Class-Based vs Point-Buy

With the announcement that the 5th edition of Dungeons & Dragons will be released this August I am brought back to the issue of which system I will eventually use. I have been looking at GURPS, and while I like what I see, I do not feel that it would be appropriate for my setting. The system itself is great, but I have some issues with the way the fundamental design of the system would interact with emergent gameplay, and the active defenses (everyone can oppose an attack roll with a parry, block, or a dodge) in addition to the plethora of modifiers could cause combat to drag on.

Character creation is one of the core concepts of the pen and paper RPG experience. The character is both the player's avatar to the adventure and the tool-kit which allows the player to interact with the rules of the game. Without a character we have imagination and narrative, which are fun, but we do not have continuity and a vehicle to facilitate suspension of disbelief. Lots of other people have already written about class-based vs point-buy systems, but I will be highlighting the most relevant differences that lead to my decision to go with a class based system.

Point-buy systems like GURPS allow great flexibility and character customization, whereas class-based systems like Dungeons & Dragons have restricted customization. The player may have a character concept that does not fit within a specific class system, but in a point buy system the player will be more likely to realize their character concept.

Conversely, the point-buy system has too much choice. I have looked for solutions to this issue but most of the suggestions consist of developing templates for the players to use during character creation. There are resources for developing templates, but it just produces ease of introduce with the trade-off of more worth for me (or any other game master). Class based systems just seem like they have much greater ease of introduction to new players, and an easy way to show what roles the character will excel at.

Class-based systems have role cohesion in the classes, and I like that. Having a number of specialists aids in teamwork by design, whereas a group of jack-of-all-trades do not necessarily need the same coordination. I am not saying that GURPS prevents or discourages teamwork, but I believe that class based systems do more to encourage it.

One aspect of point-buy systems that I really like is the gradual progression as opposed to steps in power that you get from levels. Going back to the World of Darkness games that I have been playing lately, and how GURPS works as well, the players receive experience which they use this to purchase abilities and upgrades. This allows specialization, but it also allows for more incremental progression as opposed to increasing all your stats at set levels. I will be looking at how various class based systems address this, but I do not at this time see how gradual progression could be introduced to a class based system.