Does anyone really use Point Buy?

Role-playing is about ... role-playing. Adventuring first, stats second

Would I want a child with a deformity or only one eye or lacking in some way ? No of course not. It is a natural response. Players also don't want any handicaps to their characters, this too is perfectly understandable. The problem is that when a character rolls a low stat they tend to whinge and whine about it as if it were the end of the world. 'I can't play this character, it's hopeless', etc. This is where I get miffed. For if I had a child with only one eye or some other impediment I would still keep that child, and love it regardless of of the deformity or handicap. Not so the whingeing, whining, 'I can't play this character, it's hopeless', types. They don't love the character, they don't know how to role-play the character with the 3 Constitution, even if it has an 18 Intelligence, because to them, the character is not a person to be loved and cherished, it's a means to end, and that end is beating the system, winning the game, absolute power. The power nut does not understand the point of the game. I would tell these meglomaniacs and power nuts to role-play occasionally but to most of them the message was ignored, though lip service was occasionally paid that this was what the game is supposed to be about. No, it's plus this, 18 that, how many magic items have I got, etc. If that suits someone as DM to go along with this approach, then fine, but in my opinion this is not what the game was supposed to be about. Roleplaying was what I took AD&D to be when I first got into it, but to many others role-playing is about the last thing they think of when they play, even if they say otherwise. And that means they really do not see the full potential of the game. And this is like watching a movie and only seeing the good versus evil motif and missing the sub-plots, characterizations, relationship triangles, etc. How many people go into a movie just to see the good guy beat the bad guy. Many movies these days are made just to cater to this type of person. But to me that is limiting. The same with role-playing games. Because I see things differently I wouldn't be fazed in the least if I had to play a character with a patch over one eye or some other deformity. I would see it as a challenge, an interesting character to role-play. Sure, I would want the character to be above average in some way (being good at some skill does make the game more interesting) but I know I am not likely to make any new friends saying what I am about to say but so be it, I like role-playing games to be about role-playing because I know if done right, there can be just as much fun, or even more, than playing the way most seem to play, plus this, more damage that, etc, fussing over numbers all the time.

Maybe I am old-fashioned but I seem to remember even Mr Gygax making the same point in his original game. As I noted above having a 3 Constitution is not the end of the world. The 18 Intelligence, or whatever can balance things, if the player has the maturity to see things thus and focus on the character, as a character to be roll-played and loved in it's own right, not just a number generator, a means to an end, power. When viewed in this way flaws are interesting, not game wreckers. After all aren't most of the greatest heroes in literature and myth handicapped in some way, and isn't that what made them interesting. They were all flawed and they were more the memorable for this.

As an aside I played TOEE recently with a character with 6 Intelligence and 4 Charisma. It was fun. It had 20 Strength so there was balance (it was a half-orc fighter). He was complemented by the Rogue with 15 Intelligence and 9 Strength. They got along just fine. Anyway that's how I see things, others may differ.

 

Although a 25 in 3rd edition is only about the same as an 18/00 to 19 in 1st edition, at least for Strength damage modifier.

 

is there an option to change it so you could simply input stats? that way you could do whatever weird point buy/rolling/whatever you feel is necessary, and then input the info.

Maybe change the point buy to allow you to buy however many points you want, only warn you that the game was balanced for a 25 point buy characters, and making characters with higher or lower stats will affect playability.

 

You can use the cheat where you click back and forth between the basic and advanced screens and give yourself any stats you want up to 18.

 

I am new to this board, but I have played and DM'ed the PnP version of D&D since the very first edition. I have played all of the old D&D series from the Apple II on. My question was probably answered years ago, but as I said, I am new to this board.

I have a problem with rolling some character classes in ToEE. If I get a reasonably good roll, when I get to the distribution of points for the abilities I cannot use them all. I have had the same problem with point buy.

I like to play Human or Half Elf characters, and follow my personal ethics of Neutral good or Chaotic Good (depending on my Mood)

If I start them out as a Fighter and then convert, I still run into too many points to distribute later on.

In my NOT so humble opinion, the game should limit how many points can be distributed to what is available on the screen or allow the use of all that are generated. A number of 40 points when only 28 can be used is DUMB.

Is there any way I can figure out what numbers can legitimately be used to generate a rogue for example without endless trial and error? I would rather play the game than roll endlessly hoping to get stats that are so sufficiently SUCK that I can have the class?

 

Uhm, you just move the rolls over to the stats. There is no distributing anything. In point buy, there only limit to how many points you can use in a stat is how many points you have, and a max stat of 18.

In short, I don't know what you are talking about.

 

The only way you can have too many skill points than you can distribute is if you have an intelligence over 38.

You know, you can allocate skill points to all the skills on the screen, not just the ones showing in white.

 

Since the point-buy method was instituted for tourney play (many DM's, many players, p-b is an equalizer), I wonder why its needed in ToEE. The only reason I can think of is for players who want to experiment with it.

 

Hi all:

I think it's just more fun to roll for my stats, I'd even like to see a small picture of the dice rolling with the sound effect. I may be playing alone at home, but this still allows me to feel like I'm truelly rolling a character with my DM.

 

I didn't use point buy, and I was rolling a human rogue. The legitimate roll was (if I remember right) 17, 16, 15, 12, 9, & 8.

being a rogue I gave the 17 to dex, the 16 to con, the 15 to str, the 12 to int, the 9 & 8 to wis and chr respectively. These are NOT unreasonable stats.

I am running this game under patch 2 only. No Co8 mods yet.

When I came to distributing the points I had 40 to distribute - and no - I did NOT have an Intelligence of 36. And YES I do know that all categories can be used.

My original question still stands. How DO you get to roll human or half elf rogues without taking VERY SUCK rolls?

 

Um, you do know that you can assign more than one point to each skill, right? And that it isn't necessary to put points into all the skills?

 

vendegaar, what's confusing me (and probably everyone else) about your question is how race and/or class affect your rolls. please explain this aspect of your problem. Unless Catboris answered it for you, then nevermind