This is what was missing from Pathfinder. I always hated the 'normal' level up system in D&D and Pathfinder. I prefer xp based leveling and more character customization and this book provides for exactly that. Sure, it's math heavy and a bit dry, but the work and thought put into this was incredible. It's a great system that offers alternate ways to design YOUR character, instead of just being a Fighter or a Cleric, you can do a lot more with this system.

Very well done! This has become a part of my toolbox for my incessant rules tinkering. Works very good as a wholesale plug-in for your game, or as an excellent resource for the value of D&D's "parts".

A good idea poorly implemented. Whoever wrote this gave real thought to a point-buy class system. There are many good ideas in there. However, his math is faulty. By even mid-levels, the difference in point values between two classes of the same level is greater than the difference between characters of different levels of the same class.

Still, it was a good idea.

I liked this one so much I bought it again when the print version became available! I don't think I will run another D20 campaign without allowing players to use this book to advance their characters.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: It provides excellent flexibility to D20.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: It is sometimes difficult to locate specific abilities, and index would be helpful.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Excellent product. I use it in my D&D campaign. Buy it!<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

Buy the Numbers

<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: It makes the game a point system while keeping what makes the game great<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

Buy the Numbers is a remarkable product and could very well be the future of later editions of Dungeons and Dragons.

The innovative leveling system, available in both PDF and print by Cooley Publishing, allows DMs and Players to level their characters as they go, as opposed to waiting for some magical number and like a bad sequel to Cocoon you are slightly more remarkable than you were. It does force your players to change their mindset about leveling, but the benefits it reaps for a campaign can be immense.

Using series a of simple calculations by analyzing the SRD core classes, it provides the reader with various costs in tables and charts for things such as skills, feats, abilities, spells and everything else that makes up a character. XP is spent on these items like gold coins from a dragon?s horde. Instead of managing their total XP count, DMs and players manage total XP, which is the XP gained throughout the campaign, and current XP, which is the XP players have to spend.

The PDF includes the various calculations and variants that can either complicate or simply matters. For instance, with skills, there is a formula provided that will allow players to be balanced and make it difficult to master certain skills or one for aiding players to specialize in certain skills faster.

Later in the book after the formula for abilities and special abilities are explained, it provides all of the SRD special abilities for the core classes with their point score already totaled, though the point formula?s themselves are usually pretty simple. For those players whom do not want to utilize the ability of customizing your character as you move along in the campaign, there is a breakdown of each core classes in the back of the book that provide the total cost of each level per class level.

There are some negatives. If you have munchkins or min-maxers you may want to instruct some house rules. For instance, players in my campaign are only allowed to buy HD once a total normal level and ability scores every 4 levels. There also is a tad more record keeping.

For the Player If you are tired of waiting for the magical number to pop up or if you hate the illogic that you can only learn something every few months, this is a system you should present to your DM. It is easy to use and implement.

For the DM This really fits well with DMs whom likes to customize their NPCs but do not want to mesh together 4 prestige classes to do so. This does not prevent you from leveling up characters normally (which is obviously easier with unimportant NPCs), but it does allow you to make more unique characters that will surprise your PCs. I love for new players to enter my campaign and try to figure out what I?m using. They completely baffled and usually dead by the end of the encounter.

The Iron Word The ease of use and smart style of Buy the Numbers makes it a great edition to a game, particularly long-term campaigns. For DMs whom deal out XP slowly, this is a superb enhancement allowing characters not to get bored with their characters while they wait for the next level. It also allows for pure customization and does not bottleneck players and DMs into an everending culture of multi-classing.
<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: - simple formulas and written like a conversation and not a textbook<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: - would love to see updated suggestions with other material translated <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Buy the Numbers is a book about character creation from S. T. Cooley Publishing. The zipped file is 14.26 megabytes inside, containing two PDFs and two PNG images. The two images are full-color pictures of the front and back covers, with the former being just over 5.5 megabytes, and the latter being a little under 2.5. The two PDFs consist of the book itself, and a printer-friendly version thereof, and are respectively a little less than 7 meg, and just under one-half meg. Both PDFs have a table of contents, but only the main file has its table of contents with hyperlinks; it?s also the only one with bookmarks.

The main file is 64 pages long (the printer-friendly version is only 61). The table of contents and credits together are two pages, along with a one-page introduction, two pages for the OGL, a one-page afterword, and a page of ads. It has colored borders along the alternating sides of each page. A number of black-and-white pieces fill the book, supplementing the beautiful cover art (which, as noted, is a separate file).

Buy the Numbers is a book that gives an alternate method of character creation and advancement for d20 Fantasy characters. It does away with the concept of ?classes? and ?levels.? Instead, it assigns a cost to all aspects of a character ? feats, skill points, base attack bonus, etc. ? and these are bought by spending experience points on them. These purchases an be made at anytime, allowing characters to advance as they want, when they want.

The key here is that the cost of everything is calculated on a sliding scale. The first hit die you purchase will have a fixed cost, but the second one will be slightly more expensive than the first, and the third one will be more expensive still. By making sure that something becomes more expensive the more often you purchase it, game balance is maintained, as characters receive greater experience points later in the campaign.

Chapter one goes over these methods of character creation. It also covers several questions that arise from this system, such as how character level (e.g. for spell effects) is calculated, or how to buy attributes for first-level characters, who have no experience. It then lists the costs for statistics that every character has: hit dice, BAB, saves, feats, skills, attributes, and equipment proficiencies.

Chapter two covers the simple special abilities. These are class features that are always active, not having a ?per day? limit, or other mechanics tied to levels. As with everything else in the book, these are open to any character that can spend the requisite XP on them (though a few have prerequisite abilities that must be met also). The chapter also covers converting abilities from new classes in other products.

Chapter three is similar to chapter two, but covers the complex special abilities, which all have level-based effects and/or limits on their use. As in the previous chapter, there?s a section on converting class abilities from other products to this system.

Chapter four is devoted to spellcasting. Like other abilities, spellcasting is broken down into components and purchased separately; spells known, spells per day, etc. However, these are a little more tightly integrated. For example, access to a higher spell level necessitates having so many spells of the preceding spell level.

Appendix A covers other ways these rules can be used in your game. One such method is to make a character as normal, and then cherry-pick a few extra abilities by spending any leftover XP you might have. Other ways are to start with the character concept you want first, and then purchase the necessary abilities, and see how much it costs. You can even use the rules here to try and create prestige classes, putting certain abilities together and calculating the cost, then reverse-engineering them to levels.

Appendix B offers a breakdown of the eleven PHB classes using this system. Each is listed at every level, from one to twenty, with a listing of both the XP spent at that level, and in total, to purchase the class abilities at any given level.

Buy the Numbers is unquestionably a groundbreaking book. It effortlessly breaks the d20 system free from the shackles of classes and levels, allowing for near-total freedom in how characters advance. The brilliantly-done sliding scale for purchasing stats makes it so that characters never get out of hand, making this product as balanced as it is useful.

If the book has a flaw, it is in the reading. When the author of the book refers to his own work as ?dry? three times in the first paragraph, you know he?s probably not kidding. As this book relies quite heavily on number-crunching, it?s inevitable that it becomes slightly dull to read, despite attempts to alleviate this with examples. However, this is altogether a minor flaw ? while the book won?t ever be a supplement that?ll be read for pleasure, it still accomplishes what it set out to do ? make a class-less and level-less d20 ? perfectly. Players and GMs looking to make characters their own way would be well-served to Buy the Numbers. <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: This product artfully broke the d20 system down, making a sliding point-buy system for all mechanics. The elegance of this system can't be overstated.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The book is a fairly dry read, and requires a bit more math use than most products of a similar type.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

This really is a dry read. But it does what it says. Every class feature in the core rules is broken down into an experience point cost so you can buy what you want when you have enough. It even gives concrete rules for determining how much an ability not covered would cost, rather than just leaving it up to the DM. Even if you don't want that level of complexity in the game you could try using the system to design your own base classes and prestige classes.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Maximum flexibility.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: This is not a fun read.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

An excellent alternative way for Characters to progress in any D20 game. Also works for some non-D20 as well. A wonderful more fulfilling way to understanding your chacter.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Easy to read and understand. Quick implementation even with already created characters.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Very well thought out - a little dry, but that's because there is so much math.

Even if you don't plan on using this in your campaign, it can be very helpful in keeping Prestige Classes balanced when you create them. I'm actually planning on using it to create magic items that "grow" with the PCs<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: It appears to be very well researched and constructed.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: A little dry for reading. But then, so are Math Textbooks <shrug><br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

This is a very good attempt at breaking down the values of everything that goes into a d20 character and removing the 'levels' from the game.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

If you're like me, you've spent too much time trying to figure out which class would give you the best playing experience, or how to create the most effective character possible. In the process, I've often wished I could add just one or two abilities of another class to another. The current version of D&D allows that to some degree with relatively unlimited multiclassing, but one of the things the Dungeon Master's Guide really lacked was a point system for devising new base and prestige classes that are balanced. The Challenge Rating is a great tool for designing balanced encounters and treasure, but where is the information on the design of the classes themselves? Even the 2nd edition DMG had a rough point system for creating new classes, if I remember correctly.

Anyway, this book seems to provide what was missing -- a point system breakdown for the core classes and a decent way to estimate how to include abilities from any future classes (including your own). And one advantage of using this method is that progression is much smoother, including avoiding having "dead" levels where a character doesn't progress much even when s/he does gain a level.

There was a complaint in an earlier review about integration with existing campaigns or characters, but it doesn't seem that hard. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm pretty sure you can either start the whole point system from your existing level (there's a section which talks about how to do this), or if you'd like to keep the level system you could swap some abilities you don't want as much for some you do (forego your next base attack bonus increase for some more skill points or another feat, for example), or there's a section for converting characters based on their class and level. That's the beauty of the point system -- it's almost completely flexible!

Specifics about the publication:

The reverse engineering of the system is fairly good -- if you rebuilt the core classes according to this system (done in the publication as an example), most wouldn't take too much different XP totals to get the way they are than is listed as the XP progression in the Player's Handbook for levels 1-20. The Fighter, Barbarian, and Monk are the closest match, with the Druid and Cleric being consistently the furthest off and the sorcerer and wizard matching the progression the least.

What's really good about this is the breakdown of abilities: you can have different "appropriate" levels in level-dependent abilities for example, allowing for extreme customization. This system would allow a cleric to have 5 hit dice, turn undead at 7th level, cast cleric spells at 4th level, and get three domains and a spell slot for each level AND domain (maybe six slots, three first level and three second, one for each 1st and 2nd level domain spell in each of three domains).

There's also variation suggestions in the costs so the DM could discourage certain patterns, like those with high Constitution buying smaller hit dice because they have a large hp bonus.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Very straightforward and informative -- I didn't think it was that dry!<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: There are some game issues that must be dealth with -- how would you handle level drain from undead or resurrection, for example? How do you decide what abilities to reduce? It would be really helpful to have a section discussing the ramifications of using a "purchase abilities with XP" system. Do you drain something besides levels?

As noted in an earlier review, since many of the point costs work on a formula, it would help to have a "summary page" or two for quick reference.

To make really interesting characters, some approach to the XP costs of monster abilities would be cool!<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

An interesting alternative to the traditional way of creating characters. I liked the ideas presented, but am not sure whether I'll actually get any use out of them. I have a very traditional group.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

Very interesting concept - exactly the kind of thing I was looking for, actually. The only problem I have is that the wordy layout makes it a pain in the butt to root through to find the actual rules. A one or two page "Here's all the rules you need" bit at the end would be great for handing out to my players.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>