Ability Scores
While playing D&D, there are six main scores that are what your character relies on.
Strength measures your natural athleticism and bodily power. Higher strength means higher damage. Great for Barbarians, Fighters, and Paladins.
Dexterity measures your physical agility, reflexs, balance, and poise. You use dexterity to hit with ranged attacks. Great for Monk, Ranger, and Rogue.
Constitution measures your health, stamina, and vital force. This scores directly impacts your hit points in the games. Having a higher value helps a lot. Every class needs this one.
Intelligence measures your mental acuity, information recall, and analytical skills. Intelligence comes into play for logic, education, memory, or even deductive reasoning of your character. Great for the Wizard.
Wisdom measures your awareness, intuition, and insight. You can read body language, notice the finer details that your party missed, or even understand an animal enough to calm it. Great for Clerics and Druids.
Charisma measures your confidence, eloquence, and leadership. This can range from influencing people through friendly neogotation to intimadating them to the point they do whatever you want them to. Great for Bards, Sorcerers, and Warlocks.
Now to break up this seriousness a bit. Here is another way to explain them, by using tomatoes:
- Strength is being able to crush a tomato.
- Dexterity is being able to dodge a tomato.
- Constitution is being able to eat a bad tomato.
- Intelligence is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
- Wisdom is knowing not to put a tomato in a fruit salad.
- Charisma is being able to sell a tomato based fruit salad.
Set Score Method
The standard array is the easiest and shortest method to use when generating your ability scores. No dice are needed for this method. You are given six scores to put wherever you choose. These scores are: 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, and 8. You might be wondering, “Where do these numbers come from?” Well, you can get these numbers from the point-buy method, which I will be showing you next. This just sets out an immediate array for you. A great option for a beginner, or even someone experienced trying to build a quick character.
Point-Buy Method
The point-buy method is another method that does not require dice. The dungeon master, or game master, gives the player an allotment of points to spend on their stats. Usually the number of points depends on how hard the game is supposed to be. Typically, the stats run from 8 through 15, increasing in cost as you go. However, there are many different variations that can be used at the dungeon master’s discretion. Like changing the base stat or raising the max stat.
I will go through the process with you on how to use your points and set your stats. Let us use the average amount of points usually given for this, so 27. I have supplied a table for you to use as well.
| Score | Cost | Score | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | 0 | 12 | 4 |
| 9 | 1 | 13 | 5 |
| 10 | 2 | 14 | 7 |
| 11 | 3 | 15 |
9 |
For example, a score of 11 cost 3 points of the 27. Meaning you only have 24 left to spend. So a set of scores could be somthing like, 14, 14, 14, 10, 10, 10. This allows you to have a slightly balanced character.
Rolling Method
Now we get to roll some dice. This method is the longest and most chaotic. You could get very lucky with your rolls and get several high numbers. Or it could be the very opposite. However, even with that possibility, this is my favorite way to generate ability scores. There are a variety of ways to do this method, but I will cover the most popular: 4d6 drop the lowest.
To get started, you will need a six-sided die, paper, and a pen or pencil. If you have multiple d6, this will go much faster. After you have those items ready, you’re good to go. The process is simple. Roll the d6 four times and record each number that you roll, if you have multiple dice then a total of four dice rolled. Take the lowest number and scratch it out. Add up the other numbers, and BAM! That’s one of your ability scores. You need a total of six scores.
Once you have all of that done, it is time to assign the scores.