abilities

Ability is any of the six natural traits that represent the basic definition of a player’s character. These scores are used to determine success or failure of many actions. The maximum for each statistic is 25.

strength

Strength measures a character’s muscle, endurance, and stamina. This is usually the prime requisite of warriors because they must be physically powerful in order to wear armor and wield heavy weapons. The probability of scoring a successful hit and the amount of damage done are determined by strength.

intelligence

Intelligence represents a character’s memory, reasoning, and learning ability. Intelligence dictates the number of languages a character can learn. Intelligence is the prime requisite of wizards, who must have keen minds to understand and memorize magical spells. The wizard’s intelligence dictates which spells he can learn and the number of spells he can memorize at one time.

wisdom

Wisdom describes a composite of the character’s enlightenment, judgment, guile, willpower, common sense, and intuition. It can affect the character’s resistance to magical attack. It is the prime requisite of priests.

dexterity

Dexterity encompasses several physical attributes including hand-eye coordination, agility, reaction speed, reflexes, and balance. Dexterity affects a character’s reaction to a threat or surprise, his accuracy with thrown weapons and bows, and his ability to dodge an enemy’s blows. It is usually the prime requisite of Rogues and affects their professional skills.

consitution

Constitution encompasses a characters physique, fitness, health, and physical resistance to hardship, injury, and disease. This ability affects the character’s hit points and chances of surviving such tremendous shocks as being physically reshaped by magic or resurrected from death, it is vitally important to all classes.

charisma

Charisma measures a character’s persuasiveness, personal magnetism, and ability to lead. It is not a reflection of physical attractiveness, although attractiveness certainly plays a role. It is important to all characters, but especially to those who must deal with non-player characters, mercenary hirelings, retainers, and intelligent monsters. It dictates the total number of henchmen a character can retain and affects the loyalty of henchmen, hirelings, and retainers.