D&D 4E Is 22 points the best point buy for 4e?

[Mika]

One thing I noticed with the sample Dark Sun PCs is that they did not, as I thought they might do, use a larger point buy value for them. Combine that with the reduced variation in racial mods (bonuses only, no penalties), the elimination of class based attack bonuses, and the lack of support in the Character Builder for anything other than a 22 point buy for a non-houseruled game, and it looks like WotC is going for a consistent and narrower range of ability scores across the board -- the game is that much more sensitive to ability score variations from earlier editions.

 

[Salamandyr]

One thing I have noticed about increased point buys, is that it tends to encourage an even higher main stat, than encouraging one to increase low tier stats. A 25-30 point buy merely makes it easier for everyone to have an 18-20 rather than encouraging people to play without an 8.

Which is the reason I came up with the flat array I proposed above rather than just more points to spend.

 

[Votan]

Combine that with the reduced variation in racial mods (bonuses only, no penalties), the elimination of class based attack bonuses, and the lack of support in the Character Builder for anything other than a 22 point buy for a non-houseruled game, and it looks like WotC is going for a consistent and narrower range of ability scores across the board -- the game is that much more sensitive to ability score variations from earlier editions.

I am not 100% sure if the issue is that 4E is more sensitive to high ability scores than 3E or that the recognition of the sensitivity of modern D&D to ability score sis being more fomally recognized. The level of impact that high scores could have in 3E was extreme as many abilities scaled (infinitely) with higher scores. I agree that they are pretty central in 4E, as well, but I more suspect that it a phenomenon of the strong links between scores and character power of modern D&D game design than anything else.

 

[Garthanos]

One thing I have noticed about increased point buys, is that it tends to encourage an even higher main stat, than encouraging one to increase low tier stats. A 25-30 point buy merely makes it easier for everyone to have an 18-20 rather than encouraging people to play without an 8.

It removes the punishment for my people who would already not play without an 8 ;-)

 

[unan oranis]

My group insisted on rolling their stats (as tradition demands) for 4e... all but one of them came up short of what they could have gotten with the 22 point buy.

Suddenly 22 points was looking pretty good!

I've thought about going back to rolling starting stats, but you'd have to have a way to adjust all the monsters to what the players rolled that somehow worked out well.

 

[Harlekin]

I am not 100% sure if the issue is that 4E is more sensitive to high ability scores than 3E or that the recognition of the sensitivity of modern D&D to ability score sis being more fomally recognized. The level of impact that high scores could have in 3E was extreme as many abilities scaled (infinitely) with higher scores. I agree that they are pretty central in 4E, as well, but I more suspect that it a phenomenon of the strong links between scores and character power of modern D&D game design than anything else.

I agree. Consider the two classes in 3.x, Fighter and Caster:

For fighters, the benefit of +2 Str (or Dex) is primarily +1 to hit adding 5% to the chance of hitting.

For Casters, the benefit is +1 DC and extra spells, but it is also primarily +5% to the chance of the spell working.

So the absolute benefit of high attributes is roughly the same in 3.x and 4th edition. The relative benefit in 3.x can of course vary widely on the situation (especially at high levels), and that is where the idea that high attributes matter less comes from.

In fact, +2 Con and +2 Str is ~ identical in benefit as one level of fighter in 3.x.