NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Epic Meepo" data-source="post: 9381394" data-attributes="member: 57073">I can see your side of the picture, and I don't necessarily disagree with all of your points. You're certainly presenting a reasonable explanation for what Intelligence means in D&D.At the same time, I can see other ways of interpreting Intelligence. Your argument seems to hinge on Intelligence measuring "skill at applying logic." You provide lots of examples of things you can do to practice applying logic, math, and the scientific method.But as you note, the definition of Intelligence in D&D also currently includes "mental sharpness" and the "ability to recall information." I have a hard time envisioning any origin in which there's no opportunity to practice one or the other of those on a regular basis. Even people from non-technical backgrounds can benefit from the ability to recall information. Athletes, farmers, soldiers, and a wide range of other folk can all use the ability to recall highly-specialized knowledge on a regular basis to excel in their roles. They won't necessarily be recalling scientific knowledge, but they can make use of certain knowledge nonetheless.I can understand why someone might disagree with my conclusion, just as I can see why someone might disagree with your conclusion. And therein lies my criticism of the ability score increase mechanism. The current Background rules support every ability score choice you believe is justified for your character, but they relegate some of the ability score choices I believe are justified for my character to optional rules in the DMG. If ability scores were Background-independent, you (specifically) would still be able to make any ability score choice you believe is justified, but I would also be able to to the same. Background-independent ability scores would accommodate both of us, whereas the current rules only accommodate players who share your interpretation of certain ability scores.</blockquote>

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