Power and Point Buy

[Vigwyn the Unruly]

I'm thinking about running a pretty high-powered PbP game, and I want to use three PCs instead of the standard 4, to keep it fast-paced.

The DMG says that point buy with 32 points is appropriate for high-powered games, but I think I should go even higher since I'll only have 3 PCs.

The PCs will be barbarians (straight-up or multiclassing) in the tradition of Conan or Tarzan novels--superhuman savages. I picture them being pretty heroic, slashing through hordes of orc-men and lions, without needing full-plate to slow them down.

Does anyone have any experience with this? How high should I go? 36? 40?

Plus, what's a good setting for this (besides Eberron)? Maybe Scarred Lands?

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

Around 40 makes for some pretty epic characters. I'm playing a Gold Elf wizard built on a 40 point buy, and he's good at just about everything. High Int & Dex, decent Con and Wis, average Str and Cha.

With 40-42 points you'll end up with two good stats, two medium, and two low, but none below 10. Either that or they'll all be around 13-15.

 

[Trainz]

I have never given more than 32 point buy, but from time to time I create games where I let the players roll 5d6, reroll all 1's, and that's probably in the 40 to 50 point buy equivalent... I don't have a problem with it, it doesn't really make it hard to challenge the players.

As for the setting... I almost exclusively only use home-made settings, so I'm afraid I won't be of much help there.

Do a search for Hyperborea, and you might just find enough maps/info to quickly put together the Conan setting.

 

[Beckett]

With 40-42 points you'll end up with two good stats, two medium, and two low, but none below 10. Either that or they'll all be around 13-15.

Well, not quite. I'm running a game with a 42 point buy, and two of the players (out of seven) left a stat at 8 to squeeze out another two points for elsewhere (come to think of it, the mystic theurge wannabe might have left strength and charisma at 8). Previously, we'd generate characters by rolling up sets with 4D6-L until the player was happy (and often with rerolling 1s), so even though it's a 42 point buy, this is the first time I've seen player characters with stats below 10.

As for how it goes, I tend to expect the players to handle creatures a couple CRs higher than they are (this is also in part due to the number of players). Creatures with 3/4 or full hit points should help balance out the higher stats of the characters. And, any major NPCs get built with the same number of points.

Can't help with the setting, as I'm typically home brew. You might consider checking out Frostburn for the neanderthal- makes a great brutish barbarian. Using it to create a frozen north setting might work well for the game you want.

 

[was]

I'd stick with 36. We've used it in the past and it worked pretty well.

 

[ARandomGod]

You want higher powered, heroic characters?

I say ditch the standard point buy, and go with a point modifier buy. To allow higher than 14 stat points without punishment. Say a +10 or +12 point buy.

By which I mean, say that the characters can have a total modifier bonus of +10 (or +12, or whatever relative power level you want), and let them arrange their stats accordingly. (Even numbers only). You should also set a lower limit on a stat, say that they can't go lower than 8 or so. Just to prevent power gamer types from attempting a charisma of 4.

I think this type of point buy system is better because it allows you to set the power level you want, without punishing people for choosing to have higher stats. Why give 42 points on a standard point buy just so that you can have real heros? Just stop punishing heroic stats, it'll do a very similiar thing with more overall control on the power level.

 

[Humanophile]

Since you're having more powerful PC's, but fewer of them than the book reccomends, I see no reason to pump them up even more. You control the monsters coming after them, I don't see why you can't send monsters as "normal" for their CR at them. (Upped for higher stats, lowered again for smaller numbers.) It's not like you'll be held to some "tougher campaign" guidelines after all.

Also, slight thing to keep in mind. Lots of people seem to think of higher stats as the only way to have a higher-powered campaign. Thing about that is, low level characters are still fairly fragile even if they have nice stats. You might want to go gestalt characters for this game. And more over, you might prefer giving the characters "only" 32 points but bumping them up to a higher level. Starting at 3rd-5th is a much better way of jumping right into the heroic action than piling on build points, if you ask me.

 

[irdeggman]

I agree it is not the stats that are most important power-wise as is the level.

Start the characters at higher levels instead. This will allow use of LAd races, etc.

 

[sfedi]

Does anyone have any experience with this? How high should I go? 36? 40?

I had a similar situation and I would add a level to each player, to compensate for the lack of a fourth character.
But then, we decided that a fourth character would be better. This character would be handled by any PC that wanted, or even the DM, in certain circumstances.

As for giving them more power, I'd give them one more level each, and play adventures as if the party were one level lower.

No point in giving extra stats just to pump the critters too. A waste of time.

 

[Zog]

There are several ways to look at power. Point buy is one, the point modifer mentioned above is another. A third is Total Stats.

An 'average' PC would have a 12 in every stat. That is roughly the same as 24 point buy. And a +6 total modifier, and a stat total of 72.

A hero PC would have a 14 in every stat. That should be roughly the same as a 36 point buy, a +12 total modifier, and a stat total of 84.

The catch is, the three ways of looking at things do not make equal characters.
The standard point buy does not allow low stats, and punished you for wanting high stats. One can make a very effective wizard with a standard point buy (one neccessary stat, two others in the 12-14 range, the other three largely unneeded) but not a monk, or Paladin (requires 3 good stats, 1-2 others in the 12-14, and 1 unneeded stat). This is of course subjective, different views on what is 'needed', etc.
The total modifier medthod leaves the question of even-odd stats up in the air, and two odd stats that can be raised at level 4&8 make for a stronger character than one with all evens.
My personal favorite, for the maximum flexability, is the stat total method. 78, or a 13 in every stat (adjust as you wish, 1-to-1) allows for solid effective characters without getting into the absurdly 'good at everything, no weakness characters'. And if one where to use standard point most effeciently, you'd end up with 3 12s and 3 14s, or a 30 point-buy character.

But the original question was about heros. Go for a 80-to-84 total stat. Barbarians with 18 str, high con & dex, and then they choose do they want to be smart, charismatic or wise, because they can choose 1 or 2 of the three. The party leader, the party scout and the party tactician. Sounds good to me.

(edited for typos)