point buy.

[Nephril]

i keep helping people make new characters and point buy is so confusing for some of them to wrap there minds around. so with my messing around i have come up with this
16,15,14,14,12,7.

25 point buy for high fantasy and i just plug it into whatever stats i need. its a great jumping off point and probably 8 times out of 10 i just use it and go.

i get asked the question enough times "what do you think i shoudl do for stats" i hope this can help some people expedite the process and get into character developement. just pick your stats that are most important and line them up.

for instance lets take a sorcerer.
stat priority for me at least.
cha,dex,con, int,str,wis.
now after working into it i may move a few points from str to wis to even it out but over all this build will be fun to play as you dont have any huge holes like some of the MAD point buys i have seen.

take a fighter
str,con,dex,int,wis,cha
barbarian same

hope this helps im just trying to get new players a starting point. this is of course for a 25 point buy.

[HangarFlying]

It's the same thing as the Heroic Array (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8), a 15-point buy, but with bigger numbers.

[TriOmegaZero]

The more I read, the more I think I may just use the Heroic Array from now on.

[SlimGauge]

But maybe I don't want to have a 7 or 8. Let me drop the 14 and 13 to a 12.

[Jeraa]

TriOmegaZero wrote:

The more I read, the more I think I may just use the Heroic Array from now on.

I stopped rolling for stats or using point buy long ago. All of my characters are built with the heroic array. Its what the game was built around anyway, and I've never missed the lack of an 18 in a score. Its just quicker and simpler to use the heroic array.

[8 Red Wizards]

I prefer to roll stat's, because than I can treat them like heroes instead of regular guys at level 10. I would never make my player's use the point system, but I would not stop them and maybe offer them something alittle extra if they wanted to. Although I would treat them just like the player's that rolled there stats since they had that option. All of my player's come out equal stat wise, and after that it's up to them.

[Greycloak of Bowness]

I've made a big list of 15-point buy arrays (probably need to double-check them) to try to get my group to use point buy for the next campaign to get us past some of the problems we have now in our current campaign.

The problems I am talking about (at 10th/11th level) include - a fighter who can barely be hit and who misses something like 10% of his attacks in a party with a melee rogue who can barely hit level appropriate targets when he is invisible. We have a wizard and a sorcerer where the sorcerer has something like 30 more HP and 5 more AC.

Some of it derives from character build but some of it arises from the fact that we have 12-point characters in a party with 30-some point characters because of the spread in 4d6 drop lowest attribute generation.

15 point arrays:

18 13 12 11 7 7
18 12 12 12 7 7
18 12 12 10 8 7
17 15 13 10 7 7
17 15 11 10 8 7
17 15 11 10 8 7
17 14 12 11 8 7
17 13 13 10 10 7
17 12 12 10 10 8
16 15 14 9 8 7
16 15 12 12 8 7
16 14 14 13 7 7
16 14 14 11 8 7
16 14 12 12 10 7
16 13 12 12 10 8
16 13 12 10 10 10
15 15 14 10 10 7
15 15 14 10 8 8
15 15 13 12 10 8
15 14 14 12 10 7
15 14 13 12 10 8
15 14 13 10 10 10
15 13 13 13 13 7
15 13 13 13 11 8
14 14 14 12 12 7
14 14 14 12 10 8
14 14 14 10 10 10
13 13 13 13 13 10

And I found a list of 20-point arrays:

20 point arrays:

No Dump Stats:
18, 13, 10, 10, 10, 10 = 5 net
17, 14, 12, 10, 10, 10 = 6 net
16, 14, 14, 10, 10, 10 = 7 net
16, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12 = 8 net
15, 14, 12, 12, 12, 12 = 8 net
14, 14, 14, 14, 10, 10 = 8 net

One Dump Stat:
18, 13, 12, 12, 10, 7 = 7 net
18, 12, 12, 12, 11, 7 = 7 net
17, 12, 12, 12, 12, 9 = 7 net
16, 14, 12, 12, 12, 7 = 9 net
16, 15, 14, 12, 10, 7 = 8 net
15, 14, 14, 14, 12, 7 = 9 net
14, 14, 14, 14, 12, 8 = 9 net

Two Dump Stats:
18, 15, 12, 10, 8, 7 = 6 net
17, 14, 14, 14, 7, 7 = 7 net
17, 16, 14, 10, 7, 7 = 6 net
16, 16, 14, 13, 7, 7 = 6 net
16, 14, 14, 14, 9, 7 = 6 net

Three Dump Stats:
18, 17, 12, 7, 7, 7 = 4 net
18, 17, 10, 8, 7, 7 = 4 net
18, 16, 14, 7, 7, 7 = 5 net
18, 15, 14, 9, 7, 7 = 5 net
17, 16, 14, 8, 8, 7 = 6 net
16, 16, 16, 8, 7, 7 = 6 net

I've switched to using one of the following arrays for just about all of my 15-point characters:
15 14 13 12 10 8 (heroic array)
16 14 12 12 10 7
14 14 14 12 10 8

[EntrerisShadow]

I really prefer the Heroic array. For all the complaints about "min-maxing", nobody should ever start with 7 in any score. The heroic array is called "Heroic" for a reason; most of your NPCs are going to have a 3-point buy equivalent stat block. Those stats already set your group apart. Also it provides two odd-numbered stats so you have two perfect choices for your 4th and 8th level bumps.

Actually my one complaint about those 20-point buy options is there is usually only one obvious bump stat. May I suggest 15 14 14 13 12 8?