Character stats fluff

[duburu]

The character stats fluff and how it can do in a fluff like with 50 strenght and constitution you are basically superman please tell what the other stats can do

[The Oni]

So if you've got an Int of 50 or so, you're a damn supercomputer. Mere mortals probably don't even comprehend the speed at which you're thinking circles around them. A Wisdom of 50 would be, for instance, an incredibly enlightened monk, one whose innate intution of the nature of the world makes them untouchable and unphaseable.

A Dex of 50 would basically be a cross between Hawkeye and Spider-man - uncannily accurate, with grace and agility that boggles the mind.

A Cha of 50 could be many things; perhaps you're so gorgeous you bring tears to the eyes of onlookers, or perhaps your voice draws people like moths to a flame and inspires them to die for your cause within minutes of meeting you, or perhaps your sheer force of will just seems to give you a minor Reality Distortion Field (like if you were a Sorcerer or something).

STR of 50 is, like you said, literally superhuman strength, but CON can mean virtually anything - either you're damn near impossible to damage, or you shrug off the damage and regenerate it quickly. Aberrations also have high CON, so it could also be that your body is just built in a fashion that wounds don't bother you much.

[Kane0]

Str is being able to squash a tomato.
Dex is being able to catch a tomato.
Con is being able to eat a rotten tomato.
Int is knowing a tomato is a fruit.
Wis is knowing it doesn't go in a fruit salad.
Cha is convincing someone to eat it anyway.

So if we up your scores high enough:
With a high enough Str you could throw a punch like Superman
With a high enough Dex you could dodge like the Flash
With a high enough Con you could take hit like the Hulk
With a high enough Int you could out-think Batman
With a high enough Wis you could have your own Spidey-sense
With a high enough Cha you could convince Chuck Norris not to kick you

[duburu]

Really so what is normal human stats?

[Nerd-o-rama]

Forget about hyperstats, what about dump stats?

I almost always play Wisdom 8 as a stereotypical impulsive hothead - think any hero in an adventure story aimed at 21 years old and younger. Lower than that and characters turn into sitcom protagonists, taking actions they know will bite them in the ass either by not thinking about it or just "wanting to see what happens."

Likewise, Intelligence 8 characters tend to be book-dumb to the point where they forget basic common knowledge unless they stop and think about it. I like playing low-Int characters with one single Knowledge skill maxed so they're super-smart on a single narrow subject and clueless about everything else (like a Ranger who doesn't know anything about anything besides what you can eat in a forest and what's liable to try to eat you.) Less than Int 8 and, at least going by the idea of it being IQ-equivalent, you may run into legitimate comprehension and language difficulties.

(I don't play characters with under 8 in a stat myself, usually.)

[The Oni]

Normal human stats are generally assumed to be anywhere from 8-12. These people are fairly average, or slightly above or below. Beyond that you get into exceptional talents and exceptional circumstances, around 14-18 or 6-7. Beyond that you get into superhuman abilities, or else deformities/damage.

[Gavinfoxx]

Really so what is normal human stats?

Well, that depends. Are you in a setting where most people, statistically, are uneducated, chronically malnourished peasants or are you playing in a setting where people get proper nutrition and several years of education?

In the first, I would suspect a normal person would be a commoner 1 with the nonelite array (13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8). In the second, I would expect most people would be Expert 2 or Expert 3 with the Elite array (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8).

You should read this:

http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/587/roleplaying-games/dd-calibrating-your-expectations-2

And also this:

http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=8940.0

[Ailowynn]

Supposedly, normal human stats would be 10s and 11s, but that's really just based off of DnD's original system of rolling 3d6, which would average 10.5. In most modern games, Joe Schmoe will probably have something like an 8, two 10s, a 12, 13, and 14.

As for dumpstats...
Low Int means you aren't a logical thinker, low Wis means you're impulsive, and low Cha means you're awkward. But really, with that supposed 3d6 roll, even a 6 isn't that unusual; it's just that person you know who can never win an arm wrestle or has no common sense at all. A weakness, but not an unusually crippling one.


Str is being able to squash a tomato.
Dex is being able to catch a tomato.
Con is being able to eat a rotten tomato.
Int is knowing a tomato is a fruit.
Wis is knowing it doesn't go in a fruit salad.
Cha is convincing someone to eat it anyway.

I LOLed at this.

[Kerrin]

With regard to D&D 3.5, here are the descriptions of the abilities: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/theBasics.htm#theAbilities

[Kane0]

I LOLed at this.
I can't claim credit for it, unfortunately.


Really so what is normal human stats?
8-12 usually, with out of the norm being 7 or 13-14.

[Aedilred]

The novel (and film) Perfume (or Parfum in the original) featured an attempt to, effectively, attain a Charisma score of 50 through the use of a "perfect" perfume.

It worked. The character had murdered several young women to create the perfume and was eventually brought to justice by the father of one, and sentenced to death. He walked out to the execution wearing the perfume and was immediately absolved of all crimes without having to speak; the bereaved father begged his forgiveness and addressed him as his son. In a slightly bizarre turn of events, all the hundreds of people present were so stupefyingly amazed at his wondrousness that a spontaneous mass orgy ensued.

Shortly afterwards, the character realised that now he had achieved his goal, he couldn't think of anything worthwhile to do with the ability and his life was meaningless. He doused himself in the charisma-perfume and was torn apart and eaten by his adoring public, all desperate to possess a part of him.

It's not necessarily a blessing!

[NikitaDarkstar]

Really so what is normal human stats?

Well 18's (the highest you can roll on 3d6, and the highest you're allowed to start with at lvl 1 before racial modifiers) is considered the absolute highest a human can reach. It would represent Olympic gold winners, worlds strongest men competitors, the sharpest minds in the scientific fields and the most (in)famous leaders and con-men.

Heck even the super heroes you were referring too would probably "only" be in their 30's in stats. 50's we're talking gods (seriously Deities and Demigods have Zeus statted out with 51 STR, 34 DEX, 30 CON, 28 INT, WIS and CHA).

Also, in D&D 3.5 if you use points-buy your default is 8 across the board (so -1 penalty on all stats) so normal for a human would most likely be anywhere from 8-12 on any given stat in a traditional D&D setting, and somewhat higher for mental stats in a modern setting using the same system, and the same or even somewhat lower physical stats (lets face it, we're far more educated now, and less likely to have a physically demanding job).

[AMFV]

Well 18's (the highest you can roll on 3d6, and the highest you're allowed to start with at lvl 1 before racial modifiers) is considered the absolute highest a human can reach. It would represent Olympic gold winners, worlds strongest men competitors, the sharpest minds in the scientific fields and the most (in)famous leaders and con-men.


It's important to note that Gold Medal winners would have around 22-25 in their stats, in the measurable ones in any case. For example lifting overhead is one stat that is measurable and is measured in the olympics and the records are significantly higher than 18.

[TuggyNE]

It's important to note that Gold Medal winners would have around 22-25 in their stats, in the measurable ones in any case. For example lifting overhead is one stat that is measurable and is measured in the olympics and the records are significantly higher than 18.

The apparent discrepancy is resolved by permitting one or perhaps two level-up ability bonuses, and using the DMG2 Prodigy stuff for Str bonuses along with UA's Human Paragon.

[AMFV]

The apparent discrepancy is resolved by permitting one or perhaps two level-up ability bonuses, and using the DMG2 Prodigy stuff for Str bonuses along with UA's Human Paragon.

No it's perfectly achievable, I was just saying that to assume that all people can be modeled at level 1 is a little bit fallacious as far as stats go.

[TuggyNE]

No it's perfectly achievable, I was just saying that to assume that all people can be modeled at level 1 is a little bit fallacious as far as stats go.

Aye; the long tail continues past the point that 3d6 can reasonably model, especially with ranges of experience.

[Frozen_Feet]

Well 18's (the highest you can roll on 3d6, and the highest you're allowed to start with at lvl 1 before racial modifiers) is considered the absolute highest a human can reach.

It was considered the highest a human can naturally have in earlier editions of D&D.

By 3rd edition, that assumption ceased to hold true. Even a level 1 human can have some stats above 20. Looking at actual defined effects of stats suggests some real-world people would accurately be statted as having scores around 24.

The 3d6 range is just a starting point. It determines variation for healthy young adult humans. A diseased, exhausted or malnourished character can have a lower score than 3, and an expectionally gifted or trained invidual can have a score above 18.

The easiest real-life benchmarks are found for Strenght and Intelligence. For Strenght, D&D rules directly give you numbers in real-life weight units for how much a character of given STR can lift and in what way. For Intelligence, the rules have always been clear that INT roughly corresponds to IQ. As IQ is rated along a normal curve, and the 3d6 roll creates such a curve, it is fairly trivial to map certain IQ ranges to certain scores on the dice.

In any case, it should be remembered that neither 3 nor 18 are once-in-a-lifetime occasions. They are 1-in-216. In any large human population, you will find people with exceptional scores, just like you will find many thousand people with 99th percentile IQ in a nation with millions of people.

[Joe the Rat]

Str is being able to squash a tomato.
Dex is being able to catch a tomato.
Con is being able to eat a rotten tomato.
Int is knowing a tomato is a fruit.
Wis is knowing it doesn't go in a fruit salad.
Cha is convincing someone to eat it anyway.

A tomato fruit salad is basically salsa.

[TuggyNE]

A tomato fruit salad is basically salsa.

I don't see how that changes anything. :smalltongue:

[Socksy]

There's a stat test in my sig, which seems somewhat relevant.

Would one be able to represent INT as a Normal distribution and add a continuity correction to compare it to IQ, hopefully finding a relationship somewhere along the lines of "Y = kX"? I usually go for something like "Multiply it by nine to ten, acquire IQ".
If so, we can hopefully grab the other stats and use the same constant k to compare them to the IQ ranges people are familiar with and can understand, e.g. "Your rogue has DEX 18? That's about as rare as an IQ of 170" or something.

I'm blathering. Sorry:smalltongue:

[Dorian Gray]

The important thing to remember is that a score of 14 is twice as good as a score of 12. A score of 50 means that the absolute pinnacle of what the average person can do- something that you accomplish once in your life- is what the person with the score of 50 does, not on average, but when he is doing the worst he could possibly do. There is a strong case, and I ascribe to it, that the very pinnacle of humanity is level 5. By the time your stats get to fifty, you're in the epic levels.
*This was done under the assumption that the vast majority of all activity is done via taking ten.