Point Buy Question [Pathfinder]

[Teapot Salty]

Hey guys. So I'm pretty knew to pathfinder, and one thing that confuses me is the point but system. It just doesn't make sense to my 3.5 addled brain. If someone could explain it that would be awesome, thanks, and as always, go nuts.

[avr]

It's the 3.5 system, but each stat costs 2 points less. A 18 point buy in PF is equivalent to 30 point buy in 3.5.

So zero points spent on STR gets you 10 STR, or 17 points spent gets you an 18. In 3.5 you would have to spend 2 points for 10 STR or 19 points for 18 STR.

Table here (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/basics-ability-scores/character-creation).

[Pex]

All scores start at 10. Spend points like normal to get higher scores. You can lower an ability score from 10 to a minimum of 7 for extra points to spend on other scores. Racial modifiers are added afterwards.

[Yanisa]

A simple calculator (http://webpages.charter.net/tedsarah/Pathfinder/utilities/pointBuyCalc.htm) can maybe also help, just put in the stats and it spits out how many points it will cost. Besides that it works a lot like 3.5, it is only worded very differently, the base numbers are 10 instead of 8 and the value to increase is different.