It should come as no surprise that women are physically different from men. But, these days denying reality is a big hobby for a lot of people and organizations. Here, I look at the male and female strength limits for humans in AD&D.

The Player’s Handbook, page 9 has Strength Table I which shows maximum and minimum strength categories based on race, sex, and class. From the table we can see that males humans are allowed a maximum strength of 18/00, while female humans are allowed a maximum of 18/50. Of course, the percentile strength is allowed only to characters that choose one of the Fighter classes (Fighter, Paladin, Ranger). All other human classed characters are allowed a maximum of 18 strength, male or female. Even at first, one can see that the strength limitation for humans in AD&D is rather modest between the sexes. Only female characters lucky enough to roll an 18 strength (0.46% chance) and also choose to become fighters are limited. This means that of those players choosing a female character fighter, only 0.23% of characters with have their strengths truncated. This is not a very liked or onerous limitation. Despite this many have complained about it.

But, what would a realistic limitation consist of? Sadly, as I generated this method several years ago, I’ve either lost the original links to the data, or the data has been updated for more recent records such as the new records set in 2025 by Samantha Rice (good for her). In any case, it shouldn’t be that much different, than what I present here. Perhaps, a slight increase across the board. In general the method chosen was to look at deadlift records by weight class, sex, and training level.

On these charts we have body compared to deadlift weight on the left axis. On the right axis is the normal 3d6 bell curve (with the percentiles between 18 and 19. Note that 19 on the chart is really 18/00, but for ease of representation on the chart 19 has been used. In addition, I’ve roughly divided training levels by class type, given how much emphasis on melee combat for the class there is. If I update this I’ll likely make broader categories by class. Fighter, paladin and ranger combined, magic user and illusionist, etc. But this gives a general idea where the classes might lay among the real world data.

What’s stark here, is that based on the deadlight records, the maximum deadlift for females, peaks around a strength of 12 (or perhaps 13 based Rice’s record). Maximum fit female strength is only a notch or two greater than average fit male strength. Note, I say fit, because we are looking at data from competitive lifting. I would assume these proportions scale down various fitness levels. A sedentary male certainly will be considerably weaker than the fit male, but similarly there is no reason to suggest that the sedentary female strength doesn’t also suffer a similar decline. But, we are talking fantasy adventure role playing here. Make and female characters alike are assumed generally to be fit. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be choosing a life of adventure.

I don’t advocate changing any AD&D rule here. It is a fantasy game. And, this data just reinforces how much of a fantasy game it is when taking a look at strength limitations.

But, if one were to revise rules or come up with a game variant, it would be realistic to limit female characters to rolling 3d4+1 rather than the standard 3d6.

Another way one might use these charts would be to roll for character weight first, and then limit their strength based on weight. For example, the DMG sets the normal male weight at 175 pounds with some significant variation. However, if one did roll that 175 pounds weight, the male character would have his strength limit to a maximum around 16. The female normal of 130 would have a maximum around 10.

So, ladies, could we just play the game as written and acknowledge that a 0.23% chance of limitation is not particularly onerous. The real sexual dimorphism between males and females is much more dramatic in reality.

Samantha Rice, female strength 13 example

Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson, male strength 18/00 example