So, this is the point-buy system I cooked up following suggestions by my players. I haven’t seen it used in play yet, since my group made characters as described in the ACKS rulebook. I took care that this could be used to produce Nobiran Wonderworker characters with a 5% experience bonus. Every other class should be possible with a 10% bonus.
I believe this should level the playing field, so to speak, should your gaming group be into that kind of thing.
Ability Value: Point Cost
5: -10
6: -7
7: -5
8: -3
9: -1
10: 0
11: 1
12: 2
13: 4
14: 6
15: 8
16: 11
17: 14
18: 18
All attributes start at 10, and players have 14 points to spend.
Lowering attributes below 10 provides extra points to spend on other attributes, as listed.
For game balance purposes, no attribute can be lowered below 5.
(Keep in mind for campaigns that a character starting with a 6 or lower in either STR or CON will never survive past “ancient” age for their race, as a character dies when either of these scores reaches zero. A character who begins with a DEX of 6 or lower will likewise be bedridden once they reach this age, as a character with a DEX of zero cannot move.)
Some example stat blocks with this method:
18 10 9 9 9 9
16 13 13 10 9 9
16 16 9 9 9 8
13 13 11 11 11 11
16 16 16 11 5 5
18 18 9 9 5 5