Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="2WS-Steve" data-source="post: 2484812" data-attributes="member: 3289">I'm going to wimp out and say I like both, for different campaigns.Point buy feels like it handles better games where players start competent (like the equivalent of a 6th lvl character) and get more versatile with experience, instead of substanitally more powerful with experience. Point buy also seems to better handle characters with awesome powers, like Amberites with shadow walking and trump use, but who are otherwise close to human in power.That said, there are things you can do in a class and level system that are very difficult in a point buy game. Since the designer can hand-craft classes, one can slip in wild, almost game-breaking abilities in a class since you know players have to choose which one of those abilities to go after. Spycraft does this really nicely.Also, classes allow designers the flexibilty to put together inefficient packages of powers that are still appealing -- for example a warrior who has expert skill in a wide range of weapons or a superhero who has redundant powers like both superjumping and flying. Since you know the character is forced to buy the whole package you can &quot;reduce the cost&quot; of the redundant powers. That's just something that's hard to do with a point buy algorithm since it requires so much human judgment (though Champions makes a mighty and mostly workable effort with VPPs and Elemental Controls).Finally, I do know that my players like the power upscaling of d20 style class and level systems.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="2WS-Steve, post: 2484812, member: 3289"] I'm going to wimp out and say I like both, for different campaigns. Point buy feels like it handles better games where players start competent (like the equivalent of a 6th lvl character) and get more versatile with experience, instead of substanitally more powerful with experience. Point buy also seems to better handle characters with awesome powers, like Amberites with shadow walking and trump use, but who are otherwise close to human in power. That said, there are things you can do in a class and level system that are very difficult in a point buy game. Since the designer can hand-craft classes, one can slip in wild, almost game-breaking abilities in a class since you know players have to choose which one of those abilities to go after. Spycraft does this really nicely. Also, classes allow designers the flexibilty to put together inefficient packages of powers that are still appealing -- for example a warrior who has expert skill in a wide range of weapons or a superhero who has redundant powers like both superjumping and flying. Since you know the character is forced to buy the whole package you can "reduce the cost" of the redundant powers. That's just something that's hard to do with a point buy algorithm since it requires so much human judgment (though Champions makes a mighty and mostly workable effort with VPPs and Elemental Controls). Finally, I do know that my players like the power upscaling of d20 style class and level systems. [/QUOTE]

Verification