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Ability scores are the core of a creatures personality, describing it in both a physical and meta-physical manner, and the way it interacts with the world around it.
These scores are used to determine the ability score modifiers where modifier = (score-10)/2, always rounding down. e.g. a Strenght of 13 gives a modifier of (13-10)/2 = 1.5 or +1.
These three ability scores are probably the easiest to work out what they should be as they can be visualised more easily. Again the How to Create a Monster PDF gives some good guidelines for ranges for different creature types based on size. Generally the bigger something is the higher its strength but the lower its dexterity. Constitution generally increases but not as much as strength. Exceptions to this rule are more the rule than the exceptions however. Various creatures, such as undead and constructs do not have constitution scores, not to be confused with a constitution score of zero.
This is how muscular and strong a creature is. It affects its melee attack bonuses and how much damage a creature can deal with one hit. A STR of 0 means that the character cannot move at all. He lies helpless on the ground.
This is your standard agility. The more agile and manoeuvrable a creature the higher its dexterity. An average human would be classified as having a dexterity of 10. A DEX of 0 means that the character cannot move at all. He stands motionless, rigid, and helpless.
Not to be confused with strength here this is how hardy, fit or healthy the creature is. Image you are someone who never gets a cold, never has aches or pains and can eat far too much without getting indigestion - then you've got a high constitution. If however you've always got a snivel, running nose and hate cold weather then you've got a low constitution. A CON of 0 means that the character is dead.
Creatures without a constitution score are considered to have a +0 modifier where one is required. This is written as a "-" when listing ability scores.
These scores define how the creature is perceived and perceives the world around it, how it handles everyday tasks mentally and how challenging a creature is going to be to the players tactically. These abilities usually bear no relationship to size (although they can be related to creature type).
They really do determine a lot more of the personality of your creature.
This defines how well the creature thinks and learns. Animals usually have intelligence of 1 or 2. Constructs, unless imbued with magical intelligence usually have no intelligence (again, not to be confused with 0).
Intelligence also affects the number of skill points a creature gets (assuming it gets skill points).
A Int of 0 means the creature is in a catatonic state of some description.
Wisdom is all about how you perceive the world around you. A creature with a high wisdom will fight much better on unfamiliar territory or with whatever tools happen to be at hand than one with a high intelligence. However one with a high intelligence given enough time might come up with a cracking plan to outwit someone.
Your wisdom score helps determines your will save bonus.
Any creature that doesn't have a wisdom score also has no charisma score, and vice versa. Constructs have no wisdom or charisma score.
Charisma is not just about how pretty something looks, but also about self confidence and your ability to affect the people in the world around you. Bullies can have as high a charisma as your average holier than thou paladin, they just use intimidate rather than diplomacy to get what they want.
Charisma will affect the effectiveness of spell-like abilities so if
Example 1: Out ooze is pretty tough cookie, so I'm going to give it a slightly higher constitution than usual, of 14, but maybe a little slower than usual, with a dexterity of 12. The strength I'll leave within the suggested ranges, at 7.
We want it to be pretty intelligent (more than an actual Ooze anyway) so we'll set its Int at 12 (just above the 'human' average of 10). Wisdom can be a little below average at 9, and its Charisma can be 15.
Example 2: Our huge fella isn't particularly strong (for his size and type), leaning more towards the dexterous. I'm thinking here we'll just reverse the suggested strength and dexterity scores (because we can!) I'll give him a strength of 18, dexterity of 22 and constitution of 12. These are quite a lot outside the ranges recommended by the HTCM document but I don't mind too much, because I feel I can justify them.
Our guy here isn't that intelligent, probably an 7 or 8 or so (lets say 7). Wisdom would probably be about the same, lets say 10. As for charisma, not a chance, lets set that at 5.
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