We are going to deal with the large box column first and then worry about the rest. These are the abilities: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. Strength is pretty straight forward, it comes into play when you need to be strong (moving a large boulder is one example). Dexterity is like being athletic (can you jump far or climb a rope type things). Constitution is willpower. Intelligence is book smarts (have you read about this subject type checks). Wisdom is like street smarts (do you naturally know this; is it common knowledge). Charisma is your characteristic (are you charming and believable).
Different classes have different needs when it comes to abilities, you are going to want to keep this in mind when filling out this section.
There are many different ways to figure out exactly what numbers go into these sections. You will want to discuss with your DM (Dungeon Master) which way he/she uses. There is no right or wrong way to do this, however if you are playing with a group of people you will want to all use the same way so everyone is on even playing ground.
If you are playing alone or are organizing a game yourself you can choose from these options. Option one: take the suggestion from the Player's Handbook. The stats in the book are 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8. Depending on your character you can place these where they will be more beneficial to you. If you look at page 45 of the Player's Handbook it gives you a small chart that tells you what the Primary skill is and whatever that is should usually be your highest. There is also a chart on page 19 that shows you what is most important to what race.
Option two: you can roll a D20 for each box. Some people choose to do this in order (example roll one is what your strength will be, roll two is what your dexterity will be and so on) or you can choose what number placement best suits your character.
Option three: You can roll 4 d6 and take the highest four rolls, add them together to get the number.(six sided die) for each box (Again like above you can do this in order or select what is best for you). If you find that is too low, you can keep all four die and add them together.
There are risk and reward for all systems when it comes to picking Abilities. If you stick with the book recommendations the highest number you can get is a 15 but the lowest number you can get is an 8. If you go with the D20 option the hightest number you can get is a twenty but you can also get a one.
Once you have your six numbers you need to find the best place for them. You want to look at the Ability Scores and Modifiers table on page 13 of the Player's handbook and you will get the modifiers for your numbers (the higher the modifier the better).
On page 12 it gives you an Ability Score Summary, this will tell you what is most important to your class. When you find which Ability is most important to you, you want to put the highest number there. Once you have that chosen you can head over to the pages dedicated to your class. There will be a section called Quick Build and it will give you guidance as to what else is important to your class.
Above is our example. We rolled 16, 9, 10, 14, 9, 10, using the 4d6 method. These aren't bad rolls and you can work with them. If you find a number so low you don't think you can work with it feel free to roll again (making sure this is okay with your DM). Now since we are creating a Cleric the most important stat to us is Wisdom so we put the 16 there (this gave as a +3 bonus). Next the Quick Builder told us Strength or Constitution is important. We picked Constitution above Strength simply because it will give us higher hit points (so the 14 went to Constitution and the 10 went to Strength). Next we finished filling in our numbers keeping in mind our race features.
You will want to look under Traits on your races page to see what it gives you. Being a Half-Elf gave us an increase of 2 to Charisma and an increase of 1 to two other abilities of our choosing. This is why we choose to give the 9 to charisma because the plus two bonus will bring it to eleven ultimately changing it from a -1 to a 0. We also decided to give a +1 to dexterity to bring it to a 10 (with a 0 modifier) and to give the other point to Wisdom.
Next you want to deal with your saving throws (top box) and skills (bottom box). For saving throws you want to look at your class features. They will tell you right away what you are proficient in. Whatever they list you want to mark off on your list. For a Cleric they have proficiency in Wisdom and Charisma saving throws. Now to figure out the modifier to each of these you will add your proficiency bonus (which is always +2 when starting) plus the ability modifier. In our example our Wisdom saving throw would be 2 + 3 so our Wisdom saving throw would have a modifier of +5.
Onto skills, will be on your Class Features again. As a Cleric our example gets to choose two skills to be proficient in: History, Insight, Medicine, Persuasion, and Religion. We picked two options that we felt fitted our character, you can do the same or choose something you personally think will help you along in the game. You also want to keep in mind that your proficiency modifier is effected by your ability modifier so choose an option that a lines well with your ability modifier.
This is what our finished section looks like. You'll see we made all the changes to abilities and modifiers and added up our proficiency bonuses and added them in. You'll also notice we left the top box empty. This box is for Inspiration, that is handed out in the game or by the GM later one.
Next week we are going to talk about the top two boxes. This includes: Armor Class, Personality, Ideals, Bonds, Flaws, Initiative, Speed, Hit Points, Hit Dice and Death Saves.
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