Your character will have six ability scores. Typically, you generate these scores by rolling some dice. See Basics for information about how to roll dice.
The next step is to choose a background from the Standard Backgrounds.
There are several ways to determine a character's ability scores. The following guidelines allow you to choose between making a character who is average, elite, high-powered, or anything in between. Your GM will tell you which method(s) everyone can use to generate scores for a particular campaign. Most of the time a GM will call for elite or tougher characters and disallow the point buy system, but there are exceptions.
Use the scores 11, 10, 11, 10, 11, 10. Creatures who advance by creature type use these scores. See Improving Monsters for details.
Rolling: Roll 3d6 six times.
Point Buy System: 15 points.
The nonelite array is 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8. A character who takes one of the NPC Classes uses these scores.
Rolling: Roll 3d6 six times.
Retry: Total modifiers must not be −3 or lower and one score must be 12 or higher.
Point Buy System: 15 points.
Use the scores 15, 13, 12, 11, 10, 8. Challenging characters are nearly but not quite as good as elite characters.
Point Buy System: 22 points.
The elite array is 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8. A character who takes one of Classes I or Classes II typically uses these scores.
Rolling: Roll 4d6 six times and total the three highest dice for each score.
Retry: Total modifiers must be at least +1 and one score must be 14 or higher.
Point Buy System: 25 points.
Use the scores 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10. Tougher characters are slightly better than elite characters.
Rolling: Roll 4d6 six times, rerolling the lowest die once during the entire process, and total the three highest dice for each score.
Retry: Total modifiers must be at least +1 and one score must be 14 or higher.
Point Buy System: 28 points.
Use the scores 16, 15, 13, 12, 11, 10. Player-characters with these scores are meant for high-powered campaigns.
Rolling: Roll 5d6 six times, totalling the three highest dice for each score.
Retry: Total modifiers must be at least +2 and one score must be 15 or higher.
Point Buy System: 32 points.
| Ability Score | Point Cost | Ability Score | Point Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | 1 | 14 | 6 |
| 10 | 2 | 15 | 8 |
| 11 | 3 | 16 | 10 |
| 12 | 4 | 17 | 13 |
| 13 | 5 | 18 | 16 |
Instead of randomly generating ability scores or using an array, you can buy ability scores using the point buy system if allowed by the GM. You must spend a finite amount of points according to your character type and buy all six scores at once. Each ability starts a 8, and you can increase it to be as high as 18 by spending the amount of points specified in Table: Ability Score Point Costs.
After buying your ability scores, they may be assigned according to your desired strengths and weaknesses and adjusted according to racial ability score adjustments.
I've constructed the arrays according to clues in the SRD and published rulebooks (see Improving Monsters for Ability Score Arrays) and assigned a corresponding points cost, die roll method, and standard limitations to each method.
D&D v.3.5 defines three types of creatures according to the quality of their ability scores. Player-characters have elite ability scores, while non-player characters have nonelite or average ability scores. However the Dungeon Master's Guide defines several more ways to generate ability scores which suggests a wider range of quality creatures can be sorted by.