What determines the range of the bonus wheel at level up?

When you level up you're given the choice to apply some bonus points to one of your stats. This is done via a slot machine like wheel with a range of numbers on it. I've only been choosing BP and POW, and at first the highest value the wheel had was 4, but the highest value now is 2.

Is this number decreasing since I've chosen the same stat multiple times? Is there anyway to increase it's range to higher number again?

Solution 1:

The bonus wheel attempts to keep all your stats even. If you use it on the same stat every time, it'll eventually only give you 1s with the occasional 3 every time you pick that stat yet again. On the other hand, picking a stat you haven't touched in a while shows a hodgepodge of values between 2 and 5, and 6s and even 7s can show up for stats that are really below the hidden baseline for your level. _{I think you can get 7 in this game; I might be confusing it with a later game in the series.}

So your intuition is correct - the bonus wheel doesn't like how high your BP and POW have gotten compared to where it thinks they should be, and is pushing you towards evening yourself out. Boosting your other stats during level-ups, leaving your BP and POW alone to regress towards the mean, will let you see better bonus numbers for them.

That said, I do not believe that the stat bonuses you get from beans affect the bonus wheel's reckoning, so if you do want to over-specialize that's where you'll want to look.