The six typical stats of a character. Dating all the way back to Dungeons & Dragons, the granddaddy of all RPGs, they have been passed on into other gaming systems (either wholesale or with minor variations), and even farther into non-RPG media.
Classic Six Stats
- Strength: May be called Prowess in some systems. The stat that represents a person's physical power. Used to determine how strong they are and how hard they hit. Used mostly by martial classes. Since the usefulness of this stat drastically drops in systems that aren't heavily Hack and Slash, it's sometimes collapsed in with Constitution in variant systems.
- Dexterity: Also known as Agility in some systems. Dexterity represents a person's physical nimbleness. Used to determine fine motor skills, reaction time, and aiming. May or may not turn out to be The God Stat, particularly for combat purposes. Used by mostly stealth or ranged classes. Due to its reputation as The God Stat, this one is occasionally split into two in variant systems, splitting up its duties between them in some combination.
- Constitution: Also known as Endurance, Toughness, or Vitality in some systems. The stat representing a character's physical toughness. Used to determine how much damage someone can take and how well they resist poisons, illnesses, etc. Used almost universally by all classes (everybody wants Hit Points), but mostly focused on by those that use endurance. Also often associated with a particular form of willpower, namely the ability to take a hit without even flinching or to go far longer than anyone really should be able to by sheer force of stubborness.
- Intelligence: May be known as Mind, IQ, or Intellect in some systems. The stat representing how smart a character is. Used to show how skilled a person is, how quickly they learn, their ability to recall useful information in a pinch, how good they are at logical puzzles, how good their long-term memory is, how many languages they can speak, etc. Used by mostly arcane magic classes.
- Wisdom: May be known as Will in some systems. The stat representing a person's prudence, common sense, and street-smarts, and sometimes how good their imagination and lateral thinking ability is. In a nutshell, intelligence can be described as knowing why things work the way they do, while wisdom is knowing how they work and how to use that to its greatest potential. Used to determine a character's perception, willpower, and decision-making skills. Used by mostly divine classes, and so sometimes associated with piety as well. Also often used as a measure of sanity. For comparison, an Absent-Minded Professor or a Ditzy Genius is high in Intelligence but low in Wisdom, while someone with Simple-Minded Wisdom, Wisdom from the Gutter, or Street Smart is often not that intelligent, but is quite wise. Meanwhile, any shade of The Philosopher tends to rank high in both Intelligence and Wisdom. As the vaguest and least cohesive of the stats, variant systems often rename it, usually into some variation of "perception" or "willpower", depending on what aspect of it the system wants to focus on, although splitting the stat into both is not unheard of either.
- Charisma: May be known as Personality in some systems. The stat representing a person's force of personality. Used to determine how well someone can influence others by speeches, diplomacy, fear, lying, etc. To a player whose preferred solution is Hack and Slash, this is a Dump Stat; to a player who likes to roleplay, or wants to run a Manipulative / Magnificent Bastard, it's the stat of choice. If social situations are at all important, this will be the stat for them. Asking whether or not this stat includes personal appearance or beauty is a good way to start a Flame War in certain circles. As the poster child of the Dump Stat, this is the first stat to go in many variant systems, although some systems instead handle its reputation by broadening its scope, to things as esoteric as "luck" or "stability of the soul".
A Luck Stat is the most common way of adding something new to this setup.
Sister Trope of Three-Stat System. See also Gaming Stat Tropes. Compare with One Stat to Rule Them All and Video Game Weapon Stats.
Examples:
Anime & Manga
- The Stands of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure have Destructive Power (str), Speed (dex), Range (how long from its user it can go), Power Persistence (con), Precision (int), and Development Potential (how much it can improve, and the only stat you generally want to see go down).
Comic Books
- The Marvel Universe has its Power Grid, which lists str, dex, con, int, fighting ability, and energy projection. It has a seven-point scale, which by its description maps to 1-8 (1), 9-11 (2), 12-15 (3), 16-19 (4), 20-23 (5), 24-30 (6), and 30+ (7).
Tabletop Games
- Alternity, mostly unrelated to D&D but by the same company.
- Betrayal at House on the Hill combines Strength and Constitution into "Might", renames Intelligence to "Knowledge", and Dexterity to "Speed", and replaces Wisdom with a Sanity Meter.
- Dungeons & Dragons, the Trope Maker. Early editions commonly house-ruled in two additional stats, i.e. perception and appearance. Although the scale of the stats depends heavily on the edition:
- In the first and second editions, starting characters rank from 2 (minimum on the die roll and racial penalty) to 19 (maximum roll and racial bonus). Top-level characters can theoretically go up to 25, although increasing stats is pretty hard and unlikely. Everything in the whole world has a cap of 25.
- In the third and 3.5th editions, starting characters rank from 5 (minimum point buy and racial penalty) to 22 (maximum point buy and racial bonus). Top-level characters commonly reach 36 (easily, using standard magical items) and with enough optimization, they can get above 60.
- In the fourth edition, starting characters rank from 8 (minimum point buy; racial penalties don't exist) to 20 (maximum point buy and racial bonus). Top-level characters reach around 26 normally, or up to 30 if optimized.
- In the fifth edition, starting characters rank from 3 (minimum die roll; racial penalties don't exist) to 20 (maximum die roll and racial bonus). Characters have a hard cap of 20, so it's entirely possible to start at this cap and never improve.
- ICONS does a six-stat approach: Prowess (melee like FASERIP's Fighting), Coordination (Dexterity), Strength, Intellect (Intelligence), Awareness (basically FASERIP's Intuition), Willpower (straight up Charisma)
- Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game: This game has them, but reflavored to fit a Marvel acronym:
- Melee (Strength)
- Agility (Dexterity)
- Resilience (Constitution)
- Vigilance (roughly analogous to the alertness and perception components of Wisdom)
- Ego (Charisma)
- Logic (Intelligence)
- The Marvel Super Heroes RPG has the FASERIP system: Fighting, Agility, Strength, Endurance, Reason, Intuition, Psyche. Fighting is your melee stat, Agility is basically Dexterity, Strength determines how much you can lift and how hard you can hit, Reason is basically Intelligence, and Wisdom is divided into Intuition and Psyche, which determine awareness and willpower respectively.
- Mazes & Minotaurs: Strength, Dexterity, and Charisma are respectively renamed to Might, Skill, and Grace. Intelligence is renamed to Wits (alertness and cleverness); and Wisdom to Will (resolve and self-discipline). Constitution is replaced by Luck.
- Mutants & Masterminds: A superhero variant set of eight basic abilities: Strength (Str), Stamina (Sta), Dexterity (Dex), Agility (Agl), Fighting (Ftg), Intellect (Int), Awareness (Awe), and Presence (Pre).
- The Old World of Darkness system has a variation on the basic six stats: they have nine Attributes in the three categories of Physical, Social, and Mental. They use five of the usual six (dropping Wisdom and renaming Constitution to Stamina), but add Perception, Wits, Manipulation, and Appearance.
- Further altered in its successor, the Chronicles of Darkness. There are three categories of attributes (Physical, Social, and Mental), and each category has three types of stat (Power, Finesse, and Resistance). So in the Physical category you've got the classic Strength, Dexterity, and Stamina; Strength is the Power stat, Dexterity is the Finesse, and Stamina is the Resistance. The Social category has Presence, Manipulation, and Composure, which together roughly equate to the Charisma stat but with more nuance. The Mental category has Intelligence, Wits, and Resolve. There's no strict counterpart to Wisdom, but some games have morality or sanity meters that partly cover the idea.
- Pathfinder, being a spin-off of D&D.
- Traveller has Strength, Dexterity, Endurance, Intellect, Education, and Social Standing for most human characters, with psionically gifted characters having Psionic Strength as well and some aliens having alternative social stats. For instance Aslan measure status by the amount of land they own and Vargr have Charisma to reflect their Asskicking Leads to Leadership society. The three physical stats are also used as Hit Points, with Endurance depleted first and then the player's choice of STR or DEX, losing consciousness when two stats are at zero and dying when all three are depleted.
- Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay includes the six stats in the core Characteristics that are tied to specific Skill Scores and affect secondary abilities: Strength (encumbrance and melee damage), Toughness (Damage Reduction), Agility (Action Initiative in 2nd Edition; named Dexterity in 1e), Intelligence, Willpower (intuition and mental fortitude), and Fellowship (social skills). Characteristics also include Weapon Skill, Ballistic Skill, and other edition-specific additions. In all cases, they're ranked from 1% to 100%, indicating the chance of succeeding on a challenge of average difficulty, with an average score of 30% for a human with no special training.
Toys
- Most if not all Transformers action figures come with Tech Specs
, which consist of Strength, Intelligence, Speed, Endurance, Rank, Courage, Fireblast, and Skill.
Video Games
- Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura has expanded on the stats into eight and evenly divided them into two subgroups: physical and mental.
- Strength (Physical) and Intelligence (Mental) are the power stats.
- Constitution (Physical) and Willpower (Mental) are the resistance stats.
- Dexterity (Physical) and Perception (Mental) are the prowess stats
- Beauty (Physical) and Charisma (Mental) are the appearance stats.
- The space RPG Colony Ship (2023) has six stats: Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, Perception, Intelligence and Charisma.
- Its predecessor made by the same company, The Age of Decadence, also make use of the same stats.
- As befitting a spinoff from the original Cyberpunk (RPG), Cyberpunk 2077 refitted the stat system for an Action RPG as V's five main stats, each with branching specialties:
- Body: Which combines the classic Strength and Constitution attributes; it calculates health, carrying capacity and both melee and heavy weapon damage as well as allowing V to intimidate others in dialog. It also serves as the skill check for physical force options (forcing doors, ripping off turrets).
- Intelligence: Calculates V's ability to notice details and solve problems. It also calculates the player's skill in hacking.
- Reflexes: Analogous to Dexterity, it calculates V's precision with weapons and driving ability.
- Technical Ability: This stat determines the effectiveness of V's equipment, crafting and engineering, as well as looting. They are more apt to talk shop with other techies in dialogue mode as well. It also serves as the skill check for hacking doors, turrets, cameras and so forth outside of netrunning.
- Cool: A mix of Charisma and Willpower, Cool determines V's ability to make witty comments, but also maintaining stealth and keeping focus in combat, increasing the chance of critical hits.
- Divinity: Original Sin II uses five of the six: Strength for large melee weapon damage and carrying capacity; Finesse for light weapon and bow damage; Constitution for Hit Points; Intelligence for spell damage; and Wits for perceptiveness, Initiative, and Critical Hit chance. Charisma is replaced by a "Memory" attribute; the closest equivalents are the "Persuasion" and "Bargaining" Civil Abilities, which are optional and have a separate Point Build pool.
- The very first thing you do in the 70s dnd game is to randomly determine your Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity, and "Hits" (or HP) of your character. Each stat can be as low as 3 or as high as 18, with the higher number the better and numbers around 10 being the most probable to get. Notably, this stat line-up omits the Charisma from Dungeons & Dragons, probably due to the inability of the game to simulate conversation with NPCs the same way a flesh and blood dungeon-master could.
- Many of the Dungeons and Dragons RPGs (Baldur's Gate, Planescape: Torment, etc), for obvious reasons.
- The Eschalon games have eight attributes: Strength, Dexterity, Endurance, Speed, Intelligence, Wisdom, Perception and Concentration.
- Might and Magic uses different terms (might, accuracy, endurance, intellect, personality, luck) and adds a seventh "speed" stat.
- Fallout uses the SPECIAL system, which is likewise these six stats plus a luck statnote .
- Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader also uses the SPECIAL system, although the game is in real-time rather than turn-based.
- The Outer Worlds uses six stats: Strength (affects melee attack power, carry weight, and TTD duration), Dexterity (affects reload speed, melee attack speed, and rate of durability depletion), Intelligence (affects critical damage and unlocks bonus dialogue options at low intelligence), Perception (affects accuracy and weakpoint damage), Charisma (affects Relationship Values with factions), and Temperament (affects health regeneration and companion capabilities).
- Pillars of Eternity Attributes are loosely based on Dungeons and Dragons as a baseline, but decoupled from skills (a check will refer to either an Attribute or a skill, so a character can have a high Might score but be useless at Athletics, or vice versa) and expands and shuffles the roles of the stats in question to make them all useful to all characters, preventing any from being a Dump Stat:
- Might, the Strength analog, represents power in both the physical and mystical sense and so determines the numerical values of all attacks, including spell attacks and healing abilities, in addition to the Fortitude defense.
- Constitution is largely the same, determining Hit Point maximum and contributing to the Fortitude defense.
- Dexterity determines action speed (cast time) of abilities and contributes to the Reflex defense, but unlike Dungeons and Dragons does not influence accuracy.
- Perception, which is roughly similar to Wisdom in that it governs spacial awareness, influences accuracy, the Reflex defense, and the ability to interrupt enemy actions.
- Intellect, the Intelligence analog, governs the size of Area of Effect abilities, the duration of continuous effects, and contributes to the Will defense.
- Resolve, a combination of Charisma Wisdom as it relates to Willpower, governs resistance to having abilities disrupted, enemy effect duration, and the Deflection and Will defences.
- Ragnarok Online has Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Agility, Vitality, and Luck.
- Unusual for an Action RPG, Sacred make use of six attributes: Strength, Endurance, Dexterity, Physical Regeneration, Mental, Regeneration and Charisma.
- Wasteland 2 and Wasteland 3 got their inspiration from Fallout and implemented the CLASSIC system: Coordination, Luck, Awareness, Strength, Speed, Intelligence, Charisma.
