The core rules chapters ability scores, proficiencies and ability checks, the main components of every creature. How these are used in encounters is what drives failure and success. They conceptualize both player characters and monsters in these encounters.
Core Chapters
Ability Scores
Ability scores lay the foundation for every part of the game in some way or another. Either through ability modifiers which add a bonus to ability checks, or to fixed changes in effectiveness of many mechanics, rules and features. Carrying Capacity for example, is always affected by your Strength score.
Below is a short summary on each ability score and their main roles and effect on a character.
| Ability Score | Summary | |
|---|---|---|
| Dexterity | (DEX) | Readiness, grace, quickness and reflexes. Dexterity affects initiative, Armor Level (AL) and gives bonus to certain Attack and damage rolls. |
| Perception | (PER) | The interpretation of sensory information. Whether by sight or other senses. Perception affects Passive Perception, Initiative. |
| Strength | (STR) | Bodily power and the extent to which you can exert raw physical force. Strength affects Carrying Capacity, Encumbrance, movement speed, throwing distance, melee Attack rolls and much more. |
| Constitution | (CON) | Health, stamina, and vital force. Constitution affects hit point gain per level and movement Endurance. Constitution may affect some innate powers, like racial features. |
| Intelligence | (INT) | Mental acuity, accuracy of recall, and the ability to reason. Intelligence affects the effectiveness of the Arcane and Cunning themes, by for instance Spellcasting. Additionally, it increases number of proficiencies. |
| Wisdom | (WIS) | Reflects attunement to the world around you and represents perceptiveness and intuition. Wisdom affects the effectiveness of the Divine, Primal and Occult themes, by for instance Spellcasting. |
| Charisma | (CHA) | Your force of personality and your general ability to interact with others. Charisma affects the effectiveness of the Innate theme, by for instance Spellcasting. Charisma also affects power of some innate capabilities like racial spells. |
| Luck | Your fate's skewness to either fame and fortune or squalor and despair. Luck affects all rolls made against or for you that isn't an ability check. Rolls such as loot tables, Wild Surges and weather are included. |
Modifier
All Ability Scores has a modifier value which is what usually is being used when making a roll, it can either be positive or negative depending on your Ability Score.
Every second point from the baseline 10 add (or retract if negative) from the Ability Scores Modifier.
- Ability Score Modifier = (Ability Score - 10) / 2
| Ability Score | Ability Modifier |
|---|---|
| 1 | -5 |
| 2 | -4 |
| 3 | -4 |
| 4 | -3 |
| 5 | -3 |
| 6 | -2 |
| 7 | -2 |
| 8 | -1 |
| 9 | -1 |
| 10 | 0 |
| 11 | 0 |
| 12 | +1 |
| 13 | +1 |
| 14 | +2 |
| 15 | +2 |
| 16 | +3 |
| 17 | +3 |
| 18 | +4 |
| 19 | +4 |
| 20 | +5 |
| 21 | +5 |
| 22 | +6 |
| 23 | +6 |
| 24 | +7 |
| 25 | +7 |
| 26 | +8 |
| 27 | +8 |
| 28 | +9 |
| 29 | +9 |
| 30 | +10 |
Dexterity score represents actions which require speed, agility and reflexes, or legerdemain and steadiness of hand.
Creatures with high dexterity can perform impressive acrobatic stunts like somersaults and vaults. It also determines a characters ability to be precise with weapons at long range, or when throwing objects at precise targets. Low dexterity however, makes for a clumsy creature, with slow reflexes and terrible accuracy when flinging or shooting objects.
Armor Level
You add your Dexterity modifier when calculating your Armor Level. Depending on the armor you wear, you might add some or all of your Dexterity modifier, as described in the Armor section in the Proficiency chapter.
Attack Rolls and Damage
You add your Dexterity modifier to your attack roll and your damage roll when making a slashing, piercing or ranged attack, such as a sling, longbow or rapier. For thrown attacks, you add your Dexterity modifier to your attack roll.
Dexterous Initiative
You add your Dexterity modifier when you roll initiative at the beginning of every combat. Initiative determines the order of creatures' turns in combat, as described in the Combat chapter.
Ranged Attack Distanc
Ranged Attack Distance (ft) is the distance at which a creature can hit another target at disadvantage with a ranged attack. This is their maximum accurate range, and ranges above automatically miss. At 1/4th of that range, a creature do no longer have disadvantage to attack the target with the ranged attack.
Ranged Attack Distance uses the same calculations as throwing distance, except for two things: The variables Strength and Athletics are replaced by Dexterity and Perception and the distance is reduced to 2/3rds of the distance otherwise calculated.
Additional modifying factors exist, and may be applied, just as with throwing distance.
- Ranged Attack Distance (ft) =
(2/3) x (Weight-2/3 x (your Dexterity score2 + your Perception Proficiency bonus2 + (your Dexterity score + your Perception Proficiency bonus)your Dexterity score / 10))1 - 0.001 x your Dexterity score
- Ranged Attack Distance (ft) =
Example Calculation If a creature has a Dexterity score of 14 and a Perception Proficiency bonus of 4 and wants to shoot or throw a 1 lb object, their Ranged Attack Distance is 165 ft with disadvantage, and 40 ft. without. This is without any modifying factors, like a ranged weapon or misty field of view.
Precision Modifiers
Perception score is the sum of a creatures attention, sharpness of senses and the general awareness of their surroundings.
Creatures with high Perception are able to detect incoming threats quickly, more easily spot something hidden in cluttered environments and in general use their senses to detect even minute details with their senses. Low Perception represents creatures may lack peripheral vision, are slow to act in high pressure situations and are in general oblivious most minor sensations, like the intricacies of a dish.
Passive Intuition
You add you Perception modifier to your passive intuition. Passive intuition represents your perception of your surroundings and general intuition in new situations and areas while exploring. More can be read about it in the rules of adventure chapter.
Perceptive Initiative
Strength score is the major descriptor for the general athletic abilities of a character. High strength represents creatures whom can perform many great physical feats like lifting heavy boulders, pulling packed carts or cleanly cleaving an ogre's head off. Low strength represents creatures who lack muscle and bodily power to act effectively in the world with phyisical means, lacking the ability to move quickly, trading successful blows in a fisticuffs or carrying heavy objects.
Attack Rolls and Damage
You add your Strength modifier to your attack roll and your damage roll when making a cleaving, splitting or bludgeoning attack, or when you roll the damage for thrown attacks.
Characters and monsters have a base speed (Walking) represented by intrinsic capabilities. This is then individually modified by individual statistics, like strength or athletic proficiency. This is called modified speed. They can use as much or as little of their modified speed on their turn. You can read more about this in the Movement Speed section.
Carrying capacity determines the amount of weight you can carry. Carrying capacity increases exponentially with your Strength score, making strength more impactful, both as a penalty for low strength and a bonus for high strength.
- Carrying Capacity = your Strength score2 + your Brawn Proficiency bonus2 + (your Strength score + your Brawn Proficiency bonus)your Strength score / 10
Encumbrance
Encumbrance comes in stages, affecting both movement speed as well as defensive capabilities. When you carry weight in excess of X your carrying capacity:
| Exceeding Carrying Capacity By |
Detriment |
|---|---|
| 1/3 | You are Encumbered. Your speed is reduced by 1/3. |
| 2/3 | You are Heavily Encumbered. Your speed is reduced by 1/2. |
| 1 | You are Extremely Encumbered. Your speed is reduced by 2/3. |
| 3/2 | You are Over Encumbered. Your speed is reduced to 0. |
Strength Feats
(Strength Feats)
Your training and focus on bodybuilding allows you to perform feats that most others can’t:
- You count as one size larger when determining whether you can Shove, drag, Grapple or Lift an object or creature.
- You gain advantage on all Strength (Athletics) checks when attempting to Shove a creature. Additionally, when shoving a creature, you can push the target an additional 5 feet away.
- Any effect that would move you 10 feet or more against your will only moves you half the distance. You do not move if the action would move you 5 feet.
- You can climb on horizontal surfaces, such as ceilings, as if they were vertical surfaces.
- You gain advantage in all Strength or Dexterity checks to resist being shoved or moved against your will.
Constitution score describe the general fortitude, tolerance and perseverance of a creature.
Creatures with a high Constitution can withstand sickness and disease, pain and damage. They can endure taxing actions like swimming for long periods of time, or walking through burning buildings. Low Constitution however describes a creature who hardly resists poisons and disease, who have a lacking stamina and who generally have a deteriorating or worse health.
Endurance is the use of constitution and athleticism to perform athletic abilities during an extended period of time, withstanding possible exhaustion.
The movement actions a character perform requires successful Constitution (Athletics) checks. The check is called an Endurance check, which even dashing requires, however each movement action has an active time period in which additional rolls for that movement action is not required.
The DLs for movement actions range from 14 to 22, however, failing these does not mean total failure, to make up for the difference between the roll and the DL you can use Endurance Points. These endurance points recuperate while no movement action is active, at a rate of three times the active time period for the movement action you took. When determining success, you may use your passive score or the roll, whichever is higher.
- Endurance Points = your Constitution score + your Athletics Proficiency bonus
- Passive Endurance = 10 + your Constitution modifier + your Athletics Proficiency bonus
In Combat Ruling
In combat a Dash check is always made at the start of it. This cost is to allow dashes to be made freely, without having to control for it within combat during separate turns.
This ruling allows for dashing during 10 minutes, which translates into 100 turns.
Example
For example when Zalek the Orc Barbarian with a Constitution score of 17 and an Athletics Proficiency bonus of +4 first starts combat, he rolls a dash Endurance check to see if he can dash. However, his passive score already surpasses the DL, which lets him automatically succeed.
The next turn, Zalek decides that he wants to make a sprint towards the closest enemy, requiring a DL 22 Endurance check. He rolls a 12 on his d20, totaling the roll to 19. Fortunately, he can make up the difference between the DL of 22 and his roll of 19 with his Endurance points, which has the pool size of 21. Using 3 of his Endurance points lets him succeed on his sprint check.
Afterward, if he wants to regain the spent Endurance points, he has to wait three times the active time of the movement action he used. This means that he has to wait for 18 seconds, or 3 turns, without using any movement actions, to regain the 3 points he spent.
Hit points are determined by the size of a creature through their Hit dice, and the Constitution modifier of the creature. You add your Constitution modifier to each Hit die you roll for your hit points.
If your Constitution modifier changes, your hit point maximum changes as well, retroactively.
Temporary Hit Points
Intelligence score measures creatures mental capacity and ability for complex thought. The higher a creature scores, the easier it has for pattern analysis, memory recall and deductive reasoning.
A creature with high Intelligence score can therefore problem-solve complex problems, able to easily speak, read and write languages and can quickly generalize knowledge gained. Low Intelligence however impacts a creature with faulty memory, low pattern recognition and an inability to retain and generalize knowledge.
Spellcasting with Intelligence
Intelligence is the spellcasting ability modifier for Arcane spellcasting. You use your Intelligence whenever a spell refers to your spellcasting ability. You are always proficient with your own spellcasting, where the bonus is level-based.
- Spellcasting modifier = your proficiency bonus + your Intelligence modifier
Tiered Proficiency Bonuses
Intelligence allow you to unlock the potential to learn more skills, tools, languages and performances, i.e. Tiered proficiencies.
For each point of Intelligence modifier you have, you may choose two proficiencies of your choice from the tiered proficiencies to gain or lose proficiency in.
When you gain proficiency from Intelligence gain, you may either increase the tier of a proficiency you already know by one, or gain the trained tier in a proficiency of your choice. When you lose proficiency from Intelligence gain, you must decrease the tier of a proficiency you already know by one.
This works retroactively, such that when you permanently increase or decrease your Intelligence modifier, you may either choose one tiered proficiency which gains a tier or one that loses one.Wisdom score describes a creature's, well, wisdom. It represents the general sensitivity and accuracy of a creature's intuition, perceptiveness and will.
A creature with high Wisdom have can pick up small details in their environment, like being able to pick up lies, read between the lines of meanings and in general having an accurate and strong gut feeling. Being mindful often describes a wise creature.
Low Wisdom describes a creature which is the opposite, having trouble detecting hidden meanings and predicting changes through intuition.
Instinctive Initiative
You add your Wisdom modifier when you roll Initiative at the beginning of every combat. Initiative determines the order of creatures' turns in combat, as described in the Combat chapter.
Passive Intuition
You add you Wisdom modifier to your passive intuition. Passive intuition represents your perception of your surroundings and general intuition in new situations and areas while exploring. More can be read about it in the rules of adventure chapter.
Spellcasting with Wisdom
Wisdom is the spellcasting ability for the Divine, Primal and Occult themes. You use your Wisdom whenever a spell refers to your spellcasting ability. You are always proficient with your own spellcasting, where the bonus is level-based.
- Spellcasting modifier = your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier
Charisma measures your force of personality. This represents your social adeptness and ability to interact effectively with others, like with confidence, eloquence, charm or dominance, but also the strength of one's sense of identity, self-esteem and ability to project their will to shape their surroundings.
Creatures with high Charisma scores have the ability to project a commanding presence, draw attention to their words and wishes, and have a unwaivering sense of self. Those of with lower Charisma scores have problem getting talked over constantly, nobody gives you the benefit of the doubt, and you have trouble commanding a room even when you're standing behind a podium giving a speech.
Attractiveness
While Charisma inherently do not affect physical attractiveness, characters who have favorable and pleasant physical features generally have an easier time to be confident, eloquent, charming and in turn more charismatic.
If you are physically attractive, you probably have high Charisma, but if you have high Charisma, you aren't necessarily physically attractive.
Spellcasting with Charisma
Charisma is the spellcasting ability for the Innate theme. You use your Charisma whenever a spell refers to your spellcasting ability. You are always proficient with your own spellcasting, where the bonus is level-based, as seen in the Proficiency chapter.
- Spellcasting modifier = your proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier
Destiny is a measure of a creature's destiny. Some creatures are more bound by the weave of time to experience fortunes and prosperity, while others are forced by fate to squalor and despair.
High destiny scores are represent those who gamble and never lose, gain opportunities few can dream of and creatures that may survive incredible odds stacked against them.
Low destiny describes those who may have lost their family fortune, who have a major problem of freak accidents or those who never really can catch a break in life.
Destiny Points
Whenever you make a roll, you can spend one Destiny point to roll an additional roll. You can choose to spend one of your Destiny points after you roll the die, but before the outcome is determined. You choose which of the rolls is used.
- Maximum number of Destiny points = your Destiny modifier
You can also spend one Destiny point when an attack roll is made against you. Roll a d20, and then choose whether the attack uses the attacker's roll or yours. If more than one creature spends a Destiny point to influence the outcome of a roll, the points cancel each other out; no additional dice are rolled.
You regain expended Destiny points when you finish a long rest.
Random Rolls
Whenever a random die roll is called for that does not use any proficiency bonus or ability modifier, and where your personal skill, Background or History has no bearing on its result, you may add or subtract your ability modifier to the roll.
However, when your ability modifier is negative, the DM chooses whether to add or subtract from the roll. For example, if you have a destiny modifier of +2 and you roll on a loot table, you may add or subtract +2/-2 to the roll. However, if your destiny modifier is -2, the DM make the addition or subtraction, always in the most unfavorable way.
Other examples include: directional d8 rolls, random encounter tables, random loot tables, monster targeting, etc.
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