Handbooker Helper: Ability Scores 

Intelligence: "This is a one-way street" Wisdom: "We should still look both ways before crossing."

Matt: You've got your dice, and you've- My brain: YOU'VE GOT YOUR PERFECT WARLOCK!!

D&D Stats Explained With Tomatoes 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.

My favorite way to explain the difference between Intellegence and Wisdom: Intellegence is knowing that Frankenstein was not the monster. Wisdom is knowing that Frankenstein was, in fact, the monster.

My first thought when he mentioned not to worry about low scores, a certain line from an early episode of Campaign 1. "I 'ave an intelligence of six, I fink I know what I'm doin'."

"Weaknesses often make for memorable story points." Matt: "Roll Deception" Sam: "...Zero." *Mercer snorts his drink up his nose*

Who else already knows everything about ability scores and is only watching this for Matt?

Matt's charisma score would be one thousand.

I've been playing 5th edition for years now but I still watch these

Matt: 'Is it gamenight yet?' Me: MATTHEW CHRISTOPHER MILLER/MERCER THAT IS *NOT* HOW WE END VIDEOS ON THIS CHANNEL!!!!

If someone is worried about a low score, just remember grog had 6 intelligence and vex had 7 strength (At the beginning)

Matt’s wiggles give me life, the dm wiggles™️

I remember Stephen Colbert discussed rolling stats "back in the day." They would roll 3d6 and stick with the score. If none were equal to or above 15, they would say their character would become a farmer, and they would roll a new character. The called this "death by farming."

One thing I've learning is to think about the three mental stats; Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma, as a pond. Intelligence is how wide this pond is. How wide your own knowledge is, can be vast as a lake or thin as a puddle. Wisdom is how deep it is. This is your depth of how to use the knowledge you've got. Your wisdom may be shallow like a splash or deep as an abyss. Charisma is how much others want to drink from that pond. The pond may be sparkly and clean like that summer lake by the cabin or murky and deceitful as the oceans. Well,t hat's my take in it at least.

from a 4 year old Reddit post: 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.

All hail the negative ability score, especially when it comes to strength. It makes for some funny moments if your playing a wizard whose has literally never lifted some thing heavier than a sack of potatoes.

One of my favorite characters was a Tortle Cleric who rolled a 4 Charisma. Heeeeee waaaaaass a reeeeeeeeal slooooooooow taaaaaaaaalker aaaaand realllly loooooved to teeeeelll veeeerrryy deeetaiiilled stoooorieeeees.

My cleric has a wisdom of 18 and an intelligence of 6. Honestly, she does some stupid things, but sometimes comes up with philosophical things to say. Whenever someone gets hurt she yells out, "Don't worry I'll heal you in a second!"

Don't be afraid of low scores. If you're going to fail at something, you might as well fail spectacularly.

Nice episode of Handbooger Heifer, great job team!

Sam's ding at the end gets me every time, I love it so much

Many years ago, when I was in high school, (in the wayback of the late 80's) I had a D&D group, and we played pretty much every day. It was a boarding school, so there was little else to do. We rotated who was the DM, between me, and two others. One of the others, Doug I think his name was, once had this fun idea to start everyone out as NPC classes. Merchants and the like, and confined our ability rolls in a very peculiar way. Basically, we would roll each ability in turn, and what we got, was what that ability score was, rather than placing them where they would be most advantageous. It was kind of weird, even then, but we were always game for trying something new, and as we were already playing NPC classes, figured Doug knew what he was up to, and gave it a shot. We all rolled a mix of high and low scores, and off we went, a bunch of characters poorly prepared for adventuring, trying to adventure. The basic concept Doug was playing with was to let us choose our class by way of our actions in the first adventure. My character found a sword, and in a moment of panic, as we were being attacked by Goblins, grabbed it and started swinging wildly. He had a Strength of 8. By the end, I was the Fighter, because my character was too terrified to be without the long, sharp, stabby thing. He was a terrible fighter, obviously. The Wizard only had an Intelligence of 10, though, and the Rogue ended up being the guy with a 6 Dexterity. We never did end up being very good adventurers, but we had a real blast with that party being terrible at everything. Doug decided that his concept was better in theory than practice, and despite us kind of wanting to do it again, refused to ever run a campaign full of people poorly suited to their roles again. Point being, have fun with bad ability scores. They really can be more fun than you might imagine, if you're willing to embrace it, and have that fun. Well, fun for everyone but the DM, anyway, who had to spend the whole time herding cats.

0:03 *wiggle*

Who here knows what ability scores are for but just want to hear that epic Sam Reigel theme song?

Warmed this old DM's heart seeing the Ability Score in the big box and the modifier in the circle. As is tradition, of course. :)

I have never before considered Matt's chest hair, and now it's hard to focus on anything else in this video.

1:55 Also ale.

I think your hand was too slight.

I really needed this on monday for my school dnd group

Intelligence: We have more people, we have the advantage. Wisdom: Yes, but they know we're coming and no victory is certain until it is.

i really mcfrickin love these videos, man

Intelligence is knowing you can stab a tree Wisdom is knowing you probably shouldn't stab a tree. This is the prime example that came up in the first session of my first D&D campaign. It was also the flavour text to the +1 Wisdom shortsword the player got for stabbing a tree.

Excellent video, especially the general description of each ability and what it could relate to in the game.

ive been learning how to play for the last year and im now planning to teach a group of friends ant this series is so handy as a reminder of everything you need to know from the very beginning

I like these small helpers. Matt really made it quick and simple to get a grasp with the six stats on your sheet. Looking forward to more helpers.

(ASMR) Jotaro teaches you how to play d&d instead of taking care of his daughter

Best way I've ever heard to explain intelligence versus wisdom is: intelligence is knowing a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is knowing that a tomato does not go in a fruit salad.

You should pitch these to D&D Beyond! For all those DM's that need to show new players breakdowns of the PH.

OMG this is so useful. I always have to go about and explain this. Now I can just link this to my newer players and go over any questions they have

I just started playing DnD recently for the first time, and this has very much helped me get a clear understanding of each ability score. Very helpful, a simple yet clear definition.

literally thank you so much for helping me make a character sheet for the first time. much love!!

Clear and concise instructions on how to assign ability scores from dice rolls -- this video was exactly what I needed. Thank you!

I love this series. Thank you!

Thank you. So clear, and to the point. I will be revisiting this video.

I would bet the outtakes from these are super funny! Nice work Matt!

THANKS SO MUCH!!! I'm reading the beginner's guide and was so confused on how modifiers work thanks so much!

Exactly what I needed :) Yay Matt

You have no idea how much I appreciate these videos. And praise be almost no jump cuts. I swear jump cuts are the norm on RU-vid and gave me ADD lol

Even for someone whos played before these videos are nice and helpful. Also who doesnt love having Matt explain things!

Thank you, this was really helpful.

This is an excellent series. I’m hooked

Just for anyone struggling to remember when an ability score affects your modifier, and how much that modifier is you can follow this simple formula; (ability score - 10)/2 (rounded down). That will give you the appropriate modifier for any score.

I've been playing D&D for 24 years, but I've still been watching these. I just love listening to all of you!

Love this channel.

This was helpful thank you!

I’ve been playing D&D for years now. I understand the topics covered in these videos like the back of my hand. Yet I still love these videos! I will be recommending them to any new players I may have at my table in the future. Thanks for making these so interesting and understandable.

Thank you all for this series lol I’m rolling my first ever DnD character and participating in my first ever campaign (ok its more like a one shot that’s gonna happen once a month for three months but hey). I have the handbook but this is so much easier to understand.

so far so good need watch it all over and over again in case u need to recall about it

rolled 4 1's.. I now have the weakest gnome druid in exandria

I am really loving all these handbooker helpers! They are just good!

I'm about a year into Dnd and these have helped me MASSIVELY!!! Now my sister and her husband are getting into it and they are thanking This as well!!

Great explanation, from one of the finest! Wisdom and intellect always causes confussion

I really enjoy these little bite-sized pieces of knowledge. Once there is a whole library of content, I can link new players to these videos as a pre-game entry into D&D, possibly speeding up the first few sessions. Little caveat at 0:59: All melee weapons use strength, there are some (those with the Finesse property) that can be used with dexterity instead.

I am getting ready to DM my first two campaigns ever. One with my husband, sister, and a couple of friends, and one for my kids. While I've been doing a LOT of reading, and watching videos to learn more about the game in general, as Critical Role's second campaign is the first I've really gotten in to D&D, I especially love Handbooker Helper. It's something I can show my kids to help them learn about it all, too, instead of the longer videos I watch on my own. While on a road trip this last weekend, the husband and I were talking to our youngest (oldest was in the other car, too many people to fit all in one together) about D&D and were trying to explain character building to him, as he wants to start making his character soon. I can't wait to show this to him once he's home from school, to show him what we were talking about. And to give big brother that same information, since he didn't get it the first time around.

Next episode: All wizard spells, conditions and how to DM

As someone who hasn't played DND in a long time, these Handbookker Helper videos are a really great resource. It can be confusing to try to dive into character building without some of this extra explanation. The PHB is great, but videos like this really help to flesh that out quite a bit.

Love this series. Keep it up

The first video I would probably show any new player. Thanks Matt :)

Matt’s videos always has really good vibes. Almost like being charismatic is his job.

Love this series so much, just reallynhating the jingle at the begging. Keep up the good work #ImWithNorm

Thank you SO MUCH

More logical to have been the second episode but still fits in as the third. That theme always kills me, so funny. Very good explanation clear, concise and to the point. the music added to the ambiance while not being distracting and the use of graphics also enhanced the clarity rather than being extraneous. Keep up the great work!

I knew the basics of this episode, meaning what the different skills represent, but now I KNOW them and I finally understood how those skills are made and used! Awesome. As a D&D noob who gets my knowledge through only watching CR, I'm loving this series! :D

Best one yet! Is there any better teacher than Matt Mercer?

Sadly, "sleight" was slighted by "slight" with that misspelling.

These videos are amazing. I love matt

I really like the way you guys explain things.

Your video was super helpful thank you very much

This is great. The only things I missed were armor class and Initiative when regarding dexterity.

I love these videos. I've got three fairly new players and they watch these videos every week and love them too!

Soooo helpful. Thanks

I absolutely loved the intro. Sam has serious pipes.

Thanks for the great handfuc... oops I mean handbooker helper video!

Thank God, I finally get it!!

I am new to dnd and was trying to make an orc wizard all i need was my spells and stats but i did not under stand what each stat did as i do not have a players handbook yet. So this was really helpful thank you for saving my sanity.

I haven't played a game in decade's thanks to you guys I'm getting back in . Love the show big fan .

I always think it makes more sense to have your score in the little box and your bonus in the big one.

At 4:32 OMG! Finally, an explanation of this that makes sense and my players and I can remember! Thank you! This is awesome. =P

Thank you!

I usually do the reverse with the Ability Scores & Modifiers. I usually put my Score in the smaller circle while I put the Modifier into the bigger space.

Great video. The easiest way to figure out your ability score bonus or penalty is just to divide the score in half (rounding down) and then subtract 5.

I love his body wiggle after every other sentence. Like he resets himself to default position^^

you misspelled *sleight* of hand ;-P

Great explanation Matt

Good to know that Matt puts the modifier in the circle, not the big box.

I wish I had this when I first started Dming lol, great stuff

You suggested the ancient art of random rolls for base attributes ! We use the average stats math suggested in the core book : you can still be good in two or three attributes, but limits crazy discrepancies.

Friend: *recommends D&D* Me: *indecisive noises* Matt: *teaches D&D* Me: *happy noises*

So helpful!

That intro gets me every time :D