Setting Ability Scores

Ability scores are the long term defining traits of D&D, and they represent the physical, mental, and personality strengths and weaknesses of your character.

There are three ways described in the Player’s Handbook on how to assign ability scores, and a couple variants we can look at as well.

Standard Array

This is the go-to, level playing field, no supervision required, have it all done in advance option.
With point buy, a character begins with the following scores:15, 14, 13, 12, 10, and 8.
These scores can be placed wherever a player chooses.

Advantages

• It creates a level playing field where all players are starting with the same base numbers.
• Most race/class combinations will be able to achieve at least one +3 modifier.
• You really can’t cheat, since there’s no rolling involved, so players can have their character ready to go before they get to the game, and it’s easy to have back up characters ready to go.

Disadvantages

• It can feel limiting to some builds, particularly less intuitive ones, meaning that sub-optimal combinations will struggle, typically only achieving +2 to their top ability score.

Point Buy

This gives you the same power level and standard of fairness as standard scores, but allows a bit more versatility. All scores start at 8 and you have 27 points to spend. You can spend one point at a time to get an ability score up to 13, then 2 points to 14 and 15, which is the maximum.

Advantages

• Point buy gives a bit more versatility than standard. A player can sacrifice a bit more with some scores to gain a bit more with others.

Otherwise, it’s about the same as standard scores.

Disadvantages

• Overall, pretty much the same as standard scores. It’s weighted slightly more towards meta-gaming, but I don’t think that’s the point. However, someone who wants to go combat heavy can get 15 to three scores and 8 to the other three.

Rolling

Rolling is the classic way to obtain ability scores, and I’d have to say that it’s still the most popular as well. It is worth noting that for Adventurer’s League and sanctioned play, rolling is not allowed for character creation.

To obtain each score, roll 4 d6s, add up the highest three and mark it down. Repeat this until you have marked six scores, then allocate them as desired.

Advantages

• It’s the most fun during character creation.
• It also typically produces higher scores (on average) which means that players are free to spend more ability score increases on feats.
• Characters (IMHO) are a bit more interesting with abilities that set them apart more from the average person. Keep in mind that low scores are possible too.
• Players get to practice their math skills prior to their first game. It’s like a little warm up.

Disadvantages

• Since you’ll be dealing with higher scores and more feats in your game, expect more of a challenge to balance out encounters as a DM.

Roll Variant #1: Sequential Scores

This unofficial stat rolling rule has players roll their scores in order that they occur on the character sheet: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. Once all scores are rolled and assigned, the player may choose two of those scores to swap.

My Thoughts

• This variant actually introduces a bit more realism to character creation. After all, you don’t get to choose your genetics when you’re born, or decide to be more intelligent as you mature (though you can choose to be better educated and informed).
• It also helps keep metagaming in check a bit, since you have less control over scores.

Roll Variant #2: Reroll 1s

This is for the nice DM, who wants their players to like them, or who just doesn’t want their characters dying all the time.

It looks like this: Roll 4d6, reroll any 1s, and then add the top three.

My Thoughts

• This is actually my default table rule for rolling ability scores. I actually let players (most of the time) reroll ones indefinitely. This doesn’t mean that it’s always the best in every way; characters with weaknesses are, in many ways, more interesting, and if your players are planning to role play their weaknesses and their stats on a regular basis, then this rule is probably not a good one for you.

In Conclusion…

I’m sure that there’s a lot of other ways to roll or assign stats as well, but these are the ones that are official (top three) and (I think) most popular variants (bottom two).

If you’re new to D&D, standard scores are simple. They’re also a great choice if you want to avoid people being upset that someone else rolled better than them.

My personal thought is that every character should be able to start with at least one +3 modifier that’s relevant to their class. weaknesses are great to add depth to a character, but they should also have at least one strong point. No-one wants to play a barbarian who’s weaker than the wizard!

I don’t get worried when someone rolls really high for all of their abilities, but I do feel bad for someone who rolls low on all of theirs. I played with someone a couple years ago whose barbarian only had a score of 14 to STR and 12 to CON. It was the saddest barbarian I’ve ever seen. I have actually let players who roll poorly roll a seventh time and let them replace one of their low scores.  

The important thing is to pick a system that fits your campaign and play style. Be fair and remember: it’s a game.

So have fun!