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Your Dungeons and Dragons Stats

Philip Overby

Staff
Article Team
Seems like I may have seen this elsewhere before, but I thought it could be fun to post what you think your Dungeons and Dragons stats would be for yourself in real life. I know most everyone here has either read a book based of a Dungeons and Dragons world or has played the game at some point, so let's throw it out there. I'm posting 2nd Edition stats because I'm semi-old school. Feel free to post whatever edition makes you happy.

Name: Phil
Class: Warlock (School teacher)
Level: 4 (been teaching about four years)
Sex: Male
Race: Human
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Brown
Age: 31

Strength: 12 (I can sort of lift stuff)
Dexterity: 14 (probably lost some points with age)
Constitution: 9 (health problems keep cropping up, but nothing too bad)
Intelligence: 15 (I'm pretty smart!)
Wisdom: 15 (I know lots of junk!)
Charisma: 13 (decent looking guy with a pretty nice personality :) )

Weapon: Staff of Tongues+2 (dry erase marker+2)
Armor: Cloak of Displacement (worn out suit made of a displacer beast, uh, I mean cotton)

Wow, that kind of boosted my self-esteem a little bit. :p
 

Sparkie

Auror
Name: Guile Copperlink (I reserve the right to make up lousy role-play names)
Race: Dwarf (because I'm surly, stout, and short. Okay, I'm not short. But I feel short.)
Class: Wizard (due to the electrical powers I wield as an arc welder)
Level: 6 (I don't think you can get the call lightning spell until level 6)
Sex: Male (I think)
Hair: Blonde (I'm a weird looking dwarf)
Eyes: Blue (refer to above comment)
Age: 30 (which I believe would make me a child prodigy by dwarven standards)

Strength: 13 (or a little more if I've been working out)
Dexterity: 12 (kinda weak here, but I'm nimble for my size)
Constitution: 17 (what doesn't kill me...)
Intelligence: 17 (no, I'm not bragging here. I happen to know plenty of useless crap)
Wisdom: 9 (I'm smart but not wise. I do stupid stuff all the time)
Charisma: 7 (I'm not a nice guy, but I play one on the internet... just kidding)

Weapon: +2 Rod of Striking (when I get pissed off, I cast my most potent spells. When I get really pissed off, I hit people with sticks)
Armor: +4 Cloak of Charisma (I'm good looking as long as no one actually sees me)
 

Codey Amprim

Staff
Article Team
Str: 14: (not too strong but I've been told I'm thick)
Dex: 10: (not the nimblest guy)
Con: 14: (guesstimate)
Int: 14: (not the smartest guy, but I know a few things)
Wis: 15: ( common sense abound )
Char: 12: ( only when I'm writing can I sound awesome, other than that I have confidence issues )

Class: Paladin (always doing the right thing, too much of the time)
Level: 2 ( I don't go to church very often )
Race: human (flawed)
Sex: male
Hair: brown (born blonde)
Eyes: blue
Age: 30 ( very mature for my real age )

Weapon: war mace of bludgeoning ( as much as I would like to say greatsword, I find smashing things to be a great stress reliever)
Armor: armor of comfort ( as long as it feels comfortable and doesn't look god-awful, I'll wear it)


Anyone want to get DDO with me? I need a casual game to play.
 
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Legendary Sidekick

The HAM'ster
Moderator
Name: Mr. Haley
Class: Warrior (inner-city high school teacher who voluntarily went on hall duty)
Level: 2 (been teaching about seven years, but only two in an inner-city high school)
Sex: Male
Race: Human
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Age: 39

Strength: 18 (can carry more than my weight while walking; need to believe I'm at "max base" when confronting gang bangers)
Dexterity: 14 (not very fast, but good at blocking attacks)
Constitution: 18 (thick skinned; immune to insults; no bathroom break for 6 hours)
Intelligence: 14 (140 IQ = world's dumbest genius)
Wisdom: 10 (I tell gang members to get out of my hall... NOT wise!)
Charisma: 10 (I'm a nice guy, except to the kids in the hall who think I'm a ******* *******.)

Weapon: Pen (mightier than the sword when it comes to writing infractions)
Armor: None (I use my arm to block punches and pin students to wall; I use my body to shield other students from punches)


For STR and INT, I looked up STR:weight (heavy load) and INT:IQ ratios to see where I fit. Every other stat description is based on actual experiences from this work-week.
 

Ravana

Istar
Name: Ravana
Race: Heh. Look it up. :eek:

…which makes pretty much anything else I could add rhetorical.… :D
 
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Legendary Sidekick

The HAM'ster
Moderator
Ravana: INT = 180 (max base x # of heads)

And even if my max base STR is accurate, I won't challenge a 20 armed demon to an arm wrestling match. (Nor will I mess with Phil the Drill in a pro wrestling match. EXP > STR)


Honestly, I had to look stuff up... I'm not even sure if I was accurate about my interpretation of a heavy load. I assume you have to be able to carry it and walk around but you move slower, and you can move easily if you're carrying a medium load.

I've never played D&D before. Are the stats supposed to add up to a certain number (Phil's = 78; start stats at 13, then adjust?) or is the total just based on the outcome of 6 rolls of 3 dice? (I'm really asking if there's a "no-dice" way to do this, or if it's always dice and we're just "cheating" since this is meant only in good fun?)

I once played a Baldur's Gate PC game where you "rolled," but could fudge the number by rerolling and adjusting stats.

Are there any "hardcore" players out there who just keep the rolls, even if it means having a wimpy warrior with health problems, an ugly, uncoordinated rogue or a dumb, foolish wizard that can deadlift half a ton? Is that "hardcore" or "stupid?"
 

Devor

Fiery Keeper of the Hat
Moderator
Class: Sorcerer
Level: 3
Sex: Male
Race: Half-Elf

Strength: 9
Dexterity: 11
Constitution: 14
Intelligence: 17
Wisdom: 15
Charisma: 7/16

Weapon: Throwing Daggers +2 (Returning)
Armor: Robe of the Dapper Gentleman; Suit of Many Skills
Other: Deck of Illusions

I leave the explanations to your imagination.


Are there any "hardcore" players out there who just keep the rolls, even if it means having a wimpy warrior with health problems, an ugly, uncoordinated rogue or a dumb, foolish wizard that can deadlift half a ton? Is that "hardcore" or "stupid?"

It depends on the DM and the game and the level of Roleplay vs. Combat as to whether that's "hardcore" or "stupid."

I used to let my players pick their stats so that they could have the character they wanted, subject to a cap in Strength. Most of the DMs I knew, I think, used a point system where 12 might be the "given," 13 would cost 1 point, 14 might cost 3 points, and so on. The couple of times a DM made me roll straight stats, the game never proved to be any fun, and I think the weak stats were a part of it. The characters were just too flat, except for "that one guy" who would have one lucky roll and end up with the unbelievable 17 strength and 9 constitution. What's that about? Weak bladder, I guess.
 

Philip Overby

Staff
Article Team
Most of the guys I used to play with were pretty good about role-playing, but there was always the one guy who wanted to be a badass all the time and would roll stats and say, "18. 18. I totally rolled that." Yeah. Just like you "critical hit" every time you roll attacks. Ugh.

Go away generic warrior with a long sword, splint mail, and medium shield. You make my brain hurt.

Anyway, if having an 18 in Strength made people happy, then I let them have it. In the 2nd Edition days when I was DMing, there were percentiles for Strength. If you had 18 (01) then you were on the lower end. 18 (00) meant you were almost as strong as a hill giant (pretty strong.)

4th Edition (which most people either love or hate) embraced sort of a video game style to character building resulting in lots of "broken" characters with outrageous stats and powers that would just obliterate anything. "My character's a 23rd level fey-touched gnome assassin/shaman/illusionist who can fly and turn invisible at whim."

Like Devor said, keeping crappy roles can be great for role-playing purposes. But for combat, not so much. So it depends on how the game is run depended on how it worked. I always tried to make combat mean something in my game, so I never really did "dungeon crawl" types of games. Therefore stats were not as important as they might be in other games.

I used to have a DM that would let us subtract 2 points from one score and add 1 point to another score. I remember a lot of players with stats like this:

Str: 18 (98)
Dex: 18
Con: 18
Int: 3
Wis: 5
Cha: 5

Good times...
 

Sparkie

Auror
I've always wanted to play D&D but never have.

(sniff) I don't have any friends...

Okay, okay, I admit I do have friends, but they don't want to play a game that would require the use of a fully functional brain.
 

Devor

Fiery Keeper of the Hat
Moderator
I've always wanted to play D&D but never have.

(sniff) I don't have any friends...

Okay, okay, I admit I do have friends, but they don't want to play a game that would require the use of a fully functional brain.

I used to play online, actually.
 

San Cidolfus

Troubadour
Name: Reginald the Slender
Class: Rogue (professional skullduggerist)
Level: 6 (I kill-thieve fulltime)
Sex: Male
Race: Human
Hair: Doo-Doo Brown, Balding
Eyes: tinged from scurvy, originally blue-ish
Age: 30

Strength: 6 (I strain opening a Coke)
Dexterity: 17 (being a popular target in middle-school dodge ball had an effect)
Constitution: 4 (I wince if the water pressure in the shower is too high)
Intelligence: 16 (<-- influenced by ego)
Wisdom: 8 (as a child I thought paint was wall-candy)
Charisma: 5 (habitual drooler)

Weapon: Bow of Ressentiment +2 (I use it everyday)
Armor: Cloak of Shabby Appearances (makes enemies think I'm not carrying good loot, and they target nearby shiny meatshields and spellcasters; they never see me coming)
 

Legendary Sidekick

The HAM'ster
Moderator
I remember a lot of players with stats like this:

Str: 18 (98)
Dex: 18
Con: 18
Int: 3
Wis: 5
Cha: 5

Good times...
HA! I know exactly what you mean. What MORONS! Why waste those 4 extra points in Wisdom and Prettyboyness when you can have THE ULTIMATE MIN/MAX BUILD:

Name: Min "Slash" Maximus

Str: 18 (00)
Dex: 18
Con: 18
Int: 3
Wis: 3
Cha: 3

Such an obvious move to get rid of that 98 crap!





Or did I miss your point?
 

Ravana

Istar
I've never played D&D before. Are the stats supposed to add up to a certain number (Phil's = 78; start stats at 13, then adjust?) or is the total just based on the outcome of 6 rolls of 3 dice? (I'm really asking if there's a "no-dice" way to do this, or if it's always dice and we're just "cheating" since this is meant only in good fun?)

Are there any "hardcore" players out there who just keep the rolls, even if it means having a wimpy warrior with health problems, an ugly, uncoordinated rogue or a dumb, foolish wizard that can deadlift half a ton? Is that "hardcore" or "stupid?"

Stat generation can be anything from straight 3d6, keep what you get (original D&D), to just about any possible variation of something that provides a higher average than that (everything that's come since; the most common variant is rolling 4d6 for each stat and dropping the lowest die, possibly along with allowing two or more stats to be swapped around, or trading points 2-for-1 to raise a key stat). Starting with a set number of points to distribute–usually around 60 to 70, maybe 75–became a fairly common way to go, too, after point-balancing games like Hero System hit the market. Of course, for the longest time, the only way to improve your initially-generated stats in D&D was with rare and powerful magics, unlike most games where they could be improved over time through experience, so that made starting with solid stats pretty important.

I've played and GMed unadjusted and with several variants. Usually when I'm running the game, the choice of which depends on my goals. I once told a group of players they could have a base 90 stat points distributed as they liked, a million XP to determine their level(s), some ungodly amount of gold to buy magic items with… and that I would then kill them with kobolds.

(More productively, I made the same offer for a serious campaign. After which, none of them ever thought of 10th level as "high" again.)

Playing with 3d6 stats is hardcore. Playing BG with 3d6 stats is stupid. In fact, BG is so heavily loaded toward playing a paladin that about the only point in playing anything else is for the "challenge." (Trust me on this. I've tried everything in the game–original edition and Shadows of Amn both, though not the later ones. Plus about half the variations in Icewind Dale. If you've never used a paladin, take one for a spin; you'll discover just how weighted things are. Second best is probably a split-class magic user: some things just plain need spells to take them out, and the NPC casters you get aren't really the best to rely on.)
 
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Legendary Sidekick

The HAM'ster
Moderator
I would have preferred that point system for BG. It was silly to keep having to "reroll" just to get a decent total of stat points, or not reroll and get stuck with a lousy character. I suppose in table-top gaming, the GM would take weak characters into consideration, and that could add to the fun. In a video game, choosing stats D&D style is silly.

Actually, for video games I prefer what Blizzard is doing with Diablo 3, which is not having players adjust stats at all.


PS- "Slash" Maximus says that with a 60-point base, he'd sacrifice 3 dexterity points since "dexterity" is kind of wussy. But he'd still max dex with a base of 70, then increase his Charisma to attract better-looking ladies.
 

Philip Overby

Staff
Article Team
On an unrelated (sort of) note, have you guys ever read the web comic "Goblins." The goblins are the good guys and are adventurers, but there is another team of adventurers that sort of parallel their journey.

One of them is named Minmax. I "LOL"ed when I saw that the first time.
 

Phietadix

Auror
Name: Phietadix
Class: Paladin (You get magic and don't die in one hit. AMAZING)
Level: 15
Race: Human

Str: 10
Dex: 10
Con: 10
Int: 18 (see where I used all my stat points)
Wis: 13
Char: 12
 

Reaver

Staff
Moderator
This one's for the ladies:


Name: Ultimus Manimus

STR: 20
DEX: 16
CON: 18
INT: 2
WIS: 2
CHA: 20

 
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