Stats are the key to everything in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dungeons & Dragons. They paint a quick portrait of your character’s personality, and they’re what you use alongsi🔯de the dice to determine if you can face whatever your Dungeon Mast🤡er throws at you.

However, since the point is to try and boil down the physical, mental, and emot𝓀ional capabilities of a character into six stats, they can be confusing for first-time players to understand what exactly each stat means for your character both in terms of personality and gameplay. It is impor𓄧tant to understand them though, since if you want to do anything reliably, you’ll need to choose your stats with care.

Updated October 30, 2024, by Sean Murray: Dungeons & Dragons continues to evolve, and thus we continue to refresh our previous guides to follow the most current rules. We've updated this guide with information on how to assign your ability scores and refreshed its formatting.

What Are Ability Scores In Dungeons & Dragons?

The six ability scores are the stats you determine when you create a character: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. While you can always roll high or roll low on a d20, these stats determine how, on average, your character interacts with the world.

Each stat has an ability modifier equal to: (stat-10)/2, rounded down. So, s🅺omeone with a Charisma score of 17 will havꦯe a modifier of +3. The modifier is added to ability checks that use that roll.

Stats will have a soft cap of 20, but 10 or 11 denotes the average, with a🍌nything below that being something your characte🐬r is bad at and anything above that being something you excel at.

How Do I Assign My Ability Scores?

Whether you’re rolling for stats, using a point buy system, or using the Standard Point Array, your best stat will be determined by your class, as each one has a💯t least one stat that it use🅠s frequently.

However, that’s not to say you should never base your stat choices on your character's personality. If y♒ou want to play a buff Wizard with a high Strength stat a🎃nd the Tavern Brawler feat who smacks people with chairs when you run out of spell slots, you should.

It’s just that if your Intelligence modifier is also negative, then you won’t be doing very well when it comes to combat or gameplay. There’s a very careful balance to strike that’s determined by your character, how difficult the campaign is, and how comfortable you are with the mechanics of DND 🌃5e.

Standard Array

Creating a character with a standard array means assigning one of six numbers to each of your six ability scores. Those numbers are: 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8.

You should assign the highest number (15) to your most important ability score (Intelligence for a wizard, Strength for a fighter, etc.). The second-highest number (14) should probably go towards Constitu🌃tion or Dexterity, and the rest should be distributed according to how you feel those scores would represent your cha꧒racter.

For example, a barbarian mℱig🍌ht assign their standard array like this:

Strength	Dexterity	Constitution	Intelligence	Wisdom	Charisma
15	13	14	8	12	10

Points Buy

Points buy (or point cost) character generation is somewhat more complicated. In this character creation regime, each ability score is worth a certain number of points, and you have 27 points to use to generate your ability scores.

The cost of an ability score starts at zero, which would provide you with an eight on that ability score. The highest number you can assign would be 15, which would cost nine points.

Here's a table with each ability score and how many points it costs to assign that score. Remember, you have 27 points✅ to use.

If we use the same barbarian example above, we could have a set of ability scores that looks like this. Remember, 15 in your ability score is worth nine points, so having three ability scores st💛art at 15 would use all 27 points.

Strength	Dexterity	Constitution	Intelligence	Wisdom	Charisma
15	15	15	8	8	8

Random Generation

Random generation is letting the dice decide. You roll four d6s and record the highest total of three of those dice. Then you do it again five more times to get your six ability scores, which you can then assign as you please.

Back when D&D was first created, random generation was the only way characters could create their starting ability sores. These days, random generation isn't particularly popular as it can result in some wildly underpowered or overpowered characters if you happen to get lu𒆙cky or unlucky with your dice rolls.

Strength

Strength is a very straightforward stat. It’s how physically strong your character is. It’s very importantꦍ for physical attackers using melee weapons, mainly Paladins, Fighters, Barbarians, and Rangers who use two-handed weapons.

The only skill that uses your Strength modifier is Athletics, which is useꦛd for checks that involve lots of running, jumping, climbing, basically anything you can imagine someone doing at a track and field meet.

However, while there are not a lot of associated skill♓s for Strength, you will probably end up using th🦄e modifier on its own a lot. Your DM might ask you to make a Strength check to lift a heavy door, or you’ll have to make a contested Strength check if you want to grapple an opponent.

Generally speaking though, if you don’t need Strength for your class, you shouldn’t invest in it, as there arꦕe other places wher𒁏e those stats will be better used.

Dexterity

Dexterity refers to how good your character is at moving and controlling their body, whether that be slipping their hand into someone’s pocket unnoticed, or skillfully knocking an arrow into a bow. The classes that excel at Dexterity aren’t ♐focused on raw pow🌟er; they’re focused on being very skilled.

Dex is a skill that everyone should invest in because it determines your Armor Class, making you harder to hit the higher it is. Furthermore, there are a lot of spells and traps that ൲require you to make Dex saves.

Armor class is deceptively named. If your Armor Class is vܫery high, it could be because you’re wearing armor, or it could be because you’re very good at dodging enemy attacks, hence adding your Dex modifier.

The skills that use your Dex modifier are Acrobatics, Sleight of Hand, and Stealth. The latter two are self-explanatory, but Acrobatics refers to situations that involve a lot of jumping or climbing,🔯 such as climbing a rope 🔯to the crow’s nest of a pirate ship.

If you’re not sure whether something should be an Athletics check or an Acrobatics check, the best rule of thumb is that if t♚here’s solid ground beneath you, it🍨’s Athletics, if there’s not, it’s Acrobatics.

Constitution

Constitution refers to general overall health and physical capability, whether that’s your hit points or how long you can do strenuous act🐎ivity without taking a𒁏 break. A penalty for failing a Constitution roll is frequently taking a level of exhaustion.

While there are no associated skills with Constitution, you’ll frequently be making Constitution checks to do things like resist being poisone🐟d, go long periods without sleep (assuming you need it), or eat week-old leftovers without ge꧋tting sick.

Constitution also determines how many hit points of damage you can take in a battle, and while barbarians and cl൩erics especiallꦛy want to have large HP pools, every class will benefit from having a decent Constitution score.

Intelligence

Intelligence is, simply, book smarts. If it involves something you learn by sitting in a library for long amounts of time and reading books, it will use Intelligence.

In terms of investigation checks, that’s specifically knowing details about the th♛ing you’re looking at.

You’re not going to have a flat intelligence check often, though i🧜t may come up in a situation where you have to solve a riddle and if your intelligence is high enough, your DM may give you a hint. It also comes up with certain spells.

Wizards use Intelligence to determine their spell-casting modifier, setting it as the saving 💙throw DCs for their spells and adding the modifier to any spell that calls for it.

Like Strength, if you’re not using a build that specifically needs it, you can use those points elsewhere.

Wisdom

Wisdom can overlap with Intelligence, but the main delineating factor is that Wisdom refers to practical knowledge, something you’🔯re more likely to learn by going out and doing things rather than simply reading about them. You can know a lot about different plants, but that doesn’t prepare you for being dumped into a fores♔t with no supplies.

Medicine is the one that’s weird in this dichotomy, but a good way to think about it is it’s not about medical knowledge, it’s the practical field knowledge🌊 of how to treat someone outside a hospital setting, like knowing how to make𒁃 a tourniquet out of cloth on hand.

Characters with high Wisdom tend to translate to being very empathetic and understanding what other creatures are feeling or better at picking up on hidden intentions. It also determines your Passi💜ve Perception, which is your ability to notice hidden traps or people sneaking around without specifically looking for them.

While Wisdom is the spellcasting modifier for clerics, druids, and rangers, and plays a key role in most monk abilities, pretty much every class benefits from trying to have it be decent. It’s a common saving throw for spells and Pa🔯ssive Perception really com🍷es in handy.

Charisma

The archetypical example of a high Charisma character is Wesley from The Princess Bride or Aladdin; a kind of swashbucklinℱg character who’s always cool and confident, with the right𝓀 quip at the right time.

That’s not exactly the case, however, as Charisma means more force of personality. Confideꦺnce plays a big role✤, but it’s not the same.

You could just be someone who’s genuinely nice, or someone who makes a lot of puns, or someone who’s really, really good-looking. The important thing is that, for whatever reason, people tend to like you.

Charisma comes up the most when interacting with other NPCs. While Deception, Persuasion, and Int♎imid💧ation will cover most interactions you have to roll for, you can also do a flat Charisma check for flirting. Because of that, Charisma is a good general use stat.

Don’t worry if you want to play a high Charisma character but you yourself don’t feel very confident or charming, as all that matters is the dice roll.

You can come up with a dumb lie like, “He’s not here because he’s dropping something off at the grocery store,” and if you succeed in the Deception check everyone will just roll with it. It’s a lot of fun too!

Charisma is used as a spellcasting stat for Sorcerers, Bards, and Warlocks and used to resist cert🐎ain spells like Cಌharm Person.