Speaking of assessing...

Back in April there was a Twitter question about how you would assess yourself, Dungeons & Dragons style.

When creating a D&D character, you roll a regular (6-sided) die three times for each of six traits. Scores between 1 and 18 (depending on the edition) reveal your aptitude for different things, like casting spells or winning a fight or being undetected.

Back in grade school, my friend Jennie, her sister Sara and I would play in our own way, making up things without the use of a dungeon master, maps, and the other dice, however, we did roll our characters, and I ended up with a character who was strong and not that bright.

I think I was initially irritated with that, but then just leaned in and went full barbarian as Carna, a chaotic good warrior who (and this goes with the chaotic, if not the good) would go full on Beserker whenever we encountered bat dwarfs. (We might have made those up.) The downside of this was that the insides of bat dwarfs emitted a horrible stench, so the aftermath of killing them was very unpleasant, but she just couldn't help herself.

(Was my D&D character MAGA?)

Anyway, this was the guide I used for scoring. It is from a different edition, because it goes to 20, but it was converted from an edition that went to 25:

https://www.reddit.com/r/dndnext/comments/81cras/dd_ability_score_ranges_described/

That led me to these scores:

Strength 9: Has trouble lifting heavy objects for a longer time
(Are we talking about lifting over head? I might be selling myself short here.)

Dexterity 8: Somewhat slow, occasionally trips over own feet
(Sometimes. Not often.)

Constitution 10: Occasionally contracts mild sicknesses
(I might be selling myself short here too, but the next one up is about taking multiple hits before losing consciousness, and I can't promise that.)

Intelligence 19: Highly knowledgeable, probably the smartest person many people know
(The only reason I didn't choose 20 is because it hasn't made me famous. I am confident in this!)

Wisdom 20: Nearly prescient, able to reason far beyond logic
(Obviously.)

Charisma 16: Quickly likeable, respected or feared by many people. May be very eloquent. Good at getting their will when talking to people
(I was surprised to have a high score here, but as they described it...) 

I'm a little unbalanced.

I wasn't always like this. I mean, my mental abilities have always been higher than my physical abilities, but I used to be stronger and tougher. (My dexterity was never great.)

Part of that was just less chance to keep up. When I first started caring for my mother, we would go on walks in the park. While she could not go as far as I could, it still wasn't bad. As she slowed down, I wanted to do more. I tried leaving her on a bench once while I did another loop. She said she would stay there, but she did not. The only reason I was willing to try was because I could see her from almost the entire path, but running across the park as I saw her wandering off was too stressful to be a good workout.

If you don't use it, you'll lose it. That is true.

I suppose that is why exploring Washington Park and the different trails was so important, as well as committing to a large baking last Friday. Yes, I am weaker, but I can still do things. It takes longer, but maybe I can build back some. 

I used to have a lot more stamina. I am not sure that I can get all of it back, but I at least want to find out what is possible.