Chapt 2 - Even more polls

[Green Knight]

I have said so before, and I will do it again:

I don`t think you need to choose between point buy and dice rolling. You
can have both, and let each player or group choose which system they
like the best. Sure, those rolling might end up with better stats if
they`re lucky, but that is a chance both the players and DM can live
with.

That only leaves the problem of how many points equals say 4d6 drop
lowest, which isn`t purely mathematical, since point buy also gives
flexibility (which is worth something), but will rarely see truly good
scores (which degrades it slightly).

For those heroic campaigns, it is also possible to give out mor
points/roll better dice, but incur a Level Adjustment. I`ve been using
35 points + 1 bonus starting feat in some campaigns in return for a +1
modifier.

B

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[Ariadne]

Originally posted by Tempest

Yes, I know. I have already heard whining about "equally poor stats", but in future I will be using "4d6 and drop lowest" -system. No rerolls, no freebies. If players are satisfied with this, it's fine with me too.

Yes, I use this system too. 4d6, drop lowest and 3 chances. You can take the best of those 3 chances. If you don't get something usefull during this, that's really bad luck...

[geeman]

When it comes to issues like how to "balance" bloodline there appears to be
two schools of thought. The first is that bloodline isn`t _meant_ to be
balanced. Scions are definitely and demonstrably more powerful than
commoners. It was supposed to be that way. They are, after all, people
with the blood of the gods. The second school of thought is that the
relative power of scions over commoners needs to be assigned an ECL value.
One thing that I think the first group misunderstands about this position is
that the term "balance" is a bit desceptive. Whether or not scions are
balanced against commoners is less important than having a means of
accounting for that power. Sometimes people do this in order to "balance"
characters against other non-blooded character, but whether that`s the point
or not, one still should have a rating system for scions.

3e/D20 has a whole bunch of rules for how to account for powers granted from
things like race using templates and uses that kind of information as part
of the ECL, EL and CR systems. If blooded characters gain abilities that
aren`t accurately accounted for then one winds up with characters that gain
inordinate amounts of XP from CR awards which they are not really entitled
to. The are, effectively, their character level + some ECL for their extra
abilities, but are gaining XP based on their experience level alone. In
essense, a conversion of the BR setting to 3e/D20 that ignores ECL isn`t
really 3e/D20 at all. Aside from any issues regarding how well the ability
score mechanic reflects bloodline, using the point buy method to balance
something like bloodline--which has much more far-reaching influence than
ability scores isn`t really an effective means to "balance" or "account" for
the effects of bloodline on characters.

Now, the thing about both these stances is this: They aren`t mutually
exclusive. Blooded characters can be (and usually are) more powerful than
their commoner counterparts, just like the people who endorse that argument
want. At the same time one can come up with a system of measuring the value
of blood abilities that accurately accounts for their utility during play.

Gary

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