D&D 5E (NPC) Stat array: how would you allocate?

[Jefe Bergenstein]

I'd go Wisdom, and play her as near insane from the years of physical and psychological abuse. Neogi society is incredibly warped by human standards, with their cruelty, great old master spawning vessels, umberhulk bodyslaves and weird cycle of ownership which can lead to the slaves of one neogi owning their master's master. Since she was hooked up to a lifejammer, just make her tough as an ox with high str and con. The low wisdom makes her more unreliable due to a glaring achilles heel in her Wisdom save. It also avoids the NPC being the one to spot traps or point out clues, due to her lower passive stat. Low wisdom NPC's are fun!

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

I'd go Wisdom, and play her as near insane from the years of physical and psychological abuse. Neogi society is incredibly warped by human standards, with their cruelty, great old master spawning vessels, umberhulk bodyslaves and weird cycle of ownership which can lead to the slaves of one neogi owning their master's master. Since she was hooked up to a lifejammer, just make her tough as an ox with high str and con. The low wisdom makes her more unreliable due to a glaring achilles heel in her Wisdom save. It also avoids the NPC being the one to spot traps or point out clues, due to her lower passive stat. Low wisdom NPC's are fun!

It wasn't years, though. It's already been established that her life was normal up until about two months ago; she was a neogi slave for less than a month. Not that this couldn't have messed her up some (she lost a husband and a child as well as everybody she's ever known during that month), but it wasn't a long time.

 

[S'mon]

For non-heroic female NPCs I'd usually put the low number in STR, but 4 seems unusually low for a healthy farm worker. I don't think I'd decide a background & then roll stats like this & then allocate, though - if I was going to roll at all I'd roll in order so the character emerged organically. And if I'm rolling 3 of 4d6 it means the character is heroic, not a normal person.

So if I *were* rolling 3 of 4d6 I would allocate the stats in the order they were rolled, maybe with one swap.