Attributes

Attributes describe the physical and mental characteristics of your character. They represent how fast, strong, durable, and mentally strong your character is.

When assigning your characters attributes, it is important to think about their strengths and weaknesses from a roleplay standpoint, and not just about what is theoretically strongest for their class. This is because attributes represent more than just combat prowess, and will be used in non-combat challenges as well.

Overview of Each Attribute
There are a total of six attributes:
 * Strength; measuring physical power
 * Dexterity; measuring quickness and reflexes
 * Endurance; measuring durability and stamina
 * Intelligence; measuring mental capacity
 * Wisdom; measuring insight, perception, and mental control
 * Charisma; measuring powers of persuasion and deception

Uses of Each Attribute
Each attribute has number of associated skill checks that rely on that Attribute modifier when your character tries to perform these actions. Attributes also effect other stats about your character such as their health total, mana, etc.

Strength

 * Melee attacks (depending on weapon type)
 * Blocking
 * Athletics
 * Manipulating heavy objects

Dexterity

 * Melee attacks (depending on weapon type)
 * Dodging
 * Acrobatics
 * Stealth
 * Sleight of Hand

Endurance

 * Hit Points (total and regen)
 * Stamina (total and regen)
 * Focus (total)
 * Adrenaline (total and regen)
 * Enduring long periods of strenuous activity

Intelligence

 * Mana (total)
 * Basic spell attacks/magic weapon attacks
 * Arcana (detecting magic)
 * Investigation (searching for something in an area)

Wisdom

 * Mana (regen)
 * Focus (regen)
 * Spellcast (success at difficult spells)
 * Perception (spotting hidden or far away things)
 * Insight (judging a person's intentions or truthfulness)
 * Survival (tracking, moving through dangerous wilderness)

Charisma

 * Persuasion
 * Intimidation
 * Deception
 * Performance

Note that the above is not an exhaustive list, and what kind of skill checks you are asked for is dependant on your DMs interpretation of the situation.

Stats vs Roleplay
Generally speaking the substance of your roleplay should be more important than what you roll on an (imaginary) dice. For example, if you are searching a room for a hidden compartment and you write an emote of your character looking in the exact right place (let's say, under a desk), generally your character should find it without a roll.

However, if you have no idea where to look or are faced with a situation where the specifics of a room are not described to you for some reason, you could instead ask to make a general investigation check. You'd do a /roll 20 and add your Int modifier, to represent how thoroughly and smartly your character searches the area. The DM will then tell you what you may find.

In some cases your character might look in the exact right place, but still have the answer obscured. Perhaps the hidden compartment requires you to press a button concealed in the desk's woodwork. In these cases you look correctly but are unaware of some hidden mechanism OOCly that you need to look for. In this case, you would likely be asked to make an intelligence roll about the desk, to see if your character notices the hidden mechanism.

As a DM, you should endeavour to make sure your players feel their actions matter and are not just a slave to the random outcome of their rolls.