Abilities and Skills
Six abilities describe your hero's natural talents:
- Strength: raw physical power
- Dexterity: speed, agility, and balance
- Constitution: health and toughness
- Intelligence: learning, memory, and logic
- Wisdom: awareness, insight, and judgment
- Charisma: force of personality and charm
Ability Scores and Modifiers
Scores of 10-11 are average for a commoner. Heroes usually start with 8-16 in each ability.
Your ability modifier is what you add to rolls:
Modifier = (score - 10) ÷ 2, round down.
| Score | Modifier |
|---|---|
| 8-9 | -1 |
| 10-11 | +0 |
| 12-13 | +1 |
| 14-15 | +2 |
| 16-17 | +3 |
Add your ability modifier to attack rolls, saving throws, and ability checks.
Skills
Skills are specialized uses of an ability. For example:
- Stealth (Dexterity): move quietly
- Persuasion (Charisma): convince others
- Perception (Wisdom): notice details
- Athletics (Strength): climb, jump, swim
If you are proficient in a skill, add your proficiency bonus to checks using that skill.
Example: You have Dexterity 14 (+2) and proficiency in Stealth (+2 at level 1). Your Stealth check is 1d20+4.
Next: Learn Combat Basics to understand how to use these abilities in a fight.
- name Abilities and Skills
- type intro