Character Book: Ability Scores

On to something a little bit more interesting... (Oh, and yeah, there's more bad formatting coming up.)

The Six Ability Scores

Strength: This represents your characters ability to apply physical force. It allows him to run faster, punch harder, and lift more than the other guy.

Dexterity: This represents a combination of agility, manual dexterity, flexibility and grace.

Consitution: This is a measure of your character's general health and hardiness.

Intelligence: A mental analogue of Dexterity, this represents quickness of wit, the ability to reason, and intellectual prowess.

Wisdom: A mental analogue of Consitution, this represents mental toughness and fortitude, and you character's ability to shrug off mental attacks.

Charisma: A mental analogue to Strength, this represents your character's force of personality - his ability to impose himself on others. It is also impacts your character's ability to use magic; in effect, his ability to impose his will on the universe.

Note that charisma is not connected to appearance; a character may be very attractive and utterly vapid, or very ugly and yet strangely compelling. Note also that charisma is not the same as personality; the crass drill sergent may not be liked by anyone, but he still gets the very best out of the troops under his command.

Generating Ability Scores

There are three methods available for generating ability scores. You may choose any of the three, but if you choose to roll dice, you cannot change your mind after the first die falls.

Method 1: Random Rolls

Roll 4d6, remove the die that shows the lowest value, and add up the rest. Take a note of the result. Repeat this process, generating six ability scores. Arrange the six numbers generated to the six ability scores as you wish.

If your highest ability score is 13, or if the total of your six ability score modifiers is 0 or less, you may reroll your character.

Method 2: Standard Array

The standard array is: 16, 15, 13, 12, 10, 8

Arrange the six numbers to the six ability scores as you wish.

Method 3: Point Buy

Each ability score starts at 8. You have 28 points to spend on raising your ability scores. The costs for raising a score are as follows:

Score Cost Score Cost

9 1 14 6

10 2 15 8

11 3 16 10

12 4 17 13

13 5 18 16

Ability Score Modifiers

The table below shows the modifiers for the various ability score values.

Ability Score Modifier

3 - 5 -2

6 - 8 -1

9 - 11 0

12 - 14 +1

15 - 17 +2

18 +3

(Alternately, the modifier is (Score/3 - 3).)

Ability Scores and NPCs

Ability scores apply to PCs only. Monsters and non-player characters do not have ability scores.

Changing Ability Scores

Once generated, a character's ability scores will never change. There are no effects in the game that apply directly to your ability scores, they do not increase with time, and nothing can reduce them.

There is no concept of ability score drain or damage in Nutshell Fantasy.

Ability Checks

There is no concept of ability checks in Nutshell Fantasy. Such checks have been replaced with general skill checks.

Ability Scores and the Real World

To provide some guidance as to how ability scores relate to the real world:

The majority of people in the real world (60% or so) have no ability score outwith the average (+0) range. Most people are, quite simply, average. Of the remainder, a significant percentage (35% or so) have one or more ability scores in the next range (+/-1). Finally, the remainder (5% or so) have one or more ability scores in the next rage (+/-2).

There are no people in the real world with ability scores at the extreme ends of the scale (+/-3). A character with an ability score in this range is somewhat fantastical by his very nature.

It should be noted that the distibution of ability scores described above does not match those generated for PCs in any way. By their nature, player characters are quite exceptional.