Hiya!
NOTE: Personal opinion on how/what Ability Scores are meant to represent in the game.
One thing I'm noticing; some people are surmising that "You could be a very bright guy and amazing at math...but be horrible at reading comprehension, logical thought and general knowledge about other non-math stuff, so you'd have a 7 Int". Basically "A low-int PC that is really good at X aspect of Int, and really bad at Y and Z aspects of Int".
To which I say...no. That's not what the Ability Scores represent in the game. They represent the "averages" of all aspects of what make up that Ability Score. The more you get to the extremes, the more the person is 'just good' or 'just bad' at
everything related to that Ability Score. It's the middle area where you can get the wider swings of things.
In this regard, "I have a 7 Int, but it's Int 13 with Math" doesn't work in D&D; that would be an Int 10 PC with the descriptor in the characters "personality notes" of "Really good at math, but kinda sucks at reading and logic, and his memory is...'selective'". Scores can be noted 'as if' for more clarification (re: "Really good at math, Int 13; but bad at reading, logic and memory things, Int 7"). If a character had an
actual score of 7, they would be bad at all of the above. Not horrible, but easily noticeable by anyone with an Int 10 or better. The PC might still have one particular "quirk" that is a 'good Int thing', but it would be pretty specific (re: "Int 7, but never forgets a face and name").
Anyway, just an observation I found in this thread. The Ability Scores are like HP's... meant to be abstract. But the closer you get to the extreme ends, to more "comprehensively good/bad in every way" it is. An Int 3 PC is a moron. Period. They are really REALLY bad at anything relating to what Int describes in the game. An Int 18 PC is a super-genius. Period. They are really REALLY good at everything relating to what Int describes in the game. An Int 10 PC is average, with perhaps one super-amazing specialty, but every other thing being quite sub-par to average.
^_^
Paul L. Ming