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<blockquote data-quote="rollingForInit" data-source="post: 6767223" data-attributes="member: 6793360">I think it's more that Intelligence requires more from the DM than other stats. Constitution is automatically important because it sets the HP. Dex is automatically important because it affects Initiative, AC and several frequently used skills. Wisdom is important mostly because Perception checks come very naturally to most players and DM's, both in exploration and combat, and Insight comes equally naturally in social situations. If there's any social aspects of the game (and most have some level of it), Charisma comes very naturally. Those ability scores are just very, very difficult to avoid having in your game if you do both combat and social encounters. Intelligence checks can much more easily be skipped, and the DM has to set all the DC levels for every monster they encounter to know what a character will remember from any given knowledge check. Investigation is more broadly applicable, but it suffers from sharing territory with Perception. It's not so much that Intelligence is always a bad stat or that it cannot be important, even critical. It's just that it's not as tightly tied to any mechanics or situations as other stats are, so it's the easiest stat to overlook. Even Strength, which is a dump stat for many casters, can be difficult to avoid during exploration, since anything Athletic is based on it, as well as carrying capacity. And if the Wizard wants to beat someone with a quarterstaff, well ...</blockquote>

[QUOTE="rollingForInit, post: 6767223, member: 6793360"] I think it's more that Intelligence requires more from the DM than other stats. Constitution is automatically important because it sets the HP. Dex is automatically important because it affects Initiative, AC and several frequently used skills. Wisdom is important mostly because Perception checks come [i]very[/i] naturally to most players and DM's, both in exploration and combat, and Insight comes equally naturally in social situations. If there's any social aspects of the game (and most have some level of it), Charisma comes very naturally. Those ability scores are just very, very difficult to avoid having in your game if you do both combat and social encounters. Intelligence checks can much more easily be skipped, and the DM has to set all the DC levels for every monster they encounter to know what a character will remember from any given knowledge check. Investigation is more broadly applicable, but it suffers from sharing territory with Perception. It's not so much that Intelligence is always a bad stat or that it cannot be important, even critical. It's just that it's not as tightly tied to any mechanics or situations as other stats are, so it's the easiest stat to overlook. Even Strength, which is a dump stat for many casters, can be difficult to avoid during exploration, since anything Athletic is based on it, as well as carrying capacity. And if the Wizard wants to beat someone with a quarterstaff, well ... [/QUOTE]

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