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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ForceUser@Home" data-source="post: 302715" data-attributes="member: 4945">Among the circle of DMs I play with, we're moving to something we heard on this board that we've labeled "organic point-buy." It's a hybrid of point-buy and rolling. Basically you roll 3d6 straight down. So you might end up with stats like:13 STR13 DEX7 CON 8 INT10 WIS9 CHA(Two 13s, I rolled well!)Then you make a one-time straight swap. Let's say I want to be a wizard, so I'll swap like this:8 STR13 DEX7 CON13 INT10 WIS9 CHAThen you add up the points and compare to the point-buy total you use in your campaign. For instance, we like 28-point characters in our campaigns, and we rolled a 12-point character:8 STR (zero points)13 DEX (+5 points)7 CON (-1 point)13 INT (+5 points)10 WIS (+2 points)9 CHA (+1 point)total: 12-point characterThe difference between 28 and 12 is 16, so I now have 16 points left over to distribute into the character. My final character looks like this:8 STR13 DEX14 CON16 INT10 WIS13 CHAWe like this method because it seems with standard 28 point-buy, all fighters have an 8 CHA, all wizards have an 8 STR, all clerics have a 10 DEX, etc. There's a very standard stat formula one follows when crafting a strictly point-buy character, and after having used it for almost a year, the pattern has emerged. We initially liked point-buy because it allowed one to build the exact character they wanted without the utter randomness of rolling for stats. Once the DM has allowed you to roll more than once for a character's stats, the purpose has been defeated. And we want players to be happy with their characters and to be able to play the exact character they want. Organic point-buy allows this without allowing players to absolutely optimize their stats at first level. The resulting amount of variance is within acceptable limits for the player and the resulting stats satisfy the DM who doesn't want every single fighter in his game (or in our case, across three games) to have an 8 CHA. In the rare event that players roll an exceptional character who adds up to more than 28 points (or your own point-buy limit), all characters always get at least 4 points to distribute, even if he's got godly stats. If he's godly anyway, 4 points won't make much of a difference to the DM, but the player will still have a small modicum of flexibility. Exceptional stats on 3d6 straight down is an extremely rare occurance, however. That's out method. Best of both worlds.</blockquote>

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