Chapter 1 - Player Character Ability Scores

To venture into the worlds of the AD&D game, you first need to create a character. The character you create is your alter ego in the fantasy realms of this game, a make-believe person who is under your control and through whom you vicariously explore the world the Dungeon Master (DM) has created.

Each character in the AD&D game has six abilities: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. The first three abilities represent the physical nature of the character, while the second three quantify his mental and personality traits.

In various places throughout these rules, the following abbreviations are used for the ability names:

Strength - Str; Dexterity—Dex; Constitution—Con; Intelligence—Int; Wisdom—Wis; Charisma—Cha.

Rolling Ability Scores

Let’s first see how to generate ability scores for your character, after which definitions of each ability will be given.

The six ability scores are determined randomly by rolling six sided dice to obtain a score from 3 to 18. There are several methods for rolling up these scores.

Method I: Roll three six-sided dice (3d6); the total shown on the dice is your character’s Strength ability score. Repeat this for Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma, in that order. This method gives a range of scores from 3 to 18, with most results in the 9 to 12 range. Only a few characters have high scores (15 and above), so you should treasure these characters.

Alternative Dice-Rolling Methods

Method I creates characters whose ability scores are usually between 9 and 12. If you would rather play a character of truly heroic proportions, ask your DM if he allows players to use optional methods for rolling up characters. These optional methods are designed to produce above-average characters.

Method II: Roll 3d6 twice, noting the total of each roll. Use whichever result you prefer for your character's Strength score. Repeat this for Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. This allows you to pick the best score from each pair, generally ensuring that your character does not have any really low ability scores (but low ability scores are not all that bad any way!).

Method III: Roll 3d6 six times and jot down the total for each roll. Assign the scores to your character's six abilities however you want. This gives you the chance to custom-tailor your character, although you are not guaranteed high scores.

Method IV: Roll 3d6 twelve times and jot down all twelve totals. Choose six of these rolls (generally the six best rolls) and assign them to your character's abilities however you want. This combines the best of methods II and III, but takes somewhat longer.

As an example, Joan rolls 3d6 twelve times and gets results of 12, 5, 6, 8, 10, 15, 9, 12, 6, 11, 10, and 7. She chooses the six best rolls (15, 12, 12, 11, 10, and 10) and then assigns them to her character's abilities so as to create the strengths and weaknesses that she wants her character to have (see the ability descriptions following this section for explanations of the abilities).

Method V: Roll four six-sided dice (4d6). Discard the lowest die and total the remaining three. Repeat this five more times, then assign the six numbers to the character's abilities however you want. This is a fast method that gives you a good character, but you can still get low scores (after all, you could roll 1s on all four dice!).

Method VI: This method can be used if you want to create a specific type of character. It does not guarantee that you will get the character you want, but it will improve your chances. Each ability starts with a score of 8. Then roll seven dice. These dice can be added to your character's abilities as you wish. All the points on a die must be added to the same ability score. For example, if a 6 is rolled on one die, all 6 points must be assigned to one ability. You can add as many dice as you want to any ability, but no ability score can exceed 18 points. If you cannot make an 18 by exact count on the dice, you cannot have an 18 score.

The Ability Scores

The six character abilities are described below. Each description gives an idea of what that ability encompasses. Specific game effects are also given. At the end of each ability description is the table giving all modifiers and game information for each ability score. The blue-shaded ability scores can be obtained only by extraordinary means, whether by good fortune (finding a magical book that raises a score) or ill fortune (an attack by a creature that lowers a score).

Strength

Strength (Str) measures a character's muscle, endurance, and stamina. This ability is the prime requisite of warriors because they must be physically powerful in order to wear armor and wield heavy weapons. A fighter with a score of 16 or more in Strength gains a 10% bonus to the experience points he earns.

Furthermore, any warrior with a Strength score of 18 is entitled to roll percentile dice (see Glossary) to determine exceptional Strength; exceptional Strength improves the character's chance to hit an enemy, increases the damage he causes with each hit, increases the weight the character is able to carry without a penalty for encumbrance (see below), and increases the character's ability to force open doors and similar portals.

The rest of this section on Strength consists of explanations of the columns in Table 1. Refer to the table as you read.

Hit Probability adjustments are added to or subtracted from the attack roll rolled on 1d20 (one 20-sided die) during combat. A bonus (positive number) makes the opponent easier to hit; a penalty (negative number) makes him harder to hit.

Damage Adjustment also applies to combat. The listed number is added to or subtracted from the dice rolled to determine the damage caused by an attack (regardless of subtractions, a successful attack roll can never cause less than 1 point of damage). For example, a short sword normally causes 1d6 points of damage (a range of 1 to 6). An attacker with Strength 17 causes one extra point of damage, for a range of 2 to 7 points of damage. The damage adjustment also applies to missile weapons, although bows must be specially made to gain the bonus; crossbows never benefit from the user's Strength.

Weight Allowance is the weight (in pounds) a character can carry without being encumbered (encumbrance measures how a character's possessions hamper his movement—see Glossary). These weights are expressed in pounds. A character carrying up to the listed weight can move his full movement rate.

Maximum Press is the heaviest weight a character can pick up and lift over his head. A character cannot walk more than a few steps this way. No human or humanoid creature without exceptional Strength can lift more than twice his body weight over his head. In 1987, the world record for lifting a weight overhead in a single move was 465 pounds. A heroic fighter with Strength 18/00 (see Table 1) can lift up to 480 pounds the same way and he can hold it overhead for a longer time!

Open Doors indicates the character's chance to force open a heavy or stuck door. When a character tries to force a door open, roll 1d20. If the result is equal to or less than the listed number, the door opens. A character can keep trying to open a door until it finally opens, but each attempt takes time (exactly how much is up to the DM) and makes a lot of noise.

Numbers in parentheses are the chances (on 1d20) to open a locked, barred, or magically held door, but only one attempt per door can ever be made. If it fails, no further attempts by that character can succeed.

Bend Bars/Lift Gates states the character's percentage chance (rolled on percentile dice) to bend normal, soft iron bars, lift a vertical gate (portcullis), or perform a similar feat of enormous strength. When the character makes the attempt, roll percentile dice. If the number rolled is equal to or less than the number listed on Table 1, the character bends the bar or lifts the gate. If the attempt fails, the character can never succeed at that task. A character can, however, try to bend the bars on a gate that he couldn't lift, and vice versa.

Table 1 - Strength

Ability	Hit	Dmg.	Weight	Max	Open	Bend Bars/
Score	Probability	Adjust	Allowance	Press	Doors	Lift Gates	Notes
1	-5	-4	1	3	1	0%
2	-3	-2	1	5	1	0%
3	-3	-1	5	10	2	0%
4-5	-2	-1	10	25	3	0%
6-7	-1	None	20	55	4	0%
8-9	Normal	None	35	90	5	1%
10-11	Normal	None	40	115	6	2%
12-13	Normal	None	45	140	7	4%
14-15	Normal	None	55	170	8	7%
16	Normal	+1	70	195	9	10%
17	+1	+1	85	220	10	13%
18	+1	+2	110	255	11	16%
18/01-50	+1	+3	135	280	12	20%
18/51-75	+2	+3	160	305	13	25%
18/76-90	+2	+4	185	330	14	30%
18/91-99	+2	+5	235	380	15(3)	35%
18/00	+3	+6	335	480	16(6)	40%
19	+3	+7	485	640	16(8)	50%	Hill Giant
20	+3	+8	535	700	17(10)	60%	Stone Giant
21	+4	+9	635	810	17(12)	70%	Frost Giant
22	+4	+10	785	970	18(14)	80%	Fire Giant
23	+5	+11	935	1,130	18(16)	90%	Cloud Giant
24	+6	+12	1,235	1,440	19(17)	95%	Storm Giant
25	+7	+14	1,535	1,750	19(18)	99%	Titan