What are Statistics?
There are eleven different statistics, Agility, Channeling, Crafting, Fighting, Guard, Mechanical, Mental, Might, Persona, Thievery, and Vitality. Each statistic represents a strength in a specific area that you can focus on developing as you play the game. These statistics are your natural abilities to perform activities and skills related to them. You might have a naturally high statistic to build things, but that doesn’t mean you are skilled enough to use that statistic without training. Your natural abilities reflect on how well you can train in the skills associated with them.
The higher your natural statistics are, the higher your skills can grow. Each statistic has a natural limit of ten. While you cannot increase statistics beyond ten using talents, it is possible to go beyond ten through special abilities and other means.
While the statistic natural maximum is ten, there is a limit on how high statistics can be based on the characters level. A statistics total cannot exceed the character's current level plus four. So, at level two the total any statistic can be at is six and at level six the total reaches the natural maximum of ten.
Statistics total maximum = 10
Statistic total = level + 4
This game doesn’t give you any cookie cutter classes to pick from. Instead, you create your character how you see fit. A player looking to play a melee fighter could focus on fighting, guard, might and vitality. Likewise, a player wanting to be a wizard and channel spells could focus on channeling, Crafting, Mental, and Vitality. There are many other combinations for you to discover the more you play.
To help you out, here is a list of general statistics to focus on for the more traditional classes along with a few non-traditional classes.
Focus on the statistics in the examples, but don’t completely ignore your other statistics. Think of them as secondary to your primary ones.
Determining Statistics
Assign each 1d4 roll to the statistic of your choice during character creation. Look at your starting statistics as the statistics you were naturally born with. Some are more developed than others. All starting statistics, regardless of how they are determined, cannot exceed four. However, through traits it is possible to increase some starting statistics to five.
Character creation statistic maximum = 4
Point Buy Option
An option when creating your character is to use a pool of points that are distributed between your statistics. You have twenty-four points to spend on your statistics. Each point is equal to one statistic and the maximum number of points you can put into a statistic is four. Before using this option, ask your game master if they allow it in their game.
Rolling for Point Buy
Determine your total points to spend in the Point Buy option by rolling 11d4 . The total of that roll is how many points you can distribute, giving you a chance to have over twenty-five points. Keep in mind you can also get fewer points. This method gives you the chance to get anywhere between eleven and forty-four points to spend. Like the Point Buy option, you cannot put over four points into a specific statistic.
Improving Statistics
Increasing your statistics costs two talents per statistic point, but they cannot naturally exceed ten.
2 talents = 1 statistic
See experience points in Chapter 13: Game Rules for more information about talents
Optional: Low Stat Boost
If you roll your dice and the total is twenty-two or less, you can take Point Buy instead.
Example Character Design
These are examples of the statistics players would want to focus on if they were creating characters based on classes from traditional RPGs.Traditional RPG Classes
Bard
Channeling, Fighting, Mental, Persona, and Vitality (Optional: Thievery or Guard)
Cleric
Channeling, Fighting, Guard, Mental, Might, and Vitality
Monk
Agility, Fighting, Guard, Might, and Vitality (Optional: Mental)
Ranger
Channeling, Fighting, Guard, Mental, and Vitality (Optional: Crafting)
Rogue
Fighting, Guard, Mental, Thievery, and Vitality (Optional: Persona)
Warrior
Agility, Fighting, Guard, Might, and Vitality (Optional: Mental)
Wizard
Channeling, Mental, and Vitality (Optional: Crafting and Guard)
Non-Traditional RPG Classes
Diplomat
Mental, Persona, and Vitality (Optional: Channeling, Fighting, or Guard)
Gun Slinger
Guard, Mechanical, Mental, and Vitality (Optional: Might, Agility, or Crafting)
Inventor
Crafting, Mechanical, Mental, Might, and Vitality (Optional: Channeling)
Physician (No Magic)
Crafting, Mental, and Vitality (Optional: Fighting, Mechanical, and Might)
Spell Gun Slinger
Channeling, Fighting, Guard, Mechanical, Mental, and Vitality (Optional: Agility or Might)
Just a note that vitality is a statistic that is important regardless of how you develop your character as it represents your physical health. You should always keep vitality in mind and never use it as a dump stat.