I’ve heard a lot of interpretations of ability scores. The most common of these is “Charisma correlates strongly to good looks”, which is incorrect and tends to irritate players of low-Charisma characters, but anytime there’s something the stats don’t cover explicitly (like weight and build), we try to draw conclusions about them based on the hard numbers we have. The problem is that this still leave a lot to interpretation. What’s the actual strength difference between a person who can lift 80 pounds and a person who can lift 100 pounds? How tough is a bard with Constitution of 14, really? What does it mean for my character when I roll poorly and have to drive the 3-Charisma barbarian?

I put together this list a few years ago to try to put this in simple language. Below are some quick descriptions of every stat, from 1 (a modifier of -5, or as low as a character can get without being undead or a construct) to 25 (a modifier of +7, or as high as a PHB character can get without magic):

Strength

1 (–5): Morbidly weak, has significant trouble lifting own limbs



2-3 (–4): Needs help to stand, can be knocked over by strong breezes



4-5 (–3): Knocked off balance by swinging something dense



6-7 (–2): Difficulty pushing an object of their weight



8-9 (–1): Has trouble even lifting heavy objects



10-11 (0): Can literally pull their own weight



12-13 (1): Carries heavy objects for short distances



14-15 (2): Visibly toned, throws small objects for long distances



16-17 (3): Carries heavy objects with one arm



18-19 (4): Can break objects like wood with bare hands



20-21 (5): Able to out-wrestle a work animal or catch a falling person



22-23 (6): Can pull very heavy objects at appreciable speeds



24-25 (7): Pinnacle of brawn, able to out-lift several people

Dexterity

1 (–5): Barely mobile, probably significantly paralyzed



2-3 (–4): Incapable of moving without noticeable effort or pain



4-5 (–3): Visible paralysis or physical difficulty



6-7 (–2): Significant klutz or very slow to react



8-9 (–1): Somewhat slow, occasionally trips over own feet



10-11 (0): Capable of usually catching a small tossed object



12-13 (1): Able to often hit large targets



14-15 (2): Can catch or dodge a medium-speed surprise projectile



16-17 (3): Able to often hit small targets



18-19 (4): Light on feet, able to often hit small moving targets



20-21 (5): Graceful, able to flow from one action into another easily



22-23 (6): Very graceful, capable of dodging a number of thrown objects



24-25 (7): Moves like water, reacting to all situations with almost no effort

Constitution

1 (–5): Minimal immune system, body reacts violently to anything foreign



2-3 (–4): Frail, suffers frequent broken bones



4-5 (–3): Bruises very easily, knocked out by a light punch



6-7 (–2): Unusually prone to disease and infection



8-9 (–1): Easily winded, incapable of a full day’s hard labor



10-11 (0): Occasionally contracts mild sicknesses



12-13 (1): Can take a few hits before being knocked unconscious



14-15 (2): Able to labor for twelve hours most days



16-17 (3): Easily shrugs off most illnesses



18-19 (4): Able to stay awake for days on end



20-21 (5): Very difficult to wear down, almost never feels fatigue



22-23 (6): Never gets sick, even to the most virulent diseases



24-25 (7): Tireless paragon of physical endurance

Intelligence

1 (–5): Animalistic, no longer capable of logic or reason



2-3 (–4): Barely able to function, very limited speech and knowledge



4-5 (–3): Often resorts to charades to express thoughts



6-7 (–2): Often misuses and mispronounces words



8-9 (–1): Has trouble following trains of thought, forgets most unimportant things



10-11 (0): Knows what they need to know to get by



12-13 (1): Knows a bit more than is necessary, fairly logical



14-15 (2): Able to do math or solve logic puzzles mentally with reasonable accuracy



16-17 (3): Fairly intelligent, able to understand new tasks quickly



18-19 (4): Very intelligent, may invent new processes or uses for knowledge



20-21 (5): Highly knowledgeable, probably the smartest person many people know



22-23 (6): Able to make Holmesian leaps of logic



24-25 (7): Famous as a sage and genius

Wisdom

1 (–5): Seemingly incapable of thought, barely aware



2-3 (–4): Rarely notices important or prominent items, people, or occurrences



4-5 (–3): Seemingly incapable of forethought



6-7 (–2): Often fails to exert common sense



8-9 (–1): Forgets or opts not to consider options before taking action



10-11 (0): Makes reasoned decisions most of the time



12-13 (1): Able to tell when a person is upset



14-15 (2): Can get hunches about a situation that doesn’t feel right



16-17 (3): Reads people and situations fairly well



18-19 (4): Often used as a source of wisdom or decider of actions



20-21 (5): Reads people and situations very well, almost unconsciously



22-23 (6): Can tell minute differences among many situations



24-25 (7): Nearly prescient, able to reason far beyond logic

Charisma

1 (–5): Barely conscious, incredibly tactless and non-empathetic



2-3 (–4): Minimal independent thought, relies heavily on others to think instead



4-5 (–3): Has trouble thinking of others as people



6-7 (–2): Terribly reticent, uninteresting, or rude



8-9 (–1): Something of a bore or makes people mildly uncomfortable



10-11 (0): Capable of polite conversation



12-13 (1): Mildly interesting, knows what to say to the right people



14-15 (2): Interesting, knows what to say to most people



16-17 (3): Popular, receives greetings and conversations on the street



18-19 (4): Immediately likeable by many people, subject of favorable talk



20-21 (5): Life of the party, able to keep people entertained for hours



22-23 (6): Immediately likeable by almost everybody



24-25 (7): Renowned for wit, personality, and/or looks

This really isn’t valid for 4th-Edition though. For one thing, the minimum you can get is 4th is a score of 3, and the minimum the system wants you to have is 8 since it discouraging rolling for stats at all. On top of that, the maximum is 30, and I’m not entirely sure where you can go from the capstones above. Stats also (always) scale with level and there are no magical ways to modify them, so it feel more like the ability scores are shoved to the back end of the character sheet, used in other calculations but meaningless for an actual description of a character.

Edit: Given the popularity of this post, it’s been retroactively extended with additional analysis in two parts:

What Measure is an 18?

The Definition of Charisma

