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Message: <blockquote data-quote="snickersnax" data-source="post: 7266411" data-attributes="member: 6888204">I agree that intelligence has been undervalued in 5e and would benefit from a boost.Reasons I like this: INitiative and INtelligence both begin with the same two letters.<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Reasons I don't like this: All the intelligent people I know suck at initiative IRL.  Acting first (in a combat situation) seems to me to be more of an act of present moment consciousness that I would associate with perception (wisdom).  "Intelligent" people tend to have greater part of their thought processes engaged in searching for meaning, imagination, contemplating many things that are not present moment.  In D&D that might be reviewing spells, organizing thoughts around arcana, history, religion, nature and other information.  IMO the best spots to look for a boost for high intelligence or a penalty for low intelligence that would make more sense to me are: bonus/penalty to experience (smart people learn faster),  boost/penalty to skills and languages (smart people can learn more), boost/penalty to the number of known spells (a primary hallmark of intelligence is memory,  a smart person should be able to know more prayers, more spells, more nature secrets).  Finally since animals are known for their low intelligence does it make sense that animals should be getting a penalty on initiative of -4 ish?</blockquote>

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