MXPB: My Experience Point Buy system

[magic_gathering2001]

It would also let you create monsters the same way you cheate characters (which would relly help when balancing the party's challenges)

Also I think maybe defense should go at the same rate as general BaB seeing as there is only one defense so it will increase more slowly anyway.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

I agree with Ilium regarding max skill ranks. Here's an alternative: why not use your 'diminishing returns' model when advancing skills instead of a flat 30 xp per skill rank? For example: 30 xp for the first rank, 60 xp for the second, 90 xp for the third, etc. Among other benefits, this allows for NPCs like the town shoemaker or local chandler to be good at their craft without having the ability scores of a demi-god.

Edit: My example cost is too high. Maybe double the cost every 3-5 ranks instead of every rank.

 

[Zimbel16]

I should note that it looks like for less than 6,000 XP, you could get a PC with a Triceratops animal companion. Since you gain a lot from sinking stats into the floor (and only need one stat to support this), you could do this at character generation.

I'd suggest increasing the XP costs for advanced animal companions significantly (perhaps 8x).

I'd also suggest reducing the gain from negative stats, to perhaps half of the numbers you have now.

There's an (arguably worse) problem with Animal Form. Sink all your physical stats to the floor (raise Wis to 19 +), take all three animal forms. This gives you wonderful physical stats 4 +x/day, and thousands left over to do whatever you'd like with. Again, the above suggestion for reducing the gain from negative stats would at least help.

 

[Land Outcast]

I'm not so sure about reducing the return from "stat selling" but maybe create a minimum possible stat of 6.

On the monster's abilities: a mamooth load of work... but would be also a mamooth load of usefulness.

I like Ulorian's idea for skill ranks... doubling the cost every four

 

[Ilium]

Zimbel16 makes good observations, but I wouldn't kill myself making sure people can't create broken characters. This is a feature of every point-buy system I've ever seen (for any game system). The GM just has to learn the magic word: No.

 

[Zimbel16]

Hit dice/HP

Last HP (as opposed to HD) worth buying, by Con modifer (Note that since Con modifier affects all HD, for long-term decisions you'll want to look at what your Con will be, not what it is now):

Con -5 HP 13
Con -4 HP 11
Con -3 HP 10
Con -2 HP 8
Con -1 or 0 HP 7
Con +1 or +2 HP 6
Con +3 or +4 HP 5
Con +5 or +6 HP 4
Con +7 through +10 HP 3
Con +11 through +17 HP 2
Con +18 through +37 HP 1
Con +38 and up HP 0

Considering that Con will trend upward as XP increases, it looks like it will rarely be worthwhile in the long term to purchase many HP. I'd suggest that unless you want very early purchase of HD, I'd reduce the price of HP by 20-30%

Best HD to buy, by Con modifer (Note that since Con modifier affects all HD, for long-term decisions you'll want to look at what your Con will be, not what it is now):

Con -5 through +4 d20
Con +5 through +13 d8
Con +14 and up d4

Why is a d8 useful for a significant portion of the Con table? Because the HD costs aren't linear; there's a change in slope at d8.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

Zimbel16 makes good observations, but I wouldn't kill myself making sure people can't create broken characters. This is a feature of every point-buy system I've ever seen (for any game system). The GM just has to learn the magic word: No.

That doesn't mean that you shouldn't try to make the system as unbreakable as possible though; there are degrees of 'brokenness'.

 

[Zimbel16]

I'm not so sure about reducing the return from "stat selling" but maybe create a minimum possible stat of 6.

Let me phrase the problem in a different way: there is a problem in that you can front-end a PC. A lot.

As is, each ability score of 3 grants you 5,600 XP. Even better (from a min/maxer's perspective), you can later "buy back" the ability score, so that if it's useful later, you loose nothing long-term for a large gain short-term.

With how HP work, the most obvious thing to sell down is Con (Buy HP/HD normally, and buy Con back up later). Assuming that on average, XP in this system is roughly equivalent in the power to the standard system, it's like starting out around LV 3.7 for a short-term cost in HP and Fort saves. Of course, eventually, it's worthwhile to buy back the Con, so arguably this is a problem only for the first few levels.

It gets far worse for a major spellcaster, who may not have to buy back all the stats later. Take a Wizard, who sells down Str, Dex, Con, Wis, and Cha (for 28,000 XP). You now have a character who is roughly comparible to a LV 8.0 PC, who may decide to never purchase back several of the stats, thus staying significantly ahead in power for a long time.

At least in my early adventures, a LV 8 spellcaster (even one extremely vulnerable to ability damage) could trash the entire adventure, sometimes in a matter of a few rounds.

 

[Zimbel16]

There's an (arguably worse) problem with Animal Form. Sink all your physical stats to the floor (raise Wis to 19 +), take all three animal forms. This gives you wonderful physical stats 4 +x/day, and thousands left over to do whatever you'd like with. Again, the above suggestion for reducing the gain from negative stats would at least help.

I think that any of the following would help; Animal Form is a very powerful special ability:
1) Split this up into more than 3 Special abilities. For example, instead of hinging the number of times per day on Wis, these could give 1 x/day, and have some more special abilities which just give one or two extra uses/day for the Animal Form Special abilities.
2) Increase the prerequisites for the second and third animal form special abilities substantially.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

Zimbel16: I agree 100%. At best, the return rate should be 1:1.