Calculators for your ability scores
There are lots of different methods for rolling stats for your new character. Make sure you agree with your DM which method your group will be using. To help you out, we’ve created some calculators below to do the heavy lifting for you. If you want to understand more about how these methods work, just scroll down a bit further.
Dice roll method
One of the most common methods is to roll 3d6 6 times. The added score of each 3d6 roll is the value of one of your abilities. You can then choose to assign these 6 scores to whichever ability you want. This method can be a bit harsh however as it’s easy to end up with quite low scores.
A more common and generous method is to roll 4d6 6 times and drop the lowest dice from each roll. You then apply the added scores for each roll to whichever ability you want. By dropping the worst dice, this tends to result in better scores.
Once you’ve finished rolling our digital dice below, don’t forget to add your racial ability score increases too.
Dice roll calculator
| Ability | Score |
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Points buy
For a more even method, you can use the points buy method. In this, your DM will agree a certain number of points you can use on your ability scores which you can assign to whichever ability you like. 27 is a common amount but this can be increased or decreased depending on how much of a challenge your DM wants to make things.
Each ability score starts at a value of 8 and as an ability increases in value, the points required to increase that ability score. Once you hit 13 in an ability, it will now cost 2 points to increase that ability score further. You can also only increase any score to a maximum of 15 (though racial bonuses may increase that further as will levelling up later in the game).
There are many more variations for how to calculate your ability score in D&D 5e, but the above methods are the main methods.