Good Parties Gone Bad #2

The Stockborough Killings

Sitting in the prison of Wildmure on some trumped-up charges, the four men of my party and I were approached by the mayor. He had a smug look on his face, the kind you just want to slap off.
"We had nothing to do with those thefts!" pleaded Zhet, our paladin. "I have no idea how those rubies got in my bag! We are good people! We're trying to save the world, for Pelor's sake."
"Oh, that is because I put them in there," the mayor said matter of factly.
"Why would you do that?" whined Zhet
"I have a job that needs to be done, and from what I hear you lot can do that for me."
"Why should we help you?" snapped Swayne, our mage.
"Well, I can make this little theft charge go away if you agree to help me. If you don't, I can make sure that you stay in here for the rest of your lives"
"Ok," I said. "What do you need done?"
The mayor explained to us that a caravan would be leaving the town of Stockborough. In the caravan was a merchant. The merchant was transporting some rare goods in a package, and we were to retrieve it. So we were released and started towards Stockborough.

When we found the caravan we saw it was well guarded with near thirty men. In the center of them was a carriage where the package would be. We began to make a plan on how best to get the package. I, being an accomplished rogue, wanted to sneak in and steal it. Zhet, our Paladin, wanted to simply pool our money together and buy it. While we were discussing it, Thrien our Necromancer decided to attack the guards with a spell, in what he called a "surprise attack." The rest of the guards charged at us and a battle started. I snuck around and attacked people from behind while the paladin was chopping through foes like butter, and Swain set a fire ball at the carriage driver / archer, setting the caravan on fire.

After we were the last ones standing, we went to the carriage and tried to open it, but it was locked from the inside. We could hear voices inside; it sounded like a small family.
"All we want is the package," called Zhet.
The door opened, and a man holding a dagger and a package started to jump out. Zhet, with quick reflexes, knocked him back into the carriage, making him drop the two items. I locked the door to make sure he wouldn't try to attack us again. We heard screams of protest from inside. Thrien picked up the package, while Bash, our ranger check out the bodies of the guards.
"So these don't look like real guards" said Bash. The rest of us came over to inspect ignoring the yelling from the carriage.
"They must of just been some towns folk hired to go with this carriage" I said
"Oh Pelor, what have we done we murdered innocent people" said Zhet.
"Um, guys?" interjected Bash
"Why did you just attack them!" Zhet yelled at Thrien.
"guys" Bash said trying to get our attention.
"I though the element of surprise would be best" Thrien snapped back.
"GUYS!" Bash yelled
"WHAT?" Zhet demanded
"I thought you would want to know that the carriage is on fire" Bash pointed to the carriage, it was now engulfed in flames.

Knowing that if we went back to jail we wouldn't be able to save the world from the Demon Lord, we killed some drifters, gave them some basic gear and scattered their bodies throughout the scene.

We opened the package and found that these "rare goods" the mayor wanted so badly, were just some drugs he probably addicted to. To make sure he never did something like this to another party we poisoned half of it and sold the other half. When we gave the drugs to the mayor he told us we had 1 day to get out of town and to never come back. The next morning on our way out of town we heard he "overdosed" on something. We smiled as we walked down the road to finish out quest.

..................................................................................................................

This was a dramatization of a story I read by QuizzicalOstrich. About the horrible deeds his party committed. I love hearing these stories and if you would like me to share yours, send me a message at my reddit.

-Thanks for reading

Charisma: Mental Ability Score or Physical?

Charisma is an odd ability score due to the fact that it has both a mental aspect and a physical aspect.

As defined by 3.5 PHB

Charisma measures a character’s force of personality, persuasiveness, personal magnetism, ability to lead, and physical attractiveness. This ability represents actual strength of personality, not merely how one is perceived by others in a social setting. Charisma is most important for paladins, sorcerers, and bards. It is also important for clerics, since it affects their ability to turn undead. Every creature has a Charisma score.

On one hand, charisma is the power of your personality, how well you influence others.
But also, charisma is how attractive you are.
I know that the "attractive" bit doesn't really have any effect on the game from a numbers perspective, but it does affect how you interact with PCs and NPCs.

Some people don't believe it is fair that just because they have a low charisma, their character should be ugly, and neither do I. So the way I view charisma is that you are either influencing, inspiring, etc.. through either your personality (think William Wallace), through sheer good looks (think Zapp Brannigan), or some combination of both. Now I know that none of this actually affects the mechanics of the game, but D&D isn't just about mechanics; it's about role-playing that character for a few to 12 hours at a time.

The simple little way I like to set up charisma as both a DM and a PC (note: as a PC, just explain this to the DM; if they have an issue with it, remember: they are god. There's nothing you can do):

I spilt my charisma into two different parts: looks and personality. Since the average score of a human is 10, that would mean 5 in looks is average and 5 in personality is average.

If you're a fighter with a charisma of 7 and you don't want to be ugly, just put 5 points in looks, and 2 into personality (that means you look average, but you are  bad with people).

Ideas for RP,

• A Bard with a charisma of 17 (16 in looks, 1 in personality) have Gaston like personality, you are abrasive and you think the world revolves around you.
• A Wizard with a 12 in charisma (10 in looks, 2 in personality) you are a book worm you talk way above peoples intelligence and it rubs people the wrong way, but you are good looking so people put up with it. 

That's it. Like I said: simple, but it's a lot more clear for the DM and other players to know why you can influence people the way you do. If you have questions or comments leave them below or message me on my reddit.

P.S. I claim no ownership to this system or originality, I just picked it up over time.

-Thanks for reading

Good Parties Gone Bad - #1

Story #1

What can make a generally "good"-aligned party do something evil and horrible? This will be a regular feature exploring the complicated moral decisions that a really great DM will make you face. (inspired from post on reddit by jayded777)

Poor Poor Jeffery

This one is a personal experience when I was the DM,
The party woke up in a strange place, and each of them had been transformed into a child about the age of 7. They looked around and it appeared they were in an orphanage. A woman came in and told them it was time to go outside and play, but they demanded to know what was going on, so she slapped one of them, told them not to be rude, and sent them outside.

They found themselves in a small town with high walls right next to a single mountain, but having traveled most of the continent they had no idea where there was a single mountain. Confused, they attempted to start to gather information and figure out how they had been transformed.

They found very little important information. For example; some sort of celebration called "the festival of the Guardian", in honor of the Guardian who keeps the volcano from erupting, would be held 3 days after they initially woke up in the town. Other information included things like "the mayor is sick", or "the kids would be playing pirates on the 2nd day if they could get someone to build them a boat."

At the end of the 3rd day of them trying to figure this all out, the volcano erupted, and killed everyone in the village, including the child-party. They woke up back in the orphanage, the woman came in and told them to go outside and play, and again the festival of the Guardian was in 3 days. This time they tried to go straight to the volcano, but found out little kids weren't allowed outside the walls. So they kept watch every day until the 3rd, when the the gate was no longer guarded due to the festival.

At the base of the volcano there was an entrance to a cave. Inside they found a door and a wall with 10 levers on it. Above each lever was a question: What is Jeffrey's pirate name? What burned down the pet shop? etc. etc. They attempted to pull the levers but none would move. Figuring they needed the answers to pull the levers, they waited until the volcano erupted, (starting the time loop over) to go out and find them.

This was what I thought to be a fun side quest and puzzle, but I was wrong.

The players were mostly mad at the fact they couldn't figure out who put them there and rushed through most of the puzzles - some were fun, most were not. Each of the kids had stats based off their adult forms and had items to go with them being non-proficient with weapons. They each had something that they were proficient with; the spear-wielder for example had a long stick. None of them liked the idea of using the clever, kid-appropriate weapons I gave them, and stole real ones to take the -4 penalty.

Now they got the answer to almost all the questions, but they were stuck on "What is Jeffery's pirate name?" They didn't want to figure out how to get a boat so the kids could play pirate, so instead they kidnapped Jeffery, age 7, and took him into the woods to first interrogate him, then tortured him through various means, almost drowning him, cutting off fingers, skinning him, (you get the idea). They had multiple attempts at this because of the time loop; he would give them an answer, but it didn't work. What they didn't know is, if they played pirates Jeffery changed his pirate name to the name of the boat maker. In the end they ended up getting the boat made and got the name.

I was personally shocked this party of adventurers trying to save the world would torture a little kid. I shouldn't have been. They ended up adopting a "by-any-means-necessary mindset," but it led to a funny story and a good memory.

Well, that's the end for this one, if you have a good story leave it in the comments or send me a message on my Reddit I love reading these stories, and if you are fine with it I might share it in another post.

-Thanks for reading

It's a Small Small World After All.

Every now and then I get an idea for a campaign and just like to write it down, so I thought I'd put one here to see what you think. (In this universe, the spell Plane Shift does not exist)

First Session

Your party is exploring a dungeon, looking for a powerful magic item that is said to be in the deepest layer. When you get to the room, you can feel the magic power radiating from a chest in the center of the room.

You walk up to the chest and open it, and a powerful blast sends you flying and falling, falling, falling, till you hit warm and moist dirt.

Dazed, you try to look around, sunlight blinding you. You are now outside in a massive forest. You start to stand up, and can see your party staring at something. It is a
Massive
9 foot
Hideous
Rat?
Your party prepares for battle...

This is a giant world where everything but the party of adventurers (and some small pockets of humanoids that have been dumped in this world) is 3 size categories bigger. Most humanoids (the giant ones) are simple, can't use magic, and live in small villages. The party can either quest to find a way home or try to find a new home in this terrifying land.

This world can lead to a lot of interesting situations;
think of hiding in a cave to get out of the weather (since in a world were everything is huge even rain can be deadly) and discovering that it is a snake's den.
Capturing and taming a cat to be your mount.
Shadow of the Colossus-like fighting where you have to climb your opponent to kill them.
Watching a wizard cast fire ball and it having the effect of a fire cracker.

Well that's it. So far, at least. It needs some more work, but this is a good starter concept. I love reading new and interesting ideas for worlds, cities, or campaigns. For example, I was just reading a great concept the other day about building a city around a Tarrasque: here is the link if you want to check that out. If you have a great concept send it to me I'd love to hear it.

-Thanks for reading

My top 3 favorite custom magic Items

So playing D&D you will eventually come across a custom magic item or two. Whether you make it or the DM makes it, custom magic items add a little more flavor to the game and make your items more personal. One of my favorite DM's throws custom items at you almost every session, sometimes before he even thinks of what they do, so for the description he will just put "does cool shit" and fill it in eventually. Out of all of the custom items I have come across, it's hard to choose my favorites, and they may change or get substituted depending on the day, but for today these are my top 3 favorites:

3. StoneAx Armor

Bobart (bo-bart) StoneAx, youngest of the StoneAx clan, was a Dwarven Tank battle cleric. He would charge into battle with his mighty ax and tower shield, slinging spells and cutting down enemies, and if any were to try to hit him, their blows would bounce, harmlessly, off his ancient full plate, passed down through his clan. Bobart StoneAx is one of my favorite characters. I played him from levels 3-20, and he grew as a character from a revenge-driven blood-thirsty tool for destruction, to a peaceful, family-oriented, stone-worker.

His clan had an ancient set of armor, The StoneAx Armor, that his grandfather gave to him to help in his adventures. This was +5 glamoured armor (he could make it turn into travel clothes at will). It also had a bunch of other little bonuses including hurting anyone who makes a physical attack on him, and it came with a +3 throwing-and-returning towershield.

This item made my character real. It added to his backstory, it helped him with his niche of being an AC tank, and it grew with me, eventually becoming even more badass as I got to higher levels.

2. The Hover Plate

This one was an item used by the one and only William The Bard. This item was very simple: just a hovering plate, 2 ft. by 4 ft.. Literally, like a dinner plate. That you'd eat off of. It could hold up to 300lbs, and it could be turned on and off, but the reason it was one of my favorite items is what I did with it.

It couldn't move by itself but could be pushed or pulled easily, (no friction) so I decided to mount a collapsible pole and a sail that could handle up to 35 mph wind against it (think of a wind board sail), and got a wand of Control Wind (made by a 12th level druid) that had 5 uses every day.

I would center the Control Wind effect on me, choose a direction, and speed and surf across the land, and since the sail was collapsible it could easily fold up when I got to a town. It was such a fun item to have, and made it so I didn't have to do any of that annoying walking the rest of my party had to do.

1. The Rod of Ropes

During a short campaign that may or may not start again (I hope it does) I played a rouge/assassin (my DM changed prerequisites to be an assassin--I was not evil!), who was very quiet and didn't say much (except to our half-crazed fighter because no one would believe him when he said I talked all the time). He was very greedy when it came to stealing from people who had a lot, and generous to those who had nothing.

Anyways, our DM had us stuck in some ancient ruins and had a puzzle to get us out using two objects, which were meant to have to be left behind. Long story short, we ended up brute-forcing our way out of this puzzle, and kept the items, one of which was a rod with three buttons on it.

The first button shot a 30-foot rope out of one side (still attached to the rod), it also retracted it (by sucking it back in--think a measuring tape). The second button did the same thing for the other side, and the last button ether pulled in or retracted both sides at the same time. Because of the way it pulled back in, I had the bright idea to attempt to tie the rope to something then retract it. The rod pulled the rope all the way to the knot that I had tied, then stopped.

So after I found out what it did and how it worked, I tied grappling hooks to both sides and turned it into a grappling gun. I would shoot the rope out, attach the grappler to something, retract the rope while holding on, and it would pull me to whatever I was hooked to. Suddenly, my character was Batman. I used this rod everywhere, I would even use it in battle, where I would hook one side to the ground or something sturdy and throw the other side, hooking someone with it, then retract it to drag them to me.

It is still my all-time favorite item. Unfortunately, one time while swinging through some trees like Spider Man, I failed a strength check and the rod got sling-shotted into the jungle, never to be seen again. I was destroyed. Utterly emotionally destroyed.


Well those are my top 3 custom items, but there are literally endless more, and I'll tell more about them in some of my game stories. I would love to hear about your favorite magic items or ones that you've thought about making. Leave me a comment or message me on my reddit!

-Thanks for reading

Druids have a very different out look on life and the world

Druid Mentality

I am currently playing a Druid in a friend of mine's campaign. One thing I have always loved about druids is that there are so many kinds of druids you can play, from the tree-hugger-vegan hippie druid to the transform-into-a-panther-and-rip-your-face-off hunter druid. There are just so many unique druids you can play; one thing that I've noticed that binds them all together (besides the class) is that they have a very different outlook on the world compared to most characters you play.

They value nature. They live by some kind basic rule; for example one druid may feel that nature is a thing that needs to be protected, so she goes to a logging town and burns it to the ground while everyone is still in it; she's not evil. In her mind they are the evil ones, (it could be said if she locked everyone inside the town before she burned it, then she could be evil... you say tomato, I say pasta sauce). Another druid could see life as a hunt, tracking down bigger and better game.

I am playing a druid with the thought that life is something to be valued. You shouldn't needlessly kill something because you can, or because you’re hungry. If you can find and eat fruits instead of taking a life you should, but if you're starving and you need to eat, and no other option is available, then killing something to eat would be acceptable. (I am going somewhere with all of this, trust me)

He also believes that everything has a part in the balance of nature: mouse eats the seeds, snake eats the mouse, fox eats the snake, man eats the fox, and the monster eats the man. It’s the way things work, yes, even man and monsters are in this balance. The only thing he will go out of his way to kill is something that is disrupting this balance on a major scale, but whether he kills in self-defense, out of starvation, or to preserve balance, he pays tribute to the life he helped take away by making sure nothing goes to waste.

This brings me to the odd thing about my druid: he believes that if you kill a fox, you skin it, eat the meat, use the bones for daggers, make die out the blood. And if you kill a dragon, you skin it, eat the meat, use the bones for daggers, make die out the blood. If you kill anything at all, you make use of everything you can, which includes humanoids.

This is something that you don't see very often with druids, which I think is odd: a lot of druids claim that killing a tree or animal is as bad as killing a humanoid, yet they still burn the wood and eat the meat of the animal. It's contradictory (if you're a vegetarian I understand because you don't eat any meat) if you're a druid who thinks killing an animal is wrong but still eats of a bear who attacked you and ended up dying, you should do the same with humanoids. It only makes (perfectly!) logical sense.

I know a lot of people will disagree with me, and my party may try to kill my character, but it just makes role-playing sense to me. I don't know if anyone else thinks all the time about how they can play true to their character but I do, thanks for letting me drone on about this! If you disagree or agree leave me a comment or message me on my Reddit.

-Thanks for Reading

Top 10 items you should grab at the start of a campaign

(besides weapons and armor)

10

Pickax

This is an endlessly useful from helping to clear rubble from the cave collapse, breaking in doors, to digging holes, the pickax is your best friend in a lot of brute force tasks.

9

Bags/vials/flasks

collect a little bit of everything while you go, that black goo that is spreading throughout the land get a vial of it and bring it to a wizard, find a bunch of super fruits fill your bags with them. In D&D you come across a lot of things and taking a little sample of it sometimes pays off big, also it’s always nice to have a bag of sand on you to throw into someone’s eyes

8

Sealing wax

This is an odd one for most but I love sealing wax, the ability to make things air tight it’s like your own medieval Tupperware, vials and flasks are great but not completely sealed. Sealing wax is also great when you have to deal with items that require will saves when touched, just dip it in some wax and you shouldn't have to worry about it. Lastly it’s great for making those forged papers official.

7

Mirror

You’re walking through a dungeon and you hear a stomping sound around the corner, you pop your head out for just a second to see what it is and SMASH, a trolls club is the nutcracker and you’re the nut. A mirror could have let you look with some relative safety, especially when attached to a ten foot pole. Mirrors also help distract anther bard so he messes up his lines by shining light in his eyes or they can help identify is someone is breathing by holding it to their mouth and seeing if it fogs.

6

Daggers and lots of them

simply put daggers can be used in just about anything from prying a door open to cleaning your nails, and using them in all these different ways they will wear down so make sure to bring at least 5 with you and hide one in your boot, because that great sword may do a lot of damage but it won't help you when you have been swallowed by a hydra and need to cut your way out (in something’s throat you have to use a small weapon)

5

Bedroll and winter blanket

Inns are great and all but most of the time you are traveling the wilderness, not everyone can carry a big hulking tent but a bedroll and blanket are easy to carry and light. Trust me when your fit as a fiddle in the morning while your party is sore and exhausted (taking a -2 on everything) from sleeping on rocks all night you'll thank me.

4

Oil

having a lot of oil on you not only makes it so you an light your way, it also making lighting things on fire very easy, and fire solves most problems, Big wooden door blocking your way? BURN IT, Treant attacking you? BURN IT. King not giving you your reward BUR.. Well maybe just use a diplomacy check, but if they chase you after you burn their king you can light a line of fire to prevent them from passing and killing you.

3

Grappling hook and rope

Have you ever been at the bottom of a 20 foot pit and just can't climb the walls? I know I have, and you may have thought how am I ever going to get out of here, before I become something’s lunch. Well you should never have to worry about that as long as you bring a trusty grappling hook and rope with this you achieve feats that were always beyond your reach, for example getting out of said pit, getting into that maidens tower, or getting something off that top shelf, you can always really on your grappling hook(warning sometimes there is nothing to grab onto and your screwed good luck).

2

Chalk

this is something every adventurer needs chalk pounds and pounds of chalk, who needs bread crumbs when your retracing your steps and every 5th tree is marked with a big X. You can also grind it up into powder to help grip things better, or to see where those invisible creatures are. Chalk is a great navigation tool and it can help you out of a lot of situations, just be careful that in a labyrinth sometimes the walls move.

1

Food and water

this is the number one thing I see new adventurers forget food and water, its simple but you need to eat to live, don't rely on your survival skill of 2 to get you food just bring at least a weeks’ worth or else the halfing in your party may be getting some looks coming his way that will make him pretty nervous

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Here are an Item that didn't make the list

10 foot pole
Have you ever heard the phrase I wouldn't touch that with a 10 foot pole?
Well that's because 10 foot poles are the safest way to touch dangerous things (in the phrase, the thing, being too dangerous to touch even with a 10 foot pole, like a bear). 10 foot poles can be used for a lot of things to poking a pressure plate to safely set off a trap, to using it to vault a small wall. A 10 foot pole can be use for a lot of things but here is why it didn't make the list, it is sometimes more of a hindrance then helpful, it can make getting into doors and tight spaces harder which is something to really can't have when you being chased, overall its a great item that I highly recommend but you have to be careful how you store it and have to be aware that it can catch on low hanging things. 

Surviving a Party with a Paladin, as a Rogue

A Survival guide to not fighting with those lawful good boy scouts

Now, I have been in quite a few parties where I am playing a roguish character - someone with flexible morals - and someone invited a paladin to the party. And of course my first thought is this guy might try to kill me.
So, dealing with this situation as often as I have, I've gotten very good at doing bad things while still seeming like a Really Nice Guy. I am here to share this knowledge with you, to help prevent party strife, and to make sure all you rogue-like characters still get that treasure.

First of all, the #1 mistake is telling the paladin that you are "a thief" or even "a rogue." I know it sounds a little self-explanatory, but I see it so often: People say, "oh yeah I am a rogue" and for the next twenty sessions, the paladin is occupied spying on you. Don't label yourself as that; just call yourself "a dungeoneer" or "a treasure hunter." Without the label you seem so less shady.

Second, at lower levels don't even try to lie to the paladin - your bluff isn't good enough. He will know you're lying and he might just take your tongue for it (this being the extreme case). Instead, just bend the truth, or talk around. For example, if he asks you where you got that gold necklace, just say you found it - you don't have to mention you found it in someone's house. If he goes further to ask where you found it, you can say you found it in a deserted building (provided no one was home, so that you're not lying). The point I'm making is: think of these ahead of time and be prepared. Don't just say "umm it fell off the cart".

Thirdly - and this is one of the best ways to make it seem like you are a good guy - give gold away. Give it to people in need, give it to the church (the paladin's church works really well), give some to party members; just give away a portion of your gold. It doesn't have to be big, but give a small amount of what you got to someone else, and it will go far to make you seem like a nice guy (I'm talking 10-20% of what you took; not much, but something).

Fourthly, just a quick simple thing: Don't steal from the party! It is in bad taste and, think about it,
rogues are generally pretty fragile. A quick hit from almost anyone in your party is going to kill you; just don't do it. (thank you thomasward4 for the suggestion to add this) 

Lastly, unless it is a plot item or something they really need to know about, don't mention to your party how many items you have, or how much gold you have. If they don't know how much gold you have, how will they know when you get a lot more?
A couple ways to do this: Keep a small amount of gold in a coin pouch on your side and the rest hidden on your body. Use a slight of hand check to strap it to your thigh, or back, or keep a hidden pocket in your backpack that only you know about. The great thing is if you do this, when you give gold away it makes it seem like a bigger donation! How good do you look if instead of giving a homeless man a hand full of coins, you give him your whole pouch? Tell him to stay warm and eat a good meal, and walk away, never looking back. In the end, you gave about the same amount.
Keep in mind to keep track of how much of your gold is where. The person running your game will call you on it.

I hope this helps to make your parties run more smoothly, and keeps your rogues with both their hands. It might also help the paladins with their role playing, because now they don't have to try to punish the rogue all the time or "bring great justice" to him.

A last thought: While your paladin will eventually know about all of your exploits if you do well, he will realize you are a valuable asset to whatever his or her god's goal is, and that you do have a positive influence in the world (even if you're just faking it).

Understanding a Character Sheet for Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 [Abilities]

Ability Scores breakdown for Dungeons and Dragons 3.5

Something I have noticed while playing D&D is that one of the hardest things to do is learn how to build and understand a character and what they can do.
New players are thrown into the deep end with a crash course on Classes, Ability's, and Skills(if they even get to them) because everyone is wanting to get to the game.
So I'm making a series of posts explaining the basics of D&D so that people can understand the game without having to go through the Book and read it cover to cover.
Today I will be starting with Ability Scores and how they affect the game

 

What are Ability Scores

Ability scores are the physical and mental stats that affect almost everything in the game from, your health to how many languages you know. They can be basically broken up into two Categories:
Physical; Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution Mental; Intelligence Wisdom, and Charisma.
When you make your character you generate your scores there are many different ways to do this it just depends on your Dungeon Master (the one running your game). My favorite way is to roll 4 six sided die and drop the lowest roll using this method you will have an average score of 10 which is the average score for any real life human. Each ability has a modifier and that modifier is the number you plug into most things your ability affects, how you get your modifier is you take the number minus 10 and divide by 2 round down. example 15's modifier is 2 (15-10=5)(5/2=2.5)

Strength 

Strength is one of the easiest to explain since we all should know what strength is. 

Simply put though strength is how hard you can hit things, but strength affects more then that, it affects how well you swing melee weapons, how much damage you do with them, how much you can carry and lift, how good you are at wrestling people, and it affects a small section of skills; climb, jump, and swim. An average human score in real life is 10 basically that means some one who can lift 100 lb. over their head a strength of 6 is someone who can only lift 60 lb. over  their head and a strength of 18 (theoretically the highest starting stat) can lift 300 lb. over their head. Strength is an ability you want to focus is you are a fighter or plan on doing a lot of damage in melee range, its also good to have a decent score if you want to be able to carry a lot of items.

Dexterity

Dexterity is how agile you are, how nimble your fingers are, basically your hand to eye coordination.
Dexterity is one of the most versatile ability's it goes in to lot of different little areas to help your character some of the main ones are; Armor Class (it affects how good you are at dodging attacks), how quickly you respond in combat, how accurate with ranged weapons you are, how good you are at dodging a bolder falling down on you, and a large section of skills; Balance, Escape artist, Hide, Move silently, Open lock, Ride, Slight of hand, Tumble, and Use rope. Dexterity is great ability of you want to be an archer, someone who sneaks around, a rogue, or anyone who doesn't want to get hit often.

Constitution

Constitution is how hard of a hit can you take, how long can you sprint without running out of breath, and how good your body is at resisting getting sick. Constitution affects very little stats in the game but that doesn't mean it isn't an amazing ability it affect; how much heath you have, your fortitude saves (resisting poisons and diseases), and lastly the skill concentration. Constitution is great for tanks (people who will try to take a hit over a friend) and fighters since your going to be in the middle of the fight, but even if you aren't looking to be in the middle of a fight you still want a decent constitution score because if its to low you will die very easily the world of Dungeons and Dragons is full of monsters and mayhem, and you don't want getting a splinter to be the thing that does you in.

Intelligence

Intelligence is how book smart you are, how good your critical thinking is, and how quickly you learn skills. Intelligence is the ability that is all about skills, it affects how many bonus skill points you get at the beginning of the game and how many you get every level up, it also affect how many languages you know at the beginning of the game, it is also the ability that affects spells for wizards (I'll explain spells, skill, and classes in another post), and it affects these skills; Appraise, Craft, Decipher script, Disable device, Jump, all of the Knowledge's, Search, and Spellcraft. Intelligence is the ability you want to focus if, you are a wizard, you want to have a lot of skills, or if you just want to know a lot of information. Intelligence should have a lot of influence on how you play your character too lets say you have a Barbarian who has an intelligence of 6 he probably doesn't know how a pulley system works and shouldn't be able to make one.

Wisdom

Wisdom is your street smarts, common sense, and overall instincts. Wisdom affects, the power of your will,(resisting temptation and mind control like things) druid and cleric spell casting, and the skills; Heal, Listen, Profession, Sense motive, Spot, Survival. Wisdom is an ability you will want to focus if you spend a lot of time traveling away from city's, if you want to make sure things don't sneak up on you also if your a Druid or a Cleric. Wisdom should also greatly affect how you play your character for example your playing a very smart wizard but he has a wisdom score of 6 he doesn't know that walking into bar with a bunch of outlaws and showing off his brand new solid gold staff, is a bad idea he just doesn't know any better.

Charisma

Charisma is how good of a leader you are, how good you are at talking, and how attractive you are. Charisma Affects spell casting for Sorcerers and Bards and skills like; Bluff, Diplomacy, Disguising, Gather information, Handle animal, Intimidate, Preform, Use magic device. But Charisma is the ability that affects the most how you should talk in the game how you should interact with NPC's and other Players, are you a jerk are you a sweet talker, do you keep quiet, one of the biggest thing that upsets me in games is how this Ability is not explained, someone with a Charisma of 7 should not be trying to lead the party they can but it should be the guy with the 17 in Charisma, just think of it this way the Paladin with the 6 in his Charisma wouldn't know that calling the pirate lord low life scum is a bad idea he just isn't good with people.


I could go on about each one of these Abilities for pages and pages but then it would be hard to read.
So let me just some them up like this

Strength is being able to crush a tomato.

Dexterity is being able to dodge a tomato.

Constitution is being able to eat a bad tomato.

Intelligence is knowing a tomato is a fruit.

Wisdom is knowing not to put a tomato in a fruit salad.

Charisma is being able to sell a tomato based fruit salad

I hope you enjoyed reading this if you have any questions or suggestions leave a comment or message me on my reddit

    

 

The begining

"Long ago when this world was riddled with magic users, there was a great and terrible Beast who hated humanity and who's soul purpose was to destroy life as we knew it. The Beast raised an army of monsters, demons, undead, and when to each of the great cities of long ago and one by one raided, razed, and rampaged, until he came to the greatest city of all and with his army he laid siege, but the beast was pushed back by the beautiful Princess Eve. Eve Who ruled the land with a gentle hand stood firm to defend her people, Eve met the Beast in an epic combat that left forests aflame, mountains crumbling, and shook the very land we stand on.

The battle Raged on Ten days and on that tenth day Eve built up all her strength and struck a fatal blow on the Beast weakening him then summoned a enormous pit and cast him down into it, but the Beast had one last trick, as it fell it cast a spell that turned the beloved Eve into crystal that shattered. 

With the Beast along with Eve gone, That left what was left of humanity to try and rebuild, try to heal, and try to forget, but some say that deep in the ruins of the old world you can hear the Beast scratching trying to get out and when he does only" Just then one of the drunks in the bar threw a mug and cracked him upside the head. "Why don't you sing us a pretty song instead of telling us that bloody old story" he slurred.

With the bard on stage knocked unconscious, The Drunken Traveler tavern go back to its noisy and rowdy self until a shriek pierced the air "RATS" the Inn owners wife Mrs. Dougal came stomping up from the cellar, the short plump woman was red in the face as she appeared through the door way and shouted at her husband "SINCE YOU DIDN'T GET SOMEONE TO KILL THOSE DAMN RATS I WILL! anyone in here think they can take on some rats for me it'll earn you a warm meal and a bed for the night". A halfling hopped up on his chair and volunteered himself and his companion, as an elf at the bar also volunteered.  a small boy of the age of 8 tugged on her apron "can I help too?" Mrs. Dougal sat him down "no leave it to these men Dine they should be able to do it"

She let the three travelers down into the basement where there was large wooden door blocking the way she unlocked it "I saw at least seven bring them up when your done and I'll have supper ready" as she walked back to the bar she didn't notice the little boy sneak past her. The halfling started sizing up the elf who stood five foot six inches, over 2 and a half feet higher then himself, with olive skin and an angular face, was wearing leather armor with elvish runes etched on the breast and carrying an elven longbow and a quiver of arrows, he said "well since we will be working together my name is Sly Jack and this here is Tidus" motioning to the six foot flat man with a solemn look on his face in the breast plate with a spear and shield on his back.

The elf glared at Tidus then looked Jack up and down noticing is chain shirt and short sword and his cheerful expression "My name is Mathius Greenwood and it doesn't seem like you could kill anything with that tiny of a sword". "Are we killing things?" the three finally noticed the small boy named Dine standing next to them, he was wearing only a shirt, shorts, and a squirrel on his shoulder, he pointed to the squirrel "Pete doesn't think we should kill them maybe just try to move them." Mathuis pushed him to go up the stairs "go back to your mother small human." Jack then opened the door and a chill went up their spines.