WLD: Scaled Point Buy vs. Free Point Buy

[TheUdjat]

I'm against the 'free point' buy. Why fix what isn't broken?

[Lin]

Being all in all I could care less if we WERE playing peasents with the non-elite/standard array, it doesn't matter to me.

But on the point about the difference between a 14-16? It does somewhat feed into your character concept. You can't simply compare both to a commoner, because there are other things in the world. How does my character's strength compare to an orc? Her beauty to a nymph? Her wit to sphynix? Or, simply, from one adventurer to another. The commoner is a commoner and all in all adventurers are always better then them. Thats a given. Its how they stack up when compared to other things.

This has nothing to do with how big the stats are, the size of the buy can always be changed. This is actually more about the philosphies on stats and how they should be treated. There really isn't much of a point of changing the buy, it won't change the game at all from what I've gathered about the people playing. Stats are fluff, the story is the meat, inspite of what 90% of the 3.x edition D&D suppliments are filled with.

P.S. I miss the second edition writing style.

[TheUdjat]

If your driving point is that the stats aren't really important, that it's the roleplaying that matters... Why are we even discussing this? You're wanting 6 players to change their characters so that 3 don't have to. If stats aren't all that big a deal, why change? This point buy works well enough, as a seemingly universal opinion (even if you don't prefer it), so why is a change necessary?

[Lin]

Why discuss this?

Why not?

Its an interesting matter, one with many points of view and even if I had absolutely no serious interest in changing anything (which I didn't), its still nice to talk and hear why we are using the system we are using. Particularly since three of us didn't even know that we are using the system we are using!

[TheZebraShakes™]

TheUdjat said:

I'm against the 'free point' buy. Why fix what isn't broken?

No one is saying that it is broken, we're just saying that there are other ways to go about it. Ways that might benefit people who play or would like to attempt to play the game in a different style then you.
I like playing characters with extremely high charisma, cause I'm all about character interaction, and you can't really do that if you have to dump it all in order to get a decent dexterity stat. Cause I'm not gonna lie to you, If my character has 8 charisma, I'm gonna play it like that. I can't just say in my background story that my character is beautiful and charming with a witty personality and then not have the stats to back it up. It doesn't work like that.
If my character has a row of 14s as her stats, then I'm just a run of the mill adventurer in your game, cause most everyone is going to have those 14s. There will be nothing significant about my character, so I won't be inclined to play it as such.
In most cases, stats are just numbers, but they do help reenforce the character's description and or backstory.

Plus, you're not really a true blue blooded american if you're gonna say if it isn't broken, don't fix it. Cause when have Americans ever left well enough alone.

[ravensir]

It seems like some people are just annoyed that anyone would rock the boat with the free point buy system at all. Being pretty much unfamiliar with D&D past 2nd edition myself (I have Lin to thank for helping me create and modify my character) I really can't offer any objective opinion on which is better.

That being said, I really don't think my original character sheet, using the point buy system, was "overpowered" in comparison to the rest of the party to begin with. Now? Well now, he's got an awful lot of problems to deal with for hanging onto that 22 strength. I guess one could argue that there should be penalties for taking a stat so extraordinary, something to make sure everyone and their mom isn't running around with attributes that by all accounts should be quite rare.

But in this particular context, my 7"2' 430 lbs orc with 6 charisma was going to have a difficult time crawling around dungeons as it was. How many door ways were created to fit him? Nevermind secret passages, trap doors, and little dug in caves. And is his adventuring party, who he'll soon realize he has to depend on to live, ever going to really warm up to a hulking mass of charisma 6 orc? I've got my doubts.

I hope this doesn't sound like I'm complaining. I chose this character and I chose his stats -- this is who I want to play and I have no problem with either sheet. I just don't understand that people arguing that the free point buy system makes characters too powerful. So far as I can see, it just punishes certain character concepts for using any extreme character traits.