Point buy for Pathfinder?

[silverwolfer]

so i was just messing with a random character maker over at pathguy, and was curious, how does pointbuy work in PF, seems the system is way different from the way how we normally work such a system.

[Ravens_cry]

Check it out yourself (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/basics-ability-scores/character-creation).
Unlike 3.X, it starts at ten.
Some people apparently ran some numbers, and it is apparently less efficient than 3.X point buy, each tier apparently gets you less, but I've never had a problem with it.

[Saph]

Apart from the start-at-10 rule, the main difference in PF is that the price bumps come at even-numbered ability scores, not odd-numbered ones. So in 3.5, point buy is 1 for 1 until you boost an ability score from 14 to 15, which is where the cost increases. In PF, the same cost increase comes when you boost the same ability score from 13 to 14.

While this does mean your points don't go quite as far, it's an extremely sensible change given that even-numbered ability scores are the ones that actually give you the bonuses. The 3.5 point buy system made it almost completely pointless to ever have odd-numbered stats.

[grarrrg]

PF point buy is roughly equal to 3.5 point buy -12 points.
Example: 20 point PF is about the same as 32 point 3.5.

3.5 starts abilities at all 8's
PF starts abilities at all 10's, with the option to drop them as low as 7, for up to 4 more points to spend elsewhere.

Lowest possible PF points: -24 (-12 if you stop at all 8's)
Lowest possible 3.5 points: 0

Highest possible PF points: 102 (an 18 costs 17 points)
Highest possible 3.5 points: 96

So at really low point buys, PF is the same with 12 fewer points, and actually comes out ahead because you can drop scores to 7.
At really high point buys PF is strictly worse, as you need more points to get equivalent stats.

[silverwolfer]

So a 20 point buy for lets say a basic wizard would be

STR: 8 DEX: 14 CON: 14 INT: 16 WIS: 10 CHA: 12

[grarrrg]

So a 20 point buy for lets say a basic wizard would be

STR: 8 DEX: 14 CON: 14 INT: 16 WIS: 10 CHA: 12

Yes, don't forget the Racial Mods though, EVERY race in PF has them, even if it is only a "+2 to any".

Compared to 3.5 where those stats would cost... 28.
Yeah, that's only 8 points difference, not 12, but it is a sliding scale.