Using Ability Scores

Six abilities provide a quick description of every creature’s physical and mental characteristics:

• Strength, measuring physical power.
• Dexterity, measuring agility.
• Constitution, measuring endurance.
• Intelligence, measuring reasoning and memory.
• Wisdom, measuring perception and insight.
• Charisma, measuring force of personality.

Is a character muscle-bound and insightful? Brilliant and charming? Nimble and hardy? Ability scores define these qualities-a creature’s assets as well as weaknesses.

The three main rolls of the game-the ability check, the saving throw, and the attack roll-rely on the six ability scores. The book’s introduction describes the basic rule behind these rolls: roll a d20, add an ability modifier derived from one of the six ability scores, and compare the total to a target number.

D&D Ability Score Descriptions

Strength

Strength Description Table

Dexterity

Dexterity Description Table

Constitution

Constitution Description Table

Intelligence

Intelligence Description Table

Wisdom

Wisdom Description Table

Charisma

Charisma Description Table

This chapter focuses on how to use ability checks and saving throws, covering the fundamental activities that creatures attempt in the game. Rules for attack rolls appear in chapter 9 of the Player’s Handbook.

Advantage and Disadvantage

Sometimes a special ability or spell tells you that you have advantage or disadvantage on an ability check, a saving throw, or an attack roll. When that happens, you roll a second d20 when you make the roll. Use the higher of the two rolls if you have advantage and use the lower roll if you have disadvantage.

If multiple situations affect a roll and each one grants advantage or imposes disadvantage on it, you don’t roll more than one additional d20. If two favorable situations grant advantage, for example, you still roll only one additional d20.

If circumstances cause a roll to have both advantage and disadvantage, you are considered to have neither of them, nor you roll one d20. This is true even if multi pie circumstances impose disadvantage and only one grants advantage or vice versa. In such a situation, you have neither advantage nor disadvantage.

When you have advantage or disadvantage and something in the game, such as the halfling’s Lucky trait, lets you reroll the d20, you can reroll only one of the dice. You choose which one.

You usually gain advantage or disadvantage using special abilities, actions, or spells. Inspiration (see chapter 4 of the Player’s Handbook) can also give a character advantage on checks related to the character’s personality, ideals, or bonds. The DM can also decide that circumstances influence a roll in one direction or the other and grant advantage or impose disadvantage as a result.

Proficiency Bonus

Characters have a proficiency bonus determined by level, as detailed in chapter 1 of the Player’s Handbook. Monsters also have this bonus, which is incorporated in their stat blocks. The bonus is used in the rules on ability checks, saving throws, and attack rolls.

Your proficiency bonus can’t be added to a single die roll or other number more than once.

Occasionally, your proficiency bonus might be multiplied or divided (doubled or halved, for example) before you apply it. For example, the rogue’s Expertise feature doubles the proficiency bonus for certain ability checks. If a circumstance suggests that your proficiency bonus applies more than once to the same roll, you still add it only once and multiply or divide it only once.

By the same token, if a feature or effect allows you to multiply your proficiency bonus when making an ability check that wouldn’t normally benefit from your proficiency bonus, you still don’t add the bonus to the check. For that check your proficiency bonus is 0, given the fact that multiplying 0 by any number is still 0. For instance, if you lack proficiency in the History skill, you gain no benefit from a feature that lets you double your proficiency bonus when you make Intelligence (History) checks.

In general, you don’t multiply your proficiency bonus for attack rolls or saving throws. If a feature or effect allows you to do so, these same rules apply.

Ability Checks

An ability check tests a character’s or monster’s innate talent and training to overcome a challenge. The DM calls for an ability check when a character or monster attempts an action (other than an attack) that has a chance of failure. When the outcome is uncertain, the dice determine the results.

For every ability check, the DM decides which of the six abilities is relevant to the task at hand and the difficulty of the task, represented by a Difficulty Class. The more difficult a task, the higher its DC. The Typical Difficulty Classes table shows the most common DCs.

Typical Difficulty Class Table

To make an ability check, roll a d20 and add the relevant ability modifier. As with other d20 rolls, apply bonuses and penalties, and compare the total to the De. If the total equals or exceeds the DC, the ability check is a success – the creature overcomes the challenge at hand. Otherwise, it’s a failure, which means the character or monster makes no progress toward the objective or makes progress combined with a setback determined by the DM.

Contests

Sometimes one character’s or monster’s efforts are directly opposed to another’s. This can occur when both are trying to do the same thing and only one can succeed, such as attempting to snatch up a magic ring that has fallen on the floor. This situation also applies when one of them is trying to prevent the other one from accomplishing a goal-for example, when a monster tries to force open a door that an adventurer is holding dosed. In situations like these, the outcome is determined by a special form of ability check, called a contest.

Both participants in a contest make ability checks appropriate to their efforts. They apply all appropriate bonuses and penalties, but instead of comparing the total to a DC, they compare the totals of their two checks. The participant with the higher check total wins the contest. That character or monster either succeeds at the action or prevents the other one from succeeding.

If the contest results in a tie, the situation remains the same as it was before the contest. Thus, one contestant might win the contest by default. If two characters tie in a contest to snatch a ring off the floor, neither character grabs it. In a contest between a monster trying to open a door and an adventurer trying to keep the door dosed, a tie means that the door remains shut.

Skills

Each ability covers a broad range of capabilities, including skills that a character or a monster can be proficient in. A skill represents a specific aspect of an ability score, and an individual’s proficiency in a skill demonstrates a focus on that aspect. (A character’s starting skill proficiencies are determined at character creation, and a monster’s skill proficiencies appear in the monster’s stat block.)

Skills and Attributes

The skills related to each ability score are shown in the following list. (No skills are related to Constitution.) See an ability’s description in the later sections of this chapter for examples of how to use a skill associated with an ability.

• Strength: Athletics
• Dexterity: Acrobatics, Sleight of Hand, Stealth
• Intelligence: Arcana, History, Investigation, Nature, Religion
• Wisdom: Animal Handling, Insight, Medicine, Perception, Survival
• Charisma: Deception, Intimidation, Performance, Persuasion

Tools, Kits, and Attributes

There are also many different tools and kits that also use different attributes for their proficiency.  In some cases, there is a choice for which attribute might be used for a tool or kit.

• Strength: Mason’s Tools, Smith’s Tools
• Dexterity: Calligrapher’s Tools, Carpenter’s Tools, Cobbler’s Tools, Cook’s Utensils, Disguise Kit, Forgery Kit, Harvester’s Kit, Jeweler’s Tools, Leatherworker’s Tools, Luck Gaming Sets, Potter’s Tools, Thieves’ Tools, Tinker’s Tools, Weaver’s Tools, Woodcarver’s Tools
• Constitution: Poisoner’s Kit
• Intelligence: Alchemy Kit, Brewer’s Tools, Cartographer’s Tools, Cook’s Utensils, Herbalism Kit, Navigator’s Tools, Poisoner’s Kit, Strategic Gaming Sets
• Wisdom: Glassblower’s Tools, Navigator’s Tools, Vehicle (Land), Vehicle (Water)
• Charisma: Musical Instruments, Painter’s Tools

Sometimes, the DM might ask for an ability check using a specific skill – for example, “Make a Wisdom (Perception) check.” At other times, a player might ask the DM if proficiency in a particular skill applies to a check. In either case, proficiency in a skill means an individual can add his or her proficiency bonus to ability checks that involve that skill. Without proficiency in the skill, the individual makes a normal ability check.

Passive Checks

A passive check is a special kind of ability check that doesn’t involve any die rolls. Such a check can represent the average result for a task done repeatedly, such as searching for secret doors repeatedly. or can be used when the DM wants lo secretly determine whether the characters succeed at something without rolling dice, such as noticing a hidden monster.

Here’s how to determine a character’s total for a passive check:

• 10 + all modifiers that normally apply to the check.

If the character has advantage on the check, add 5. For disadvantage, subtract 5. The game refers to a passive check total as a score.

The rules on hiding in the “Dexterity” section below rely on passive checks, as do the exploration rules in chapter 8 in the Player’s Handbook.

Working Together

Sometimes two or more characters team up to attempt a task. The character who’s leading the effort – or the one with the highest ability modifier-can make an ability check with advantage, reflecting the help provided by the other characters. In combat, this requires the Help action (see chapter 9 in the Player’s Handbook).

A character can only provide help if the task is one that he or she could attempt alone. For example,, trying to open a lock requires proficiency with Thieves’ Tools, so a character who lacks that proficiency can’t help another character in that task. Moreover, a character can help only when two or more individuals working together would be productive. Some tasks, such as threading a needle. are no easier with help.

Group Checks

When several individuals are trying to accomplish something as a group, the DM might ask for a group ability check. In such a situation, the characters who are skilled in a particular task help cover those who aren’t.

To make a group ability check. everyone in the group makes the ability check. If at least half the group succeeds, the whole group succeeds. Otherwise, the group fails. Group checks don’t come up very often. and they’re most useful when all the characters succeed or fail as a group.

Hiding

When you try to hide, make a Dexterity (Stealth) check. Until you are discovered, or you stop hiding, that check’s total is contested by the Wisdom (Perception) check of any creature that actively searches for signs of your presence.

You can’t hide from a creature that can see you. and if you make noise (such as shouting a warning or knocking over a vase), you give away your position. An invisible creature can’t be seen, 50 it can always try to hide. Signs of its passage might still be noticed, however, and it still must stay quiet.

In combat, most creatures stay alert for signs of danger, so if you come out of hiding and approach a creature, it usually sees you. However, under certain circumstances, the Dungeon Master might allow you to stay hidden as you approach a creature that is distracted, allowing you to gain advantage on an attack before you are seen.

Passive Perception. When you hide, there’s a chance someone will notice you even if they aren’t searching. To determine whether such a creature notices you, the DM compares your Dexterity (Stealth) check with that creature’s passive Wisdom (Perception) score, which equals 10 + the creature’s Wisdom modifier, as well as any other bonuses or penalties. If the creature has advantage, add 5. For disadvantage, subtract 5.

What Can You See? One of the main factors in determining whether you can find a hidden creature or object is how well you can see in an area, which might be lightly or heavily obscured, as explained in chapter 8 in the Player’s Handbook.