[/snarky mode on] New Character Closeup

[Olive]

But my biggest beef is the likely disparity that arises between PCs. And unlike an unlucky d20 roll in combat or negotiations, you're stuck with your sub-par stats until you die.

This is the best reason for point buy IMO, not that I use it...

 

[TiQuinn]

My last two campaigns used 28 point buy, but I don't think I'll use that method again. It was just a bit too dull in retrospect.

 

[Yeoman]

I used 25 point buy from the time I started with 3e, until about a year ago, now we've moved up to 32 as our standard, and we're enjoying it as much as 25. After this campaign we might try 25 again, but we're not sure.

 

[Psion]

Anyone else notice that Sophia the Paladin in the new Character Closeup is an absurd 36-point buy character? According to the DMG 25 points is supposed to be the norm, 28 if you want a "tougher" campaign, and 32 points on the outside if you're gunning for a "high-powered" story.

Like Eric said, there are dice. Point buy is for... well, people that like point buy.

Would it shock you at all if I said that just eyeballing the stats, they don't seem outlandish to me. No 18's and a 10. Seems pretty reasonable, unlike some PCs I have had to deliberately scale back.

 

[Numion]

Re: Re: [/snarky mode on] New Character Closeup

Like Eric said, there are dice. Point buy is for... well, people that like point buy.

Would it shock you at all if I said that just eyeballing the stats, they don't seem outlandish to me. No 18's and a 10. Seems pretty reasonable, unlike some PCs I have had to deliberately scale back.

I counted the points and its actually a 34 point character instead of 36 points. Thats beside the point though - if this is the biggest complaint ForceUser has with D&D, I'd say things aren't that bad for him.

 

[green slime]

We use 32 pointbuy in the present campaign.

Next campaign is going to be 28 points.

25 I find is a little slim, especially for Paladins and Monks.

I detest 4d6 drop lowest due (rearrange to heart's consent) to the enormous differences that come up within a party. So back in the day when we did this, I allowed players to keep on rolling sets of 6x4d6 until they got a set they liked.

It wasn't really worth the effort to keep on rolling after a while.

Point Buy stops the moans and groans, and munchkin squeals down to a minimum.

 

[Pielorinho]

I'm the guy that always rolls characters with a total stat mod of +2 or lower. We have another guy in the group who's guaranteed to have two stats of at least 16 and none beneath 10. I hate rolling for stats .

(Although 4d6 is supposed to give an average score of 12.5, I think, similar to a 25-point buy, in practice it works out giving a much higher total. That's because characters whose scores are very low get rerolled, removing the low end of the bell curve and moving the average to something much higher.)

We use point-buy, either 28 point or 30 point depending on the campaign.

Daniel

 

[Bauglir]

A friend of mine when rolling stats consistantly rolls at least one 18, usually more. One of his more recent characters had 3 18s, 2 16s and a 14.

 

[ForceUser]

Re: Re: Re: [/snarky mode on] New Character Closeup

I counted the points and its actually a 34 point character instead of 36 points. Thats beside the point though - if this is the biggest complaint ForceUser has with D&D, I'd say things aren't that bad for him.

Word.

Count again though, pretty sure that added up to 36 ( I counted twice myself).

 

[Hardhead]

But my biggest beef is the likely disparity that arises between PCs. And unlike an unlucky d20 roll in combat or negotiations, you're stuck with your sub-par stats until you die.

Exactly. My first real 3e character was generated with 4d6 drop the lowest, and I got: 18, 16, 16, 16, 14, 8. Obviously, those are *really* good stats, and that character was likewise *really* good compared to many other characters in the party, one of whom didn't even get one 16 or better (compared to my three 16s and one 18).

Later on, when I started DMing, I tried to convince everyone to use point buy, but most of my players balked at it, mostly due to habit, I think. Anyway, I ran that campaign for a *long* time. It's just wraping up after two years, and the superiority of some of the characters that rolled high in that campaign has been demonstrated. Now, the new DM (and one of the main opponents to point buy when I ran) is requiring point-buy in *his* campaign. It took my group some time to come around, but come around they did.