What Is A Dump Stat?

A dump stat is going to be the thing that you are worst at. In terms of what that looks like on your character sheet, 10 is supposed to be average. If someone were to have a 10 in all their stats, they are the average person in the world.

So it’s not just your lowest stat, it is a stat that is below that average. If you are even one less, at 9, you get a negative one penalty on the roll and you are lower than average with what you can roll. But that is talking about it mechanically, it is also a weakness in how you role play out that below average trait.

Playing A Dump Stat in Dungeons and Dragons

The first question to ask if if your character knows they have a dump stat. If you are just below average wisdom or intelligence you know that you aren’t as smart. If they are a fair bit below, now they start to think that they are smarter. Some of the physical ones, strength or dexterity, you might always know that you aren’t as good at, but is that how you are going to play it.

Let’s go through each stat and come up with a way to play it.

Strength

For strength, I think that there are two common ways that you could play it. First, you could have the character constantly try and get people to help them. Even for a meaningless task, like opening a pickle jar with a loose lit, or pull a small dead branch off a tree, they also have someone else help them.

Or on the other side of things, they could refuse help. They might know they are weak, but they are going to do it themselves. So when the big fighter or barbarian tries to help them, they get upset and refuse the help. It is a matter of pride that they will be able to do it on their own.

Dexterity

Dexterity is going to follow along the lines of strength. They know that anything slightly dexterous is tricky for them, so they never do it. In fact, really easy things, they try and make someone else do it. Or they are going to try no matter what.

Constitution

For constitution you can make it about them getting sick all of the time. If the weather turns, they get a slight cold. They have the sniffles about 90% of the year. When the group goes into the bar, they are a light weight and after a drink they are up on the table and possibly looking to pick a fight or hitting on someone at the bar and getting into trouble that way.

Intelligence

Intelligence is pretty straightforward as well. You just assume knowledge about things. If someone talks on a subject, you assume that you know more than they do. And you don’t really feel a need to look into it further because, again, you know. On the other hand, you know about libraries but wouldn’t think about going to them to find out information.

Wisdom

Wisdom is going to be more about how the world works. You think you know how criminals work on the streets. You think you know how things will play out in a situation, especially social. But you really don’t know how any of that works. If you are down a little, you’re probably worried about messing any situation up. If you are very low on wisdom, you just assume that you know what is going on and are a bit of a bull in a china shop.

Charisma

Charisma is probably the most interesting to have as a low stat mainly because charisma as a high stat is pretty narrow. Or at least how a lot of people play it, it is. But as a low stat, you have a lot of ways to go. You can just assume that everyone likes you, even though you are annoying. Being very quiet is another way to play it. Or try and overcompensate by talking loudly or being too affectionate, or whatever thing your character believes is the normal things people do that is most certainly not normal.

Final Thoughts

Dump stats are fun, mainly because it gives your character a chance not to shine. There are a lot of opportunities to utilize strengths. And a good DM (Dungeon Master) should present opportunities like that to players. But a chance to create a fun or interesting moment with a weakness, that is going to be as memorable as that great thing that you did. A dump stat is also a great way to bring in comedy or intended conflict.

An example would be a low dexterity character trying to sneak around the edge of a group of goblins versus the rogue doing so. They fall into the midst of goblins, now you have a weird combat that is going to start happening. Or a low charisma character getting flustered by some light flirting and accidentally proposing to a princess in front of the king. You will be talking about when those moments happen way more than when the fighter takes out the goblins.

So lean into it and have fun. That is the fun of a role playing game. Dungeons and Dragons, or whatever system you are using, is about that fun at the table versus winning the game. In fact, very few D&D campaigns reach the end, stories get too big or schedules change, but there are always going to be moments that you remember in the game.

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I’m back with some more Drinking in D&D. Tonight I brought up two Deschutes Fresh Squeezed IPA, but I only drank one of them. It’s one of my favorite beers, a good IPA.

The topic for Drinking in D&D was looking at the Character Sheet and what sections on the character sheet are. There’s a lot to keep track of it and it’s the basis for how you roll your dice and what your character can do, particularly in combat.

There are a number different areas that I looked at on the board, hit points, speed, initiative, proficiency, armor class (AC), ability scores, and skills. I’m going to go back and do the second half of the main sheet and hopefully the other two sheets in my next stream, which might be happening on Friday, tbd.

Thanks for checking out the video. If you are enjoying the content, it does go out live on Twitch at http://twitch.com/maltsandmeeples. The videos are also uploaded to youtube, and a subscription or a like will help people find the videos there.

Bottoms up!

Dragonborn, are a bit like tieflings or other races where they get some heritage from something non-standard fantasy. And because of that, in Dungeons and Dragons, they are treated as a rarer race. They pull both from their draconic ancestry, including getting a breath weapon. But with that draconic heritage, that means they often also take haughtiness and aloofness of the dragons. This can make them a bit temperamental in a party.

Mechanically speaking, besides that breath weapon that you get which you can use sparingly, you also get bumps to strength and charisma. For that reason, Dragonborn make good fighters, but also charisma casters. Their strongest class is probably Paladin, a charisma casting class that is also good in melee. You also get resistance to the element that your breath weapon is. This also helps you tank as an enemy caster might be using whatever element you’re resistant to, and you’ll be able to stay in melee longer.

Other than those stats, the real things we’re looking at is that Dragonborn tend to role play as haughty. I mentioned that before, but I think it’s worth mentioning again. They think that they are better than you, and that they can probably do it themselves. This can also lead to foolhardiness because they are more apt to rush into something if they feel like someone else is going to be able to do it first.

They are also going to be rare and the chromatic ones distrusted. In Dungeons and Dragons, while the metallic dragons aren’t necessarily helpful, they aren’t evil either. The chromatic dragons, aren’t helpful, and they might decide they want to rule or go on a rampage. So, the people who know this, and I suspect it would be fairly common knowledge in most D&D worlds, are going to distrust a Dragonborn that is chromatic. Even the metallic Dragonborn might be looked at askance.

So let’s talk about some backstories, why might a Dragonborn decide to join an adventuring party.

I was, what I would consider a legend on the battlefield, there were few who could stand up to me. I was able to shrug off spells like it was no ones business, and I was only ever bested once when my “rival” got a lucky blow in on me. That took me out of action for a few weeks, but I’d done enough damage to the opposing army that our forces were able to continue routing them and I was given a retirement. But retirement doesn’t suit me well, so I feel the need to save sad adventuring parties who don’t know what they are doing.
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Class: Fighter
Background: Soldier
Notes: The point of that background, while it wouldn’t make sense for a level one character, is that the dragonborn exaggerates. They were in the army, but got injured, and were in bed for a long time, probably over a year, and now they want to actually do something worth their boasting so when people look them up, it’s something actually true.

With my size, people always thought that I would go into the army. But that wasn’t that interesting for me. I was much more interested in finding out about my draconic background. I spent years researching, trying to get a better understanding of who I was and where I’d come from. That led me all over the world, and I picked up some interesting skills and because pretty good at avoiding trouble. It might not be the most glamorous way to deal with problems, but smashing things with a club isn’t my style. I now want to go to the mountains where my people allegedly came from.
Alignment: Lawful Good/Neutral
Class: Ranger/Rogue
Background: Sage

People always looked at me like I was strange. I can’t help it if my parents left me in the big city at a young age. I don’t even know what happened to them for sure. I wanted to show people that I was better than just a kid who bounced around from temple to temple, helping when I could and getting a free meal. To do that, when you can’t go to school and life in the city is hard and dangerous, I could only come up with one way. I made a deal. I have some power now through it and I can help other people because of that. But mainly, I just want to find out why my parents left me.
Alignment: Neutral Good/Chaotic Good
Class: Warlock
Background: Urchin

There are some ideas for character backgrounds of a Drabonborn. In the game I’m going to be running soon, I’ll have a player who is playing a Dragonborn.

Let me know about some background ideas that you have for a Dragonborn character. Have you played a Dragonborn before?

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The Bard

When I think of a bard, I think about a wandering storyteller/musician who goes from town to town and tavern to tavern playing and telling stories for their meals, rooms, and drink. Or, on the flip side, I think of someone who is in the court of a noble, telling them stories at their fancy parties and keeping them entertained while the drinks keep flowing.

In Dungeons and Dragons, this is usually the case, and in general, I’d say that you would likely end up as the first type of bard, who then joins up with an adventuring group in hopes of getting the best story ever. In our Dungeons and Flagons game, during the very first episode, Tate is telling this magnificent tale about how Nimrose, Finja, and himself had defeated a horde of dragons. Now, this wasn’t true at all, but he was demonstrating why he would fit well into the party, and that’s how I worked it to get the party together, since Nimrose and Finja already knew each other.

Mechanically speaking, the Bard is going to be a charisma-based character, and probably the face of the group. They cast their spells based off of charisma, and they can eventually become really good at skills like persuasion and deception and other skills that are generally meant to charm the pants off of people, for good or ill. This also lends itself to creating a character that is probably more chaotic neutral in alignment, because they are capable of manipulation. However, you’ll want to be careful that you don’t let chaotic neutral become chaotic evil while still having your character pretend they aren’t bad. The chaotic neutral bard would be the jokester of the group, or the person who is going to say something off-the-wall, or who might start to go overboard when fighting someone who is evil.

So, why might a bard join and adventuring group?

I already gave the reason that Tate did, which is to get a new story. That would be one pretty easy and common reason. Another reason might be that the Bard already has a story, like a long-lost treasure or long-lost city that they are looking for, and they need an adventuring group to help them find it so that they’ll have another story to tell. Finally, I think that protection is a valid reason for a bard to join an adventuring group as well. While a bard is usually able to hold their own in battle, in terms of the story they generally aren’t the strongest characters, and they would probably want someone else to do their fighting for them. Stick them with a fighter or a ranger or someone else who can protect them on the roads, and that makes a lot of sense as well.

What are some backstories I could use?

I’m going to pull first from Tate’s backstory:

You could be the fourth son or daughter of a noble and not be entitled to any land. So you have a good life, but you’re bored and you want to do something more. You start traveling around and listening to stories, and eventually you just start telling those stories again and turning that into a way of life. Your family doesn’t like you because being a bard is degrading, and you don’t like them either because they just want you to be lazy at home and do nothing, or maybe they wanted you to join the church (or a D&D equivalent).

Or maybe, after years of being a soldier, you’re too old to do that anymore. You’ve always been social, and you’ve started telling stories around bars, and people started buying you drinks. Now you’re traveling around telling stories of battles you’ve been in before, but that’s given you the itch to get back out and kill a monster again. So you’re looking for that new story to tell, and better yet, to help create, but you need some help now, as you’re a bit older. This would be a non-traditional build, as you’d still have pretty high charisma, but you’d probably put more into strength and constitution than you would dexterity, which would normally be a bard’s secondary skill. Remember that finesse weapons can be wielded with either strength or dexterity.

Or perhaps in another scenario, you’ve spent years as a bard, but what people don’t realize is that you’re a bit of a criminal as well. Nobles don’t pay much attention to you at parties when you’re performing, and even though they pay you well, you leave with a little bit extra at the end of the night. There have been a lot of scullery maids and butlers getting in trouble and being blamed for what you’ve done, but that’s their problem. You’ve heard of an item that would basically set you up for life if you could get it, and there’s going to be a big celebration coming up at the place where it’s kept; now you just need to get invited and find some people who can help you get it out.

That last one seems to describe a bit more of an evil character, but you could also spin it as you’re helping the poor with what you liberate from the wealthy. Or maybe there is a kingdom that you do this in because their armies killed off your family, and you want to get revenge on them in your own way, so you’re stealing from every noble who was part of the war that killed your family and destroyed your village.

And one last idea:

People like bards, and while they remember your face and the stories you’ve told, people don’t think much of you or suspect you. The fact that you’re a member of a resistance is something that you keep hush-hush. You’ve been in houses of nobles and heard stories that no one else could get, as your music opens many a door. Now they’ve asked you to find out some information hidden away in the manor of the king, and you’re going to need a little help doing it.

Have you played a bard? What sort of backstory did you use?

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