Min-Max`ing

        To explain to those who are not aware of the term or procedure we refer to as min-max`ing.

        Min-Max`ing is when during character creation, a player minimises the unimportant (to him) attributes, so that the points can be put into "important" attributes instead.

        This would allow a fighter character to have a high strength (giving extra to hit bonuses and damage bonuses), a high dexterity (giving extra armour class bonuses) and a high constitution (giving bonus hit points), all of which are useful for a fighter. But the same character would have a low Intelligence (giving bonus spells he doesn`t get), a low Wisdom and Charisma (both of which don`t really give any advantages).

        Likewise Wizards, Thieves and Clerics all have their own important attributes, so can be min-max`ed. For multi-classed characters, and for classes which were a mixture of classes (eg Paladins which are a mixture of Fighter and Cleric), min-max`ing became more difficult but still possible.

        Min-max`ing creates very similar characters (all fighters will be almost exactly the same, etc), but we always found that the numbers on the piece of paper, are not the whole character, and a two characters with the same attributes can still have very different personalities.

        Although it can occur in all role playing games, it seems to be most common in Dungeons and Dragons, therefore my use of the attributes from that game above.