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bunsen_hI had a weird dream this morning of sitting in front of a Mac-like computer running a program to generate AD&D character stats for a character as described.
I typed in "1st level fighter, male human" and it displayed a set of stats. "Strength 14", I thought, "can you even lift a sword?"
Then "1st level fighter, female human". Strength 15. "Well, you can carry a sword."
I hit the button to repeat the generation. Strength 18. "That's more like it," I thought, then I read further: "18/00". Maximum possible strength. "Wow. That's amazing. Just once, I got lucky. Wait... is that even possible for a female human, isn't that against the rules? I guess it's okay. Cool."
That stayed with me when I woke up, and I went to check in my old Players Handbook. I was a bit startled by what I found. No, according to the AD&D rules, a female human is limited to 18/50 without magical assistance, while male humans max out at 18/00. Other races show similar gender gaps: female halflings can only get to strength 14, males to strength 17; female gnomes 15, males 18/50; and so on.
It seems weird now, that a fantasy game with all these different races, magical artifacts, weird creatures, etc. would have such arbitrary sex-based limitations. I don't recall it coming up as an issue at the time; I'm not sure if we'd have paid attention to those rules, or simply ignored them as we did some others.
ETA: On the other hand, I'm not sure what it says about me that that detail came forcefully to mind, in the middle of my dream. About a game I haven't played for many, many years.
Do current versions of D&D have maximum strength stats which depend on the sex of the character?
I typed in "1st level fighter, male human" and it displayed a set of stats. "Strength 14", I thought, "can you even lift a sword?"
Then "1st level fighter, female human". Strength 15. "Well, you can carry a sword."
I hit the button to repeat the generation. Strength 18. "That's more like it," I thought, then I read further: "18/00". Maximum possible strength. "Wow. That's amazing. Just once, I got lucky. Wait... is that even possible for a female human, isn't that against the rules? I guess it's okay. Cool."
That stayed with me when I woke up, and I went to check in my old Players Handbook. I was a bit startled by what I found. No, according to the AD&D rules, a female human is limited to 18/50 without magical assistance, while male humans max out at 18/00. Other races show similar gender gaps: female halflings can only get to strength 14, males to strength 17; female gnomes 15, males 18/50; and so on.
It seems weird now, that a fantasy game with all these different races, magical artifacts, weird creatures, etc. would have such arbitrary sex-based limitations. I don't recall it coming up as an issue at the time; I'm not sure if we'd have paid attention to those rules, or simply ignored them as we did some others.
ETA: On the other hand, I'm not sure what it says about me that that detail came forcefully to mind, in the middle of my dream. About a game I haven't played for many, many years.
Do current versions of D&D have maximum strength stats which depend on the sex of the character?
