5ePointBuy

About this calculator

This site exists to answer one narrow question well: what does a set of ability scores cost, and what do you get for the money. It is not a character builder, it does not want an account, and it has no opinion about how you should play.

Who builds this

One person builds and maintains it, and the byline at the foot of every page is that person rather than a house name. There is no editorial team, no panel of reviewers, and nothing here is credited to a title that does not correspond to somebody real.

Muhammad Farhan
Full-stack engineer passionate about building tools that simplify everyday workflows for developers and creators. LinkedIn

What it works out for you

The scope is deliberately small, because a tool that does one thing can be checked. Every figure the site prints is worked out from the rules by code that is tested against the printed tables, and the methodology page shows which book and page each one comes from.

  • Prices any set of six ability scores against the 27-point budget, and tells you when a spread is illegal instead of quietly clamping it.
  • Applies a 2014 species increase or a 2024 background increase on top of what you bought, including the species that let you choose where the bonus lands.
  • Suggests a starting array for each of the thirteen classes, and explains which consequence — Armour Class, a save DC, hit points — each one is buying.
  • Converts between the three character creation methods, so you can see what a rolled array would have cost or what the standard array buys.
  • Handles Pathfinder 1st Edition and house-ruled budgets, each with its own cost table rather than the 5e one with the numbers bent.

The scale of that is 84 species, 13 classes and one 27-point budget, which is small enough that every combination it offers is checked by the test suite before it ships.

What it deliberately does not do

The list below is not a roadmap. These are things the site will not do, and knowing that up front is more useful than discovering it after ten minutes.

  • It does not build characters. There is nothing here about spells, equipment, feats or levelling, and no sheet to save.
  • It does not store anything about you. No account, no profile, and no record of a build unless you choose to save one in your own browser.
  • It does not tell you the best build. It tells you what a choice costs and what it changes; which trade is worth making depends on your table.
  • It does not cover Pathfinder 2nd Edition, which builds scores from a sequence of boosts and has no budget to spend.
  • It does not reproduce rules text beyond what the open licence allows, so it explains and calculates rather than reprints.

Accessibility

The calculator is a table of numbers that changes as you use it, which is exactly the kind of interface that goes wrong for people not using a mouse and a screen. These are the specific things done about that, rather than a claim of compliance.

It works without JavaScript
Every page arrives as complete, readable HTML. With scripting off the calculator still shows a starting array, a full cost table and every explanation; what you lose is the ability to change the numbers, not the ability to read them.
Changes are announced, not just shown
When a total or a legality state changes, the new state is written to a live region so a screen reader says it. Colour is never the only signal that something is wrong.
Everything is reachable from the keyboard
Controls are real buttons and selects in a sensible tab order, with a skip link to the calculator. Number keys jump between abilities and plus and minus adjust the focused one.
Tables are marked up as tables
Row and column headers are declared, and every table has a caption saying what it shows, so a screen reader can read a single cell in context rather than as a loose number.
Text scales and the page does not shift
Zoom is not blocked, layout is relative rather than fixed, and wide tables scroll inside their own frame instead of pushing the page sideways. Nothing moves under you as the page finishes loading.
Abbreviations are expanded
STR, DEX and the rest carry their full names, so a screen reader can say "Strength" rather than spelling out three letters.

What is not claimed

What that does not amount to is a WCAG conformance claim: the site has not been through a formal audit, and it has not been tested against every combination of screen reader and browser. If something here is unusable for you, saying so is the fastest way to get it fixed — the contact page has the details.

How the site is built

It is a static site: plain HTML built ahead of time, with a small amount of JavaScript added afterwards to make the calculator interactive. There is no framework running in your browser and no font downloaded from anywhere. One third-party script does load, Google Analytics, and it is the only request any page makes to a domain that is not this one — the privacy page sets out exactly what it collects.