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The Six Abilities

Strength

Strength measures bodily power, athletic training, and the extent to which you can exert raw physical force.

What Strength Does​

Strength affects many physical activities and abilities:

  • Melee Attack Rolls: When you make an attack with a melee weapon like a sword, mace, or axe, you add your Strength modifier to the attack roll.
  • Damage Rolls: When you hit with a Strength-based melee weapon, you add your Strength modifier to the damage roll.
  • Athletics Skill: Your Strength modifier affects Athletics checks, which cover difficult situations you encounter while climbing, jumping, or swimming.
  • Carrying Capacity: Your Strength score determines how much weight you can carry, push, drag, or lift.

Strength Checks​

A Strength check can model any attempt to lift, push, pull, or break something, to force your body through a space, or to otherwise apply brute force to a situation. The Athletics skill reflects aptitude in certain kinds of Strength checks.

Common Uses​

  • Athletics: Swimming across a swift river, climbing a cliff, or jumping across a pit
  • Raw Strength: Breaking down a door, bending bars, or stopping a rolling boulder

Example Difficulties​

DCDifficultyExample
10EasyClimb a rope or swim in calm water
15MediumBreak down a wooden door or climb a difficult cliff
20HardLift a heavy gate or swim against a strong current
25Very HardBend iron bars or break through a stone wall
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