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Message: <blockquote data-quote="KarinsDad" data-source="post: 2250697" data-attributes="member: 2011">Although understandable, this philosophy brings too many "mental" variables into the equation for most people (including DMs) to handle.Does he make a mistake because he is stupid, or because he lacks common sense?So unless the character has high stats in both, it becomes an easy tool for the DM to explain away mistakes, but it still has a feeling of unbelievability.DM: "Sorry, he has an average Wis, so although he reasoned it out with his super high Int, he didn't apply common sense."Huh?What the heck does that REALLY mean?It means that DND has multiple mental-like stats which overlap a great deal in real life, but are segregated in the game. So, it allows a DM (or player) to cop out in high Int low Wis or low Int high Wis situations and say that the NPC (or PC) did something he should not have done (pro or con) either because one stat was low, or the other was high without it really making sense that the character figured out to do the action.For example, the high Int low Wis example in the PHB is the absent minded professor. Does an absent minded professor REALLY make mistakes which results in his own death in real life? Probably not very often. But, for some cinematic reason, we are expected to except this in a game as believable. Hmmmm.It doesn't seem that believable to me. Smart people make mistakes like everyone else, but smart cowardly people (as per the Wizard above) do not even get near dangerous stuff in the first place if they can help it. A smart cowardly absent minded professor would either allow others to run his experiements, or he would run them behind protective glass. A smart cowardly wizard would either allow others to fight for him, or he would do it from range in a manner where his opponents cannot find him. But neither the smart cowardly absent minded professor or the smart cowardly wizard would do suicidal actions.</blockquote>

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