Upping the CR rating for a higher point buy?

[Jimmy "Big Daddy" Ho-Chunk]

hey hey,

Here is a question for all the GMs out there.

If 20 point buy is the standard, how much would you up the difficulty by for a 25 point buy? What about a 30 point buy?

[Mythic Evil Lincoln]

For 25, +0.

For 30, maybe +1.

It's not that it doesn't affect things, it does. Certainly more for multiple-ability characters than for single-ability characters.

But unless you have enough points to really raise the ability scores higher than 18, or to have multiple 18s, an individual encounter should play out more or less the same.

[Lincoln Hills]

Against parties of a higher point-buy value, I'd probably be more inclined to present more numerous monsters of the appropriate CR rather than higher-CR monsters. Just a gut feeling. For instance, a pair of CR 3 critters are supposedly a "standard" encounter for a 5th-level party; I'd probably drop three CR 3 monsters rather than two CR 4 ones.

[Chris O'Reilly]

Well, for NPCs 15 point buy is standard and a certain PFS scenario ups someones CR by 1 for using a 25 point buy.