What's the big deal with point buy?

[Piratecat]

While true, it still belies the fact that countries where guns are illegal have a lower murder rate than those where guns are legal. Guns may not kill people by themselves, but in practice more people get killed when guns are around.

Yarr, here be a warning I shan't put in Piratese, harr harr:

Next person to use a gun reference to make a point (or not) gets a free three day suspension from the site. Political discussions are expressly forbidden, and you can bet youir squid-infested anchor chain that gun control counts as political. Please use other analogies to make your point.

 

[billd91]

I really gotta ask. How? Is it the scintillating wit you bring? Sorry, can't be. With a 21 point buy dwarf fighter, you've got a 10 int at best. Perhaps its the deeply inciteful plans you craft. Oh wait, nope. 21 point buy dwarf fighter - 8 Wis in all likelihood. Perhaps its your incredible feats of strength? Huh? You've got a 14 strength AT BEST, so that can't be it.

Or, could it possibly be that you don't actually play the character that's on paper, but ignore the stats in favour of doing whatever you think is best all the time?

Am I sitting in on a briefing with Donald Rumsfeld? Maybe. Are all of your points above correct? Heavens to Betsy, no.

Maybe it's because he plays the character like the dial goes to 11 while everyone else just has dials that go to 10.
And what is it about people thinking that you can't come up with a good plan with an 8 Wisdom? It's only a hair below average. Even dumb dogs manage to hunt on occasion.

 

[Nonlethal Force]

Next person to use a gun reference to make a point (or not) gets a free three day suspension from the site. Political discussions are expressly forbidden, and you can bet youir squid-infested anchor chain that gun control counts as political. Please use other analogies to make your point.

As the one who originated the reference, I'll gladly ask for forgiveness. I didn't mean to tread on the rules, it was certainly not intentional. I honestly didn't think of it as a political discussion, but I get your point. Being made aware, I will certainly abide!

 

[Hussar]

Maybe it's because he plays the character like the dial goes to 11 while everyone else just has dials that go to 10.
And what is it about people thinking that you can't come up with a good plan with an 8 Wisdom? It's only a hair below average. Even dumb dogs manage to hunt on occasion.

The problem is, the dial only goes to 7 because not only is his wisdom below average, his intelligence (the character's I mean ) is also pretty dim and he's got the personality of a slightly concussed badger. Even if he does come up with a great plan somehow, he cannot communicate it effectively and, again, even if he does, no one listens to him because he's an annoying git. (Again, the character, I'm sure Airwalkrr is a nice enough fellow and I'd like to game with him).

 

[Plane Sailing]

For rolling, I really like the idea that PBartender has used for one campaign

Ability Scores
Ability scores will be generated using the "Organic" method:

1. Roll 4d6, drop the lowest, six times and record the results in order.
2. Reroll any one result, taking the better of the two results.
3. Switch any two, and only two, results.


For example:

1. The initial dice rolls are:
Str: 14 Dex: 16 Con: 17 Int: 14 Wis: 12 Cha: 9

2. Rerolling the Charisma score:
Str: 14 Dex: 16 Con: 17 Int: 14 Wis: 12 Cha: 13

3. Then, switching the Constitution and Charisma scores:
Str: 14 Dex: 16 Con: 13 Int: 14 Wis: 12 Cha: 17

This set of abilities would, perhaps, make a good charming thief, witty swashbuckler, outlawed archer, or popular gladiator.

Rerolling
You may reroll your ability scores as many times as you wish. However, the you must create NPCs out of any and all unused sets of ability scores. A complete stat block with classes, levels, etc. is NOT required. The ability scores, a name or "job title", and a short paragraph describing the NPC is.


For example:

Crazy Zeke
Str: 9 Dex: 14 Con: 16 Int: 11 Wis: 7 Cha: 13

Crazy Zeke is an crotchety old hermit who wanders the world in his spare time. He is spry and as healthy as a horse, though he's a little scrawny and is obviously a few arrows short of a quiver. The players might meet him anywhere, and anywhere he meets them he knows the local area like the back of his hand. He's an excellent guide, survivalist and tracker, and can generally lead the PC's to anywhere they need to go for a nominal fee.

In addition, if your scores are too low, you may scrap them and roll all six ability scores again, without creating an NPC from them. Your scores are considered too low if the sum of your ability modifiers (before adjustments because of Traits) is +1 or lower, or if your highest score is 13 or lower.

I think that the 're-roll as much as you like, but you've got to create NPCs for each of the sets you discard' is quite inspired

 

[Altalazar]

Yarr, here be a warning I shan't put in Piratese, harr harr:

Next person to use a gun reference to make a point (or not) gets a free three day suspension from the site. Political discussions are expressly forbidden, and you can bet youir squid-infested anchor chain that gun control counts as political. Please use other analogies to make your point.

Wow, even analogies are off-limits? What if we talk about, instead, crossbows, and how the town watch is trained to use them...

 

[airwalkrr]

I really gotta ask. How? Is it the scintillating wit you bring? Sorry, can't be. With a 21 point buy dwarf fighter, you've got a 10 int at best. Perhaps its the deeply inciteful plans you craft. Oh wait, nope. 21 point buy dwarf fighter - 8 Wis in all likelihood. Perhaps its your incredible feats of strength? Huh? You've got a 14 strength AT BEST, so that can't be it.

Or, could it possibly be that you don't actually play the character that's on paper, but ignore the stats in favour of doing whatever you think is best all the time?

It isn't my character; it is a PC in a game I run. The dwarf has a 6 Charisma and he's the de facto leader of the party simply because he is assertive. That and he has the leadership feat. The player actually roleplays the 6 Charisma very well by being gruff, blunt, and rude. But he manages to set party policy by leveraging the fact that he is a the one taking most of the hits. He is always the first into the room, usually the first to get hit, and the sufferer of the most deaths (two).

His Strength, which is a 21 counting his belt of giant strength +4, is far better than any other character's meaning he usually dishes out the most damage. He is a dwarf with levels of exotic weapon master so his power attacking damage is quite painful. As far as roleplaying the other abilities that you actually roleplay (Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma), he does all of those very well. He is none too bright, but not an idiot (Int 10). He isn't the keenest fellow, but he makes the right decisions in a crunch (Wis 12). He is rude, conceited, and lacking in social graces (Cha 6; part of the reason he picked up a bard cohort, to remind him when to keep his mouth shut).

As far as stealing the stat boost items goes, that's an interesting idea. Do your NPC's regularly walk around casting detect magic on random people in towns and then rob them when they find something juicy enough?

Smart thieves certainly do! In a cosmopolitan city like Greyhawk, you can bet your ass that there are mages in the Thieves' Guild who point out soft targets like wet-behind-the-ears adventurers with more loot than they know how to handle.

Otherwise, how could they possibly know that any of the character's items are magical? How very... Everquest of you.

I'm not sure if you are aware of this, but 30% of magical items glow, at least according to the RAW (you may house rule that they do not, but that is another issue altogether). That's a dead giveaway. If you are wearing six magical items, two of them will probably have a rather unnatural radiance. So sans detect magic/arcane sight/greater arcane sight there are still ways for even the dumb half-orc thief to recognize you are carrying valuable stuff.

 

[airwalkrr]

As the one who originated the reference, I'll gladly ask for forgiveness. I didn't mean to tread on the rules, it was certainly not intentional. I honestly didn't think of it as a political discussion, but I get your point. Being made aware, I will certainly abide!

As will I. Didn't think of it as being political. Sorry.

 

[WayneLigon]

Otherwise, how could they possibly know that any of the character's items are magical? How very... Everquest of you.

I think I'm going to propose that using a video game reference as a smarmy, smirking backhanded insult is the equivalent of Godiwinng (referencing Hitler) a thread on a gaming board. Now we just need a name for it. Hmmm.

 

[Cedric]

I've made it clear that I'm all in the "roll d'em bones" corner of this boxing ring. However, I would like to add a caveat.

If you are stuck in a situation where you are forced to play with people who you just flat CANNOT trust to play by the rules. You may have better luck with point buy...because a die hard cheater (heh, pun) will find a way to roll up some awesome stats even when all the players roll together.

Likewise, if you're running a game day game in a local store or running a convention game, point buy will probably work better for you (especially since you can post the point buy rules before hand and have people show up with characters).

If you're in a seasoned group of friends that you all trust and know...offer both choices. Just try hard to balance the die rolling method you are using with a point buy method. For this, I prefer to use a die rolling method that is 'slightly' more favorable than point buy. Because you're taking a chance...bigger risks, the chance for bigger rewards, etc.

But, if I'm in that group, expect to see four of my black d6s with the rep pips come out and start getting warmed up.