Point buy calculator

Because the cost table is not linear. From 8 up to 13 each point costs one; the 14 and the 15 cost two each. That single break is where every distribution decision comes from.

Written out, raising one score from 13 to 15 costs four points, which is the same as taking three other scores from 8 to 12. Neither choice is better in the abstract, so the tool shows the cost of the last point of each level in its own column and lets you decide.

It is not an alternative to point buy: it is a point buy distribution that came ready made. The scores 15, 14, 13, 12, 10 and 8 cost 9, 7, 5, 4, 2 and 0, which add up to exactly twenty seven, the whole budget.

So the question is not which system gives more, because they give the same. It is whether you want to spend the time distributing it yourself.

Rolling four six sided dice and keeping the three highest averages 12.24 per score, so six of them average around 73 points of total score against the 72 of the standard array. On average the two are nearly the same.

The difference is the spread, not the average. Rolling can hand you an 18 or a 6, and point buy cannot do either. If you want to see the numbers behind that average, the dice roller on this site computes it exactly.

Those are the limits of the published rule. Below 8 the system would be paying you points to be bad at something, and above 15 the cost curve would keep steepening past what the budget can reach.

Bonuses from your race, background or edition are added after the purchase, which is why they are a separate column here: they do not cost points and they can push a score past 15.