Dump stats can be a fun way to promote role-playing opportunities, but there is one D&D stat that should never be dumped if you want to survive.

There are multiple components to creating a Dungeons & Dragons character, and among the most important are the six core stats that determine a character's attributes. Strength contributes to the character's physical abilities, while Dexterity determines their agility and finesse. Intelligence bolsters book smarts, and Wisdom represents street smarts. Charisma affects the character's personality and how well they relate through communication, and Constitution decides just how much the body can physically withstand.

While creating a character, figuring those stats into the mix creates opportunities to map out their strengths and weaknesses. Due to the systems in place to work out core stat scores, there's a very strong possibility at least one of those stats will need to be dumped. Dump stats can up the ante and make for some very interesting opportunities. However, there is one stat that, no matter the circumstances, should never be dumped because it's important to the survival of every single character.

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Regardless of the player class, there is one attribute necessary to every single living being: Constitution. While CON is the only stat that has no specific skills affiliated with it, that doesn't mean it isn't important. On the contrary, it measures a character's stamina, durability, and toughness. It determines how well the physical body handles the activities it endures, including how it reacts to things like overeating, alcohol consumption, starvation, poisoning, physical damage, running ragged without rest, or moving through exhausting weather conditions and difficult terrain.

Dungeon Masters will often have players make CON saving throws to determine whether characters become poisoned, blinded, petrified, or debilitated in other ways. It not only affects the body, but the clarity of the mind as well. This is also why spell casters are required to make CON checks to maintain concentration for ongoing spell effects when they take damage during combat. If the damage is too distracting, they may lose their ability to control the magic that could be keeping everyone else alive.

Even more important is that CON determines a character's available pool of hit points. From character creation and through each level the player reaches, they will be given opportunity to increase their hit points by rolling the dice type for their class and adding their CON modifier to the total. Having a positive CON modifier means that even those with low die rolls can still come out with at least two new hit points.

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A lot of players get caught up in the idea of strengthening their character by pouring as many stat points as possible into their class' most important stat, and dumping at least one stat that has no real bearing on their most important abilities and skills. That isn't a bad idea, but it's important to consider which stat (or stats) will be dumped to make up for it.

No matter how badly the player wants to get their core stat score to 20 right off the bat, CON should never be dumped to achieve this. A CON score below 10 creates a negative modifier, which only makes a character more susceptible to debilitating conditions and failed concentration checks. Plus, it also makes them far more likely to die quickly in combat because they won't have a sustainable hit point pool.

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A negative CON modifier would mean subtracting hit points from their total each time they level up, making it almost impossible for them to survive against enemies that have been scaled to meet the party's combined strength. That character becomes a liability to the rest of the party, who may need to spend time and resources healing or reviving a fragile comrade time and again rather than focusing on the enemy at hand.

CON does not need to be a character's highest stat. It should, however be at least second or third highest, depending on the class and the character build. At the very least, no character should ever have a negative Constitution modifier, unless, of course, the player's goal is to create a character who is incredibly frail and always close to their own demise.

Artist, writer, avid gamer, lover of comics, manga and anime and all around nerd, Jennifer has been creating online content for numerous websites for over 15 years. She can generally be found on Tuesday nights playing Drow Warlock Zaelien Vel'rai in the So Many Levels D&D campaign on Twitch!