Comments on: Playing Characters With Low Ability Scores

By: The Advantages of Using 3d6 Over Point Buy — Dungeon's Master

The Advantages of Using 3d6 Over Point Buy — Dungeon's Master — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 15:01:20 +0000

[...] Playing Characters With Low Ability Scores [...]

By: moocow

moocow — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 10:35:01 +0000

well in the skill article here, you tell people to raise their lowest skills, but here your penalizing people for having the stats associated with those skills fail more if the ability is low.

How would you treat a character with 4 charisma but a high bluff trying to lie?

By: Traps: Challenge the Players and the Characters — Dungeon's Master

Traps: Challenge the Players and the Characters — Dungeon's Master — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 16:56:58 +0000

[...] Where this becomes more troublesome is outside of combat. During the non-combat parts of role-playing games players have to be more mindful of separating what they can do from what their character can do. This situation can be troublesome when playing characters with exceptionally high ability scores or playing characters with exceptionally low ability scores. [...]

By: Addressing Your Weaknesses (Part 2) — Dungeon's Master

Addressing Your Weaknesses (Part 2) — Dungeon's Master — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 14:02:14 +0000

[...] that your choice to have low mental attributes should have in-game, role-playing implications. In Playing Characters With Low Ability Scores we look at how to overcome problems that arise from players who refuse to play to their low ability [...]

By: A Beginner’s Guide to Dungeons & Dragons (Part 2) — Dungeon's Master

A Beginner’s Guide to Dungeons & Dragons (Part 2) — Dungeon's Master — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 17:34:11 +0000

[...] Playing Characters With Low Ability Scores [...]

By: rubburtrogdor

rubburtrogdor — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 04:12:05 +0000

I have always played to my character’s ability scores. I always try to make sure that my Int is at least an 11. Other than that, I Will play on a Cha score of less than 12, it’s fun. Most of the time, though, I’ll only have 1 low ability score and sometimes, I’ll make it a physical ability. It make an interesting game when your Minotaur barbarian can not travel at as steady a pace with the rest of the group, or something along those lines.

I do have a friend who always plays in character, most definatly the ability scores of his character(s). He also, usually plays races that tend to have a general living construct-type or races that are naive to the happenings of the world. He does it quite well, too. Kind of makes me think what his Int score is at…

By: Elizabeth Barrette

Elizabeth Barrette — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 07:28:42 +0000

As a game master, I like to reward players for playing in-character, even if that means mayhem will result from the character’s actions. If the character is well chosen, the player will *enjoy* flubbing certain things. That works better if the game master and other players go along with it. So I’ve rarely had a problem getting players to follow their character sheet. The exceptions are times when people didn’t realize exactly how the character would play out, and he’s a bit different than they thought — it’s not rare to need a little tweaking after two or three sessions.

As a player, I enjoy having a character with a wide range of scores. I like to push one or two high and another low. Last time it was a centaur character who strong and fast, with a high Wisdom too — but low on intelligence. I played Bayfeather as an intuitive rather than intellectual person. So when he cooked, for instance, he didn’t use recipes. He had great instincts, but wasn’t much for book-learning, math, or complicated explanations. And he had a tendency to solve problems in a very direct fashion. I loved playing him.
.-= Elizabeth Barrette´s last blog ..The Age of Stupid =-.

By: ducttapebandit

ducttapebandit — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 18:20:11 +0000

Whenever my brother comes up with a plan, he has taken to using percentile dice to see if his character can come up with the same plan and present it well. It’s a bit extreme, especially since he has decent int, but as a DM I might use it on occasion if I were in the situation described above.

By: Dungeon

Dungeon — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 14:22:16 +0000

@Ameron
yeah! like To hide the fact that the Fighter can’t actually fight. i did that once. or the Rogue who was clumsy (his dexterity was 7) and tried to impress the thieve’s guild by stealing the King’s jewels. Or i remember a time when i played a wizard who actually couldn’t cast spells because his intelligence was too low, (10 or lower) he had to “fake it,” it was great! The only other example i can think of was when i played a Ranger that was allergic to trees.

By: Ameron

Ameron — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 14:12:35 +0000

@Dungeon
I too like playing flawed characters. They’re often much more interesting then a PC who has it completely together. Just remember that if you’re playing a character with a low score that there will be limits to what he can and cannot do. I like the idea of trying to hide the PCs inadequacies. That should make for some good role-playing.