What point buy do you use?

[TriOmegaZero]

Raymond Carroll wrote:

36 points. these are supposed to be the heroes of the story. i write very challenging adventures.

*highfive*

[Darkholme]

We all use what my players call "Ray's Card Stat Gen System", which I actually took and modified from something I saw on ENWorld.

12 Cards, numbered 4 through 9. Pull out one of the 5's and shove in a joker. Shuffle, draw pairs, and add them together. Joker doubles whatever it's next to.

It works out to give a stat array like 18, 16, 14, 12, 12, 8 on average.

[Dork Lord]

When I am forced to use a point buy (and I do hate point buy as a general rule), I use 25 and even then I feel really limited.

I'm a guy who's legitimately rolled 2 18s, a 17 and a 16 (with the lowest being like 12 or so, so no "dump stat") as part of stats for a character, so I guess I'm a bit spoiled... I do roll well in general.

We use 4D6, drop the lowest and reroll 1s... 3 columns.

[Raymond Carroll]

Themetricsystem wrote:

Raymond Carroll wrote:

36 points. these are supposed to be the heroes of the story. i write very challenging adventures.

You mean based on the 3.5 build rules? Because the system changed for pathfinder.

no, for pathfinder. i write REALLY challenging adventures. ;)

[AdAstraGames]

I tell everyone to give me their most important stat, and their two dump stats.

Most important stat gets a 22. Dump stats get 14s. Everything else is a 16.

They then roll one 6 sided die labeled with the 6 attributes and add 1 to whatever comes up.

So, on average, 22, 16, 16, 16, 14, 14.

However, I run a variant game that's much grittier.

[Themetricsystem]

Raymond Carroll wrote:

Themetricsystem wrote:

Raymond Carroll wrote:

36 points. these are supposed to be the heroes of the story. i write very challenging adventures.

You mean based on the 3.5 build rules? Because the system changed for pathfinder.

no, for pathfinder. i write REALLY challenging adventures. ;)

So.. do you apply the advanced simple template to each creature, put the party against CR +3 encounters and play each monster with mind reading?

36 point results in ridiculous levels of power for a player to have, unless you run the game as EXTREME low magic.

[magnuskn]

20 points for my own running CotCT campaign. I am playing a character in a Second Darkness campaign with 15 points. I am planning to run Kingmaker with 15 points when I finish CotCT, because that way I don't have to modify all the stat blocks, which I am doing for CotCT.

I am a bit preoccupied what happens if someone wants to run a Monk ( the only class left with real MAD issues ), but otherwise it should work out fine.

[Grey Lensman]

Themetricsystem wrote:

So.. do you apply the advanced simple template to each creature, put the party against CR +3 encounters and play each monster with mind reading?

36 point results in ridiculous levels of power for a player to have, unless you run the game as EXTREME low magic.

My group uses a high point buy as well, but the balancing factor we have is that stat-boosting items are exceedingly rare (and, no, we aren't allowed to make them, either). If you get a hold of a single item that increases one stat by +2 before level 10 you have done very well. Typically that one +2 bonus is all a character will ever see during a campaign.

[Sethvir]

Same gaming group, different DM's. Last DM let us use 15 point buy. Current DM has us using 10 point buy. Low magic world. He says he has plans for us to make up the "deficit" as we proceed through the campaign.

I am supposed to run a section of the campaign later this year. I'm converting existing D20 adventure to Pathfinder and the NPC's I'm converting are all over the board, 10, 15 and 20. Going to be interesting when our characters encounter this section of the campaign.

[Covent]

My current game was 4d6 7 times drop lowest get two sets pick which you like and add two points. This of course resulted in very high stats, which since I was aiming for an incredibly over the top game worked out.

My next game however I am using 3d6 in order roll two sets and then take a 15,14,13,12,10,8 and assign them randomly by rolls pick which of the three sets you want.

So my power level varies.

P.S. I do not like point buy simply because you always end up with characters dumping anything that is not a primary.

[meatrace]

I am preparing to run (probably not for a year or two yet) a Ravenloft game and I will use a Tarot (Tarokka) reading for ability score generation.

[Agamon the Dark]

My players really dislike point buy, so I haven't really used it since I played LG back in the day. So in my upcoming RotRL game, it'll be roll 4d6 7 times, drop lowest.

[Trample]

20 points.

I love the idea of rolling stats but frankly hate the execution. It always turns out a bit messed up when you have vastly different stats in a group.

Having said that, the downside of point buy is it does favor wizards and sorcerers, which are already the best in the game. My gname sorcerer started with a 9, 10, 14, 12, 8, 20 after racial adjustments. Arcane spellcasters are so single attribute dependant that they really benefit from a 20 (or 15) point buy.

[Ughbash]

Ravennus wrote:

However, my current group has NEVER used the official point buy method in 3.0, 3.5, or even Pathfinder.
Why? Because most of us feel it is far too punitive on higher attributes... so you either get a generalist (to maximize points spent) or a specialist with a crap-ton of dump stats.

So we just settle on a flat number and allow you to allocate the points however you wish.
The amount of points varies depending on the theme of the campaign, but as a rule we only allow a maximum of two 18s even in a very high powered game.

Lately though, we've been settling on 86 points.
Base 10 in each stat = 60
Which leaves 26 points to spread around as needed.

Yes it gives some great stats, but we haven't found there to be a huge difference in power level between a 16 and an 18 in something. +/- 1 attribute modifier isn't THAT much to write home about.
As well, it also gives players a few extra points to put into stats that would otherwise ALWAYS be dump stats (regardless of character concept). Yes, this means we have had a Paladin or two with an Intelligence HIGHER than 8!!! *GASP*

Use a very similar system only we use 90 points instead of 86. Allows you to have average stats of 15. For one game (epic game starting at 30) we went with 96 points, average of 16 for stats.

Makes the PC's really heroic.

[W E Ray]

42 point buy, 3.5 purchase price.

And, THANKS, TriOmega for converting that to 37 Pathfinder points; I'll likely make that 38.

Oh, and my PCs get max HP each level AND, every 4 levels, instead of 1 Ability Point increase, they get 2.

But the monsters I make are considerably stronger than their stat blocks in the Bestiary, so it all works out equal.

I want my Players to love their PCs and really make them the way they want.

[TriOmegaZero]

W E Ray wrote:

<eerily familiar houserules>

*strikes a kung fu pose* We should hang out.

[R.A.Boettcher]

In my Pathfinder games I've used 15 point buy very successfully.

When I want more 'heroic' level PCs I start them out at a higher level than first. Makes the character more plausible in that not every stat is superhuman, and that experience level is the real marker of a character's power & experience.

And while I was going to say it avoids cookie cutter characters that isn't true. Its just a different kind of cookie cutter where players are going to max stats that deal with a classes focus rather than a superhuman sameness. But thats what makes it preferable...I really want the half-orc barbarian who brags about being the stronest to be able to actually live up to that boast instead of a wizard compatriot who is only a point or two weaker.

[Papa-DRB]

20 point Pathfinder buy, with 1 score GE 8, the rest GE 10. Maximum hit points all levels.

-- david
Papa.DRB

[deinol]

I give my players three options (stolen from Iron Heroes):

Standard Ability Scores: 16, 16, 14, 14, 12, 10 (32 points)
Focused Character Scores: 18, 16, 14, 12, 10, 8 (32 points)
Jack of All Trades: 14, 14, 14, 14, 14, 14 (30 points)

I guess I should throw a 15 into the last one for balance. I've been using this since before the point-buy system came out.

At this point my players aren't balanced because they've collected 4 artifacts by level 14. So I throw tougher stuff at them, like a CR 20 with 4 CR 15s...