Dungeons and Dragons - Quick Rules Summary - Abilities - Race - Class - Level - Hit Points - Skills - Feats - Alignment

Oct 5, 2026

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Dungeons and Dragons Quick Rules Summary outlines the core building blocks of a character and how they affect play. It explains ability scores and ability modifiers, including examples of positive and negative modifiers. The summary covers race and how species shape strengths, weaknesses, bonuses, and flexibility. It then details class roles, class levels and overall character level, hit points growth, skill ranks and skill checks, feats as special talents, and alignment using good/evil and law/chaos axes.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryStory & Novel

FormatPDF

Pages2

Reading Time3 min

AccessFree to download

Abilities

Ability scores and modifiers

Race

Class

Level

Hit Points

Skills

Feats

Alignment

Dungeons and Dragons Quick Rules Summary Abilities Abilities are your innate talents—what you’re good at (or not so good at) in a broad sense. Along with race and class, abilities are the core attributes of your character. They inﬂuence most actions in the game. In most player characters, ability scores range from 1 to 20. Human average is 10; scores for 90% of humans fall between 6 and 14. If you have a Strength of 16, for instance, you’re very strong. Each ability has an ability modiﬁer. With high abilities this is a bonus, with low scores it it a penalty. With that Strength of 16, you get a +3 bonus when attempting an action that relies on physical power. | Ability Descriptions | Score | Modiﬁer | | --- | --- | --- | | Strength | 1 | –5 | | Hand-to-hand combat; physical power. | 2-3 | –4 | | Dexterity | 4-5 | –3 | | Ranged combat and agility. | 6-7 | –2 | | Constitution | 8-9 | –1 | | Toughness and health. | 10-11 (normal) | +0 | | Intelligence | 12-13 | +1 | | Memory and cleverness. | 14-15 | +2 | | Wisdom | 16-17 | +3 | | Intuition and willpower. | 18-19
20-21 | +4
+5 | | Charisma | | | | Charm and persuasiveness. | And so on. | | Race Race indicates your character’s species. Nonhuman races each have different strengths and weaknesses, including ability bonuses and special abilities. Humans have no special abilities but are the most ﬂexible; they get extra skills and feats and can most easily switch classes. • Human: You know, human. • Elf: Thin, fair, exotic, magical. • Dwarf: Short, stout, tough, magic-resistant. • Gobber: Short, ugly, nimble, inventive. • Ogrun: Big, strong, ugly, tough. • Trollkin: Even bigger, even stronger, even uglier, even tougher. Class Class is what you do. Fighters train for combat and warfare. Wizards study magic. Rogues look for the quickest way to make some gold (or achieve some other goal) . Clerics serve and ﬁght for their gods. Several core classes are the most common, but there are countless others. You can even have multiple classes as you gain experience. Each class has its own special abilities. • Arcane mechanik: A magical scientist. • Barbarian: A dangerous berserker. • Bard: A magically inspiring performer. • Bodger: A mechanical ﬁx-it expert. • Cleric: A warrior priest with divine magic. • Druid: A worshipper of nature with divine magic. • Fell caller: A trollkin warrior. • Fighter: A professional soldier. • Gun mage: A magician who channels spells through a pistol. • Monk: An ascete dedicated to self improvement and defense. • Paladin: A champion of truth and justice. • Rogue: A skilled scoundrel or jack-of-all trades. • Scout: An expert wilderness ﬁghter. • Sorcerer: A magician with innate, unstudied talent. • Wizard: A dedicated student of magic. Level Level is a broad measure of experience and power. You have a level in each class, called your class level. Then you have an overall character level, which is all your class levels added together. So if you’re a 4thlevel ﬁghter and a 2nd-level wizard, your character level is 6th. Characters start at 1st level, and in most game settings very few nonplayer characters are higher than 4th or 5th level. You go up in level by gaining experience points. You get experience points for overcoming challenges in the game. Hit Points Hit points (hp) represent how hard it is to seriously hurt you. With a lot of hit points it takes many dangerous attacks to do you real harm. With each new level you get more hit points. How many you get depends on your class. Skills Skills are areas where you’ve trained and learned to do speciﬁc useful things. Different classes have different skills; ﬁghters and wizards tend to have few skills because they focus on combat and magic so heavily. Rogues, being jacks ofall trades, have lots of skills, mostly focusing on stealth and trickery. Skills are measured in ranks. With one or two ranks you’ve had a little bit of training

FAQs

How do ability scores affect a character in the Quick Rules?

Ability scores represent innate talents and influence most actions. Each score also has an ability modifier, which can be a bonus with high abilities or a penalty with low scores.

What is the difference between class level and overall character level?

Class level is your level within each class. Your overall character level is the sum of all your class levels.

How are skills and feats different in gameplay?

Skills are measured in ranks and are used through skill checks. Feats are special talents you either have or don’t, and they typically grant bonuses to specific rolls or abilities.

Oct 5, 2026

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