Roll/Point Buy & Backgrounds

Drawmack

First Post
This was inspired by the current hivemind thread, was wondering what others would think.

Players can choose what to do with their stats.

Roll xd6 and keep the highest three (if possible scores)
You get 21 die points to spend.

When you roll for a stat the dice points spent is calculated like so. The first three dice cost 1 point each. Any additional dice cost 0.5 points each. This allows for the 4d6 method but dice can be moved around.

Background Points. Players are given ten points to complete in their background. Each point they complete nets them 100 xp. This initial, and only this initial, xp can be used to purchase ability points at the ration of 100 xp = 1 ability point. When using this method you spend ability points as follows:
x - 8 = 1 (where x is any number <8)
8 - 9 = 1
9 - 10 = 1
...
14 - 15 = 2
15 - 16 = 2
16 - 17 = 3
17 - 18 = 3

To raise a state more then one point add the values of intermediate points. i.e. 8 - 12 = 1 (9) + 1 (10) + 1 (11) + 1 (12) = 4

What do you all think?
 

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Combining it with dice seems to defeat the point of a point buy system which is to ensure a common power level among characters. (And to ensure that the campaign is played at a particular power level rather than having characters who are effectively +1, +2, or +3 ECL due to high stats).

Take for example a pair of players. One using this method rolls 4d6 and gets:
17, 11, 5, 13, 9, 11
Another player rolls 3x5d6, and 3x 3d6 and comes up with these scores:
18, 17, 16, 10, 7, 9

Now, let's say they both get 10 points to spend on top of that.

The first guy bumps his 17 to an 18 (3 pts), the 5 to an 8 (3 pts), the 9 to a 10 (1 pt), and the 11 to a 14 (3 pts).
18, 14, 8, 13, 10, 11 Total mods: +6; Pt buy value: 32
The second guy bumps the 7 to a 14 and the 9 to a 12
18, 17, 16, 14, 12, 10 Total mods: +13; Pt buy value: 51

Both ended up with pretty good stats but the difference is as dramatic as it was if they'd just rolled and kept those scores. . . and just as dependant upon luck.
 


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