Standard point buy

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The standard point buy system is a way of "buying" attribute scores in the Dungeons & Dragons role playing game. This system is listed in the Dungeon Master's Guide as an alternative to using dice to randomly determine scores.

Contents 1 Mechanics 1.1 25 1.2 28 1.3 32 2 Gaming the system 2.1 Racial bonuses 2.2 Atrribute increases

Mechanics

Set all ability scores to 8, and then spend the number of points that your game allows (usually 25, 28 or 32) to raise them. Each ability score point from 9-14 costs one point each. 15 and 16 cost 2 points each and above 16 costs 3 points per ability score point up to 18. The following are common ability score distributions using this method:

25

18,15,9,8,8,8
18,12,11,10,8,8
18,10,10,10,10,9
17,14,10,10,10,8
16,16,10,10,9,8
16,14,12,11,10,8
14,12,12,12,12,11
13,12,12,12,12,12

28

18,16,10,8,8,8
18,15,12,8,8,8
18,14,12,10,8,8
18,12,10,10,10,10
17,14,12,10,10,9
16,14,12,12,10,10
15,14,12,12,12,10
14,14,14,14,12,8

32

18,18,8,8,8,8
18,16,12,10,8,8
18,14,12,10,10,10
17,16,12,10,10,9
16,16,16,10,8,8
16,14,14,14,10,10
16,14,12,12,12,12
14,14,14,14,12,12

But, of course, you are welcome to use your points however you wish. Scores above 18 are possible, but only by including racial bonuses. You may not purchase a starting ability score over 18.

Gaming the system

There are a few ways to optimize this process:

Racial bonuses

First off, keep in mind that racial bonuses are figured after you determine the cost. So, for example, a dwarf gets +2con, -2cha. If you have 28 points and buy 14con and 14cha, then you paid 12 points for those two stats, but got a net value of 14 points. Why? Because the extra 2con would have cost 2 points each, but you only paid 1 point each for the cha that you lost. For this same reason, you probably never want to buy an attribute above 14 that will be lowered by a racial modification.

Atrribute increases

Also, keep in mind that at 4th level and every 4 levels after, you can add one to a stat. Starting with an odd stat might therefore be useful, since that 4th level bump would give you an additional +1.