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Forums » RP Discussion » A derpy question about DND

Ok.
So Oaky finally got the DND set in and we'll start up a campaign eventually when we're not swamped with homework. Apparently he's already made a character and I know which ones I'm using in the story: Kori and Crysor. One at a time since I don't think I can use both at the same time.
Anyways, I want to add stats and stuff so they're ready to go, but...

I don't know how stats work. What dice do I roll? Does the class have anything to do with the dice? Do I add anything to that? What are the classes anyways? :/ I NEED HALP.

Thanks.
This'll all be explained in the Player Handbook, which I own, and you'll look through when we sit down to play with Chris. ;3
LuciferBrimstone Topic Starter

Alright, kewl :3

Is Chris the only other one or did you manage to drag tristan on board too? XD
I see Oaky has already provided a source for the answer to your questions, which is an excellent plan. If you find that the Player's Handbook does not answer all your questions(and it gets most but no book is the answer to everything), there are a few of us here that have decades of institutional knowledge about DND and enjoy helping others get into this game we love so much. For example, just last weekend at my 10th year of the PAX convention I spent 14 hours running DND for new players that I had never met, 6 of which was spent on the Learning to Play module for brand new players. This was not the first time I introduced people to DND and is sure to not be the last.

If you have any further questions, I hope you will not hesitate to ask. I'll answer your questions thus far, even though you've been promised answers later, even if only to amuse myself.

Stats(also sometimes called attributes) are derived in a number of ways, all with the goal of getting a random number between 3 and 18. Most basic is rolling 3 dice that each have 6 sides(short form is 3d6 and they look like your standard dice everyone thinks of when they think dice). Another common alternative is to roll 4 dice, and ignore the lowest result, thus ending with a total still between 3 and 18 with a slightly higher average result. One does this 6 times for a total of 6 different stats. There is also a method for not rolling stats, and instead purchasing them out of pool of points, but that method varies too much by edition to make any blanket comments on it.

Thus far, class and race have no effect on character generation. Your choice of class and race will effect how you decide to organize the resultant 6 numbers. Fighters favor strength, wizards favor intelligence etc. Races tend to apply +2 to some stats and -2 to others. Depending on the edition of DND you're working with, the number of stats affected by race will vary.

If you require further assistance, it will be helpful for you to clarify which edition of DND you're asking about.
Nero wrote:
Stats(also sometimes called attributes) are derived in a number of ways, all with the goal of getting a random number between 3 and 18. Most basic is rolling 3 dice that each have 6 sides(short form is 3d6 and they look like your standard dice everyone thinks of when they think dice). Another common alternative is to roll 4 dice, and ignore the lowest result, thus ending with a total still between 3 and 18 with a slightly higher average result. One does this 6 times for a total of 6 different stats. There is also a method for not rolling stats, and instead purchasing them out of pool of points, but that method varies too much by edition to make any blanket comments on it.

Thus far, class and race have no effect on character generation. Your choice of class and race will effect how you decide to organize the resultant 6 numbers. Fighters favor strength, wizards favor intelligence etc. Races tend to apply +2 to some stats and -2 to others. Depending on the edition of DND you're working with, the number of stats affected by race will vary.

If you require further assistance, it will be helpful for you to clarify which edition of DND you're asking about.

We're using 4th Ed. I think the "purchasing" method you referred to is classified as the Array method, which is where you start out with the numbers 16, 14, 13, 12, 11, and 10 to assign to each attribute.

It was what was recommended for beginners, so that's what I did for my character. :P Plus, with all of the boosts I got from my race and class, it seemed to me like a good deal.

Thanks for offering, Nero! We'll be sure to contact you with any questions we have! (I could've used your help the other day, where my dad and I got into an argument over whether Psychic Damage actually removed HP. I was right: It did. LOL)

~Oaky
I was referring to Method 2 on page 17 in 4th edition, customizing scores. The array offers one possible result from the customization method, but there are a number of other results that are also good, depending on class choice.

In 4th edition all damage types remove hit points. This includes things like psychic damage, poison(which works differently in earlier versions of the game), necrotic etc.
pretty much all the dnd pubs can be obtained for free on the internet in pdf format

d20srd.org is also a good quick reference site

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