Point buy vs. rolling

[UofMDude]

We use point buy. Rolling is alot of fun but it can lead to situations where one character is a god compared to others in the same party. In our first 3e campaign one character was (I think) a 48-52 point buy character while another was 24-ish. Needless to say the weaker character was mostly useless (he was a cleric to boot!). Much higher stats can make a several (character) level difference in power and I do not think that makes for a good campaign (at least how we play).

We play pretty powerful though. Our campaigns are ususally 32-36 with the point buy system.

UofMDude

 

[nsruf]

2. Spend 12 points as per point buy rules to increase the rolled stats. You gain no benefit from decreasing a stat below the value of your initial roll.

I think this could make for an interesting combination of nature/nurture. I have no idea how many points would be good for step 2 though. Has anyone tried something like this? Is it a good or bad idea?

How about basing the points on the sum of all stat rolls, i.e. someone with a bad roll gets more points to spend? I haven't tried this option out, though - so far I always used point-buy for fairness. But it could look like this:

1. Roll 3d6 in order for all stats.

2. If you have less than 75 points, you get halve the difference to 80 as points to distribute freely (or via point-buy rules), as long as you raise no score above 18 before adjustments.

3. If you have 75 or more points total, you get 3 points to spend freely.

Have to admit I am not sure about the numbers, either

 

[Kraedin]

Point buy, ever since one of my players rolled up, sitting in front of me, an 18, 18, 17, 16, 15, 10 charecter. He overshadowed the rest of the group for obvious reasons.

 

[Dareoon Dalandrove]

I have heard of many differnt systems for the point buy system what is the most common?

 

[LostSoul]

At one point I rolled: 18, 17, 18, 17, 18, 8.

I like point buy better.

 

[Psion]

Roll with a fairly generous minimum and GM intervention policy.

Point buy - S&P taught me the folly of that.

(Instert standard vitriolic flame war full of word-mincing about who is right here.)

That is all.

 

[kenjib]

I like that alot alot alot nsruf!!! Here's my own revised version with your idea incorporated.

1. Roll 3d6 for each stat in order and take all scores where they fall - no rearranging or reassigning.

2. At the DM's option you may be allowed to swap a single pair of ability scores.*

3. Calculate your point total as if you had created this character with the standard point buy rules.

4. Consult your DM regarding the baseline for the campaign (25 point, 28 point, 32 point, etc.).**

5. If your character as rolled has a total point value greater than the baseline amount, congratulations! You get 4 additional points to spend at will as per the point buy rules.

6. If your character as rolled has a point total less than the baseline amount, subtract your total from the baseline. You may spend the greater of 4 or this value at will as per the point buy rules.

* I added this step because if step 5 applies to you, you would otherwise have very limited control over your character's stats, thus limited opportunity to play the class you want effectively.

** When determining this baseline, DM's should consider that it is possible for a character to end up with a character 4 or more points higher than this value. This is not a hard upper limit as it is under standard point buy rules. It is, rather, a minimum.

Now there's is still one variables that need to be tweaked to get the system working - the minimum of 4 points to spend. I'm still not sure about this value. What do you think now?

 

[Sir Osis of Liver]

BTW, i didn't realize this was a sensitve topic, i was just wondering about preferances.

So lets try to aviod any flaming, please.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

The only problem I generally have with rolling is that somebody usually ends up too powerful or too weak.

You could let the players get their dicing jollies by doing a communal rolling session.

Everybody rolls 4d6 and generates 6 scores. The DM keeps track of every roll and then hands out the highest scores around the table, then the next highest, and so on.

Maybe allow each player to keep his one highest stat and/or force them to keep their one lowest.

Wulf

 

[KarinsDad]

I love rolling, but I prefer point buy.

The obvious reasons are that there are no fudging and that characters can be created before the group ever gets to the gaming table. You can easily figure out exactly where points came from. Even for higher level characters who have bumped up scores due to level 4, 8, etc.

The main problem with rolling is that wide range of scores. In every 3E campaign where we have done rolling, we have had at least one low 20 score character and one or more low to high 50 score characters.

This just isn't that much fun for some people. Yes, some people get a low stat character and shrug and roleplay it. Other people do not have that type of personality (I'm one of them. I want to play heroes, not wimps ).


In our current campaign, the DM made it 34 point buy for humans, 32 point buy for non-humans. I think this is the correct idea, but he should have made it 36 and 32. The reason is that virtually every non-human bumps up a stat of 14 or higher, hence, they gain 4+ point buy points right there. I think 2 was not enough. JMO.