Point Buy Question

[noparlpf]

Hello Playground,

I'm fairly familiar with the point buy system by now. However, I've occasionally seen people coming up with ability scores of 6 or 7 using point buy, with no racial ability modifiers. How exactly does this work?

[Greyfeld]

Some DMs allow you to subtract stat points from their base.

[tyckspoon]

Sell-back, usually; some point-buy systems allow you to go below the starting ability score in order to gain extra points (the Pathfinder default works that way. 3.5's pointbuy usually doesn't.)