If you don’t know what the ability scores do, how can you expect to pose an intelligent ask? Here’s a basic idea of what each does.

Strength

• Athletics – Pull, push, and break free from someone holding you.

Dexterity

• Acrobatics – Run, jump, be a ninja.
• Sleight of Hand – Steal a merchant’s coin pouch or palm an item when being searched.
• Stealth – Be sneaky, whether creeping by a group of kobolds or hiding from the red dragon whose hoard you just stole.

Intelligence

• Arcana – You know magic! Use this to figure out the fancy new magic item, read the mysterious and glowing runes carved into the door, or impress your friends with your knowledge about the Astral Plane.
• History – Talk intelligently about past battles and the heroes that fought in them.
• Investigation – Look around for clues that will answer important life questions like where’s the button to open the secret drawer that contains the treasure?
• Nature – Is it going to rain? Are those fire ants? Please don’t tell me that it is poison ivy.
• Religion – You know all about deities, holy symbols, and the color robes that each evil cult wears.

Wisdom

• Animal Handling – Soothe your mount or sic your pet on the person who knocks at your door.  Animal Handling allows you to influence an animal’s behavior when the animal is either domesticated or is owned by you. If it isn’t domesticated or owned by you, you can only try to intuit its intentions.  Monsters are not animals (in game terms) so Animal Handling does not work on monsters.
• Insight – Is this rogue going to stab me? Is the merchant trying to rip me off? Am I hungry?
• Medicine – Of course, it hurts; your arm is broken. Slapping a band-aid over the scratch on the wizard…who won’t stop crying about it.
• Perception – The mother of all ability checks. It’s everything that involves your overall awareness of the world around you. Spotting the hawk in the sky spying on you, hearing the bad guys on the other side of the door, and sensing the ground motion before the bullet explodes from the ground.
• Survival – You’re a good Boy Scout and earned your wilderness badge. You can track dinner without stepping in quicksand.

Charisma

• Deception – Lie, cheat, but not steal. That would be Sleight of Hand.
• Intimidation – Flex those big muscles or scream with the fury of a thousand exploding suns. Whatever it takes to scare the crap out of someone, short of hitting them.
• Performance – Dance, sing, or act as a method of earning a little gold, getting out of trouble, and, if you’re a stereotypical bard, bedding the innocent maiden.
• Persuasion – When you can’t lie, scare or rhyme your way out of a situation, try using your social graces and charm to get what you want.

Simple Rules

1. When you fail your check, live with it.
2. Don’t argue about the type of check you have to make.
3. Don’t constantly ask to make checks for such things as checking for traps or finding secret doors. State that you wish to be doing this while your party moves through an area.
4. No, you can’t use the Help action after your friend has made their check.
5. You do not roll dice for passive checks.
6. Do not roll your check more than once unless the DM asks you to.

Tomatoes

We’ve all heard the versions with tomatoes, so I’m including them here for you.

• Strength is being able to crush a tomato.
• Dexterity is being able to dodge a tomato.
• Constitution is being able to eat a bad tomato.
• Intelligence is knowing a tomato is a fruit.
• Wisdom is knowing not to put a tomato in a fruit salad.
• Charisma is being able to sell a tomato based fruit salad.
• Fort Saves keep you from throwing up the bad tomato.
• Reflex Saves keep you from falling into a box of tomatoes.
• Will Saves keep the tomato from controlling your mind.