We're going to Rome, Venice, Innsbruck, Reutte, Luzern, and Paris. In that order. (That's four countries, however there may be crossovers into Germany going from Reutte to Luzern.)

I used railsaver.com to look up my itinerary. It said about USD 194 for point-to-point. When I tried to buy the tickets, the total price came out to be more than USD 400. Should I purchase a rail pass? Which way will be cheapest?

Thanks...

Try railsaver again and be sure to click "only if it saves me money" and it will tell you whether a pass is worthwile. Have you looked at the budget airlines for your longer connections? www.whichbudget.com

Yeah that's what I did. Like it tells me that I shouldn't buy a pass, but as soon as you try and purchase the "44 USD fare" for example, it turns into a "123 USD fare."

It would be cheaper to buy your tickets at the train station starting in Rome (at the Termini, I presume). I've never had a problem with this. I always write the itinerary on a piece of paper or index card and give it to the ticket agent so there are no problems with communication.

Was the $400 total for booking through RailEurope? If you know your travel dates, the cheapest way is to book point-to-point tickets in advance online at national rail sites. (For example, Rome-Venice can be as low as E29 on the Eurostar Italia and E15 on an InterCity train booked on www.trenitalia.com.) The next cheapest is to book point-to-point tickets as you go in Europe. For convenient "one-stop shopping," you could go with a railpass, but it may be your most expensive option. The only way to know for sure is to visit the national rail sites for the countries in which each of your trips start and total the prices, both standard tickets and discount tickets (where available).

My suggestion is even more expensive but has other benefits. Eurail sells a "Eurailpass Flexi Saver" valid for 10 days in a 2 month period for two people traveling together for $608 each. That will give you a little elbo room in your travels and eliminate the worries over buying tickets.

To save money consider using night trains and paying the supplement for a bunk. That is cheaper than a hotel room and it will save you a day of travel.

IMO, a better pass for sanssouci's routes would be the Saver Select Pass (two or more people traveling together) for five days in two months:
3 adjoining countries - $325/person
4 adjoining countries - $363/person
5 adjoining countries - $400/person

It's possible to add more days for any of the above.