The Strength stat has many applications. Perhaps the most obvious is that adding a point of to this stat increases a character's damroll by +1. Following closely is that a character with higher strength can wield heavier weapons and have increased options when dual wielding. It should be noted that some races are prevented entirely from wielding certain weapons due to weight restrictions.
Having modifiers that effectively add to above a character's racial maximum strength will be capped at whatever that maximum is (an aelin with 17 natural strength and the giant strength spell still cannot exceed 18 strength total). However, should strength penalties be incurred, such as from plague, the bonus to strength will still counter that penalty.
The amount of weight you can carry changes with strength and level. Each level, you can carry an extra 2-3 pounds (more often 3 than 2), so at lvl 51 you can carry approximately 135 pound more (~155 pound more with the pack horse character trait).
Strength | Carry at lvl 1 | Carry with packhorse at lvl 1 | + damroll | max wield |
---|---|---|---|---|
14 str | +0 dam | |||
15 str | +1 dam | |||
16 str | 197 | 227 | +2 dam | |
17 str | 222 | 255 | +3 dam | |
18 str | 247 | 284 | +4 dam | <22 |
19 str | 272 | 313 | +5 dam | 22 <25 |
20 str | 297 | 342 | +6 dam | 25 |
21 str | 322 | 370 | +7 dam | <35 |
22 str | 347 | 399 | +8 dam | 35 |
23 str | 372 | 428 | +9 dam | |
24 str | +10 dam | |||
25 str | +11 dam |