Point buy with nonabilities?

[SteelDraco]

Anybody have any idea how using the point-buy system is supposed to interact with a character with a nonability? I'm in the process of making a maug PC, and wasn't sure how the two ideas worked together. Should I just get 1/6th less points, and not worry about it? Buy it up to a 10, since a nonability has a modifier of +0? What seems like the best solution?

 

[crazy_monkey1956]

One of my players in my PbP made a Nimblewright character. I allowed her to leave her Con at a virtual 8 and use the points on her other stats. It isn't terribly unbalancing, as it seems with point buy that one score ends up being an 8 anyway. It just creates a different set of scores than normal since the "dump" stat is different than one would expect.

 

[Felnar]

i think your 'buy to 10' is correct

i applied it to a sample undead monster (i used the vampire), and found that with 25 point buy and buying con to 10, i could exactly afford the published stats

 

[mvincent]

Intuitively, you would simply have the same number of points and have one less stat to spend them on (I'm guessing this would likely be what the Sage would say if asked).

 

[Kahuna Burger]

My first inclination would be to give 1/6 less points to buy with. A missing ability has a zero modifier so requiring it to be "bought" to 10 would be the minimum I'd consider, but in some cases a lack of a score is better than a 10 - if nothing else, it can't be poisoned or otherwise drained to a penalty.

Personally, I'd also be swayed by how high the point buy was. A 25 is hard enough to deal with, I'd take 2 off for the 10 and call it a day. A 36, I'd be more inclined to remove the 1/6th...

 

[castro3nw]

A 36, I'd be more inclined to remove the 1/6th...

So you're saying -- is roughly equal to a 14?

I think I'd go along with it costing the 2 points to make it a 10 that seems to be general consensus so far...

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

If you do that, you'll want to do it with a non-template undead monster. Vampires are, by the rules of the template, formerly living, so it is most likely that the example was created by taking an existing character and applying the vampire template to it. Thus, when it actually did assign its scores (which are probably standard array rather than point buy), it put a 10 in Con. That doesn't mean it has to be that way.

For my part, I think I would simply treat the non-ability as a virtual 8 and leave it at that. None of the core races have non-abilities so you should be dealing with ECL if you have a non-ability and ECL+racial hit dice should account for any advantage given by a nonability.

i think your 'buy to 10' is correct

i applied it to a sample undead monster (i used the vampire), and found that with 25 point buy and buying con to 10, i could exactly afford the published stats

 

[Kahuna Burger]

So you're saying -- is roughly equal to a 14?

Nope.

 

[jasin]

When I played a necropolitan, the DM had me buy Con up to 10. Worked out well enough.

 

[Nifft]

i think your 'buy to 10' is correct

I also buy the 10 rule. -- N

PS: But I don't currently allow any PC races with "--" for a stat.