Whacked out attribute point buy

[seasong]

When I looked at the 56 point 1:1 point buy system, I looked at it from the perspective of how many high stats one can purchase. Like so: 18/18/14/8/8/8, with a net bonus of +10. Compared to WotC's 32 point buy: 18/18/8/8/8/8, with a net bonus of +8. At first glance, it looks unequivocally better than 32 point buy.

Actually, 18/18/14/8/8/8 is +4/+4/+2/-1/-1/-1 = +7 total. Or are you only counting positives? Because if you are, 18/18/18/14/3/3 gives a higher positive-only bonus (but still +7 total).

WotC's point buy weights the costs by the total individual bonus, so you sacrifice your total bonus in return for specialization. The 56-point method does not. Thus, depending on whether you specialize or not, WotC's method will produce a more or less powerful character. There is no 1:1 method of simulating this.

However, if you just want a guarantee that the 1:1 system will always produce a character equal to or better than 32 points in WotC's system, set the point total to 62. This will result in very high ability scores, of course.

 

[haiiro]

Actually, 18/18/14/8/8/8 is +4/+4/+2/-1/-1/-1 = +7 total. Or are you only counting positives? Because if you are, 18/18/18/14/3/3 gives a higher positive-only bonus (but still +7 total).

See, I knew this math thing was hard. Yes, I was only counting positive bonuses -- which makes no sense (I was tired).

It makes sense to me now that WotC's point buy system rewards generalists (with a higher overall bonus than specialists), while the 56 point 1:1 system rewards specialization (with a lower net bonus for generalists). Thanks for clearing that up for me.

However, if you just want a guarantee that the 1:1 system will always produce a character equal to or better than 32 points in WotC's system, set the point total to 62. This will result in very high ability scores, of course.

Now that the above difference in weighting specialization over generalization makes sense, 62 points would definitely be a bit too uber for the game I have in mind. (I've actually played in a 3e game using exactly that amount points, though -- it didn't throw things off too much.)

Thank you, seasong.