Question about max ability scores - Plz help me understand

ferretofdeath

I was looking at some builds on online when I noticed that many of them have what appear to be impossible ability scores. I'd really like to know what I'm missing here if someone can correct my math.

I've looked at this a good bit to see all the possible starting rolls - http://neverwinter.gamepedia.com/Ability_Score_Rolling. Basically, the maximum ability point sum you can get at start is 77 points +2 for human (another +2 for other races). You also get +20 total points while levelling to 60 (8 that you can place wherever you like, and 12 more than get spread across all six abilities evenly). For a human, that means A HARD TOTAL CAP of 99 points. Let's call your top three abilities your "Main" abilities - your primary, and two secondary ability scores (e.g. int, wis, and cha for a control wizard). If you choose that max 77 point roll, your Main abilities will have a max of 42 due to the chart on gamepedia (44 after you add your +2 human pts), meaning YOUR MAIN THREE ABILITIES CAN NEVER EXCEED A SUM OF 58 -> 42 (starting roll) +2 (human) + 14 additional (from levelling all possible custom points into the Main three abilities - the other 6 have to go into your off abilities) for a human. A human can start out with a better starting roll sum of 44 in their Main three abilities if they sacrifice a few overall points, which is probably what most people do, bringing overall starting roll total down from 77 to 72-74 (varies based on exact main ability distribution you want) and raising their MAIN ABILITY MAX TO 60 but lowering their TOTAL MAX TO 97.

For example, my character is a Human, level 60, with 96 total points, and 60 in my Main abilities - 12,12,12,24,15,21. I went with the 16,16,12 in my main and the 10,10,10 in my off abilities for starting roll. After my +2 human pts and all +20 level ups I have the scores above.

Let's take a look at Stox's Thaumaturge CW Guide - http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?535911-Stox-s-PVE-CW-Thaum-DPS-guide. The ability scores shown in the screenshot are 11,13,13,27,16,20. That's 100 total points, with 63 in the Main three abilities. WTF? Not only does he have more than the max in Main abilities, he did it while exceeding the total ability score as well, which should have lowered his max in his main abilities. This char could possibly be High Elf because the race isn't in the screenshot (I seriously doubt it from reading his guide), but even then that would only account for 2 extra points.

Here's another one - http://mmominds.com/2014/03/06/lucids-spongebob-build/. Spongebob has 13,13,13,25,15,23, that's a human with 102 total with 63 in the Main abilities. Once again, what is going on here?

I've seen another one with these numbers...
Clearly a Human with 11,13,13,28,17,21. That's 103 total points, with 66 in the main three! What in the world am I missing here???

And I've seen many more screenshots online like these. There's no way all these people are photoshopping them. Many of the screens I've seen are from reputable people. Is there some obvious way to raise ability scores that I'm just not aware of?

Any help shedding some light on how these ability scores are reached will be much appreciated.

dardove

Did you take into account the campfire bonus (increases all stats by 1)? There is also the the potion of heroism which increases primary and secondary stats by 1.

ferretofdeath

That's it! Thank you. That was confusing me. I didn't realize those bonuses showed up on the character screen.