Guide on Matching Rolled Stats to Classes

[Leandro Garvel]

I wasn't certain if this should go into Suggestions/House Rules/Homebrew, so feel free to flag to move if it's in the wrong place.

I was recently invited to join a game that was rolling ability scores in order from STR to CHA, and came up with this spreadsheet to help me pick a class based on those rolled scores.

The general idea: certain classes need certain ability scores to be at a certain level to function well mechanically, but different classes need different scores and there are a lot of classes.

Hence the need for an easily referenced table to know what to do with the weird array of ability scores you just rolled!

Constructive criticism is welcome and encouraged, destructive criticism will be ignored. Hopefully someone will find this helpful :)

Disclaimer:

You can play and enjoy characters that don't have scores where I indicate on the table they should have, or don't have high scores, or just disagree with the table. All the table is designed to do is tell you that the scores you just rolled would make a good (example class)

I used 15, 14 and 13 for the primary/secondary/tertiary minimums because:
a) they're from the heroic array for NPCs and PCs should be at least as good as NPCs of equal level;
b) they are often a minimum starting score to beat CR appropriate Monster defences with an average amount of optimisation;
c) they are frequently necessary minimums to be able to cast your maximum level of spells as a spellcasting class without magic items or racial bonuses (i.e. just from starting score and your 5 Ability Score Increases over 20 levels).

[Kurald Galain]

It's a nice idea, although I question your color choices :) Red usually means "avoid, don't do this" and you're using it for "take this first"...

Magus is a melee character first, caster second; that means his primary should be str or dex as appropriate, secondary should be int. The same goes for Bloodrager, Hunter, Inquisitor, and Warpriest.

For druids and oracles, strength should be tied with wisdom as primary: you can easily build a druid based on shapeshifting who cares about melee attacks, not saving throw DC.

I'm not sure why strength would be the secondary score for a mesmerist? Most mesmerists I've seen aren't into melee combat.

Why doesn't sorcerer have a secondary? Perhaps dex for defense and ranged touch, or con for hit points? Same applies to witch and wizard.

$.02, HTH

[Leandro Garvel]

Kurald Galain wrote:

It's a nice idea, although I question your color choices :) Red usually means "avoid, don't do this" and you're using it for "take this first"...

Magus is a melee character first, caster second; that means his primary should be str or dex as appropriate, secondary should be int. The same goes for Bloodrager, Hunter, Inquisitor, and Warpriest.

For druids and oracles, strength should be tied with wisdom as primary: you can easily build a druid based on shapeshifting who cares about melee attacks, not saving throw DC.

I'm not sure why strength would be the secondary score for a mesmerist? Most mesmerists I've seen aren't into melee combat.

Why doesn't sorcerer have a secondary? Perhaps dex for defense and ranged touch, or con for hit points? Same applies to witch and wizard.

$.02, HTH

You're right, I'll amend it to Green = 1, Yellow = 2, Red = 3 (I was going for traffic lights :P )

I was legitimately in two minds about the hybrid fighting/casting classes like Magus - their casting stat fuels so many of their abilities that I tend to like it the highest, but I can certainly see where you're coming from as well as accuracy and damage are super important. I think I'll see what other people think before I change it.

I think if the Mesmerist wants to use all of it's class features (like Painful Strike) effectively, it needs to be doing some sort of damage, and like the Bard I don't think there's much in it whether they do it with STR or DEX (although I agree I have yet to see a STR Mesmerist...)

Some of the classes don't have a secondary because whilst DEX/CON/WIS are good for every class to have, they don't need them for class features. I'd list CON as a tertiary for everyone if I did that.

Thank you for depositing your two cents at Garvel Bank, and have a great day! :)

[cannen144]

Yeah, I think it's a good idea, though I also noticed that the key lists 1 as green, but through most of the chart, both 1s and 3s are red.
Edit: beat me to it

[Dastis]

Very nice spreadsheet. Saved. A few points of disagreement though(mainly agreeing with the other folks)

Full Arcane casters- wizard, witch, sorcerer, etc. really do need a decent con/dex score if they want to live through more than one session. Also virtually all attack rolls these classes will make will be dex based

Cleric- con is more important than charisma in most cases

Caster/Melee Classes- IE warpreist, magus, etc. Casting stat is typically less important than physical combat stats

[Leandro Garvel]

cannen144 wrote:

Yeah, I think it's a good idea, though I also noticed that the key lists 1 as green, but through most of the chart, both 1s and 3s are red.

Edit: beat me to it

I edited the colours so 1 is green and 3 is red, like Kurald suggested.

[Leandro Garvel]

Dastis wrote:

Very nice spreadsheet. Saved. A few points of disagreement though(mainly agreeing with the other folks)

Full Arcane casters- wizard, witch, sorcerer, etc. really do need a decent con/dex score if they want to live through more than one session. Also virtually all attack rolls these classes will make will be dex based

Cleric- con is more important than charisma in most cases

Caster/Melee Classes- IE warpreist, magus, etc. Casting stat is typically less important than physical combat stats

Thank you! :)

I'm going to add secondary DEX/CON scores to the full arcane casters I think, given the weight of opinion :P

CON is good for everybody, hence the note at the bottom, but Clerics have a class feature that works off of CHA not CON.

[Leandro Garvel]

Added CON as an explicit tertiary score for d6 HD classes.