ATTRIBUTES

Attributes are the basic building blocks of a character. They represent the fundamental nature of a person. They affect a character's proficiency with skills, combat ability, talent at sorcery, and overall performance as an adventurer.

There are four attributes:

Strength is a measure of physical power. The mass and muscle of the individual, the amount of weight he can carry, and the amount of damage he can inflict are all determined by strength.

Dexterity is a measure of physical speed. Quickness, perception, balance, and coordination are all facets of dexterity. It affects both how easily an individual can hit others in physical combat and how difficult it is for enemies to hit him.

Willpower is a measure of the strength of the mind. Courage, patience, and self-control are facets of will. It allows a character to resist interrogation, torture, and fear, and determines the amount of supernatural energy that a sorcerer can channel.

Intelligence is a measure of quickness of thought. Memory, IQ, and cleverness are facets of intelligence. It allows a character to learn quickly and to apply knowledge in useful ways. It allows a sorcerer to cast spells more effectively.

Attributes are measured on a logarithmic scale. Each +2 to an attribute makes the character twice as able in that attribute.

Average humans have levels ranging between -1 and 1 in each of the four main attributes. Small children, frail elders, and diseased individuals may have physical attributes lower than this, while fools and madmen may have lower mental attributes. Mythic heroes and villains may have attributes of five, six, or even higher. Monsters and horrors may have attributes of ten, twenty, or beyond.

The point cost of attributes gets higher as the level increases. The higher your attribute, the more difficult it is to make it better. The amount of character points necessary to achieve a particular level of a attribute is given by the following formula:

points = level * level * 10

So, if a starting character wants a strength of 3, it will cost him 90 character points (3 * 3 * 10). If that same character later gains some experience and wishes to raise his strength to 4, he will need to spend an additional 70 points (4 * 4 * 10, minus the 90 points already spent to achieve level 3). Fractions are rounded down, so if the character spent only 50 additional points on strength, he would see no benefit until he spent the final 20 points to raise all the way to level 4.

Attribute levels are open-ended. There is no hard limit to how high a normal human character can raise his stats, only the limitation of cost in experience points. Most human beings will not have stats greater than 2, and almost none will be greater than 6.

Attribute level	cost	description
-2	-40	feeble
-1	-10	weak
0	0	average
1	10	good
2	40	great
3	90	heroic
4	160
5	250
6	360
7	490
8	640
9	810
10	1000	mythic
L	L*L*10

The negative numbers in the table above indicate that a character may obtain points for use in other abilities by being particularly weak in one attribute.

Here is a table showing the amount of weight that a character can lift above his head.

Strength	Lift (lbs)
-2	50
-1	75
0	100
1	150
2	200
3	300
4	400
5	600
6	800

The following table should give players an idea of how many points a character should have in its combined attributes based on how much natural ability it has.

Ability	Points
Average	0
Good	100
Great	200
Heroic	400
Mythical	800+

In addition to the four primary attributes, there are three secondary attributes that are the same for every player character: Stamina, Health, and Sanity.

Stamina measures how much punishment a character can take before falling unconscious. Player characters have a Stamina of 10.

Health measures how physically ill and/or injured the character is. Health has five levels: Healthy, Hurt, Wounded, Crippled, and Dead.

Sanity measures how mentally ill and/or injured the character is. Sanity has five levels: Sane, Shaken, Disturbed, Insane, and Catatonic.