First time DM, question about point buy

[Swaoeaeieu]

Hi playground, after not playing for way too long i decided to be the dm for a new campaign.
But now i have to make the rules (gasp!) and sometimes i have no idea what to do.

Today´s dilemma: starting attributes, how much point buy is enough?
In de DM manual there are low power up to high power guidelines for the point buy system.
My question to the playground: how much effect does it actualy have? What is will the difference be between the low power and the high power attributes?

I have only played in 2 campaign before that both lasted under 5 sessions. i love the game but have almost no experience...

Thanks in advance!

[eggynack]

It makes some difference in power level, but not a massive amount. Generally speaking, a higher point buy has a net positive impact on inter-party balance, as the low power classes tend to be MAD (multi-attribute dependent), so that can be a decent reason to keep those numbers reasonably high, but it's not like you're bringing forth the new age of balance in the land with this one. Overall, it mostly depends on the type of game you want to run, and if there's something like a monk in the party, nudge things up a little, because those fellows are usually going to need some high stats to even hit competence.

[Swaoeaeieu]

I have a party consisting of a psycic warrior, a cleric, a sorceres , a ranger and a rogue.
higher starting stats will give the mundanes a way to hit more. but also gives the casters more spells.
Or does it barely matter since we start at lvl1?

[eggynack]

It really matters more at level one, as stats do approximately the same thing at level one and at level twenty, while class abilities increase in power. Moreover, higher levels let you artificially boost low stats caused by low point buy with items. As for your class set, there is a reasonably large power disparity there, running from clerics way at the top to rangers and rogues one (or two, if you're counting tier six) tier from the bottom. As is though, you should probably just pick something, because it's not going to be world altering. 28 and 32 are pretty standard numbers, and you can go a bit in either direction of those without problems. You probably shouldn't go too low though, as rangers and rogues are pretty MAD, owing to their reliance on wisdom for spells and possibly intelligence for skill points respectively, on top of primary stats.

[Jeff the Green]

I typically go with 32. It allows a super SAD class (druid, mostly) to go 18 18 8 8 8 8 and the more MAD classes to go 16 16 14 14 8 8 or 16 14 14 14 12 8.

[HunterOfJello]

Having a point buy above 16 does not make spellcasters much stronger at all. All the sorcerer needs is an 18 in charisma (16 points) and he's done. Giving him a slightly higher modifier for dexterity and constitution is not going to come anywhere near close to breaking the game.

However, having a high point buy does make non-spellcasters viable. If you want to see the psychic warrior and ranger actually be able to contribute to the party, then do a point buy of 32 to 40. Both classes start shining once they're able to pull off decent Str, Dex, Con, and Wis.


The idea that a high point buy will make casters too strong is completely false. Unless you are going to reduce your point buy below 16, then you are only nerfing non-spellcasting classes by having a low point buy.

[Scorponok]

I've DM'd for 4 years now. Point buy doesn't affect things that much. It gives them a +1 to a +4 on rolls, which at +4 is 20% more accurate. And they aren't going to have +4 to all their stats anyways. In 3.5 it seems characters powers are more dependant on equipment, which you won't have to worry about at level 1. Just don't be giving them more than the +1 stuff right away.

[eggynack]

Having a point buy above 16 does not make spellcasters much stronger at all. All the sorcerer needs is an 18 in charisma (16 points) and he's done. Giving him a slightly higher modifier for dexterity and constitution is not going to come anywhere near close to breaking the game.

I'd actually argue that you'd be better off lowering the charisma to 16, and bumping constitution to 14. You're marginally reducing casting power, and in return you're effectively taking toughness every level for the rest of the game. Seems well worth it to me. At the same time, you can toss a sorcerer 10's and 11's in every stat, and they'll still function at a reasonable level of power. Casters are just durable like that.