ROLLING YOUR ABILITY SCORES
ROLLING YOUR
ABILITY SCORES Your character’s ability scores provide a roadmap indicating what types of adventuring classes your character is suited for, and what classes you may want to avoid. The game allows you to choose any class you wish for your character regardless of the value of your ability scores. However, setting up your ability scores to match your goals helps your character survive and thrive in a world of danger and adventure.
ABILITY SCORES _________AND BELL CURVES Within D&D, the average human being is assumed to have a value of 10.5 in each score. The normal human range is from 3 to 18, and the average score is related to the roll of three sixsided dice (3d6). In prior versions of D&D, 3d6 was the standard way to create ability scores for player characters. Due to the way that probability is expressed by three tumbling dice, the chances of getting a score close to the average are better than the chance to get a score near either of the two extremes. This probability sequence is known as a bell curve because if you plot the various chances for various totals, the resulting shape
looks like a church bell. In case you were curious, the odds of rolling an 18 on 3d6 are about 1 in 200 rolls (about .5%). On average, only 3% of all characters created using this system should have an 18 in any ability score. Over many years, it became common practice with many groups to change the basic system to create characters that were slightly better than average. After all, these characters are heroes! After watching that practice develop and become fairly widespread, we decided to embrace it with this edition of the rules. You will roll 4d6 and keep the best three results. This has the effect of raising the average total to 11.5. This doesn’t seem like a huge increase, but due to the way the math of probabilities expresses itself, it tends to create characters with one or two abilities that are substantially higher than average, and few if any that are lower. In short, it tends to shift and flat ten the bell curve slightly in your favor, making your character far more likely to be exceptional than average. The odds of getting an 18 using this system are much better—about 3 times better than using the 3d6 system, in fact. About 9% of all characters should have an 18 as an ability score before they apply racial modifiers. Under the 4d6 system, your odds of getting a 15, 16, or 17 are substantially better as well. And your odds of getting a 3, 4, or 5 are commensurately reduced.
Each character has something extra – something beyond the norm.
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