Ability Scores
Primary Ability Scores
There are four primary ability scores describing characters: Might, Agility, Wits, and Resolve. They typically range between +0 and +8.
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 ability score generation method approved by the group is allowed. Some guidelines:
- The minimum primary score should be 0, reflecting extremely weak, clumsy, obtuse, or halfhearted traits.
- The maximum primary score should be 8, reflecting extremely strong, nimble, sharp, or willful traits.
- The score for typical individuals is 4.
The two most common methods are rolling dice and point buying.
Rolling Dice
For heroic games it is recommended to roll 2d4 and sum the result. Repeat this for each primary ability score and assign the numbers to the abilities as desired.
Point Buy
Another option is to start every ability 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 shown in table 1. A heroic campaign should supply 72 points to buy primary ability scores.
| 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: Getting two scores as high as possible results in two weak scores.
- 8, 8, 0, 0
- 8, 7, 3, 0
- 8, 7, 2, 2
- 8, 6, 3, 3
- The Dump Stat: A single weak score can launch other scores well above average.
- 8, 6, 5, 0
- 8, 5, 5, 3
- 8, 6, 4, 2
- 7, 7, 4, 3
- 7, 7, 5, 0
- 7, 6, 6, 1
- 7, 6, 5, 3
- The Specialist: For those who want a single strong score, but no weak scores.
- 8, 5, 4, 4
- 7, 6, 4, 4
- 7, 5, 5, 4
- The Generalist: For those who prefer to spread their bonuses around evenly, without any particularly great scores.
- 6, 6, 5, 5
Secondary Ability Scores
Secondary scores are derived, at least in part, from primary abilities. There are four secondary scores: Defense, Health, Life, and Energy.
Guard
Guard describes how hard a character is to hit with weapons and other skillfully directed sources of harm. Guard is calculated with the following formula:
Guard = Armor Class + Combat Proficiency + Effective Agility - Size Modifier
The typical range of this score is between -8 (an enormous, clumsy creature without training or armor) and +28 (a tiny, expert warrior with heavy, enchanted armor and shield).
More at Defending.
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) * Size Multiplier
More at Harm and Death
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 + Resolve) * Size Multiplier
More at Harm and Death
