What's your 'dump stat'?

[TroyXavier]

Charisma is my usual victim, but if I play a Sorceror or Bard, it's Wisdom.

 

[Mercule]

As others have said, it depends on the specific character, but I do find myself having a pattern. Usually wisdom is what gets dumped on. Sure, my wizards have lower strengths and my fighters have lower intelligences, but wisdom rarely rates highly for me unless I'm specifically playing a Cleric, etc. (which I don't remember doing since the late 1980s).

I know a lot of people use Charisma, but I just really like the idea of the dashing hero way too much to drop it too low.

Oddly enough, I've got a minor in philosophy, myself. It could be argued that neglecting wisdom is strongly against type. *shrug*

 

[Orius]

Considering that STR is also a popular choice, people must like to play wizards.

Perhaps; however, I see that Dex is the least popular dump, so I'm assuming we have a lot of characters that rely on Weapon Finesse and ranged weapons rather than brute force. It can be more efficient to max out Dex and get both high attack rolls and a high AC bonus.

I'm surprised to see WIS as a popular choice as well. WIS is great not only for Will Saves, but for the constant listen and spot checks.

I agree. Con, Dex, and Wis IMO are the three stats that should not be used as dumps, regardless of character.

 

[Epametheus]

Wisdom actually has a real penalty associated with it, so I don't feel like a munchkin when I use it as my dump stat

 

[doghead]

I'm just getting back it playing D&D. I can't remember what I used to to dump (when we played AD&D), but all of my current characters are non-spell casters (except for a Bard10. Choosing the spells gave me a headache.)

I tend to favour the social interaction skills, so Wisdom and Charisma are usually favoured, as is Dexterity for combat. So most of my characters are dex-fighters. I think that with my first few 3rd Ed (point buy) characters a looked for an even spread. But I am beginning to think that a little specialisation is the go. +1 is not such a significant factor when rolling a d20. Better off with a couple of +3's and/or +4's.

My vote was Str. But the last character I created (monk3) took Str as his max stat. I think that those +3s are going to apprieciated. My Rogue3 has Str 10 - he's going to up it when he gets a new level.

 

[AeroDm]

3e (and 3.5) did a great job of balancing things out. Every stat has its merrits, although this can be argued. In an RP camp Cha is more important than Strength. In a HNS camp str is more important than Cha. However, from a purely mechanicaly side of things, strength is really the only stat you can get around.

A bad con means low HP, less fortitude. Period.
A low int cuts out skill poitns that cannot be replaced. Period.
A low dex cuts out AC, Reflex, Init, Missile, several skills. Period. This once you can get around through an abundacne of magic and some feats, but the penalties are so great.

A low strength affects carrying capacity, melee, damage, and a few skills. Finnesse removes the melee aspect, D&D is all about giving you damage any way it can, the skills are easy to circumnavigate (have a friend with a rope), and having a low carrying capacity just means you make the barb carry your stuff. It is cool not to carry anything, that is a bonus!

 

[bubbalin]

Seems there are some pretty clear trends though.
The stats that are universally needed are Dex for AC, Con for HP and Int for skill points, each of which are important to make your character mroe versatile and hardy...
The rest seem like they're based on favourite character concepts...

 

[Orius]

In a HNS camp str is more important than Cha.

In a hack & slash game, everything is more important than Cha.

having a low carrying capacity just means you make the barb carry your stuff. It is cool not to carry anything, that is a bonus!

Or you could just get a bag of holding, portable hole, etc...