Acceptable Stats and the Power-gamer

Apparently, 15 is no longer a high stat.

I've previously described my stat creation method for D&D here. On Saturday, I put it to use. I had 20 stat cards generated, painstakingly put together with help from my PC and a d60,000. (There are, apparently, 55,000 possible combinations of stats that meet the requirements for the 4th column - 7 stats, all between 7 and 18, with the best six giving a total bonus of +6, in any order) The players each got a card of stats, and then had loads of trouble finding a set that suited them.

Anyway, after a while, I commented that you should be able to create a decent character of any class with just the first column (the standard array). Maybe excepting the Paladin and the Monk, both of which suffer from multiple attribute dependency. The other columns merely provide more options.

The response from one player, which I found very interesting, was that the other columns wer better because they at least had some high numbers on them.

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I guess there is some justification for thinking 15 isn't high enough, if playing a Wizard, Sorcerer, Cleric or Druid. These characters, at high levels, need to get to 19 in their prime spellcasting ability, or else they can't use their most powerful spells. Which creates a small problem.

However, my experience with 3rd Edition would seem to suggest that the game is unlikely to reach 17th level anyway, as it seems to lose its charm by the early teens (although it is my intention with the current campaign to do just that, so I may well be wrong). It's also a bit odd planning for 17th level when creating a 1st level character. You may well not even survive that long. Of course, you might.

But perhaps the biggest problem with that way of thinking, a problem that was valid in my last campaign, but hopefully not here, is that as a character advances, it should be reasonably easy to boost his key spellcasting stat with appropriate items/wishes/whatever. It seems a bit foolish to insist on a huge stat at character creation, knowing that such a device can either be bought or at the very least made over the course of the 17 levels before it becomes relevant.

Then again, high stats in just the right scores can be extremely useful, so what do I know?