27 Point Buy Array

But in the spirit of fun rather than philosophy, the point buy system is likely the fairest due to the amount of player autonomy. Point buy offers superior customization, and with the right build & guidance that means a higher likelihood of doing things well in game.

27 point buy array

If your players are all new to the game, maybe paring down their initial set of options by picking the standard array would take a load off their minds. Or perhaps you want to play old school and leave it completely up to chance by rolling for your ability scores. Each has an upside!

Though gamers can (and will!) debate the question of which method is better until the owlbears come home, there is a general consensus that the point buy system is best for the largest range of situations.

Using the example: I have 27 points with which to buy higher scores above all 8's. I guess the 'standard' result would be the 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8 set. But I'm free to spend those 27 points as I see fit. Now if I wanted higher scores I could increase the number of points, yes?

Personally I like standard array for beginner players, and then offering point buy as well. Both of those methods offer a good range of stats, allowing you to get a good score in the two places that will help you be effective while still giving you at least one poor stat to help with role playing and character balance. And if you are the DM and all your players use one of those two stat generation methods you won't have some characters who are much more powerful or much less powerful the others.

Sure you can't have really awesome stats and you can't have really crappy stats with point buy, but you can have reasonably balanced stats that fall somewhere on the spectrum of 13 13 13 12 12 12 (jack of all trades, master of none)--> 15 14 13 12 10 8 (Standard Array)---> 15 15 15 8 8 8 (I only need 3 abilities. What are those other for again?). While the extremes on this list aren't likely to be super helpful to most players, they can potentially have there place. For example, the jack of all trades build could favor a half-elf bard such as ddb.ac/characters/18886784/tqRbHC. The difference between the 15 and changing one of the 12s to a 13 is negligible and likely depends on long term preference (like mine figuring that some increase in a primary stat long term would be beneficial since those stats are on the lower end.

I really dislike the Roll since it can scew unlucky players and make lucky ones so much better. If I were to ever use it, I would make my current players (3) roll 3 stats each and use the 2 best results from each player to create the array every player would use.

I don't like randomness in the dice rolling, especially in 5e, because having poor stats can make you feel underpowered, as ability boosts are much rarer to come by. But I also know that having high stats is really fun too. So I use a modified point buy, which will let you start with an 18 if your race gives a +2:

Tieflings get a +1 to Intelligence and +2 to Charisma, so maybe you can save a few points when buying for those abilities. For example, if you buy your Warlock a Charisma of 14 (7 points) instead of a 15 (9 points), his total Charisma score is 16 because of his infernal heritage.

This expanded point buy system even includes disabilities, weaknesses, and allergies you can give your character in exchange for even more points to spend on stats. Excessive? Maybe. Creative and customized to the max? Definitely!

I was thinking about Character Generation, PC's, NPC's, and Monsters and I'm a little skeptical about how much use the current 27* point buy and/or standard array actually sees. Does anyone know if the "standard array" actually sees much use by the the people selling it, and is there proof anywhere? Like, is there a series of consecutive play sessions featuring a dev caught on video? Absolute apologies for the suspicious skeptic in me, but I know that I like both Feats as well as having reasonable ability scores, and have next to zero faith that you can get the two together with the 27* point buy as presented.

I suspect point buy sees more use than almost anything else, both among the devs and in the wild. Since you don't need to spend any ASIs to get reasonable ability scores, (as opposed to high or low scores) I don't see why you wouldn't be able to get your feats alongside reasonable ability scores.

Suspicion is nice, but do we even have a podcast with audio "showing" such? Most of the group's I've seen most certainly have nothing to do with point buy. I personally prefer point buy, but find the default 25 and the cap of a 15 to be ... anti-heroic.

Your best bet would be to ask people you know if they use it. I don't, but I have players who do. I know for a fact it's the most popular option in adventurer's league as every time I've played, I've been the only person at tables of 6 or 7 that hasn't used it (I prefer standard array).

There's nothing stopping you from creating an alternative method. Some do 18, 8 then roll for the remaining 4. Some do point buy / standard array but at ASIs you get both ASI and feat instead of choosing, others may roll as 4d6, drop lowest, re-roll 1's once, making 7 scores taking higher 6 (what my group does). It's whatever is going to work for your game as long as the DM can adjust the enounter difficulties to balance it, which is a mindset a DM should have no matter how your stats are generated. Stats aren't the most super important - your attack bonuses and skill bonuses and save DCs and so on all increase as you level no matter your choices. A DM could easily still make a balanced game even if you just all started with 20 in every stat and only used feats instead of ASIs - wouldn't be difficult to achieve either.

Point buy tends to be deeply unsatisfying, as the game assumes characters will have scores higher than either point buy or standard array allow for. A character with perfect racial scores for their class/build can hit the bottom edge of what the game wants, but that's about it. The unpleasant pressure on one's numbers from being so weak they can't make even the most basic checks without and undue degree of luck means the Feat system in the game often goes unused. Especially since the character-defining feats everybody likes are best taken very early in progression, so they can actually define a character.I don't care for simply starting with a natively Heroic stat spread though, either. My current game (on the DM side) has rolled arrays that ended up, through mostly luck and a little chicanery, averaging around 80. It's obnoxious, and players have told me they honestly don't know what to do with ASIs anymore.What I'd like to do, honestly, is say that every four levels a character gets a feat regardless of whatever else they're doing in their level progression and otherwise say ASIs have to be ASIs (unless they're the bonus ASIs from rogue or fighter), but even that feels a little weird and doesn't play well with multiclass progression. Nevertheless, losing what amounts to the only way to actually customize and build your character after third level to "Man, I just don't have the breathing space to do anything but make my numbers bigger!" is enormously dismaying and why my play group has never complated more than a few games with point buy or standard array.

Fourth. 5e was tested EXTENSIVELY and PUBLICLY under the codename dndnext. Point buy was included along standard array and rolling. (which btw, standard array is actually just a list of predetermined scores that are possible with point buy). Yes its possible to roll better stats with rolling (its even more likely on average, to have higher average stats), but you gain in pure numbers you lose in control.

I have a lot of point buy characters from AL and it's a solid way of making a character. You do have to make some decisions on ASI or feats here and there, but I have a lvl 20 I've played through AL with the point buy and the character is amazing. Outside of AL I roll and in the games I DM I make them roll (4d6 and drop the lowest). Rolling gets you more powerful characters, but not by a lot. You won't be ****** using point buy unless you just put points in dumb places. 041b061a72