The Study of Physical and Mental Abilities

Each character has six abilities that represent their character’s most basic attributes. These six abilities are divided equally between physical and mental abilities. The physical abilities are Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution; the mental abilities are Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma.

While a character rarely rolls a check using just an ability score, these scores, and the modifiers they create, affect nearly every aspect of a character’s skills and abilities. Each ability score generally ranges from 3 to 18, although racial bonuses and penalties can alter this; an average ability score is 10.

Generating Ability Scores

Roll 3d6 and add the dice together. Record this total and repeat the process until you generate six numbers. Assign these results to your ability scores as you see fit, adjusting for any applicable racial modifiers. This method is quite random, and some characters will have clearly superior abilities.

This randomness can be taken one step further, with the totals applied to specific ability scores in the order they are rolled. Characters generated using this method are difficult to fit to predetermined concepts, and instead are best designed around their ability scores.

Other generations methods may be used at the MC’s discretion (4d6, drop the lowest, a point-buy system, etc.), so long as they are used consistently and equally for all players within a game.

ABILITY MODIFIERS

Each ability, after changes made because of race, has a modifier ranging from –5 to +5. Table: Ability Modifiers shows the modifier for each score.

The modifier is the number you apply to the die roll when your character tries to do something related to that ability. You also use the modifier with some numbers that aren’t die rolls. A positive modifier is called a bonus, and a negative modifier is called a penalty.

ABILITIES AND SPELL-CASTERS

The ability that governs spells depends on what type of spells your character casts: Intelligence for Arcane Magic (ie. wizard spells), and Wisdom for Divine Magic (i.e. priest spells). In addition to having a high ability score, a spell-caster must be of high enough level to be able to master the School or Sphere Spell Discipline level of a given spell.