Ability Scores

Scores and Ratings

The rules will often refer to Scores and Ratings, which are related mechanics but worth distinguishing. A Score is a numeric rating that every character has. It has two primary functions:

1. The Score is often added to die rolls to determine the outcome of events, such as attack rolls, defense rolls, and skill checks.
2. The Score is sometimes added to 10 to determine a Rating, which is frequently the target number for the rolls mentioned above.

This is the distinction between a Score and a Rating. For exampple:

• A creature with an Attack Score 4 would have an Attack Rating of 14.
• A character with a Defense Score of 6 would roll 1d20 + 6 to defend against attacks. Rolling a 14 or higher would defend against the attack roll above.

• A creature with a Defense Score of 6 would have a Defense Rating of 16.
• A Character with an Attack Score of 4 would roll 1d20 + 4 to make attacks. Rolling 16 or higher would successfully hit the defense above.

Primary Ability Scores

There are four primary scores describing characters: might, agility, wits, and resolve.

Might

Might describes how physical strong a character is, as well as how much physical damage a character can withstand. Things affected by Might include:

• Carrying capacity: how much the character can carry before being burdened
• Health: how much damage the character can withstand before suffering wounds
• Life: how much damage the character can withstand before dying
• Mighty damage: how much extra damage the character does with Mighty weapons such as great swords or clubs
• Might saves: Might saves include things like resisting poison, fatigue, and disease
• Might skills: Might skills include things like running, climbing, feats of strength, and threats of violence

Agility

Agility describes how physically coordinated a character is. Things affected by Agility include:

• Defense: how easily a character can dodge damage
• Initiative: how quickly a character can react to danger
• Agile damage: how much extra damage the character does with Agile weapons such as daggers or bows
• Agility saves: Agility saves include things like avoiding a fall, ducking behind cover, and dodging an explosion
• Agility skills: Agility skills include things like sneaking, lockpicking, acrobatics, and picking pockets

Wits

Wits describes how quick-thinking a character is. **This is not the same as intelligence**. Players are encouraged to play a character as intelligently as they wish. Wits specifically refers to speed of thought. Things affected by Wits include:

• Skill Feats: how many bonus Feat points a character receives for use on Skills
• Initiative: how quickly a character can react to danger
• Energy: how much magical energy a character has to cast spells
• Wits saves: Wits saves include things like noticing illusions, resisting confusion, and psychic attacks
• Wits skills: Wits skills include things like gleaning motivations, recalling facts, feats of logic, and deception

Resolve

Resolve describes how much willpower a character has. Things affected by Resolve include:

• Life: how much damage the character can withstand before dying
• Energy: how much magical energy a character has to cast spells
• Resolve saves: Resolve saves include things like resisting charm, sleep, and fear
• Resolve skills: Resolve skills include things like intimidation, performance, inspiring morale, and composure

Generation Methods

Any score generation method approved by the group is allowed. The minimum primary score should be 1 and the maximum primary score should be 18. The two most common methods are rolling dice and point buying.

Rolling Dice

For heroic games it is recommended to roll 4d6 and sum the highest three numbers. Repeat this for each primary score and assign the numbers to the scores as desired.

Point Buy

Another option is to start every score at 0, and then choose which scores to raise and by how much by spending "points" to increase scores. The point cost of each Score is the value of the Score, as shown in table 1. A heroic campaign should supply 72 points to buy primary Scores.

Table 1: Primary Score Modifiers and Point Costs

Score	Points	Total Points
0	0	0
1	1	1
2	2	3
3	3	6
4	4	10
5	5	15
6	6	21
7	7	28
8	8	36

Standard Builds

This is the same as point buy but provides common patterns for players who don't enjoy arithmetic.

• The Min/Maxer: 8, 8, 0, 0. Getting two scores as high as possible results in two very weak scores.
• The Dump Stat: 8, 6, 5, 0. A single weak score can launch another score to the very top.
• The Specialist: 8, 5, 4, 4. For those who want a single strong score, but no weak scores.
• The Generalist: 6, 6, 5, 5. For those who prefer to spread their bonuses around evenly, without any particularly great scores.

Secondary Ability Scores

Secondary scores are derived, at least in part, from primary scores. There are four secondary scores: defense, health, life, and energy.

Defense

The Defense score describes how hard a character is to hit with weapons and other skillfully directed sources of harm. Defense is calculated with the following formula:

Defense = Armor Class + Combat Proficiency + Agility Score - Size Modifier

The typical range of this score is between -18 (a clumsy and unskilled giant with no armor or shield) and +18 (a tiny, expert warrior with heavy, enchanted armor and shield).

More at Defense Score.

Attack

The Attack Score describes how easily a character can hit other creatures with skillfully directed sources of harm. Attack has two sub-scores: Mighty Attack and Agile Attack, depending on the nature of the attack that is to be used. These are calculated with the following formulas:

Might Attack = Combat Proficiency + Might Score - Size Modifier
Agile Attack = Combat Proficiency + Agility Score - Size Modifier

The typical range of this score is between -14 (a weak or clumsy gargantuan unskilled combatant) and +14 (a mighty or agile tiny veteran warrior).

More at Attack Score.

Health

Health reflects superficial harm that a character can take before wounds become life-threatening. Loss of Health does not represent serious injury. Rather, it describes scrapes, bruises, and being knocked around in a way that might temporarily impair a character when added up. When Health reaches zero, further damage is applied to Life instead (see more under Life, below).

Health is calculated by the following formula:

Health = (Level + 1) * (Class Health + Might Score) * Size Multiplier

More at Health, Life, Damage, and Dying

Life

Life reflects how much serious trauma a character can take before they die. Each time Life is lost is a potentially deadly event, but if Life ever reaches 0, the character dies without magical intervention.

Life is calculated using the following formula:

Life = (10 + Might Score + Resolve Score) * Size Multiplier

More at Health, Life, Damage, and Dying