How many of your use the 22 point buy in the phb?

[pukunui]

and you can drop a 10 to 8 for 2 more points

I'm using the default 22 point buy but with the addition of this little house rule. One of my players asked if he could do that when everyone was first making up their characters. I put it to a vote and the group all agreed.

I did a 36 point buy (and max hit points through 5th level) in my last 3.5 game and even then the PCs were getting their asses kicked (I was running them through the Red Hand of Doom). The PC mortality rate was very high.

Depending on how lethal 4e turns out to be, I might increase the point buy above 22 but I doubt that I'll go all the way to 36 again.

 

[Runestar]

It's my opinion that smart play and the skill of the player account for alot more than the numbers on a sheet.

You speak of them as though they were mutually exclusive, as if superior stats somehow made the player dumber or more incompetent in some manner.

Given all other things equal, if we assume that 2 PCs are played with just as much skill and finesse, the one with better stats would always be better off. So I don't see why I deliberately need to gimp my own PC just to prove a point?

 

[Greja]

We've been playing 22 point buy. Its funny, in every previous edition we would roll stats, with little concern of how powerful people were. Now, stats have a serious influence to every class (instead of only a few classes in older eds). Since a greater focus was spent by the designers to achieve 'power balance', we are giving them a shot and playing the game how it was designed. Creating characters is more about backgrounds than stats to our latest parties.

 

[El Mahdi]

I voted yes even though I'm not playing 4E. There are a lot of things in 4E that I like and am importing into my house ruled 3.5E game, this is one of them. I would prefer players to use the standard spread, but I will allow any of the possible 22-point buy spreads. I used to use a random roll of 4d6, rerolling all "1's" and the first "2", and using the highest three; do this 6 times and choose which stats the numbers are assigned to. But after seeing the standard spread and point buy in the 4E PHB, I wondered why I hadn't always been doing this. I'll never go back to random rolls for stats.

 

[thalmin]

We decided to play our first campaign by the book to give it a real try. So 22 points it is.

 

[FATDRAGONGAMES]

We stuck with dice rolling, old habits die hard.

 

[MerricB]

I've been using 22-point buy in both of my campaigns - one is Keep on the Shadowfell, the other is a homebrew adaptation of Castle Zagyg.

I think it's a fine, balanced system from what I've seen. The *major* thing that affects balance in combat is what roles you have. One melee guy and a lot of ranged guys (and no leader) is death for the poor melee character.

Cheers!

 

[Nifft]

a so-called "Optimal Arrray" floating around, which is I think 16 14 14 12 10 8

16/14/14/13/10/8 is good, and so is 16/16/13/11/10/8. Some people like 18/14/11/10/10/8 and 18/13/13/10/10/8, but I find them too limiting.

Cheers, -- N

 

[sjmiller]

We decided to play our first campaign by the book to give it a real try. So 22 points it is.

But, couldn't you have also played "by the book" by rolling dice or using the standard array? Why choose the 22 points method? The standard array is the first one mentioned in book, then the point-buy, and then rolling dice. I was just curious.

 

[Terwox]

I had too many games in 3E become somewhat less fun for me to DM because of either overly generous point buy. The last time I allowed rolling dice for stats was with one ridiculously broken character from die rolls.