Ability scores, and how they should be played.

MrManNo1 · Post by **MrManNo1** » Fri Mar 12, 2004 2:41 pm

Ok. I will attempt to write an explanation, in layman's terms, how to use each ability when RPing. I noticed that there has been some confusion over some different abilities. Feel free to add anything if you think there's more to it than what I have here. 
 
Strength: 
Your character's physical strength. It determines how much they can carry, how hard they hit, and overall, the size of their muscles. 
Now, just because you have a high strength, don't get it mixed up with constitution. Strength doesn't show your body's weaknesses, or your ability to take hits. It determines the ability to dish out melee damage. 
Therefore, a weak character can still be very resistant to poisons, and be able to take a brutal beating if they have a high Con. 
 
Dexterity: 
Your character's nimbleness and hand-eye coordination. This determines how agile, NOT how fast, you are. Speed is a class issue, not an ability score issue (Hence the fast walk that monks/barbarians have). You can be a slow runner, but still be able to move out the way of an arrow easily. 
It has nothing to do with anything in the way of physical or melee blows. It controls ranged attacks because a high dexterity character will have a steady hand. It controls AC because the character can nimbly dodge attacks, be they ranged or melee. 
If you notice, you need a high dexterity (15) to be ambidextrous. This is because you have a greater portion of your mind devoted to your motor skills, allowing you to be able to correctly wield two weapons. 
 
Constitution: 
Your character's resilience. This determines how well your character can resist pains, poisons, and is more like the body's willpower. 
A highly constituted character will be able to take more hits (Higher HP), and will have a higher fortitude save. This allows the character to go on after taking a brutal beating. 
As I said under strength, do not mix up strength and constitution. A character can be able to dish out the damage (High strength), but be unable to take it (Low constitution), or vise versa. 
 
Intelligence: 
This is your character's logical reasoning. Their ability to interpret information. NOT their booksmarts, or their knowledge. 
Intelligence, since it is a more obscure trait, does not necessarily define the character's actual knowledge. A highly intelligent character may not have gotten the education he needs/deserves, and therefore not have much knowledge. On the other hand, an unintelligent character can spend years of his life studying, and get a knowledge of things, even if he doesn't pick it up as fast. 
I am not sure, but I believe it is also the ability to retain knowledge. 
 
Wisdom: 
This is your character's intuition and instinct. This is a more "natural knowledge", as Innuvindyl put it. You are either born with wisdom, or born without it. It is not something that you can technically improve (Although it would be unfair for certain things to improve and not wisdom). 
A wise character can intuitively understand motives and feelings of other characters, and has an easier time doing some more animalistic things, such as spotting a hidden object, or hearing a creature sneaking up on you. 
Remember, if you want to make a theif character, you should probably invest a few points into wisdom. A lot of things that stealth-focused characters do is based on wisdom, just like a paladin and cleric are focused on wisdom. 
 
Charisma: 
Your character's people skills. This is the ability of your character to communicate with, manipulate, and lead people. This has nothing to do with personal beauty, although a charismatic character will have better personal heigiene than a uncharismatic character. 
This displays your ability to make people like or dislike you. Be wary of some charasmatic characters. If you want a conniving, evil character, you may want to put some points into charisma. You would want your character to be able to trick people into thinking they're a good person. 
 
 
If anyone has anything to add or correct, don't be afraid to post it. Hopefully, AG will see this and sticky it, or move it to a more appropriate topic. If you have any more questions, ask me here or in game, and I'll try to answer them for you.

Jiian · Post by **Jiian** » Sat Mar 13, 2004 3:52 am

On the improvement of wisdom: 
 
I believe this would be a trait that can be improved as one can focus on understanding things intuitively, and such. Some people have highly developed hunches about things. These are understood intuitively and generally take much reasoning to come to the same conclusion. Think of it as the man who walks in and senses something is wrong, though he doesn't necessarily know what it is. Some monks develop their senses on a basic level, also a wisdom thing.

Amirsyl · Post by **Amirsyl** » Sat Mar 13, 2004 5:01 am

I think you are right Jiian. In addition to that, I think of wisdom as common sense versus intelligence in some ways. 
 
All the above things are good to keep in mind as well. But in addition, common sense is something beyond book smarts. Being wise enough to make rational and insightful decisions in itself seems to go hand in hand with having good common sense. Just my two cents. 
 
Here is a link to the CHA discussion as well. I personally found this extremely helpful for my RP... 
 
<a href="http://pub188.ezboard.com/fthevastfrm2.showMessage?topicID=178.topic" target="top">CHA Topic</a>

-Amir 
 
~ Thus were the Elves born from the blood of Corellon Larethian, mixed with the soil of the world, blessed with the tears of the moon, and given their nearness to divinity. ~

Innuvindyl · Post by **Innuvindyl** » Sun Mar 28, 2004 5:36 pm

I think this is generally a good overview of the ability scores, and I think it should maybe be linked to, from the RP sources forum...

The Vast

Ability scores, and how they should be played.

Ability scores, and how they should be played.

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