[3.5e] Point Buy for Premade Adventures

[Assussanni]

I've been playing 3.5e for several years but I'm now going to step into the world of DM'ing. To help me out I thought I'd pick up one of the premade adventures (specifically Eyes of the Lich Queen). I've always preferred the point buy system of ability score generation over the randomness of dice rolling, but I was wondering if anyone had any comment on how many points I should allow for a premade adventure. Would it be sensible to assume Standard Point Buy or would more points be better? (When I've played in the past we've typically used 32.)

Thanks in advance.

[Eldariel]

32 points should be ok for more games, although smaller-than-4 parties should probably have more to make up for the fact that they're covering multiple roles.

[Assussanni]

Okay, thanks. I was just wondering if 32 would be too many and result in overpowered characters in a premade campaign.

[Draz74]

I tend to see 32 as power-creeped a bit, and recommend 28 as more true to the game's balance intents.

25 is really pretty weak, though, compared to the official 4d6-drop-one.

[Eldariel]

I tend to see 32 as power-creeped a bit, and recommend 28 as more true to the game's balance intents.

25 is really pretty weak, though, compared to the official 4d6-drop-one.

Well, 32 makes for better non-casters and generally it means characters can afford points in non-essential attributes, so I find any "power creep" it causes just welcome; casters get hardly anything out of it (the almighty 18 casting stat, 14 Con, 14 Dex is 28 points; 17 casting stat for 25 and 16 for 22) other than some points in unnecessary scores, while Fighter-types and especially super MAD types like the Paladin get a ton out of it.