Abilities

Nine Abilities provide a quick description of a creature’s characteristics

Strength measures physical power, Dexterity, measures agility, Constitution measures endurance, Intelligence measures reasoning, Wisdom measures insight, Charisma measures force of personality, Comeliness measures attractiveness, Honor measures social understanding, and Sanity measures mental stability.

Strength

The strength characteristic of a human or humanoid of any type, and of player-characters in particular, is more than a simple evaluation of the musculature of the body. Strength is a composite rating of physical power, endurance, and stamina. A rating of 3, for example, indicates that the creature in question has little of each of the three categories, a score of 10 shows that the creature has the norm for a human adult male (based on an assumed medieval standard where the typical individual was in "good shape" due to the necessity of hard labor), while a score of 18 means that the creature has a composite rating far above average in all respects, and those above that are viewed as supernatural, monstrous or even godlike.

Dwarf, Mountain (+2)
Half-orc (+2)
Dragonborn (+2)
Goliath (+2)
Orc (+2)
Bugbear (+2)

Human (+1)
Aasimar, Fallen (+1)
Firbolg (+1)
Triton (+1)

Kobold (-2)

Dexterity

The dexterity rating includes hand-eye coordination, agility, reflex speed, precision, balance, and the actual speed of movements. It would not be unreasonable to claim that a person with a low dexterity might well be quite agile, but have low reflex speed, poor precision, bad balance, and be slow and precise in movement but slippery in the grasp.

Elf (+2)
Halfling (+2)
Kenku (+2)
Tabaxi (+2)
Goblin (+2)
Kobold (+2)

Human (+1)
Gnome, forest (+1)
Bugbear (+1)

Constitution

This character ability rating is a general heading under which folk the character's physique, health, resistance, ability to remain focused in spite of physical distractions, and general fitness or vital force. One who catches a cold if exposed to a slight draft has a low constitution.

Dwarf (+2)
Lizardfolk (+2)
Hobgoblin (+2)

Human (+1)
Half-orc (+1)
Halfling, stout (+1)
Gnome, rock (+1)
Goliath (+1)
Aasimar, scourge (+1)
Triton (+1)
Goblin (+1)
Orc (+1)

Intelligence

The intelligence rating roughly corresponds to modern "IQ" scores however it assumes mnemonic, reasoning, mental acuity, information recall, analytical skill and learning ability in additional areas outside the written word.

Gnome (+2)

Human (+1)
Elf, high (+1)
Tiefling (+1)
Hobgoblin (+1)

Orc (-2)

Wisdom

For game purposes, wisdom ability subsumes the categories of moral willpower, judgment, wile, enlightenment, intuitiveness, awareness, and insight. An example of the use of wisdom can be given by noting that while the intelligent character will know that smoking is harmful to him he may well lack the wisdom to stop (this writer may well fall into this category).

Firbolg (+2)

Human (+1)
Dwarf, hill (+1)
Elf, wood (+1)
Aasimar, protector (+1)
Kenku (+1)
Lizardfolk (+1)

Charisma

Many persons have the sad misconception that charisma is physical attractiveness. This error is obvious to any person who considers the subject when one considers such historic examples of Julius Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Adolf Hitler. Obviously, these individuals did not have an 18 score on the physical beauty scale but did exude leadership through their persuasiveness and personal magnetism defined by confidence, and eloquence.

Half, elf (+2)
Tiefling (+2)
Aasimar (+2)
Yuan-ti (+2)

Human (+1)
Elf, drow (+1)
Halfling, lightfoot (+1)
Dragonborn (+1)
Tabaxi (+1)
Triton (+1)

Comeliness

Comeliness reflects physical attractiveness, social grace, and personal beauty of the character. It is used to determine initial reactions to the character, and characters with a high comeliness may affect the wills and actions of others. While charisma deals specifically with leadership and interactions between characters, comeliness deals with attractiveness and first impressions.

Human (+1)

Honor

Honor measures not only a character's devotion to a code but also the characters understand ing of it. The Honor score can also reflect how others perceive a character's honor. A character with a high Honor usually has a reputation that others know about, especially those who have high Honor scores themselves. Unlike other abilities, Honor can't be raised with normal ability score increases. Instead, it is awarded as increase or imposed a reduction based on a character's actions. These actions reflect well or poorly on their understanding of the code and future increases or decreases.

Human (+1)

Sanity

Sanity refers to the soundness, rationality, and healthiness of the human mind, as opposed to suffering from insanity or madness. In some societies, a person is not considered sane if they are irrational. In more modern societies the term has become exclusively synonymous with having full control of one's mind. A character with a high Sanity is level-headed even in the face of insane circumstances, while a character with low Sanity is unsteady, breaking easily when confronted by horrors that are beyond their normal understanding.