Point Buy.

Andhaira · Post by **Andhaira** » Tue Oct 20, 2009 8:34 am

Whats a good pool for a point buy score for char gen, assuming all abilities start at 8 and you buy them on a 1-1 basis? Is 28 a good point buy pool?

Traveller · Post by **Traveller** » Tue Oct 20, 2009 2:25 pm

You can use the method provided in Star Wars d20:

All abilities start at 8.

Each player has 25 points to increase the abilities, using the following point costs.

Add species modifiers after generating the abilities.

8.....0

9.....1

10...2

11...3

12...4

13...5

14...6

15...8

16...10

17...13

18...16
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Lord Dynel · Post by **Lord Dynel** » Tue Oct 20, 2009 2:51 pm

Traveller wrote:
You can use the method provided in Star Wars d20:

All abilities start at 8.

Each player has 25 points to increase the abilities, using the following point costs.

Add species modifiers after generating the abilities.

8.....0

9.....1

10...2

11...3

12...4

13...5

14...6

15...8

16...10

17...13

18...16

That would most certainly be a good method.
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Treebore · Post by **Treebore** » Tue Oct 20, 2009 3:43 pm

It also depends on what the average is you want your PC's to have, as well as how many 18's you want them to have.

So if I were to use the SW example above and I wanted a high average of stats I would say 48 point buys, no more than 2 18's, so I would see: 18, 18, 14, 14, 8, 8, assuming I am doing my math correctly.
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serleran · Post by **serleran** » Tue Oct 20, 2009 4:24 pm

0 points. Stat bonuses in C&C are relatively minor (in how much they add, though they do help considerably,) and the actual score is not as important as whether it is Prime or not. So, I'd say -- just don't let them get +3 to everything, and it doesn't really matter.

But, let's see... 8 points in everything to start. Maximum of 18 in any single score. 6 scores. Average of 10-12... 25 points is a good "average character" maker system. You could go to 30 for more powerful characters. Beyond that, and you might as well just not bother with point buy and just let players decide what their stats are.
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boxcornersdiety · Post by **boxcornersdiety** » Tue Oct 20, 2009 6:35 pm

this thread has a couple of options for non-random stat generation
http://www.freeyabb.com/phpbb/viewtopic ... llordgames

the basic idea is to disallow chars from having two equal stats, effectively limiting them to only a couple very high or very low stats

ThrorII · Post by **ThrorII** » Tue Oct 20, 2009 7:07 pm

I do a point buy for my game.

Base of 8 in all six attributes.

1 point each for attributes 9-15

2 points each for 16-17

3 points for 18

24 point pool.

All points are cumulative. (if you want a 16, you pay 7 points to get to 15, and 2 for the 16.

This creates the 'standard array' of 15,14,13,12,10,8 from the 3.5 DMG, which seems fair for C&C.

I get a few min-maxers (an 18 in a stat, with 9's in everything else) but overall it works well.

lobocastle · Post by **lobocastle** » Wed Oct 21, 2009 8:16 am

I have players role first and hten if they are not satisfied I use the following point buy system.

Start will all 10s and you have 18 points to distribute on a one for one point buy. I am not worried about an 18 becuase in C&C all ability scores are used for saving throws.

JLL

Wolfram_Stout · Post by **Wolfram_Stout** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 5:46 pm

Hello,

Whenever I want to do point buy I figure out what I want the average to be say 13, then mulitply it by 6 and give them the total to spend ie 78.

I don't make them figure out a base then a point chart. They are all very intelligent, and at least one or two of them would still make a mistake.

And I don't like double checking math against a chart. Does it total 78? Yes, your good.

If they want to low ball a stat then fine.

Wolfram

Andhaira · Post by **Andhaira** » Fri Oct 23, 2009 3:52 pm

Thanks for all the tips guys.

Camazotz · Post by **Camazotz** » Fri Nov 06, 2009 5:31 am

I do a very simple point-buy: everyone starts with 0 in each attribute, and needs to buy them up. They get 75 attribute points to spend. The points are not complex or weighted; you spend 1 for 1. Your minimum range per stat is 3 and maximum is 18. You must, no matter what, have a minimum of 1 and maximum of 19 in your stats after applying racial modifiers.

The results end up being generally good for everyone. Yes, a player could make someone under this method with an 18, 18, 18 15, 3 and 3, but in practice no one ever actually does that. More often, they go for something along the lines of 18, 16, 14, 12, 10, 5 or 18, 16, 12, 10, 10, and 9....stuff like that. They tend to get a few good fairly heroic scores, and a variety fo average ones. Except the fighters, who usually gimp their Cha or Wis stats in favor of outrageous Str and Con.

Anyway, I've been using that methodology for point buy since 1989 in my AD&D games, and I adopted it to C&C as well.
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Arazmus · Post by **Arazmus** » Wed Feb 17, 2010 4:32 pm

Roll dice you heathen. Point buy is the cowards way out.
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double-c · Post by **double-c** » Wed Feb 17, 2010 4:40 pm

Arazmus wrote:
Roll dice you heathen. Point buy is the cowards way out.

This made me laugh.

If I'm running a game I talk to my players about the kind of method they want to use for developing stats.

I'm a big fan of an agreed on Standard Array or 6+2d6 if there simply MUST be some randomness to attributes!

Kaiser_Kris · Post by **Kaiser_Kris** » Sat Feb 20, 2010 1:19 am

I prefer to do the 4d6, drop the lowest dice, but I don't see any problem in doing a point buy system either. If you're playing online, especially, rather than around a table, it's probably a better method.
http://yellowrex.com/tools/pbcalc.php

This is a pretty nifty tool for doing that online, you can put in any racial modifiers you want in the 'other' category, if you're willing to do the 3.5-style scaling. Using this, I'd probably let characters add 32-36 points, depending on how powerful your campaign is. I use it a fair bit for building NPCs.

Orpheus · Post by **Orpheus** » Sat Feb 20, 2010 3:46 am

Arazmus wrote:
Roll dice you heathen. Point buy is the cowards way out.

Personally, I rather like point buy character generation since one is guaranteed one or two good stats and some really bad or so-so stats.

Other than that...are you that bored?

Sir Osis of Liver · Post by **Sir Osis of Liver** » Sun Feb 21, 2010 5:22 pm

I do 4d6x7. Drop the low from each set of 4d6, then use the 7th set if there's an exceedingly low roll. I don't want a bunch of feeble characters running in my campaign, but I associate the point buy system with so many of the unpleasant things that WotC did to the game that if I'm going to run "old school", I need to start out that way. Roll the dice, damnit!

Arazmus · Post by **Arazmus** » Thu Feb 25, 2010 8:18 pm

Orpheus wrote:
Personally, I rather like point buy character generation since one is guaranteed one or two good stats and some really bad or so-so stats.

Other than that...are you that bored?

Or you can take all bland, non-heroic stats...how boring. I prefer to roll them bones and takes my chances. You can get kickin' stats that way...if you feel lucky. I'm making heroes, heroes are born of chance and determination...not orderly, passionless mediocrity where everyone is the same. Yeah you can roll poorly too, but then you get the chance to role play a hero who succeeds against all the odds.

I reiterate: Point buys are the cowards' way out.
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Arazmus · Post by **Arazmus** » Thu Feb 25, 2010 8:20 pm

Sir Osis of Liver wrote:
I do 4d6x7. Drop the low from each set of 4d6, then use the 7th set if there's an exceedingly low roll. I don't want a bunch of feeble characters running in my campaign, but I associate the point buy system with so many of the unpleasant things that WotC did to the game that if I'm going to run "old school", I need to start out that way. Roll the dice, damnit!

Bravo
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Omote · Post by **Omote** » Thu Feb 25, 2010 8:32 pm

The point-buy system does usually make for some rather bland characters, at least in my experience, but players who want balance sometimes need point buy. In certain cases, I think point-buy is key.

But for myself, I love the ATTRIBUTE MATRIX GENERATION METHOD!
http://sites.google.com/site/advancedca ... ion-matrix

~O
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Arazmus · Post by **Arazmus** » Fri Feb 26, 2010 3:23 am

Omote wrote:
.

But for myself, I love the ATTRIBUTE MATRIX GENERATION METHOD!
http://sites.google.com/site/advancedca ... ion-matrix

~O

Was that a shameless plug?
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Omote · Post by **Omote** » Fri Feb 26, 2010 4:08 pm

Take it as you will. It's just an alternative.

~O
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Orpheus · Post by **Orpheus** » Fri Feb 26, 2010 9:09 pm

Arazmus wrote:
Or you can take all bland, non-heroic stats...how boring. I prefer to roll them bones and takes my chances. You can get kickin' stats that way...if you feel lucky. I'm making heroes, heroes are born of chance and determination...not orderly, passionless mediocrity where everyone is the same. Yeah you can roll poorly too, but then you get the chance to role play a hero who succeeds against all the odds.

I reiterate: Point buys are the cowards' way out.

No, no. I was question whether or not you were bored because you are digging up threads from years ago.

As for point buy, it's a game and if the point buy method gives folks a character with decent enough stats to play a certain class while shafting them in other areas, so be it. We're playing these games to have fun.

Arazmus · Post by **Arazmus** » Thu Apr 22, 2010 12:43 am

Orpheus wrote:
No, no. I was question whether or not you were bored because you are digging up threads from years ago.

As for point buy, it's a game and if the point buy method gives folks a character with decent enough stats to play a certain class while shafting them in other areas, so be it. We're playing these games to have fun.

No I just have some pretty strong feelings about point-buy systems...hate them with passion, the heat of which exceeds a thousand suns.

So when I was looking around the old threads for interesting topics this one caught my eye.

We do play the games for fun, it just seems that the point-buy saps some of that fun...at least for me.
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Point Buy.

Point Buy.

effective point buy

whenever i