D&D Character Stat Calculator

Six scores run every Dungeons & Dragons character. Enter yours, and this D&D character stat calculator returns the modifiers you will actually roll with, what the array costs under point buy, your carrying capacity and your passive Perception.

Modifiers: The Number You Actually Roll

A D&D ability score is a label; its modifier — floor((score − 10) ÷ 2) — is the number that touches dice. Every attack roll, saving throw, skill check and spell DC built on an ability adds the modifier, not the score, which is why the even numbers rule character building: 14 and 15 both grant +2, so the fifteenth point buys nothing until it becomes sixteen at a level-up. The defaults are the game's own standard array (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8), and the answer line renders it as it is played: STR 15 (+2), DEX 14 (+2), CON 13 (+1), INT 10 (+0), WIS 12 (+1), CHA 8 (−1). The table the formula compresses is worth one look: scores pair up — 8–9 at −1, 10–11 at 0, 12–13 at +1, 14–15 at +2, 16–17 at +3, 18–19 at +4, 20 at the usual cap of +5 — and every build decision on this page is an argument about moving a score across one of those pair boundaries.

Point Buy: The 27-Point Budget, Audited

Point buy is the character-creation method that turns scores into a budget: 27 points, spent against a cost table where the price steepens at the top — 8 costs 0, rising one per point to 13 (5 points), then 14 costs 7 and 15 costs 9. The calculator totals your six scores against the budget, and the standard array demonstrates why it is standard: 15 (9) + 14 (7) + 13 (5) + 12 (4) + 10 (2) + 8 (0) = exactly 27 — the array is a legal point-buy build wearing a friendlier face. The method's strategy follows from the cost curve and the modifier pairs: a 15 in the primary ability (heading for 16 with a species bonus in the classic rules, or 17 and a half-feat plan), nothing wasted on scores that sit at the bottom of a modifier pair unless the budget forces it, and the dump stat at 8 paying for the top end. Scores above 15 cannot be bought at all — rolled stats and level-up increases live there — and the calculator says so when one appears, totalling the buyable remainder so a mixed-method sheet stays auditable. The full method is documented in the official basic rules and the Player's Handbook.

The Derived Numbers: Carrying, Passive Perception, Hit Points

Three everyday figures fall straight out of the scores, and the calculator's note computes all of them. Carrying capacity is Strength × 15 pounds — the default's 15 Strength hauls 225 lb before encumbrance variants enter — with push, drag and lift at double that. Passive Perception, the DM's secret-check workhorse, is 10 + Wisdom modifier (+1 here, for 11), rising by the proficiency bonus if Perception is a trained skill — the number that decides whether the ambush is a surprise. Hit points add the Constitution modifier at every level, which is why CON is the one score no class dumps: the default's +1 is a hit point per level for the character's whole career, and the difference between CON 13 and CON 14 across ten levels is ten hit points, a fifth of a wizard's total. Initiative (the DEX modifier), spell save DCs (8 + proficiency + the casting modifier) and armour class all derive the same way — the six modifiers are the character's true stats, and this page is the sheet's engine room.

Building With the Numbers: Arrays, Priorities and the Dump Stat

Character optimisation, at the level most tables enjoy it, is modifier-pair management under a budget, and the calculator's three outputs frame its decisions. The primary ability wants the 15 (its modifier increases first and its skills fire constantly), the secondary takes the 14, Constitution takes the 13 or the other 14 because hit points are universal, and the ability the class never rolls takes the 8 — the famous dump stat, priced by this page at +0 points of budget and −1 on rolls the build intends never to make. Multiclass plans bend the array toward two primaries; MAD (multiple-ability-dependent) classes like the classic paladin and monk feel the budget's pinch hardest, which the totals expose instantly: price three 15s under point buy and 27 points leave the rest of the sheet at poverty levels (9+9+9 = 27, nothing left but 8s). Rolling for stats escapes the budget entirely — 4d6-drop-lowest averages a little above the standard array, with variance as its price — and the calculator handles rolled sheets by flagging the over-15 scores and totalling the rest, because even chaos deserves bookkeeping.

Rolled Stats, and What a Fair Array Looks Like

The third generation method — rolling 4d6 and dropping the lowest, six times — produces arrays averaging a little stronger than the standard set, with wild variance: the same dice that hand one player an 18 hand another a highest score of 13. The calculator serves rolled sheets by flagging the unbuyable scores and totalling the rest, which doubles as a fairness audit for tables that mix methods: a rolled array whose buyable portion alone busts 27 by a wide margin is not illegal (rolling has no budget), but the table can see its power in the budget's own units and decide whether the campaign wants it. House rules bloom here — roll twice and take the better set, a shared rolled array for the whole party, a floor under the total modifier sum — and each is checkable in this page's terms: sum the modifiers, compare against the standard array's +5 total (the defaults sum to +2+2+1+0+1−1 = +5), and the table's generosity is a number instead of an argument — a shared rolled array, where the whole party plays the same six numbers, remains the elegant compromise: one lucky or unlucky roll, distributed perfectly fairly.

Related Tools

More from the Other Calculators hub: the Minecraft Villager Trading Calculator, the RPG Loot Drop Probability Calculator — for the treasure rolls after the fight — and the Board Game Score Calculator for the table's other game nights.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is an ability modifier calculated in D&D 5e?

Subtract 10, halve, round down: a score of 15 gives (15 − 10) ÷ 2 = 2.5, floored to +2. The floor is why odd scores underperform their look — a 13 and a 12 are the same +1 in play — and why ability score increases are usually spent in pairs or aimed at an odd score that a feat will round up. The calculator applies the formula to all six abilities at once and prints the modifiers in the order a character sheet consumes them.

What is the standard array and is it good?

15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8 — a pre-built legal point-buy set (it costs exactly 27, as the audit in this article shows), designed so a new player cannot build a broken character: one strength, one support, a spread of competence, one honest weakness. It is genuinely good — most optimised point-buy builds are the standard array with two numbers swapped — and assigning its scores to abilities by class priority is the entire first-session skill it teaches.

How many point-buy points does a 16 cost?

Sixteen cannot be bought: point buy stops at 15 (9 points). A starting 16 comes from a rolled score, or from a 15 improved by a racial/species bonus under the rules that grant one, or at the first Ability Score Increase (level 4 for most classes). The calculator flags any score above 15 as unbuyable and totals the rest, so a sheet that mixes sources stays checkable against the 27-point budget for its bought portion.

What does carrying capacity depend on?

Strength alone, times fifteen pounds (times thirty for push, drag and lift), with creature size multiplying the whole figure — a Large creature doubles it, a Tiny one halves it, each Powerful Build-style feature counting the bearer as one size larger. The calculator reports the Medium, unaugmented figure, which covers most player characters; a Goliath barbarian with Strength 15 hauls 450 lb by the same formula with the size step applied.

What is a dump stat and which one should it be?

The dump stat is the ability a build deliberately leaves at 8, accepting the −1 on its rolls to fund the abilities it lives by — the calculator prices it at zero points of budget. Choose the ability your class never rolls: Strength for most casters (who never swing), Intelligence for most martials (whose skills rarely key on it), Charisma for the strong silent types. Its saving throws will hurt occasionally — that is the price, known in advance, and a fair one when the funded primary ability fires every single round.

Why does everyone put their third-best score in Constitution?

Because hit points are the only resource every class spends every adventuring day, and the CON modifier is paid at every level — the third section's arithmetic (a point of modifier ≈ a hit die's average worth of health across a career). It also feeds the most common concentration saves for casters and the most common saving throw family in monster design. The calculator's note surfaces the per-level figure precisely so the trade can be priced when a build is tempted to demote it.