Inconsistent costs.

I am reading through the rules. First thing I notice is the non-standard race slap.

Seriously, 10BP/Level to play a non-standard race? Why even allow them? That arbitrary point cost is excessive, a kobold is so much weaker than a standard race why would anyone even THINK of playing one with a 10BP/level penalty?

The Suggested point caps seem off as well, if you're charging 1BP/100 GPV of items a level 20 game won't have any level 20 characters, the BPV of 880,000GP is 8800!! Suggested Point cap is 2480? Level 20 costs 2400, leaving 80BP, minus 15 points for stats. 65BP. Now if you take that as all magic items, that's only 6500 gp of gear. How can a 20th level fighter with 6500 GP of gear hope to stand up against a 20th level spell caster, even a naked one? Perhaps it should have been 1BP/1000GPV.

I love the concepts of this game, I just think some things are off. Off to read some more.

xaaon, i'm still looking into this...

There is also a big jump from a non-magical weapon (0 points), Masterwork weapon (4 points, +1 to hit), and +1 weapon (21 points, +1 to hit and damage). There is an argument to take a potion of Bull's strength (15 points, +1 to hit and damage) or even enlarge person (3 points, +1 to hit and damage, 5 foot reach).

In standard Pathfinder (and D&D in general) the +1 sword is a benchmark or coming of age event. If someone wishes to try their character or build out in an even footed setting, it skews the points away from the benefits.

I understand the flat cost of ability scores across the board using the points buy system, however, It penalizes the home grown character that gains the point in ability scores as they advance. The advance in abilities per 4 levels could be figured in the cost of the level.

These are Good Points and thanks for taking the time to add them to the forums.

The short answer is: How long it take to enact the effect has to be taken into consideration.

The better answer is: The thing that we found in testing and gaming is that time is important and has a significant value in actual game play. Therefore magic potions that provide combat bonus are of less valuable to having magic items that have combat bonus nativity because of the time it takes to create the effect.

For example a thief with a +1 weapon compared to a thief with a potion of bull's strength. The thief with the +1 weapon in the first round will have the opportunity to move +60 feet toward is opponent,hide and potentially get the drop on his opponent. Compared to the thief with the potion who spend that same round drawing and drinking the potion. As the combat proceeds, I have found the thief with the +1 weapon tends to win this fight most of the time due to that extra round of movement or a potential sneak attack. Of course the scale tips even more in the thief with the +1 weapon favor on time sensitive matches or races such as the mcguffin match.

Does that make sense?

It makes complete sense.

I'm just coming at the points costs from the experience of a long time Warhammer and 40k player where the points are all supposed to make sense from one item to another based on usefulness rather than a flat "tax".

A potion of enlarge person has more usefulness than a potion of endure elements in this arena but the points are exactly the same points.

There is also the desire to see how "Sir Barney, the Bad-Assed" will work out with his new feats and spiffy new items out of the dragon's hoard in combat. An "organic" pc has the disadvantage of skewing the points with inefficient items.

I'd imagine no one wanted to open the door on the enormous repertoire of items in the D&D books, and then try to rate their benefit individually. While also then denying the use of any of the items Paizo produces in later books.
 
On the other hand, a simple system could be crafted around the idea of an item's cost being directly related to the spell level of the powers within it, and nudged about by its number of uses.
 
And if that's not enough of a variance, an additional cost shift could be added based on the purpose of the power (damage, status effect, boost, protection, summon).