Rolling for abilities or stacking em

[Shadowbane13]

I saw somewhere, I forget where, that you could do a 32 point system for your starting abilities instead of the usual 4d6 and drop lowest. Idk if this is a true thing to do but if it is how does it work? Cause you could just drop all into con and not worry about dying or drop all into dex and take weapon finesse and always hit/never get hit. So just wondering how that would work. I assume each one starts off at 10 and you add points to it till you reach what you wish.

[AvatarVecna]

I saw somewhere, I forget where, that you could do a 32 point system for your starting abilities instead of the usual 4d6 and drop lowest. Idk if this is a true thing to do but if it is how does it work? Cause you could just drop all into con and not worry about dying or drop all into dex and take weapon finesse and always hit/never get hit. So just wondering how that would work. I assume each one starts off at 10 and you add points to it till you reach what you wish.

The way point-buy works is that you get X number of points to spend on all your abilities (X is determined by the DM, but 32 is common). Everything starts at 8, which costs 0 points. Increasing this score by 1 costs 1 point, up to 14. Past 14, costs start increasing. Here's the result:

8 costs 0
9 costs 1
10 costs 2
11 costs 3
12 costs 4
13 costs 5
14 costs 6
15 costs 8
16 costs 10
17 costs 13
18 costs 16

So while you can dump points into one stat to the exclusion of the others, you can't buy higher than an 18 using this particular method, so you'll still have points left over for other things.

[MisterKaws]

It works on a system of diminishing returns, and always capped at 18 for any stat. It's DMG p169.

[Necroticplague]

I saw somewhere, I forget where, that you could do a 32 point system for your starting abilities instead of the usual 4d6 and drop lowest. Idk if this is a true thing to do but if it is how does it work? Cause you could just drop all into con and not worry about dying or drop all into dex and take weapon finesse and always hit/never get hit. So just wondering how that would work. I assume each one starts off at 10 and you add points to it till you reach what you wish.
Pedantic note: On these boards, typically, that form of rolling is simply shortened to 4d6b3 (b standing for best)
Anyway, on to answers:

1.Starts at 8, not 10.
2. Max your score can be pre-racial 18.
3. The cost is the greater of 1 or the ability's current mod to increase, so there's a harsh case of diminishing returns even if you couldn't.

so the costs look something like this:

8:0
9:1
10:2
11:3
12:4
13:5
14:6
15:8
16:10
17:13
18:16

So a 32 point buy is enough for two 18,s and four 8's. You can find calculators online that can do the math for you.

[Grod_The_Giant]

1.Starts at 8, not 10.
Except for Pathfinder, which does start at 10 and uses slightly different costs:

7: –4
8: –2
9: –1
10: 0
11: 1
12: 2
13: 3
14: 5
15: 7
16: 10
17: 13
18: 17

[Hamste]

Except for Pathfinder, which does start at 10 and uses slightly different costs:

7: –4
8: –2
9: –1
10: 0
11: 1
12: 2
13: 3
14: 5
15: 7
16: 10
17: 13
18: 17

You also generally use a different number of points in pathfinder as well. Noting that as a 32 point buy in pathfinder is quite high.

[Chronos]

Also note that you probably can't use 32 point buy instead of rolling 4d6b3. 4d6b3 is roughly equivalent to somewhere in the range of 25-28 point buy (officially, 25, but there are different ways of comparing them that make 28 a better estimate). So 32 point buy will, generally, produce more powerful characters than the standard rolling method.

Your DM will tell you which options he allows, and if point buy is one of them, he'll tell you how many points you get. Some folks like more high-powered games than others.

[Shadowbane13]

Ok cool. I was looking for a good debate on the subject and I got one. Thanks guys and gals.