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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Arkhandus" data-source="post: 3462965" data-attributes="member: 13966">Ack, terrible point buys.  I really don't understand why most DMs want their PCs, the heroes, the protagonists, the foci of the story, to be just a notch above average at most.  Even 32 point buy, while decent, is highly constraining to PCs.  Either be fairly good at one or two stats and suck horribly at everything else, or just be a touch above mediocre in everything.  Bleh.I like my heroes to actually be heroic most of the time, not every one of them being an ordinary or mildly-talented village kid who goes out and somehow, despite sucking at most things, manages to make a legend of himself.  Despite the fact that, all things being even, he should've died every time he entered the Forest of Death because he's just that pathetic compared to every single bugbear, ogre, dragon, imp, dire badger, and mephit that he'll run into.  Consequently, I'm fairly generous with my players when it comes to rolling ability scores (or point-buy, but I only ever present that as an alternative, if the player has poor luck with rolling, since I much prefer rolling scores).Why not 25 or 28 for lowly-peasant-heroes, 32 or 35 for average heroes, and 40 or 42 points for actually-heroic heroes?  It's at least somewhat less crippling.  Especially for monks and paladins, who could really use several good stats to avoid being ineffective at everything (I've had to suffer the humiliation of many a monk I tried to play under 32 point buy, watching them suck and die without ever contributing as much to the group as the party rogue, bard, or fighter; I'd have really preferred a 40 point buy so my monks could actually manage decent AC and skills, or decent offense and hit points).I assume Constitution modifier is added only once to this, not twice, correct?This favors mage-types and rogue-types more than anything.  The d8 should yield 6 points, the d10 7 or 8 points (probably 7), and the d12 should yield 8 or 9 points (probably 9).  This would keep the relative proportions and values of each class' hit die somewhat intact, whereas your current method really lessens the comparative survivability of warrior-types and priest-types.  They're the ones who are going to be up front and taking punishment the most, they deserve to get at least nearly the same percentage of HP from each hit die.I second the notion that another poster made regarding the Books of Exalted Deeds and Vile Darkness.  Exclude them from the game unless there are a few tidbits you'd like to use yourself; do not make them available to players.  This is perfectly reasonable even by the DMG's guidelines (not everything is supposed to be available to the players; that's why the DMG and MM have separate stuff from what's in the PHB).  Also be wary of any other non-core material before accepting it (especially certain prestige classes, variant class features, racial substitution levels, and non-core races; ).I should think Deception would encompass Bluff and Disguise (they're linked to the same ability score, Charisma, anyway).  Intimidate should probably be left alone, I guess.  Forgery should be folded into Decipher Script (call it Cipher, Scriptography, Decryption, Cryptology, or whatever).  I would expect Swim to be folded into Athletics as well, or taking the place of Climb in that (swimming and leaping both involve leg strength a lot; climbing does somewhat, but not so much).  May as well combine Escape Artist with Sleight of Hand too, calling it Legerdemain or something.Don't remember what this article said, and don't remember what issue of Dragon or whatever it was in (is it on his website instead?  I don't recall, haven't looked it for a while), so I don't know what this houserule does.  Therefore, I can't comment on it.</blockquote>

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