Stats

Version 0.31: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Your character's basic stats (or attributes) are Strength (Str), Intelligence (Int) and Dexterity (Dex). These are determined by your species and background, grow as you gain experience. They can be changed by equipment, abilities, and mutations. They may be damaged by monster abilities; if any stat is reduced to 0 or below, you will suffer severe penalties.

The three defensive stats are your armour class (AC), your evasion (EV), and your blocking ability (SH). Your character also has a limited reserve of hit points (HP) and magic points (Magic or MP).

Starting Stats

Each of your starting stats is the sum of a contribution from your species and a contribution from your background. While they do not by any means define your character, it is easier to build your character in a way that is compatible with your stats.

Species Contributions

Not all species have the same stat total; Demigods have the highest stats, Gnolls have the lowest.

The "gain" column describes how the race automatically gains stats as they level up: a letter indicates the stat beginning with that letter can be chosen, and the number before the colon indicates the frequency of stat gains. So a Human, who would gain one Str, Int, or Dex every 4 levels, is represented by 4:SID. See Gaining Attributes below for further details.

Species	Strength	Intelligence	Dexterity	Sum	Gain
!aArmataur	13	8	5	26	4:SID
!aBarachi	9	8	7	24	4:SID
!aDeep Elf	5	12	10	27	4:I
!aDemigod	9	10	9	28	Special*
!aDemonspawn	8	8	8	24	4:SID
!aDjinni	7	9	8	24	4:ID
!aDraconian	10	8	6	24	4:SID
!aFelid	4	11	11	26	4:ID
!aFormicid	12	7	9	28	4:SI
!aGargoyle	11	8	5	24	4:SI
!aGhoul	11	7	4	22	5:S
!aGnoll	7	7	7	21	4:SID
!aHill Orc	10	8	6	24	5:S
!aHuman	8	8	8	24	4:SID
!aKobold	5	9	10	24	5:SID
!aMerfolk	8	7	9	24	5:SID
!aMinotaur	12	5	5	22	4:SD
!aMummy	11	7	7	25	5:SID
!aNaga	10	8	6	24	4:SID
!aOctopode	7	10	7	24	5:SID
!aOni	11	9	4	24	3:S
!aSpriggan	4	9	10	23	5:ID
!aTengu	8	8	9	25	4:SID
!aTroll	15	4	5	24	3:S
!aVampire	7	10	9	26	5:ID
!aVine Stalker	10	8	9	27	4:SD
Average	8.92	8.19	7.42	24.1

* Demigods do not gain stats randomly. See Gaining Attributes.

Background Contributions

Your background also contributes to your starting stats, although to a lesser degree than your species. Unlike with species, the sum of the starting stats is the same across all backgrounds (12).

Background	Strength	Intelligence	Dexterity
!aAir Elementalist	0	7	5
!aAlchemist	0	7	5
!aArtificer	4	3	5
!aBerserker	9	-1	4
!aBrigand	3	3	6
!aChaos Knight	4	4	4
!aCinder Acolyte	6	6	0
!aConjurer	-1	10	3
!aDelver	4	2	6
!aEarth Elementalist	0	7	5
!aEnchanter	0	7	5
!aFighter	8	0	4
!aFire Elementalist	0	7	5
!aGladiator	6	0	6
!aHedge Wizard	2	6	4
!aHexslinger	0	5	7
!aHunter	3	1	8
!aIce Elementalist	0	7	5
!aMonk	3	2	7
!aNecromancer	0	7	5
!aReaver	4	5	3
!aShapeshifter	6	2	4
!aSummoner	0	7	5
!aWanderer	*	*	*
!aWarper	3	5	4
Average	2.67	4.54	4.79

*A wanderer's starting stats are random, weighted to benefit items received, but will also total 12. However, if a stat is greater than 17, it is less likely to be increased.

125 is the absolute maximum value for strength, dexterity, and intelligence. These ability scores can never go above 125. The minimum value for stats is -128.

Gaining Attributes

Characters will increase attributes naturally as they level, with their race determining which attributes they gain and how often they gain them. Additionally, they get to increase an attribute of their choice by two every six levels, starting at level 3.

Demigods gain a choice of 4 stat points every three levels, but they do not gain any stats randomly from leveling.

History

• Prior to 0.28, manual attribute gain was +1 stat per 3 levels.
• In 0.17, the stat cap for strength, intelligence, and dexterity was increased from 72 to 125.
• Stats used to be randomized: there were eight stat points that would be allocated randomly, with a slight tendency to raise lower stats in preference to higher ones, but each species contribution was 2 points lower and the class contributions were 2 points lower in total, meaning the total number of stat points was unchanged.
  • Additionally, Wanderers' stats used to total only 6, making the class considerably more difficult. Artificers' totaled 9, although that difference was less significant. As for species, numerous small changes have been made over the years, but one of the more significant ones is to Mummies: they have gone from having some of the worst starting stats (7/3/3, or 13 total) to being among the higher-stat races (though still extremely difficult to play).