Stats

By now, your character is starting to take shape, and it’s high time we talk about Stats. Every character has six of them— some they are good at, one or two they are great at, and one or two they are rather miserable at using. When creating a new character, you have access to six numbers known as a Standard Array:

15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8

You may assign these scores to your character however you like. On the Mechanics tab of your sheet, enter the above numbers under the column marked Initial once you know where you would like to allocate them. Note that these are combined with the modifiers granted by your racial features, and the sheet will fill out the final score (or modifier, derived from your score) throughout the sheet automatically.

But what do the stats mean? Let’s give a quick rundown, shall we?

Strength (STR): Strength is a measure of your raw physical power-how hard you punch, how much you lift, and so on. If your character fights in melee a lot, likes grappling things, or must be the strongest kid alive, you may want to invest in this.

Constitution (CON): Constitution does one thing, and one thing well-it dictates how difficult it is to kill your character. If you want to be hardy with tons of HP and absorb hits (and also if you like heavy armor), invest here. …really, you should always try to invest a little in not dying, it’s a good practice.

Dexterity (DEX): Dexterity measures your agility and reflexes: moving quietly, accurately firing a gun, doing acrobatic flips off of handles, and so on. If your character uses ranged or finesse weapons, likes sneaking, or needs fast hands, consider investing in this.

Intelligence (INT): Intelligence represents your character’s ability to learn. High INT characters are full of facts and information, can be quite studious, and rely on brains over brawn. It is also the default PCM for psionic powers, so if you fancy your character a psion, don’t forget this score!

Wisdom (WIS): Wisdom is the knowledge and experience your character has acquired. Street smarts, to INT’s book smarts. WIS gets a hefty amount of skills assigned to it, including the ability to spot things quickly, read people, use survival skills, or give medical aid. Also, psions sometimes use this score as their PCM.

Charisma (CHA): Contrary to popular belief, Charisma ain’t about looking pretty. It’s about your ability to be aware of and act in social situations. It’s knowing when to speak, what to say, how to perform, and establishing and projecting your presence as you choose. Most social skills are CHA skills, naturally. And like WIS, some psions use CHA as their PCM.

Proficiency (Prof, P): This isn’t one of the six stats, but it’s as important as one. Proficiency is a catch-all that represents your abilities, beyond your stats. It starts at +2, and goes up by +1 every five levels. Anything that refers to your Proficiency bonus or just P is referring to this. You’ll be seeing this a lot, from how powerful an ability is to how often you can use one.