Strength, Dexterity and Constitution - all are important to your character's survivability in combat in D&D - but which is most important?
High Strength makes you hit harder and more often.
High Dexterity makes you harder to hit, so you take damage less often. It also gives a bonus to hit (but not damage) with ranged weapons.
High Constitution enables you to take more damage before going down, potentially enabling you to deal damage for a longer time (and if you are a dwarf or a halfling it gives one heck of a bonus to poison and magic saves)
So, which is the best one to put your highest score at?
I have no idea. Traditionally, my fighter classed characters have always gone Strength, Constitution and then Dexterity in order if priority, but I have no idea if mathematically that is the most effective priority.
No, I'm not suggesting that we need to do a mathematical breakdown of most effective priority, but it certainly would be interesting (and beyond my mere mortal abilities).
Instead, I'm interested in discussing the order of prioritization for your fighting type class character's statistics. Most of us do have a default in mind when we arrange our stats. There is no right answer (although math might show us a more effective answer).
And no, this post has nothing to do with work and the current attempts of the powers that be to find the most effective (in time and money) methods for each process that my office does. Because reality and theory rarely intersect.
Penny wise and pound foolish comes to mind...