boosting of one stat, but would allow you to correct your stats to playable ranges if you were to roll something untenable if you include the class bonuses.