Point buy - How high do you go? (and why)

[MojoGM]

This might freak some of you out, but I had my players build their characters with 45 points.

They're heroes, so I wanted them to have the stats to fit the role.

~Mojo

 

[Skaros]

This might freak some of you out, but I had my players build their characters with 45 points.

They're heroes, so I wanted them to have the stats to fit the role.

~Mojo

That doesn't freak me out. The DM can adjust encounters and adventures for any point buy, depending on how much work they want to put in.

Further, there's nothing wrong with groups wanting to play a group of people that are exceptional just based on their natural attributes, without even throwing in the class levels that make all PCs exceptional.

Skaros

 

[Urbannen]

Some of my players had a problem with point buy, prefering the roll 4d6, drop the lowest, rearange to taste and roll 400+ data sets until they get the one with all stats above 15 method.

So true, Pseudonym, so true...

 

[Utrecht]

the first time that our group played, we used 45 pts. The players whined and complained that anything less was non-heroic. Since this was not an issue that I really wanted to fight (I could scale the encounters) I went with it.

Once they got it out of their systems we played the next one at 35 pts.


The next campaign I am hoping for 32 pts.

Actually, I am thanking Neverwinter Nights for the assistance in the power decrease - once the players were able to see what they could do with 28 pts. 32 or 35 pts seems like a ton.....

 

[MojoGM]

the first time that our group played, we used 45 pts. The players whined and complained that anything less was non-heroic. Since this was not an issue that I really wanted to fight (I could scale the encounters) I went with it.

Once they got it out of their systems we played the next one at 35 pts.


The next campaign I am hoping for 32 pts.

I thought it would be nice to try it. And it is ok, except the higher stats (and more than 4 players) makes it a little harder to create balanced encounters.

I'd like to tone it down next time....maybe 28 or 32 max. Also, right now we're playing FR, I'd like to give Kalamar a whirl, or maybe a homebrew if I can find the time.

 

[Emiricol]

I prefer 28 points, for all the reasons mentioned up near the top. 25 points is what NPCs with PC classes get, and PCs are supposed to be better.

However, my players typically want 32, so I go with that. Even at 32, without race mods I rarely see a 17 or 18 in a stat.

 

[Ashe]

2e has a lot to answer for.

You bet it does! It has to answer how my first character with a 7 dex (elf mind you) and a high stat of 12(str) can out live everyone else in the party.

It isn't because the DM took pity on me it's because I role-played and made smart decision. Yes bad stats can hinder your ability to dish out damage and take the hits, but you know what you can still get the job done. Eveyone is right, your stats don't make you heroic.

I agree with the grandpa from Angus. Superman isn't heroic, he has very little to fear. Let's not get off topic though and start talking about superman though.

In my current group we use a 79 point buy where each stat point is a 1-1 buy, max 18. Personally I prefer 4d6 drop and mix method. I don't mind if the dice(chance) gives me a low stat, I just have a hard time doing that to my characters though.

 

[PowerWordDumb]

Warning: this post has been declared irrelevant by WizarDru the arbiter of thread-relevance! I'm going to leave it anyway, as it's the first thread I read on the subject and I felt I had something to contribute.

Disclaimer: What follows is opinion only, not judgement being passed on your games or how you enjoy playing them.

I hate point buy. I loathe it. It is the worst, most odious change to D&D since the development of THAC0 and the abandonment of proper old-school Greyhawk. It spits out either very average homogenous stats, or else allows for horrendous min/maxing with no nod to reality at all (Where did the idea come from that everyone with super strength will always have rock-bottom INT, WIS, and CHA?)

I'm not a fan of allowing inflated point-buy as a fix to that blandness either. Rolling the dice is the only true path. 4d6 drop one is and always has been the best. Not too strong, not too weak, and allowing for real-world variability. No character ends up optimal, but there's variability between members of the same class which would never occur to the min-maxers in a point-buy system.

I even resent being forced to use point-buy when building characters in Neverwinter Nights - instead, I roll up my character with real dice using the 4d6 method, and then input them via a character editor. Doesn't work for vault games, but that doesn't matter.

 

[Ashe]

Disclaimer: What follows is opinion only, not judgement being passed on your games or how you enjoy playing them.

I hate point buy. I loathe it. It is the worst, most odious change to D&D since the development of THAC0 and the abandonment of proper old-school Greyhawk. It spits out either very average homogenous stats, or else allows for horrendous min/maxing with no nod to reality at all (Where did the idea come from that everyone with super strength will always have rock-bottom INT, WIS, and CHA?)

I'm not a fan of allowing inflated point-buy as a fix to that blandness either. Rolling the dice is the only true path. 4d6 drop one is and always has been the best. Not too strong, not too weak, and allowing for real-world variability. No character ends up optimal, but there's variability between members of the same class which would never occur to the min-maxers in a point-buy system.

I even resent being forced to use point-buy when building characters in Neverwinter Nights - instead, I roll up my character with real dice using the 4d6 method, and then input them via a character editor. Doesn't work for vault games, but that doesn't matter.

AMEN!!

 

[WizarDru]

I hate point buy. I loathe it.

That's fine. However, if you'd actually read the first post and the title of this thread, you'd have noticed "Those of you that use the DMG point buy method, what point buy level to you use and why?" In short, you're in the wrong thread. Glyfair was asking the opinion of those who use point-buy about how they use it. There are two other threads discussing whether or not to use it.

I prefer 28 point method. After using the dice-rolling method and having characters who would be worth 52 points by the point-buy method, with 48 as the average, I decided that dice rolling was not really the system for me any longer. 32 isn't bad, but 28 keeps the players grounded. Dice-rolling systems never really seemed very good to me, as players would just keep rolling until they got the desired results, anyways.