                        ABILITY SCORES GENERATION SYSTEM
                                   Version 1.0

                                       by
                                   Gaetan Viau
                              <grafx@videotron.ca>


AD&D and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons are registered trademarks of TSR Inc. The use of those terms is not intended as a challenge to the trademark status and ownership of TSR Inc.

This Ability Scores Generation System may be distributed freely as long as no profit is made from this distribution. Any comments, suggestions and/or questions should be forwarded to me at the following electronic mail address: grafx@videotron.ca. Any such comments are welcomed and encouraged. I would ask that when you distribute a copy of this text to anybody, that you distribute an unaltered copy.

The following Ability Scores Generation System has been created for use with the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rule system. It does not constitute an affront to the creators of the original generation methods provided in the Player's Handbook. It merely tries to fix some of the problems that are encountered with these original methods. The major problem seen is the lack of flexibility and the lack of rules that bring in a logic method of creation. Please take note that this system do not take into account the new ability scores subdivisions of the Player's Option: Skills and Powers later released by TSR Inc.

The ability scores generated by this system will give you one of the three (3) following results: You will feel that it generates ability scores that are either too low, too high or perfect for your campaign style. The good thing about this generation system is that it is easy to adapt to any campaign style. I will show you how in a moment.



THE SYSTEM
----------

This system is based on a number of points that are distributed between the six (6) basic attributes as the player sees fit. This gives the player total control over what kind of character he wants to play, thus making the character even more interesting to him. The way by which it does that is a very simple way: the more an ability score is raised, the more it costs in term of points to raise it. I have considered certain ability scores 'less important' than other ones and are thus easier to raise. I have done this for one good reason: I believe some ability scores become more easily 'game unbalancing' than others. You will thus notice that certain ability scores costs more to raise than others.

Here are the different bases at which will be added the points for every ability scores:

Strength       5
Dexterity      5
Constitution   5
Intelligence   5
Wisdom         6
Charisma       7

The player possesses a score of 54+3d6 points to distribute between those six (6) attributes as he sees fit. Here are the costs to raise an ability score from the base shown above to a higher score:

               6   7   8   9  10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17  18
Strength       1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9  11  14  19  25(26)*
Dexterity      1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9  11  14  19  25
Constitution   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9  12  15  20  26
Intelligence   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9  11  14  19  24
Wisdom         -   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   9  11  14  19  24
Charisma       -   -   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   9  12  16  20

* Exceptional Strength score costs 26 points instead of 25.

The DM might also decide to give a certain fixed amount of points to his players. That is, instead of the players rolling 3d6 to add to base of 54, the DM could decide for example to give a flat 69 points to all players in his campaign. He could also decide that the total amount of points given by the range specified is either too low or too high and thus, can easily change this range to his liking. This gives the DM control on how powerful the characters in his campaign will be. What I did in the last campaign I DMed was that I gave the players 69 points to spend as they wished. Here is an example of ability scores generated with 69 points for the Paladin Hohlan the Unknown:

Strength:      16
Dexterity:     16
Constitution:  15
Intelligence:  11
Wisdom:        13
Charisma:      17



RESTRICTIONS
------------

Certain restrictions apply to how ability scores can be raised. These restrictions have been applied to this system to make sure that a certain logic is retained in the overall ability scores of characters generated by it. Here are the restrictions:

Constitution and Strength scores cannot differ from more than 6 points. (People with high Strength are usually more resistant and vice-versa. Any exceptional Strength score will be considered as 19 for this purpose.)

Intelligence and Wisdom scores cannot differ from more than 6 points. (Intelligent people will usually have a greater Wisdom due to a higher capability to analyze and vice-versa.)

Maximum Dexterity score for a character with exceptional Strength score between 18/01 and 18/50 is 16.
Maximum Dexterity score for a character with exceptional Strength score between 18/51 and 18/00 is 15.
(Being very muscular will usually result in a person that is more stiff and thus having less Dexterity.)



WORD OF THE END
---------------

I hope that you will find my Ability Scores Generation System useful and over all, easy to use. If you use this system in your game, I ask for no money in exchange, all I want is that you let me know of any problems you might encounter with it. Playtesting is the best way to improve new rules.

As new and improved version of this system comes out (if any), I will try to distribute it to as many people as I can. Make sure that if you gave a copy of this system to a friend and that you come upon a newer version, that you send it to your friend.

Thanks a lot for your interest and keep the comments coming in. Enjoy!

Please note that an HTML version of this system as well as the Mana Point Magic System can be found at the following URLs (it could really help to understand the tables):
Mana Point Magic System: http://pages.infinit.net/grafx/manasystem.html
Ability Scores Generation System: http://pages.infinit.net/grafx/ability.html


-----------
Gaetan Viau
grafx@videotron.ca
Details on my FR Dalelands Campaign: http://pages.infinit.net/grafx
