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<blockquote data-quote="Brother MacLaren" data-source="post: 3723183" data-attributes="member: 15999">The high Int SHOULD be a big deal.&nbsp; It seems to me that many gamers I know are very bright people.&nbsp; Let's say that a gamer has scored in the 90th percentile of various tests of intellect.&nbsp; That's a 15 Int.&nbsp; If he's playing anything OTHER than a wizard, he likely has to dumb himself down in any sort of problem-solving environment, and hold back on what he as a player could figure out.&nbsp; Riddles, puzzles, logic, and so on.&nbsp; His character just isn't that smart.&nbsp; So yeah, as a pretty smart guy I like playing smart characters because then I can use the full range of my abilities.&nbsp; Playing an Expert with the &quot;non-elite array,&quot; I'd have to dumb myself down unless they were quite elderly.Then besides raw Intelligence, the Knowledge skills SHOULD come up in all kinds of challenges -- that's why I said *good* DMs make them useful.&nbsp; In literature and folklore, a wizard's primary role is Knower of Stuff.&nbsp; Good dungeons are full of many challenges besides combat, challenges where the solution is to know something or other.&nbsp; Watch &quot;Doctor Who&quot; for an EXCELLENT example of an adventurer who solves many problems with his knowledge.&nbsp; That's such a fantastic concept of how to play a wizard.Look at the description of the wizard's role in the Basic Set (Moldvay, 1981, p. B19): &quot;Magic-users are good thinkers and problem solvers and have powerful spells.&quot;I'd LOVE to see this aspect of a wizard's role emphasized more in 4e.&nbsp; Heirodule's point about archivist abilities is one way to go -- good adventure design where Knowledge checks matter is another.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Brother MacLaren, post: 3723183, member: 15999"] The high Int SHOULD be a big deal. It seems to me that many gamers I know are very bright people. Let's say that a gamer has scored in the 90th percentile of various tests of intellect. That's a 15 Int. If he's playing anything OTHER than a wizard, he likely has to dumb himself down in any sort of problem-solving environment, and hold back on what he as a player could figure out. Riddles, puzzles, logic, and so on. His character just isn't that smart. So yeah, as a pretty smart guy I like playing smart characters because then I can use the full range of my abilities. Playing an Expert with the "non-elite array," I'd have to dumb myself down unless they were quite elderly. Then besides raw Intelligence, the Knowledge skills SHOULD come up in all kinds of challenges -- that's why I said *good* DMs make them useful. In literature and folklore, a wizard's primary role is Knower of Stuff. Good dungeons are full of many challenges besides combat, challenges where the solution is to know something or other. Watch "Doctor Who" for an EXCELLENT example of an adventurer who solves many problems with his knowledge. That's such a fantastic concept of how to play a wizard. Look at the description of the wizard's role in the Basic Set (Moldvay, 1981, p. B19): "Magic-users are good thinkers and problem solvers and have powerful spells." I'd LOVE to see this aspect of a wizard's role emphasized more in 4e. Heirodule's point about archivist abilities is one way to go -- good adventure design where Knowledge checks matter is another. [/QUOTE]

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