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<blockquote data-quote="FrozenNorth" data-source="post: 8470179" data-attributes="member: 7020832">I’ve known people in real life that weren’t particularly intelligent, but were extremely good in one or two areas.&nbsp; So no, I don’t find it surprising that a character that knows nothing about religion, world history, etc. might be particular good at combat tactics (particularly since combat tactics is often the province of cunning, which is often associated with Wisdom, not Intelligence).As for puzzles, yes, on occasion, a dumb character will come up with the solution.&nbsp; The classical example, of course, being the Gordian knot.&nbsp; It seems to me that the more intelligent characters were hamstrung by their intelligence, while cutting the knot is exactly the behaviour I would expect from an uncouth barbarian.Of course, there is that other classic: the Sphinx riddle.&nbsp; Oedipus probably was pretty clever in figuring it out, but since then, virtually 100% of the people who answer the riddle do so because they have heard it before.&nbsp; Even an Int 8 fighter may have heard a riddle before carousing in taverns (even if the player had to work it out for themself).And never discount sheer luck in solving puzzles.&nbsp; Unless the DM is throwing mountains of puzzles at the players (if so, why?), it seems a mixture of dumb luck, thinking differently, and different reference pools/abilities can pretty easily explain a “dumb” character figuring stuff out.Bottom line is, the game does not really give any guidance as to what low Intelligence is (nor should it), and DMs are far too ready to treat characters with even moderately low intelligence (who may even have above average Wisdom), as totally incompetent.A lot of people (myself included) have issues both with DM micromanagement and DM’s usurping player agency.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="FrozenNorth, post: 8470179, member: 7020832"] I’ve known people in real life that weren’t particularly intelligent, but were extremely good in one or two areas. So no, I don’t find it surprising that a character that knows nothing about religion, world history, etc. might be particular good at combat tactics (particularly since combat tactics is often the province of cunning, which is often associated with Wisdom, not Intelligence). As for puzzles, yes, on occasion, a dumb character will come up with the solution. The classical example, of course, being the Gordian knot. It seems to me that the more intelligent characters were hamstrung by their intelligence, while cutting the knot is exactly the behaviour I would expect from an uncouth barbarian. Of course, there is that other classic: the Sphinx riddle. Oedipus probably was pretty clever in figuring it out, but since then, virtually 100% of the people who answer the riddle do so because they have heard it before. Even an Int 8 fighter may have heard a riddle before carousing in taverns (even if the player had to work it out for themself). And never discount sheer luck in solving puzzles. Unless the DM is throwing mountains of puzzles at the players (if so, why?), it seems a mixture of dumb luck, thinking differently, and different reference pools/abilities can pretty easily explain a “dumb” character figuring stuff out. Bottom line is, the game does not really give any guidance as to what low Intelligence is (nor should it), and DMs are far too ready to treat characters with even moderately low intelligence (who may even have above average Wisdom), as totally incompetent. A lot of people (myself included) have issues both with DM micromanagement and DM’s usurping player agency. [/QUOTE]

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