APL and CR value of different point buys for stats?

[Mok]

Has anyone worked out math as to whether there should be any kind of adjustment made for Average Party Level, or on the flip side, adjustments to CR values when a campaign is played with character creation at various point buy values?

I doubt it would be in the Gamemastery Guide, but I'd love to see some kind of comprehensive document that takes the overall system, breaks it down so that you get consistent averages of results and from that develops a set of "dials" for the game.

If you want a low powered game, set the dials in such a way, if you want them high then set them another way.

I know you can kind of do that, but I want a bit more fine grained detail on what to expect as a GM.

If I have the players use 15 point buy, or in random character gen realize that the average value from the rolls comes out to something around 15 point buy, then I'd like to be able to understand how this is going to impact over the long haul the CR system.

Likewise, if I'm doing a 32 point buy, but I want the players to be challenged a bit more, then it would be great if there was more precision as to calculating out the APL and CR values for what is being faced.

If all of that could be mapped to treasure allocation in addition then that would be wonderful. How does a 36 point buy, but zero magic game work out for APL and CR? What happens if you do high magic and 36 point buy? Shouldn't the APL get jacked up a bit?

Right now everything involves eyeballing it, which isn't very satisfying and can lead to results that are way off of expectation.

[hogarth]

I think the power level of a party is more sensitive to other things than it is to which point buy is used. So if you're not controlling for the other things (e.g. party composition, how good the players are at using tactics, etc.), then it doesn't make much sense to adjust for a 15 point buy vs. a 25 point buy, e.g.

[Anonymous Visitor 163 576]

It's really hard to do this, because it's hard to put a numerical value on things like "Is the party balanced?" or "Do they use Teamwork?".

But, you don't have to solve the problem in a day. Try something. If it's too hard, or too easy, adjust it.

[Mok]

True, it is difficult. I'd be happy to pay someone to work it all out though.

I guess the dials just extend to things like "class tier" and "player experience" etc. Just work out all of the factors, make them all dials and then figure out the range of values on each dial.

The ultimate goal, is that you could set the dials and then run with it, with the assumption that the underlying math is sound and so you don't have to really pay attention to it.

Right now the system is roughly built on four players with four encounters per day that roughly extend for five rounds a piece, and that magic items are fairly easy to acquire and be upgraded. There are some hazy ways in which these things can be adjusted.

The are a few official "dials" in the system, such as how long it takes for characters to level.

There is also a dial for point buy scores, but you don't get any real idea on how that will impact the game, beyond assuming that the more points used the easier it gets. The real question there is how easy in terms of the underlying math.

Another dial adjust CR by the number of players in the party. This one I find problematic because having more party members does make things easier, but adjustment often ought to be a larger number of enemies versus them actually being tougher.

It would just be great to get all of the factors put together into one section, and allow a clear way to make adjustments based on all of those factors.