Creature Characteristic Ranges

[alex_greene]

I was just thinking about the kinds of characteristic ranges that apply to most corporeal creatures of whatever species. I came up with the following groupings to reflect the typical characteristic ranges, including lows, average scores, high scores and species maxima based on the formula

species maximum = maximum result +1 per die rolled +1 per +6 modifier or part thereof

Here's what I've come up with:-

Range ..................... Dice ...... Low ......... Average ..... High .... Species Maximum

V. Low .................... 1d6 ........ 1 ............ 4 ........... 6 ........... 7

Low ....................... 2d6 ........ 2 ............ 7 .......... 12 .......... 14
......................... 1d6+6 ........ 7 ........... 10 .......... 12 .......... 14

Average ................... 3d6 ........ 3 ........... 11 .......... 18 .......... 21
......................... 2d6+6 ........ 8 ........... 13 .......... 18 .......... 21
........................ 1d6+12 ....... 13 ........... 16 .......... 18 .......... 21

High ...................... 4d6 ........ 4 ........... 14 .......... 24 .......... 28
......................... 3d6+6 ........ 9 ........... 17 .......... 24 .......... 28
........................ 2d6+12 ....... 14 ........... 19 .......... 24 .......... 28
........................ 1d6+18 ....... 19 ........... 22 .......... 24 .......... 28

V. High ................... 5d6 ........ 5 ........... 18 .......... 30 .......... 35
......................... 4d6+6 ....... 10 ........... 20 .......... 30 .......... 35
........................ 3d6+12 ....... 15 ........... 23 .......... 30 .......... 35
........................ 2d6+18 ....... 20 ........... 25 .......... 30 .......... 35
........................ 1d6+24 ....... 25 ........... 28 .......... 30 .......... 35

Exceptional ............... 6d6 ........ 6 ........... 21 .......... 36 .......... 42
......................... 5d6+6 ....... 11 ........... 24 .......... 36 .......... 42
........................ 4d6+12 ....... 16 ........... 26 .......... 36 .......... 42
........................ 3d6+18 ....... 21 ........... 29 .......... 36 .......... 42
........................ 2d6+24 ....... 26 ........... 31 .......... 36 .......... 42
........................ 1d6+30 ....... 31 ........... 34 .......... 36 .......... 42

So if you want to design a species which is physically stronger than human, more resilient, but shorter and less able to wield magic, you can have the species' STR set at, say, 3d6+6, CON 3d6, SIZ 2d6, INT 2d6+6, POW 1d6+6, CHA 3d6, for example.

It'd be useful to be able to feed these figures into a spreadsheet, if one were designing species for Legend. Does this help anyone here?

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

YES!

I have been looking for a way to classify animals (non-magical creatures) that would allow someone to fill in an ecological niche.

This looks like it would work very well.