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Message: <blockquote data-quote="thormagni" data-source="post: 2227924" data-attributes="member: 13637">Well, point-buy gaming systems are expected to have a level playing field in a broad, general sense. But in a specific sense, no, there is no level playing field.Allow me to try to explain:Everybody gets the same amount of points, yes. In the give and take of things, that means that generally the characters are going to be equally useful in the game overall.But in a specific sense in a point-buy system, the characters will be extremely different with widely different abilities and attributes -- much wider than in a class-based, but "random" game like D&D. Why? Because of the give-and-take nature of a point-buy system, you are making economic decisions to invest in areas of interest to you and not invest in areas of no interest to you. So, by making the choice to have an insanely dextrous martial artist, you are giving up the choice to have an insanely powerful psychic character. Being the strongest man in the world means you won't also be the fastest. You could even choose to be the most average man in the universe, slightly better than average at a wide range of abilities. Which is really the illusion of a "random" but class-based system like D&D. Sure, your stats and hitpoints are nominally random but they are only random within a very narrow range of possiblities. And your actual powers, abilities and skill points (which soon take over defining the character's scope) are very tightly proscribed. VERY tightly. Want to take an extra feat in D&D? No flippin' way. Want to use that spell one more time in a day? Nope. How about choosing a spell that is actually a level higher than you are able to cast? Nope. How about allowing a first level character to have a 30 Strength? Or letting me have a couple extra hit die worth of hit points at first level? (Obviously, a GM could overrule the rules in this case, but in general it would be a violation of any of the rules to allow those things to happen.)But the parts of D&D3 that actually allow people to customize their character's abilities? Those are point buy elements. Choosing feats? That is a point-buy system. Buying skills is absolutely a point-buy system. And in fact, the way ability scores are assigned in modern D&D isn't very random either. 'Cause you pick where you want your high scores to go.But allowing people to start off with widely-different number of starting points would be very similar to allowing people to start off with widely different level characters in a D&D game.</blockquote>

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