Three Ways to Make Ability Scores, and What Each One Costs You

Six numbers decide what your character is good at before the first session starts. The rules give three ways to make them, and each one trades something: speed, control or luck. Pick the one that suits the table, not the one that won the last argument.

Every rule quoted here comes from the System Reference Document 5.2.1, the free rules the 2024 game is built on.

The three methods

The SRD opens Step 3 plainly: "Determine your ability scores by using one of the following three methods. Your GM might prefer you to use a particular one." So ask first. Then:

• Standard Array. "Use the following six scores for your abilities: 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8."
• Random Generation. "Roll four d6s and record the total of the highest three dice. Do this five more times, so you have six numbers."
• Point Cost. "You have 27 points to spend on your ability scores."

Whichever you use, you then place the six numbers on Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma, "keeping in mind your class's primary ability."

Standard Array: the fast one

Six fixed numbers, no maths. It takes a minute, and nobody at the table ends up stronger than anyone else by luck.

The SRD even places them for you. Its Standard Array by Class table puts the 15 in each class's main ability: a Wizard gets 15 Intelligence and 14 Wisdom, a Rogue 15 Dexterity and 14 Intelligence, a Barbarian 15 Strength and 14 Constitution. The table works for the other methods too: "If you used a different method to generate the scores, you may still use this table to guide where you place your highest and lowest scores."

Turn the array into modifiers and it adds up to +5: two +2s, two +1s, a +0 and a −1.

Point Cost: the array, rearranged

Point Cost gives you a budget and a price list. Every score starts at 8 for free and climbs from there:

Price the Standard Array on that list: 9 + 7 + 5 + 4 + 2 + 0. That is exactly 27. The array is one way to spend the budget, chosen for you. Point Cost lets you spend it differently.

Two ways people spend it:

• Three 15s, three 8s. 9 + 9 + 9 = 27. Three abilities at +2 and three at −1, a total of +3. Sharper peaks, deeper holes, and two fewer points of modifier overall than the array.
• Even numbers only. A 12 and a 13 both give +1, but the 13 costs one more point. An odd score pays off only when something will raise it by 1 later, and your background does exactly that.

The price list stops at 15. Nothing in Point Cost buys a 16 before the background step.

Random Generation: the gamble

Four d6, drop the lowest, six times. It is the oldest method, and the one that makes stories: the Wizard with 17 Strength, the Paladin who never learned to read.

The odds, worked out across all 1,296 ways four d6 can land:

• The average score is about 12.2. Six of them average about 73.5, against 72 for the array. Rolling comes out ahead on average, by a little.
• An 18 comes up 21 times in 1,296, about 1.6% per score. Across six scores, about 9% of characters roll at least one.
• A 15 or better comes up 23% of the time per score, so about 79% of characters get at least one.
• An 8 or worse comes up about 10% of the time per score. Across six, nearly half of all rolled characters (49%) carry at least one score of 8 or below.

That last line is the real cost. The array gives you exactly one 8, and you choose where it goes. Rolling gives most characters a high score and half of them a hole they did not pick. Rolls also differ between players, so one hero at the table can outclass another before anyone has spoken.

If your table rolls, roll in the open and agree beforehand on what happens to a set that comes out poor.

Then the background

After you place the six scores, "adjust them according to your background. Your background lists three abilities; increase one of those scores by 2 and a different one by 1, or increase all three by 1. None of these increases can raise a score above 20."

That is where a 15 becomes a 17, and where a carefully bought 13 becomes a 14. The SRD offers both habits without judging: "Some players like to increase their class's primary ability, while others prefer to increase a low score."

Last, the modifiers

The score is not what you add to rolls; the modifier is. The SRD's table runs from −4 at 3 to +5 at 20, two points of score per step: 10–11 is +0, 12–13 is +1, 14–15 is +2, 16–17 is +3, 18–19 is +4. Write the modifier beside each score, as the SRD says, because that is the number you use all night.

Which one to pick

• New players, one-shots, or a table that hates waiting: Standard Array.
• A player who knows the build and wants a particular shape: Point Cost.
• A long campaign at a table that likes surprises and agrees on a floor: roll.

Our free hero builder offers two of these: the suggested spread (the Standard Array, laid out for your class) or a roll of 4d6 dropping the lowest, and you can nudge any number after. It adds the ability bonus from your species, the 2014 way; under the 2024 SRD that bonus comes from your background.

The Book of Dice gives this its own chapter in Part III, The Rolling: Best Ways to Roll Ability Scores.

This work includes material from the System Reference Document 5.2.1 ("SRD 5.2.1") by Wizards of the Coast LLC, available at dndbeyond.com/srd. The SRD 5.2.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.