What is the least amount of Point Buy you'd play with?

[adwyn]

I put down 15, but the lowest I played in was a 10 point buy, +1 attribute point/level game. It was different, not necessarily my cup of tea, but it worked for that campaign.

 

[the Lorax]

The standard 25.

I have always allowed players to choose between a 27 point buy or rolling. Not once have they chosen point buy.

The Auld Grump

Thats an interesting thought, and one that is pretty relevant to this thread, which is,

At what point would you rather roll (4d6, drop low + arrange to suit) or use point build?

 

[Celebrim]

I voted 12, but I guess it really depends on what you mean by long running. I could definately see playing a series of sessions in a uber-gritty commoners view of the world style, but I think it would get tiresome after a while. First, because there are only so many different challenges that a DM can throw at party that averages 10 in thier stats, and second because 12 point point buy would encourage hyper-twinkism in most players as they are forced to maximize survivablity at the expense of concept. The Fighter has a 16 STR but an 8 in just about everything else. The Rogue as a 14 DEX but an 8 in just about everything else. The Wizard has a 14 INT but an 8 in just about everything else, and so forth. Eventually even well played I think that the mechanical limitations of your character would keep reminding you of the narrowness of your character. The Fighter ALWAYS fails his will save, and has no skills. The Wizard ALWAYS has to hide behinds everyone else, and so forth.

My favorite point buy is about 28, but that's mostly because I'm usually behind the DM screen and 28 seems to be enough that it makes the players that need to fill heroic happy without being a headache for me because every PC is good at everything.

 

[Thanee]

At what point would you rather roll (4d6, drop low + arrange to suit) or use point build?

28, anything below is too far below the average of 4d6dl (which is at ~28.5 without Rerolling and ~30.5 with by-the-book Rerolling).

Bye
Thanee

 

[jrients]

Multiple Attribute Dependency -- eg. Paladins need good STR and CON like a fighter, decent WIS, and good CHA, too, or else class abilities suffer. Often an overrated concern -- a Paladin with the standard array (15,14,13,12,10,8) is eminently playable.

What you have to watch for is classes with class abilities that are dependent on a particular bonus -- eg. the paladins lay on hands and his saving throw bonuses are non-existent without a 12 CHA.

Players of Paladins WANT good Str and Con like a fighter. They don't need those stats to be high for the class to function. If they have a Cha of at least 12 and Wisdom of at least 14 then they can use all of their class abilities. That doesn't sound like nearly as bad as the prerequisite for playing a paladin as in 1st edition AD&D where you need, among other things, a Cha 17 just to qualify for the class and it does nothing for you.

 

[Ferret]

22, because.

 

[SWBaxter]

For a relatively standard D&D campaign, 25 is about the low point I like, and 32 about the high point. I'll play outside those ranges for specific campaign concepts, but for standard D&D it tends to get a bit too strange for my tastes with either godlike or very ordinary characters.

When I run a game nowadays, it's almost always 25 point buy. I like running borderline-gritty settings these days.

 

[ARandomGod]

25, because with anything below it is just stupid to use any rules at all.

Even 25 is a bit on the low side, but it's barely acceptable. 28 is absolutely fine.

Bye
Thanee

I felt a need to quote Thanee, because that was an expression of my opinion there exactly.

I also feel a need to express further, however.

*We hates the point buys... yess, we hates it so very much.*

I prefer a system that doesn't penalize characters for being heroes. I don't like the concept of having lesser secondary scores just because you want your primary score to be 17 or 18 (or even 15!)

I generally prefer the following 'system' (Sorry for taking up so much space here on something very, very simple to explain.. wait, no I'm not.)

Ability  Points
 Score    Cost
   3        0
   4        0
   5        0
   6        0
   7        0
   8        0
   9        1
  10        2
  11        3
  12        4
  13        5
  14        6
  15        7
  16        8
  17        9
  18        10

Sometimes, to appease those who want to encourage people to 'buy up' lower stats instead of focusing on higher stats, I have the base be 10 instead of 8, and lower the 'point buy' to reflect two points already spent in those stats.

Now *there* is a point buy system I can really get behind.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Players of Paladins WANT good Str and Con like a fighter. They don't need those stats to be high for the class to function.

Yes, because we all know that the ability to wear plate armor, use your sword effectively, and take hits to protect others have nothing at all to do with being an effective paladin ...

 

[TheGemini]

I always roll crap stats, so I loves the Point Buy.

A very cool DM of mine thought I should roll. "No" I say, "I always roll poorly." Everyone else had rolled already -- 4d6 (drop the lowes) and take the best of 3 sets of rolls. "How can you not have at least one great set of rolls?" was the question.

No, I insisted. Finally he says "OK I'll tell you what, take the best of 6 sets of rolls. If it doesn't come out better than a 28 pt buy you can use point buy." I proceed to roll unbelievably bad. Some sets only had 2 rolls break 10. Everyone was surprised. The highest set matched a 24 pt buy or something like that.