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Point buy vs roll
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<blockquote data-quote="Oofta" data-source="post: 8514640" data-attributes="member: 6801845"><p>I wrote a program a while back to find how varied individual tables would be if you translated 4d6 drop lowest into point buy. I tweaked it a tiny bit to allow for numbers below 8 and above 15 (the average low and high values). </p><p>[SPOILER="My slightly modified array"]</p><table style='width: 100%'><tr><td>Score</td><td>Point Cost</td></tr><tr><td>3</td><td>-16</td></tr><tr><td>4</td><td>-10</td></tr><tr><td>5</td><td>-8</td></tr><tr><td>6</td><td>-7</td></tr><tr><td>7</td><td>-2</td></tr><tr><td>8</td><td>0</td></tr><tr><td>9</td><td>1</td></tr><tr><td>10</td><td>2</td></tr><tr><td>11</td><td>3</td></tr><tr><td>12</td><td>4</td></tr><tr><td>13</td><td>5</td></tr><tr><td>14</td><td>7</td></tr><tr><td>15</td><td>9</td></tr><tr><td>16</td><td>11</td></tr><tr><td>17</td><td>13</td></tr><tr><td>18</td><td>16</td></tr></table><p></p><p>[/SPOILER]</p><p></p><p>Out of my first run for 100 groups of 6, the biggest variation point buy was:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px">13, 12, 10, 8, 8, 5</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">18, 17, 16, 15, 12, 10</p><p></p><p>I think this is a pretty huge difference that is going to have significant lasting effects. Also, coincidentally fairly close to the difference I saw the last time I was in a game that people rolled for ability scores except that the person with the high had at least 2 18s.</p><p></p><p>I ran it again 10,000 times, just to get the average difference per table of 6. On average there was around a 25 point difference. I picked a sample at random:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px">20 point buy: 15, 13, 13, 10, 8, 7 </p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">45 point buy: 17, 14, 14, 14, 13, 12</p><p></p><p>The 20 point buy PC isn't horrible, but they will always be significantly behind the curve of the guy that got 45 points. I'm sure if I cherry picked at all I could find something worse. Also remember this is just average.</p><p></p><p>So while this isn't totally official, using my array the average point buy of 4d6 drop lowest was 31 and shows that in the average group the difference isn't <em>just</em> a +/- 1 here and there.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Oofta, post: 8514640, member: 6801845"] I wrote a program a while back to find how varied individual tables would be if you translated 4d6 drop lowest into point buy. I tweaked it a tiny bit to allow for numbers below 8 and above 15 (the average low and high values). [SPOILER="My slightly modified array"] [TABLE] [TR] [TD]Score[/TD] [TD]Point Cost[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]3[/TD] [TD]-16[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]4[/TD] [TD]-10[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]5[/TD] [TD]-8[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]6[/TD] [TD]-7[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]7[/TD] [TD]-2[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]8[/TD] [TD]0[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]9[/TD] [TD]1[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]10[/TD] [TD]2[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]11[/TD] [TD]3[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]12[/TD] [TD]4[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]13[/TD] [TD]5[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]14[/TD] [TD]7[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]15[/TD] [TD]9[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]16[/TD] [TD]11[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]17[/TD] [TD]13[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]18[/TD] [TD]16[/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] [/SPOILER] Out of my first run for 100 groups of 6, the biggest variation point buy was: [INDENT]13, 12, 10, 8, 8, 5[/INDENT] [INDENT]18, 17, 16, 15, 12, 10[/INDENT] I think this is a pretty huge difference that is going to have significant lasting effects. Also, coincidentally fairly close to the difference I saw the last time I was in a game that people rolled for ability scores except that the person with the high had at least 2 18s. I ran it again 10,000 times, just to get the average difference per table of 6. On average there was around a 25 point difference. I picked a sample at random: [INDENT]20 point buy: 15, 13, 13, 10, 8, 7 [/INDENT] [INDENT]45 point buy: 17, 14, 14, 14, 13, 12[/INDENT] The 20 point buy PC isn't horrible, but they will always be significantly behind the curve of the guy that got 45 points. I'm sure if I cherry picked at all I could find something worse. Also remember this is just average. So while this isn't totally official, using my array the average point buy of 4d6 drop lowest was 31 and shows that in the average group the difference isn't [I]just[/I] a +/- 1 here and there. [/QUOTE]
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