For example -

 

In Fallout: New Vegas you gained stats for choosing certain methods of completing certain quests. You found items to increase stats as well.

 

Similarly, going back, in KotOR II some companions could give you some significant combat bonuses that affected the way you might build a character.

 

Also, in general, classes tend to have themes, and sometimes the way a class plays in combat is ideal for you while its theme(say, a necromancer or warlock) is not in line with the way you prefer to play(say, a goody two shoes character).

 

 

I am personally against this, and don't like when my roleplaying choices interfere with my character building - I feel pressured to make choices that conflict with my character's personality for statistic benefits. I am pretty obsessive when it comes to optimizing a character though.

 

I do understand however, that in many cases, it just makes sense. I admit that this is very much a personal issue I have with games and it's sometimes illogical, and it's often my own fault for going too deep into micro-management and ruining my own fun.

 

There's probably some happy middle-ground here. For example, in KotOR playing an offensive force power using light sider was far less effective than dark side - but this was mitigated to degree in KotOR II with a stat that reduced penalties on cross-alignement powers.

 

(I recently replayed the KotOR games with KotOR II being added to steam, that's why I'm using it as an example so much)

Basically you don't want one way of playing to completely over-power another.

I don't think anybody wants that.