Quote Originally Posted by Max_Killjoy View Post
My biggest objection to "stat dumping" is when players try to use it as "free tradeoff" by then ignoring the low stat as much as possible in-game. Classic example being the guy who builds a Fighter, puts an 8 in INT and a 10 in WIS... and then plays the character as a shrewd and brilliant tactician.

It would help avoid this, and enable things like smart fighters or buff sorcerers, if there were some way to trade off other stuff to get more points for the Ability scores, so that a character could be more Abilities and Skills based... but D&D steadfastly does not work that way.
Just curious how you would enforce the tactical ability difference between an 8 intelligence fighter and a 14 intelligence fighter, and then perhaps even a 20 intelligence fighter. At what level of intelligence are you going to prevent your player from making a tactical decision because they're too stupid to have thought of it? What decisions are cut off where?

Is a party of 10 intelligence adventurers going to be utterly incapable of planning a successful surprise attack?

I understand that I'm exaggerating the situation a bit but how would you even determine such a thing, it sounds like a lot of work. How could you reasonably draw those cutoff points without them being entirely arbitrary and based off of only your own expectations?