Class Ability Score Requirements

Each of the character classes has minimum scores in various abilities. A
character must satisfy these minimums to be of that class. If your character’s
scores are too low for him to belong to any character class, ask your DM for
permission to reroll one or more of your ability scores or to create an entirely new
character. If you desperately want your character to belong to a particular
class but have scores that are too low, your DM might allow you to increase these
scores to the minimum needed. However, you must ask him first. Don’t count on
the DM allowing you to raise a score above 16 in any case.

The complete character class descriptions that follow give the specific,
detailed information you need about each class. These are organized according to
groups. Information that applies to the entire group is presented at the start of
the section. Each character class within the group is then explained.

The descriptions use game terms that may be unfamiliar to you; many of these
are explained in this text (or you may look the terms up in the Glossary).

Experience Points measure what a character has learned and how he has improved his skill during
the course of his adventures. Characters earn experience points by completing
adventures and by doing things specifically related to their class. A fighter,
for example, earns more experience for charging and battling a monster than does
a thief, because the fighter’s training emphasizes battle while the thief’s
emphasizes stealth and cleverness. Characters accumulate experience points from
adventure to adventure. When they accumulate enough, they rise to the next level
of experience, gaining additional abilities and powers. The experience level
tables for each character group list the total, accumulated experience points needed to reach each level.

Some DMs may require that a character spend a certain amount of time or money
training before rising to the next experience level. Your DM will tell you the
requirements for advancement when the time comes.

Level is a measure of the character’s power. A beginning character starts at 1st
level. To advance to the next level, the character must earn a requisite number of
experience points. Different character classes improve at different rates.
Each increase in level improves the character’s survivability and skills.

Prime Requisite is the ability score or scores that are most important to a particular class.
A fighter must be strong and a wizard must be intelligent; their prime
requisites, therefore, are Strength and Intelligence, respectively. Some character
classes have more than one prime requisite. Any character who has a score of 16 or more in all his prime requisites gains a 10% bonus to his experience point awards.

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