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<blockquote data-quote="wingsandsword" data-source="post: 2617698" data-attributes="member: 14159">Despite political wrangling over the meaning of &quot;Intelligence&quot;, most people outside of academia have a pretty good common consensus of what that means.&nbsp; Wisdom is hard to quantify, but it is another thing that &quot;I know it when I see it&quot;.&nbsp; The whole 'getting better at seeing as you get older' is a quirk unique to d20, not to the ability score system, since it predates Spot and Listen skills by a quarter century.One of the reasons that D&amp;D has so successful, and that its format has been so copied by other games, is that those basic six ability scores are a good shorthand for describing a persons talents, strengths and weakenesses.Yes, if you wrote down a rigorously tested, scientifically evaluated list of a persons strengths, weaknesses, potentials, aptitudes, weaknesses, deficiencies, and talents you would get something a lot bigger than a D&amp;D character sheet, and a lot less comprehensible.&nbsp; However, those six figures between 3 to 18, with 10 being average, is a nice shorthand for approximating how to describe someone (real or fictitious).&nbsp; If it was so deeply flawed, I doubt so many people would have the attachment to the 6 ability scored that they do.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="wingsandsword, post: 2617698, member: 14159"] Despite political wrangling over the meaning of "Intelligence", most people outside of academia have a pretty good common consensus of what that means. Wisdom is hard to quantify, but it is another thing that "I know it when I see it". The whole 'getting better at seeing as you get older' is a quirk unique to d20, not to the ability score system, since it predates Spot and Listen skills by a quarter century. One of the reasons that D&D has so successful, and that its format has been so copied by other games, is that those basic six ability scores are a good shorthand for describing a persons talents, strengths and weakenesses. Yes, if you wrote down a rigorously tested, scientifically evaluated list of a persons strengths, weaknesses, potentials, aptitudes, weaknesses, deficiencies, and talents you would get something a lot bigger than a D&D character sheet, and a lot less comprehensible. However, those six figures between 3 to 18, with 10 being average, is a nice shorthand for approximating how to describe someone (real or fictitious). If it was so deeply flawed, I doubt so many people would have the attachment to the 6 ability scored that they do. [/QUOTE]

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