Intelligence: "This is a one-way street" Wisdom: "We should still look both ways before crossing."

Matt: You've got your dice, and you've- My brain: YOU'VE GOT YOUR PERFECT WARLOCK!!

My first thought when he mentioned not to worry about low scores, a certain line from an early episode of Campaign 1. "I 'ave an intelligence of six, I fink I know what I'm doin'."

"Weaknesses often make for memorable story points." Matt: "Roll Deception" Sam: "...Zero." *Mercer snorts his drink up his nose*

My favorite way to explain the difference between Intellegence and Wisdom: Intellegence is knowing that Frankenstein was not the monster. Wisdom is knowing that Frankenstein was, in fact, the monster.

D&D Stats Explained With Tomatoes Strength is being able to crush a tomato. Dexterity is being able to dodge a tomato. Constitution is being able to eat a bad tomato. Intelligence is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing not to put a tomato in a fruit salad. Charisma is being able to sell a tomato based fruit salad.

Matt's charisma score would be one thousand.

I've been playing 5th edition for years now but I still watch these

If someone is worried about a low score, just remember grog had 6 intelligence and vex had 7 strength (At the beginning)

Matt’s wiggles give me life, the dm wiggles™️

Who else already knows everything about ability scores and is only watching this for Matt?

One thing I've learning is to think about the three mental stats; Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma, as a pond. Intelligence is how wide this pond is. How wide your own knowledge is, can be vast as a lake or thin as a puddle. Wisdom is how deep it is. This is your depth of how to use the knowledge you've got. Your wisdom may be shallow like a splash or deep as an abyss. Charisma is how much others want to drink from that pond. The pond may be sparkly and clean like that summer lake by the cabin or murky and deceitful as the oceans. Well,t hat's my take in it at least.

I remember Stephen Colbert discussed rolling stats "back in the day." They would roll 3d6 and stick with the score. If none were equal to or above 15, they would say their character would become a farmer, and they would roll a new character. The called this "death by farming."

Matt: 'Is it gamenight yet?' Me: MATTHEW CHRISTOPHER MILLER/MERCER THAT IS *NOT* HOW WE END VIDEOS ON THIS CHANNEL!!!!

Nice episode of Handbooger Heifer, great job team!

All hail the negative ability score, especially when it comes to strength. It makes for some funny moments if your playing a wizard whose has literally never lifted some thing heavier than a sack of potatoes.

Sam's ding at the end gets me every time, I love it so much

One of my favorite characters was a Tortle Cleric who rolled a 4 Charisma. Heeeeee waaaaaass a reeeeeeeeal slooooooooow taaaaaaaaalker aaaaand realllly loooooved to teeeeelll veeeerrryy deeetaiiilled stoooorieeeees.

from a 4 year old Reddit post: Strength is being able to crush a tomato. Dexterity is being able to dodge a tomato. Constitution is being able to eat a bad tomato. Intelligence is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing not to put a tomato in a fruit salad. Charisma is being able to sell a tomato based fruit salad.

Don't be afraid of low scores. If you're going to fail at something, you might as well fail spectacularly.

0:03 *wiggle*

My cleric has a wisdom of 18 and an intelligence of 6. Honestly, she does some stupid things, but sometimes comes up with philosophical things to say. Whenever someone gets hurt she yells out, "Don't worry I'll heal you in a second!"

Many years ago, when I was in high school, (in the wayback of the late 80's) I had a D&D group, and we played pretty much every day. It was a boarding school, so there was little else to do. We rotated who was the DM, between me, and two others. One of the others, Doug I think his name was, once had this fun idea to start everyone out as NPC classes. Merchants and the like, and confined our ability rolls in a very peculiar way. Basically, we would roll each ability in turn, and what we got, was what that ability score was, rather than placing them where they would be most advantageous. It was kind of weird, even then, but we were always game for trying something new, and as we were already playing NPC classes, figured Doug knew what he was up to, and gave it a shot. We all rolled a mix of high and low scores, and off we went, a bunch of characters poorly prepared for adventuring, trying to adventure. The basic concept Doug was playing with was to let us choose our class by way of our actions in the first adventure. My character found a sword, and in a moment of panic, as we were being attacked by Goblins, grabbed it and started swinging wildly. He had a Strength of 8. By the end, I was the Fighter, because my character was too terrified to be without the long, sharp, stabby thing. He was a terrible fighter, obviously. The Wizard only had an Intelligence of 10, though, and the Rogue ended up being the guy with a 6 Dexterity. We never did end up being very good adventurers, but we had a real blast with that party being terrible at everything. Doug decided that his concept was better in theory than practice, and despite us kind of wanting to do it again, refused to ever run a campaign full of people poorly suited to their roles again. Point being, have fun with bad ability scores. They really can be more fun than you might imagine, if you're willing to embrace it, and have that fun. Well, fun for everyone but the DM, anyway, who had to spend the whole time herding cats.

I really needed this on monday for my school dnd group

Warmed this old DM's heart seeing the Ability Score in the big box and the modifier in the circle. As is tradition, of course. :)

i really mcfrickin love these videos, man

1:55 Also ale.

I think your hand was too slight.

Who here knows what ability scores are for but just want to hear that epic Sam Reigel theme song?

I just started playing DnD recently for the first time, and this has very much helped me get a clear understanding of each ability score. Very helpful, a simple yet clear definition.

Love this channel.

ive been learning how to play for the last year and im now planning to teach a group of friends ant this series is so handy as a reminder of everything you need to know from the very beginning

Intelligence: We have more people, we have the advantage. Wisdom: Yes, but they know we're coming and no victory is certain until it is.

Next episode: All wizard spells, conditions and how to DM

Excellent video, especially the general description of each ability and what it could relate to in the game.

Thank you. So clear, and to the point. I will be revisiting this video.

I would bet the outtakes from these are super funny! Nice work Matt!

I like these small helpers. Matt really made it quick and simple to get a grasp with the six stats on your sheet. Looking forward to more helpers.

Thanks for the great handfuc... oops I mean handbooker helper video!

literally thank you so much for helping me make a character sheet for the first time. much love!!

You should pitch these to D&D Beyond! For all those DM's that need to show new players breakdowns of the PH.

This is an excellent series. I’m hooked

Intelligence is knowing you can stab a tree Wisdom is knowing you probably shouldn't stab a tree. This is the prime example that came up in the first session of my first D&D campaign. It was also the flavour text to the +1 Wisdom shortsword the player got for stabbing a tree.

I love this series. Thank you!

You have no idea how much I appreciate these videos. And praise be almost no jump cuts. I swear jump cuts are the norm on KZfaq and gave me ADD lol

Clear and concise instructions on how to assign ability scores from dice rolls -- this video was exactly what I needed. Thank you!

THANKS SO MUCH!!! I'm reading the beginner's guide and was so confused on how modifiers work thanks so much!

OMG this is so useful. I always have to go about and explain this. Now I can just link this to my newer players and go over any questions they have

Best way I've ever heard to explain intelligence versus wisdom is: intelligence is knowing a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is knowing that a tomato does not go in a fruit salad.

Sadly, "sleight" was slighted by "slight" with that misspelling.

Exactly what I needed :) Yay Matt

Thank you, this was really helpful.

(ASMR) Jotaro teaches you how to play d&d instead of taking care of his daughter

so far so good need watch it all over and over again in case u need to recall about it

This was helpful thank you!

I have never before considered Matt's chest hair, and now it's hard to focus on anything else in this video.

Even for someone whos played before these videos are nice and helpful. Also who doesnt love having Matt explain things!

I've been playing D&D for 24 years, but I've still been watching these. I just love listening to all of you!

Just for anyone struggling to remember when an ability score affects your modifier, and how much that modifier is you can follow this simple formula; (ability score - 10)/2 (rounded down). That will give you the appropriate modifier for any score.

Friend: *recommends D&D* Me: *indecisive noises* Matt: *teaches D&D* Me: *happy noises*

These videos are amazing. I love matt

I'm about a year into Dnd and these have helped me MASSIVELY!!! Now my sister and her husband are getting into it and they are thanking This as well!!

I really like the way you guys explain things.

More logical to have been the second episode but still fits in as the third. That theme always kills me, so funny. Very good explanation clear, concise and to the point. the music added to the ambiance while not being distracting and the use of graphics also enhanced the clarity rather than being extraneous. Keep up the great work!

The first video I would probably show any new player. Thanks Matt :)

Good to know that Matt puts the modifier in the circle, not the big box.

Thank you SO MUCH

Love this series. Keep it up

Soooo helpful. Thanks

I am really loving all these handbooker helpers! They are just good!

Your video was super helpful thank you very much

Love this series so much, just reallynhating the jingle at the begging. Keep up the good work #ImWithNorm

Matt’s videos always has really good vibes. Almost like being charismatic is his job.

Best one yet! Is there any better teacher than Matt Mercer?

Thank you all for this series lol I’m rolling my first ever DnD character and participating in my first ever campaign (ok its more like a one shot that’s gonna happen once a month for three months but hey). I have the handbook but this is so much easier to understand.

I always think it makes more sense to have your score in the little box and your bonus in the big one.

I absolutely loved the intro. Sam has serious pipes.

Thank you!

rolled 4 1's.. I now have the weakest gnome druid in exandria

you misspelled *sleight* of hand ;-P

I am getting ready to DM my first two campaigns ever. One with my husband, sister, and a couple of friends, and one for my kids. While I've been doing a LOT of reading, and watching videos to learn more about the game in general, as Critical Role's second campaign is the first I've really gotten in to D&D, I especially love Handbooker Helper. It's something I can show my kids to help them learn about it all, too, instead of the longer videos I watch on my own. While on a road trip this last weekend, the husband and I were talking to our youngest (oldest was in the other car, too many people to fit all in one together) about D&D and were trying to explain character building to him, as he wants to start making his character soon. I can't wait to show this to him once he's home from school, to show him what we were talking about. And to give big brother that same information, since he didn't get it the first time around.

I’ve been playing D&D for years now. I understand the topics covered in these videos like the back of my hand. Yet I still love these videos! I will be recommending them to any new players I may have at my table in the future. Thanks for making these so interesting and understandable.

At 4:32 OMG! Finally, an explanation of this that makes sense and my players and I can remember! Thank you! This is awesome. =P

The opening jingle makes these videos must watch.

I really enjoy these little bite-sized pieces of knowledge. Once there is a whole library of content, I can link new players to these videos as a pre-game entry into D&D, possibly speeding up the first few sessions. Little caveat at 0:59: All melee weapons use strength, there are some (those with the Finesse property) that can be used with dexterity instead.

Great explanation, from one of the finest! Wisdom and intellect always causes confussion

Great show

Please tell more is to come. I want to use this in our D&D club at school.

This is great. The only things I missed were armor class and Initiative when regarding dexterity.

I usually do the reverse with the Ability Scores & Modifiers. I usually put my Score in the smaller circle while I put the Modifier into the bigger space.

I love these videos. I've got three fairly new players and they watch these videos every week and love them too!

"... and Charisma", he said, giving us The Smolder.

Great explanation Matt

As someone who hasn't played DND in a long time, these Handbookker Helper videos are a really great resource. It can be confusing to try to dive into character building without some of this extra explanation. The PHB is great, but videos like this really help to flesh that out quite a bit.

I wish I had this when I first started Dming lol, great stuff

I knew the basics of this episode, meaning what the different skills represent, but now I KNOW them and I finally understood how those skills are made and used! Awesome. As a D&D noob who gets my knowledge through only watching CR, I'm loving this series! :D

So helpful!

Sleight of hand: moving things with your hand. Slight of hand: insulting someone with your hand.

I wish these videos existed when I first started playing. Learning would've been so much easier

I haven't played a game in decade's thanks to you guys I'm getting back in . Love the show big fan .