Dirty Words in Gaming #3 - The Dump Stat

So you've got a character sheet in front of you an idea of what you want to play. You look at the stats you've rolled or the points you have to assign and you ask yourself, "What stat don't I need to worry about?" or "What stat is not crucial to my character?"

You've just asked yourself what your dump stat should be.

Dump stats are fairly self explanatory. They are the stat that you can put your lowest score into without harming your character. If you've rolled stats you can not worry about the lowest roll. If you're using a point buy, you can give yourself a few extra points by dropping the stat down to an 8 or 9.

Dump stats typically go like this: Melee characters dump mental stats, caster characters dump physical stats, and no one dumps constitution.

Is this a bad thing? Not really. It certainly can be taken to an extreme (see the fighter with 8 in Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma) Dumping on one stat is normal, dumping on all of them is severely limiting. D&D is not a game of extremes (usually), so dumping all of your mental stats makes you useless outside of combat and (usually) dumping all of your physical stats makes you useless in combat. Either of those will make you worthless in various segments of the game and that limits your fun.

Dumping one stat can actually lead to a good roleplay opportunity. A low wisdom rogue could be gullible and trusting; a low charisma wizard could be the most arrogant and off putting son of a bitch because he wields the power of the cosmos; a low intelligence sorcerer could just love seeing stuff blow up.

You don't need to dump a stat, but if you do choose to do that, give it life in your game. Don't dump intelligence and then play a brilliant character. When you create your character, you are creating the parameters that you will play with.