It's nice of you to articulate it. But it's really very basic strategy. Maximize your strength while minimizing your weakness.
The pure, undiluted essence of min-maxing.
I'm a fan of 15's in point buy, especially when you've got several stats that could do with being high, followed by a race that bumps your favorite score up to 17, and doesn't hurt your secondaries.
15 is the point where I feel you get a useful modifier, but it's not prohibitively expensive. So I'd be more inclined to take two or three 15's (depending on point buy) than to pump one single stat up high. Unless they really are SAD to the max, I like to spread it out more.
Also, I usually shoot for three odd ability scores (except for 12's) that I like since the cost for even ones (where you get the modifier) is where they go up more sharply. This way, you can also drop leveling bonuses into them as you go to make them more effective more easily. Doing this with three scores means that, ideally, your first 3 increases can go to one of each, and then you have two left to get a full modifier on one of them.
That's at least how I usually start with ability scores.
The classic example of this sort of thing is choosing an Elf for the Wizard class. IMO, they should have put the class descriptions BEFORE the racial ones, since most people I know choose their races once they know their class.
Yeah, it sucks for a Wizard to have a -2 to Con, since they already have nonexistent Fort saves and crappy hp. You can compensate for this via feats (Toughness, +1hp favored class, and Great Fortitude) and other options. But the Dex benefit for Wizards is just too high to ignore. You need it for touch spells, Reflex saves, AC (very important since you can't wear armor sans lots of feats) and Initiative.
Plus, if you can find a way to get Stealth as class (Highlander trait) you can sneak, very good for a guy that doesn't have the AC to last long in a fight.
You know, it might be a good idea for all Wizards to put a level into Fighter to get Arcane Armor Training, once they hit 3rd level caster. The extra hp and boosted Fort saves would prove handy....
This is allocating a +2 to a stat you have very low.
Personally, I'd much rather go with a +2 racial bonus to something I want high.
The difference between a 15 and a 17 in point buy is 6 points (7 -> 13). The difference between a 10 and a 12 is only 2 (0 -> 2). Even taking it all the way down to 7, you'll have 4 points refunded, but that's still less cost-effective than if you had a +2 in any 15 or higher stat (and you'll still have a negative modifier, even at 9).
On the other hand, if you just drop two points into the stat that you have as a racial penalty, you'll break even. The +2 racial bonuses are worth much more the higher the stat you put them on.
When I'm picking a race it has little to nothing to do with it's stat block and everything to do with how that race is represented in the DM's campaign and how that representation reflects my character concept. So my trick is basically the same as shrugging your shoulders. It's a neat trick. It requires at least 14 years and 7 months of practice, or absolutely no practice if your apathetic or at least partially organic and the sun is aligned properly with a chart written in crayon in southern Austria when the wind is blowing with ... I don't care enough to finish sentence actually. Point is, tricks are for kids and when you can see why kids love the taste of cinnamon toast crunch the idea of playing an ogre bard who has to fight racial discrimination and struggle to reach his goal to the best lutist in the land becomes a little bit awesome.
that example is the RP-equivalent of doing a cartwheel while yelling 'look at me'
then again, so are most of my posts
only mine are like doing a cartwheel in tighty-whities while wearing a sign that says "Party Boy: only 2cp"
I'll concede that. Kind of an extreme case I chose because ... reasons. Intentional exaggeration, which includes both cartwheels and yelling and possibly streamers. I'm not advocating being disruptive or stealing the spotlight but I'd totally play an ogre bard if it was going to be something the group was cool with. Not because it'd get me attention, or to use it as a spring board to be absurd, but because I think that the idea of a character struggling to defy convention is interesting (Kind of like Loial from the Wheel of Time ). Of course, if we all takes turns cartwheeling it might just be a little more awesome. I'm not so sure about the tighty-whities though.
see I thought this thread was going be about secrets
like why dwarves are the monk race of choice or the under-the-radar element of half-elf summoners or finding like the one class guide where human is not listed as a blue choice for everything (there totally is one)
OP I think the problem with your method is that the whole process is quantitative and guguhhegl;-
Sorry that was like the biggest word I have used on here and I had a moment, I am okay now
Anyways, it is quantitative and there is just simply, as darkwolf sort of put it, a way that you can get the most delicious bang for your point-allocating buck by the way you spend your points and add your racial bonuses
First I pick a race that has great fluff I like.
Then I pick a class that has great flugg I like.
Then I figure out how to distribute my points to make the class work best with the Ability modifiers I got.