The five ability scores are, as follow: Strength, Dexterity, Endurance, Intelligence, and Spirit. These five abilities represent your character's basic strengths and weaknesses. Normal human range is between 2 and 4 for each of these. An ability of 3 is always defined as average for a human. A higher score represents natural ability in that area, as well as a knack for learning skills and techniques. So, a character with a high strength is not merely very strong, but also certain-strength based abilities (such as, say, many sports, wrestling, or fighting) come naturally to him. This is represented by gaining additional skill points (see Chapter 2: Skills for more information) in skills governed by that ability score. Ability scores increase and decrease exponentially, so strength 4 is significantly more than twice as strong as strength 2, even though the number is only double. An ability increase of +3 roughly corresponds to being four times as talented in that area.
At character creation, you have fifteen ability points to place in the five abilities. They must be between 2 and 4 before racial and other modifiers. This is your “base” ability in each of the five categories, and is used to determine how many skill points you receive every level.