Point buy and other races

[kengar]

Is there any official ruling on how to deal with racial adds (and penalties) when using the point-buy system for score generation? Do you apply the bonuses and penalties before or after spending your points?

For example, if I design a Dwarf and spend 10 points on his CON to get a 16, if the racial mods get applied afterwards, I then get to "bump" that up to an 18 for free. That's 6 pts worth of score increase on the point-buy table whereas moving from an 8 to a 10 only costs 2 pts. If I apply the bonus ahead of time (getting a "free" 10) then it costs me 14 points to reach that 18 instead of 10.

I checked the DMG, but couldn't find anything related to this. Any ideas?

 

[hammymchamham]

I always apply it afterwards. I don't have anything offical, but when your roll, you arrange then do adjustments, why not do point buy, then do adjustments.

 

[Arksorn]

Nothing in the DMG that I know about. But it is on page 2 of the D&D Main FAQ. You buy abilities then adjust for race.

 

[Hashmalum]

Look at it this way: if you tried adding the stat mods BEFORE spending points, you wouldn't be able to get the 19 or 20 scores that races with a +2 to something ought to be able to get, because there is no entry in table 2-1 allowing you to buy scores higher than 18.

 

[Zerovoid]

Yes, you can get a higher total number of points by playing a demihuman race. I personally like this, because humans seem too powerful in 3rd edition, and this is a good way to encourage people to play other races. Also, I think point buy + stat modifiers helps differentiate the races more than stat modifiers alone.