How many points above a 32 point buy is a decent LA +1 worth?

[danzibr]

Suppose I'm about to start a campaign. The plan is to do 32 point buy and give the players a free LA +1 (starting at level 1, hopefully make them less fragile, not that the reason's too important). They could take a race or template.

How many points would a *decent* LA +1 be worth? Decent like Goliath or as strong as Mineral Warrior, not some crap like Hobgoblin. But some players might want to go human with no template. How to compensate for the lack of a LA?

I think it'd be worth 20-30 points. Say for example you want to play a Barbarian. Human would probably spend 16 points to get their Str to 18. Then a Goliath gets +4 Str, which would be another 18 points. But how many points would Powerful Build be? And we have to consider the lack of feat and skill points.

[RFLS]

20-30 is way over the top. I would say that 10, at the most, would do for a mid-range LA +1 template.

[Lonely Tylenol]

If you wanted to look at it that way, think about how much LESS a Goliath has to spend to get an 18 STR score.

Because of the +4 racial bonus to STR, a Goliath only has to invest 6 points into STR to get to 14 in order to have a score of 18--10 less than the Human, who has to invest 16--and, therefore, 10 points are saved to get essentially the same result. (We won't look at DEX and CON, as they basically even out.)

[danzibr]

20-30 is way over the top. I would say that 10, at the most, would do for a mid-range LA +1 template.
Hmm, I would think 10 is way to little. I agree 30 is excessive. But 10 barely gets your primary stat from a base of 18 to a base of 10.

If you wanted to look at it that way, think about how much LESS a Goliath has to spend to get an 18 STR score.

Because of the +4 racial bonus to STR, a Goliath only has to invest 6 points into STR to get to 14 in order to have a score of 18--10 less than the Human, who has to invest 16--and, therefore, 10 points are saved to get essentially the same result. (We won't look at DEX and CON, as they basically even out.)
Yeah... hmm, 10 still seems a bit low, but that does give a good perspective.

[jedipilot24]

A 42 Point Buy would far more generous than any other game I have ever seen; even Malachei's RHOD (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=183398)game only did 38 Point Buy.

For those who are interested, I did the math and calculated that the Elite Array is equivalent to a 25 Point Buy.

[kardar233]

It depends on what your definition of "decent" is. Half-Minotaur gives +12 Strength, -2 Dex, +6 Constitution, -2 Intelligence, +4 Natural Armor, +10ft movement speed, a gore attack and 60ft darkvision. Plus, it's Large. That's about 30 PB extra, plus NA bonus, extra speed, extra natural attack and the niceness of being Large.

Another issue is that since template bonuses go above and beyond the 3-18 scale, a focused character with a high point buy is still not going to be as good as a templated character because whatever they're focused on caps out at 18.