Creating your Character (Rolling your stats)

Chapter 6: Creating your Character (Rolling your stats)

You've now reached the most time-consuming (read: boring) part of Character Creation: Rolling dice over and over and over again. Each character has 6 stats, that will determine how skilled he is at his chosen profession: These are Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. The general range in which these scores can vary is from 3 to 18, with 10 being the 'average' score, about what you would expect a normal human to be. I've heard two stories on how the computer rolls your stats: One is that it rolls 3D6, resulting in a range from 3 to 18. The other is that it actually rolls 4D6, then throws out the lowest one. I'm more inclined to think the 2nd theory is true, because when I'm rolling, I see a lot more 18s go by than I do 3s. The maximum score in each stat is determined by your race (remember in chapter 3, how I got all excited about Dwarves and Half-Orcs being able to reach 19 CON), and the minimum is determined by your race and class (Elves are suppsed to be lithe and graceful, and cannot go below 8 CHA. Mages and Bards are required to have at least 9 INT). You'll notice that some characters take a lot longer to get really good scores than others. For instance, let's compare a Paladin with a Human Thief. The Paladin is a Warrior, so he can't roll less than a 9 in STR and CON, and also must have at least 13 WIS and 17 CHA. These enforced minimums shift the die roll upward, ensuring a high total almost every time. A Human Thief, on the other hand, has only one minimum�9 DEX�so you'd have to roll for a long time to get a good total. Multiclass characters have to abide by the minimums of both/all their classes, so they get good rolls as well, as do Rangers. Lucky you, you can hit Reroll as many times as you want�how good your character can be is limited only by your patience. Plan to spend at least 10 minutes hitting Reroll, saving your numbers occasionally when you hit a new "high score." The music for this part of BG1 is rather repetitive and gets old fast, so you might want to have a good CD handy. The music in BG2 is much better.

The Stats Themselves:

STR: Your Strength determines how much weight you'll be able to carry, your odds of forcing open locks (why you wouldn't just have your Thief do it, I don't know), and any THAC0/Damage bonuses you'll get when using a melee weapon in combat. Anybody on the front lines should probably have at least 14 Strength, both for decent offensive power and the ability to lug around heavy armor. Party members using ranged weapons from the back rank don't really need STR for anything except wearing armor, but should have some anyway to get a decent Weight Allowance. The lowest reasonable score is 6; only Wizards, with their lightweight Robes, should even consider going this low. Also important to Warriors is the Strength Modifier: If you get an 18 STR (or put points into it to make it 18),
you'll see a 2-digit number in parentheses after the 18. This is because the AD&D people got sick of everybody giving their Fighters 18 Strength, so to put a little variety in there, they decreed that all Warriors with 18 Strength must roll a D100 and use that as a bonus on top of the 18 STR, with 18(01) being the worst, and 18(00) the best. Check the STR table for details. In BG2, many types of armor and weapons have STR requirements: To wear Plate Armor, you need 12 STR. To use a Composite Longbow, you need 18 STR. Strength requirements are listed in Appendix 1.

DEX: Always, always, ALWAYS max out your Dexterity, no matter what class of character you're making. Not only does it enhance your starting Thieving skills and your aim with all ranged weapons, but the bonuses it gives to your Armor Class will save your life at least a hundred times in BG1 alone. Trust me.

CON: Your Constitution should also be very high, as it determines the number of additional hitpoints you'll gain at each Level Up. Note that only Warriors get any hitpoint bonuses for a Constitution higher than 16, so going into the 17-19 CON range on a Cleric would be a waste. I've heard that a high CON makes you slightly more resistant to Poison and other
things involving the Save vs. Death, but I've never seen any concrete evidence of this. Also, take note that some creatures will have a CON so high that they actually regenerate lost hp�this starts happening with characters who have a CON of 20, who Regenerate 1 hp every turn. Higher CON = Higher regeneration rate.

INT: Intelligence is only truly important to Mages and Bards, as it determines their odds of copying a spell scroll to their Mage Book. When a scroll is being transcribed, the game checks the Wizard's current INT score to find his base percent chance to copy the scroll, then imposes penalties if the scroll is of a higher spell level than he can currently cast. (I've also heard that the Specialist Mages have a +10% chance to transcribe spells of their own School, but -10% chance to transcribe scrolls from any other School.) Also, know that there are INT-related limits on which spell levels you can learn, and how many spells of each level you can learn. When you're scribing scrolls, the game will look at your current INT and see what you're allowed to copy to your book: If your INT is 16, you cannot learn
9th-Level spells, and you may learn only 11 spells of each spell level. (Note: The limit on which spell levels are open to you does not apply to the NPC Mages, only to your PC. So an NPC Mage with an INT of 9 will still be able to cast 9th-Level spells at the same time as a much smarter Mage would be able to.) For all the other classes (including the Sorcerer), Intelligence is only really important for roleplay purposes: It's no fun being a big, strong, fearless, mighty hero if you're so stupid you can't even form complete sentences. Also, BG2 brings us Mind Flayers, one of whose characteristics is that each of their melee hits temporarily drains 5 points of Intelligence from the victim. So if you dropped your INT down to 3 in order to put those points into STR, DEX and CON, one Critical Hit means you're dead, regardless of how many hitpoints you have. (Hitting 0 in any of your stats�even for a second�means instant death. If the stat loss is permanent, the character cannot be resurrected). Oh, yeah, one more thing�All of the Wands (including Priest Wands) and the Protection Scrolls (the green ones) require at least 9 INT.

WIS: A Priest's Wisdom, if it's 13 or higher, grants the Priest extra spells of certain levels, which increases his usefulness as he's able to cast more spells per day. Although Rangers and Paladins can also cast Priest spells, they do not get more spells for having a high Wisdom�that bonus is conferred only on Clerics and Druids. Non-Priests (including the Monk) have no need for WIS, except for roleplaying, and of course Lore. I've heard that a high WIS makes you slightly more resistant to Charm, Confusion, and other spells involving the mind, but I've never seen any concrete evidence of this. Also, in BG2 there are several dialogues that check your INT and WIS scores: If you're a moron, the smarter response options will not be open to you.

CHA: Although the least important of the 6 statistics, your Charisma (how good-looking, polite, and persuasive
you are) can make a huge difference in gameplay. Shopkeepers will lower their prices for sweet-talking heroes, and raise them through the roof for butt-ugly villians. Some people won't even talk to you at all if you smell like rancid fish heads. Charisma is also a factor within your own party: Certain NPCs hate certain other NPCs' guts, and mixing them in your party is bound to lead to trouble....but if your Charisma is high enough, that trouble will be postponed for a good long time�perhaps even forever. Also, I heard a story about one guy who gave his PC a really low CHA, and took his party to go fight a Red Dragon. When the time came, one member of his party flat-out refused to attack the giant, fire-breathing monster. How's that for realism?

How do you know when a roll is good enough? A roll of all 14s is decent, all 15s is quite good, and all 16s is excellent. Anybody who says a roll of all 16s (a total of 96 stat points) is not enough is a power-hungry megalomaniac, and should be treated with contempt and pepper spray. The best possible roll is, of course, all 18s. You'll never get one. In fact, you have substantially better odds of winning the lottery than you do of getting the maximum rolls in all your stats. The best scores that I ever rolled (that I can recall offhand, anyway) were a 95 on a Half-Elven Cleric/Mage, a 96 on a Half-Elven Conjurer, and a 97 on a Paladin. A very common arrangement is to give yourself 18s in the 3 stats that matter the most to you, and 10s in the other 3. As this requires "only" 84 stat points, it's fairly simple to do.

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