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Abilities

The six ability scores every character has: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma.

Ability scores come from character creation, then change with race (adjustments per race), level-up increases, items and effects.

The ability modifier

The score itself is almost never used. The modifier is.

modifier = (score - 10) / 2, rounded down

+1 for every 2 points above 10, and -1 for every 2 points below 11:

Score6-78-910-1112-1314-1516-1718-1920-2130-3140-41
Modifier-2-1+0+1+2+3+4+5+10+15

That number is what is added to attack rolls, saving throws, skill checks and damage, what sets a spell's save DC, and what decides how many bonus spell slots a caster gets. Which ability goes on an attack roll depends on the weapon you are holding - the attack bonus page sets that out in full.

A modifier cannot be changed on its own. Nothing raises a modifier; things raise the score, and the modifier follows. An odd score is therefore worth nothing over the even one below it - 17 and 16 are both +3 - which is the single most useful thing to know when you are spending points.

On your character sheet a modifier is green when magic has raised it, red when magic has lowered it, and white when neither. Dexterity is the exception: it is shown after your armour's maximum dexterity bonus has been applied, so heavy armour can print it in red with nothing hostile on you at all.

How high a score can go

Magic can add at most +12 to an ability score, and that is a hard ceiling. It covers everything that is not character creation or a level-up increase: items, spells, potions, bardsong. A +12 score bonus is therefore +6 of modifier, and the thirteenth point from an item does nothing at all.

Two consequences worth holding on to:

  • A penalty lowers the ceiling with it. If a spell has taken 2 points off your Strength, gear can only carry you +10 back up, not +12.
  • Ability bonuses of the same kind do not stack. The largest one applies and the rest are wasted, so a second +6 ring is worth nothing beside the first.

Ranks you buy at level up are not a bonus and are not capped by any of this. Racial modifiers are not counted against it either, though most subrace modifiers are.

Caps and limits collects this ceiling with every other one in the game.

See also