Whats your opinion on the Point Buy System

[Elder-Basilisk]

I love it.

It keeps parties balanced stat-wise.

It makes high stats rare--or at least costly.

And, most significantly, it allows the DM to set the power level for the campaign.

Having tried point buy, I would never willingly go back to 4d6 or any random method.

 

[Grog]

I have to disagree. Low dex will make them easy targets, low con will make them drop very fast. They should have nice scores in both.

But wizards and sorcerers are usually pretty well protected (or at least, in a good party they will be). Sure, sometimes there may be no way to stop an attack on them, but in those rare cases, they can deal with the problem by casting Shield, or Invisibility, or Stoneskin, or even Dimension Door or something similar.

 

[hammymchamham]

I love it. I think it's balanced, and I now use it to the exclusion of rolling stats with 4d6-1.

And I am the opposite. (Except it is balanced). I tend to roll REALLY good (generally 5 of 6 stats are positive mods, with one or two in the 16-18 range) and one between 7 and 11. Then again I tend to allow (and when rolling had played by) a reroll of your lowest roll.

In my FR game I did a 5d6-2 without a reroll though.

I don't mind playing in PB, I just won't use it unless my players make a demand for it.

 

[shilsen]

Another vote for PB. I usually do some variant on the official system, but I much prefer it to people rolling stats, mainly for balance reasons.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

The point buy system is great.

The only problems are with a couple of the characters classes which are more stat dependent than others -- these problems are exacerbated by point buy. As a matter of game design, a core class should not depend on lucky rolls to be effective.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

I love 25-point buy.

You have to make some decisions about what is most important. Everyone has roughly the same starting options. Cheating is impossible. The entire system balances -- NPCs and monsters are made with 25 point PCs in mind.

It does make playing paladins and monks a little more challenging, and it does make racial adjustments fairly significant, but overall I think those things balance out and the system works great.

Ultimately, you just have to get people used to the slightly lower numbers on their character sheets.

 

[MadScientist]

I love the point buy !! I would hate to play in a campaign where stats were generated by rolling ever again. In my campaigns we don't even roll HP anymore. You just get the average rounded down. It seems very unfair to me to leave things that have such a huge effect on a characters power to chance. (I mean who wants to play a Fighter that has a couple of low HP rolls at levels 2 and 3! ewww.)

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I like it. My PCs don't. I told them 3d6 no re-rolls (not even 1s) or 25 point buy, whichever is higher.

 

[Murrdox]

Well, gee, I WONDER why your players don't like it! 3d6 no re-rolls is pretty harsh for 3E. Face it, no player likes to have their character suck because of their stats. I don't like point buy, simply because as others have said... people borg out the stats that they need, and forget about everything else.. characters become more of just "templates". 4d6 - reroll 1's. This usually gives everyone one 17 or 18, some moderate scores, and maybe 1 of 10 or lower.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

My PCs wanted 4d6, drop 1s, etc, but what they really wanted to do was compare stats. Of course, we would end up with a PC who was a wimp and a PC who was a powerhouse. No thanx - I had enough of that in 2e.