Roleplaying high INT and CHA with low WIS

[Gnome]

A player of mine rolled-up some great stats for an upcoming game I am running:

17 16 15 15 13 4

Okay, they're all great except for the 4. He's struggling what to do with the 4 stat, however. He was leaning towards running a human sorcerer and putting the 17 in CHA and the 16 into INT, and putting the 4 into WIS (since the high Will save would help make-up for that), but he's struggling with how to roleplay such an odd combination of mental stats. I told him that his character would be extremely intelligent and likeable, but also probably very impulsive with little common sense.

Can anyone do better than that in terms of trying to come-up with a personality that fit the stats, or general roleplaying tips? TIA.

 

[Rystil Arden]

I decided one day to postulate what a character with 18 Int, 18 Cha, and 1 Wis would be like. This character your player made would be less extreme, but could share some of the characteristics. She is a genius who can answer academic questions and logic puzzles almost immediately. She has a powerful personality and strong opinions, and people find themselves agreeing with her and listening to what she has to say. However, she is incrediby unobservant and misses out on body language and innuendo. In fact, though she can always solve for the right answer in theoretical questions, in practise, she is so overwhelmed with stimuli, many of which are worthless but seem interesting to her advanced intellect, that she can't pick out the useful ones, as she could in a hypothetical situation with only a few elements involved. As such, she creates extremely simple-minded a priori heuristics to help her come to real-world solutions without being paralysed by the amount of information. For example, she has trouble deciding who to trust and who to believe, in other words, who is 'good' and who is 'bad'. Eventually, she grasps onto the heuristic that pretty things are good until proven otherwise by their actions and that ugly things are bad until proven otherwise by their actions. This actually works in the majority of cases and allows her to make snap decisions, although every so often, it causes her to make a big mistake.

 

[Enkhidu]

Three words: complete self confidence.

 

[Black Omega]

A player of mine rolled-up some great stats for an upcoming game I am running:

17 16 15 15 13 4

Okay, they're all great except for the 4. He's struggling what to do with the 4 stat, however. He was leaning towards running a human sorcerer and putting the 17 in CHA and the 16 into INT, and putting the 4 into WIS (since the high Will save would help make-up for that), but he's struggling with how to roleplay such an odd combination of mental stats. I told him that his character would be extremely intelligent and likeable, but also probably very impulsive with little common sense.

Can anyone do better than that in terms of trying to come-up with a personality that fit the stats, or general roleplaying tips? TIA.

For some reason I'm thinking of a line from one of the Terry Pratchett novels.

"Haha! They said it couldn't be done!"

"No, they said it shouldn't be done."

ADD Sorcerer. Acts on Impulse, short attention span, never thinks things through, easily bored.

 

[lukelightning]

Easy, roleplay me! (You'd have to roleplay a very high comliness score as well!)

 

[Mallus]

Read the story hour in my sig. Burne is practically the poster-boy for the "National High INT, High CHR, Low WIS Association".

If you'd rather not wade through it, I'll summarize; combine pathological self-confidence, humor, and a total disregard for what's really going on in any given situation (outside of your own snap judgement, of course).

 

[Henry]

The character above is the classic 1st edition AD&D Wizard who casts the fireball in the 5-foot wide tunnel without thinking. They are the fighter who jumps down the well because of the prophecy to "follow the light" -- not remembering they're wearing plate mail and the water is 15 feet deep. They are the Rogue who searches for traps AFTER picking the lock. They are the classic "look before you leap" impulsive types, who would only fear a situation if there was obvious danger, like an open lava pit. Even then, a rickety rope bridge might tempt them to cross anyway before testing the strength.

 

[Nareau]

I've decided that I love playing low Wis characters. They're the ones who charge into battle, poke at gemstone eyes on demon statues, and trigger traps. They're great for moving the game along.

He sounds charming, impulsive, and brilliant. Kinda like Indiana Jones.

Spider

 

[billd91]

Someone with a low wisdom might be supremely unperceptive or distracted appearing. Whenever someone speaks to him, he might say "Huh? Were you talking to me?"
When dealing with other people, he can't understand their body language. "Here's my plan. Blah blah blah." Audience looks horrified. "Ah, I can see you all agree. Excellent!"

 

[frankthedm]

Make fatal mistakes. Seriously, a character with a 4 wisdom probably should have gotten themselves killed when they were a child if not for someone really watching out for them.

Don't be afraid to offer to scout ahead or go off on your own. After all you will think you re being quiet.

Assume people who seem to like you have your best interests at heart.

No ranks in climb? Try it anyways and don’t bother taking 10.

Leave yourself open to monsters charging you so you can get your spells off.

Eat big juicy mushrooms you find while traveling without checking with the ranger or druid first. Better yet, add them to the dinner you are cooking for the party and…. Shhh… it is a surprise.

“Oops” Should be the first thing you say after “Fireball”.