Your character’s race determines some of his or her qualities.
Ability Adjustments
Find your character’s race on Table 2–1: Racial Ability Adjustments (see the next page) and apply the adjustments you see there to your character’s ability scores. If these changes put your score above 18 or below 3, that’s okay, except in the case of Intelligence, which does not go below 3 for characters. (If your half-orc character would have an adjusted Intelligence of 1 or 2, make it 3 instead.)
For example, Lidda, a halfling, gets a +2 racial bonus on her Dexterity score and a –2 racial penalty on her Strength score. Knowing this, her player puts her best score rolled (15) in Dexterity so that it will increase to 17. She doesn’t want a Strength penalty, so she puts an above-average score (12) in Strength. Her Strength score drops to 10, which carries neither a bonus nor a penalty.
Table 2–1: Racial Ability Adjustments
| Race | Ability Adjustments | Skill bonus |
|---|---|---|
| Dwarf | +2 Constitution, –2 Charisma | None |
| Elf | +2 Dexterity, –2 Constitution | None |
| Gnome | +2 Constitution, –2 Strength | None |
| Half-elf | None | None |
| Half-orc | +2 Strength, –2 Intelligence1, –2 Charisma | None |
| Halfling | +2 Dexterity, –2 Strength | None |
| Human | None | None |
1:A half-orc’s starting Intelligence score is always at least 3. If this adjustment would lower the character’s score to 1 or 2, his score is nevertheless 3.
Race and languages
In a big city, visitors can hear all manner of languages being spoken. Dwarves haggle over gems in Dwarven, elf sages engage in learned debates in Elven, and preachers call out prayers in Celestial. The language heard most, however, is Common, a tongue shared by all who take part in the culture at large. With all these languages in use, it is easy for people to learn other languages, and adventurers often speak several tongues.
All characters know how to speak Common. A dwarf, elf, gnome, half-elf, half-orc, or halfling also speaks a racial language, as appropriate. A smart character (one who had an Intelligence bonus
at 1st level) speaks other languages as well, one extra language per point of Intelligence bonus as a starting character. Select your character’s bonus languages (if any) from the list found in his or her race’s description later in this chapter.
Class-Related Languages: Clerics, druids, and wizards can choose certain languages as bonus languages even if they’re not on the lists found in the race descriptions. These class-related languages are as follows: