Attribute Modifiers

Each attribute modifier starts at +0, but your other character creation choices will adjust these values by applying boosts and flaws. As you build your character, remember to apply adjustments when making the following decisions:

Ancestry: each ancestry provides attribute boosts, and sometimes an attribute flaw.
Background: your character's background provides two attribute boosts.
Class: your character's class provides an attribute boost to the attribute most important to your class, called your _key attribute.

After all the other steps, you apply four more attribute boosts of your choice; when you gain multiple attribute boosts at the same time (like this), you must apply each one to a different stat. Please note that at 1st level a character can never have any ability score that is higher than +4 or less than -1.

Charisma

1 (-5): Barely conscious
2-3 (-4): Minimal independent thought, relies heavily on others to think instead
4-5 (-3): Has trouble thinking of others as people
6-7 (-2): Terribly reticent, uninteresting, or rude
8-9 (-1): Something of a bore or makes people mildly uncomfortable
10-11 (0): Capable of polite conversation
12-13 (1): Mildly interesting, knows what to say to the right people
14-15 (2): Interesting, knows what to say to most people
16-17 (3): Popular, receives greetings and conversations on the street
18-19 (4): Immediately likeable by many people, subject of favorable talk
20-21 (5): Life of the party, able to keep people entertained for hours
22-23 (6): Immediately likeable by almost everybody
24-25 (7): Renowned for wit, personality, and/or looks

Constitution

1 (-5): Minimal immune system, body reacts violently to anything foreign
2-3 (-4): Frail, suffers frequent broken bones
4-5 (-3): Bruises very easily, knocked out by a light punch
6-7 (-2): Unusually prone to disease and infection
8-9 (-1): Easily winded, incapable of a full day’s hard labor
10-11 (0): Occasionally contracts mild sicknesses
12-13 (1): Can take a few hits before being knocked unconscious
14-15 (2): Able to labor for twelve hours most days
16-17 (3): Easily shrugs off most illnesses
18-19 (4): Able to stay awake for days on endurance
20-21 (5): Very difficult to wear down, almost never feels fatigue
22-23 (6): Never gets sick, even to the most virulent diseases
24-25 (7): Tireless paragon of physical endurance

Dexterity

1 (-5): Barely mobile, probably significantly paralyzed
2-3 (-4): Incapable of moving without noticeable effort or pain
4-5 (-3): Visible paralysis or physical difficulty
6-7 (-2): Significant klutz or very slow to react
8-9 (-1): Somewhat slow, occasionally trips over own feet
10-11 (0): Capable of usually catching a small tossed objects
12-13 (1): Able to often hit large targets
14-15 (2): Can catch or dodge a medium-speed surprise projectile
16-17 (3): Able to often hit small targets
18-19 (4): Light on feet, able to often hit small moving targets
20-21 (5): Graceful, able to flow from one action into another easily
22-23 (6): Very graceful, capable of dodging a number of thrown objects
24-25 (7): Moves like water, reacting to all situations with almost no effort

Intelligence

1 (-5): Animalistic, no longer capable of logic or reason
2-3 (-4): Barely able to function, very limited speech and knowledge
4-5 (-3): Often resorts to charades to express thoughts
6-7 (-2): Often misuses and mispronounces words
8-9 (-1): Has trouble following trains of thought, forgets most unimportant things
10-11 (0): Knows what they need to know to get by
12-13 (1): Knows a bit more than is necessary, fairly logical
14-15 (2): Able to do math or solve logic puzzles mentally with reasonable accuracy
16-17 (3): Fairly intelligent, able to understand new tasks quickly
18-19 (4): Very intelligent, may invent new processes or uses for knowledge
20-21 (5): Highly knowledgeable, probably the smartest person many people know
22-23 (6): Able to make Holmesian leaps of logical
24-25 (7): Famous as a sage and genius

Strength

1 (-5): Morbidly weak, has significant trouble lifting own limbs
2-3 (-4): Needs help to stand, can be knocked over by a strong breeze
4-5 (-3): Knocked off balance by swinging something dense
6-7 (-2): Difficulty pushing an object of their weight
8-9 (-1): Has trouble even lifting heavy objects
10-11 (0): Can literally pull their own weight
12-13 (1): Carries heavy objects for short distances
14-15 (2): Visibly toned, throws small objects for long distances
16-17 (3): Carries heavy objects with one arm
18-19 (4): Can break objects like wood with bare hands
20-21 (5): Able to out-wrestle a work animal or catch a falling person
22-23 (6): Can pull very heavy objects at appreciable speeds
24-25 (7): Pinnacle of brawn, able to out-lift several people

Wisdom

1 (-5): Seemingly incapable of thought, barely aware
2-3 (-4): Rarely notices important or prominent items, people, or occurrences
4-5 (-3): Seemingly incapable of forethought
6-7 (-2): Often fails to exert common sense
8-9 (-1): Forgets or opts not to consider options before taking action
10-11 (0): Makes reasoned decisions most of the time
12-13 (1): Able to tell when a person is upset
14-15 (2): Can get hunches about a situation that doesn’t feel right
16-17 (3): Reads people and situations fairly well
18-19 (4): Often used as a source of wisdom or decider of actions
20-21 (5): Reads people and situations very well, almost unconsciously
22-23 (6): Can tell minute differences among many situations
24-25 (7): Nearly prescient, able to reason far beyond logic