Out of Character Thread
@Typical - I think the benefit of not using all of your character points to make a party of eight is that your party can advance faster. XP and treasure is split between fewer characters, and if not many of those characters are multiclassed, then the party gets more powerful faster...if it survives.
Besides, this is old school D&D, where your ability scores aren't really all that important. I'm in a fairly by-the-book AD&D game here, and my primary PC there is a Halfling Fighter 4/Thief 5 and he has no bonus to Str or Con, and only a slight bonus from Dex to AC and thief skills. He's managed to prosper in that game, being part of parties that have taken on ogres, evil wizards, hordes of humanoids, and even took down a green dragon (back when he was only F 2/T3 IIRC).