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Message: <blockquote data-quote="S'mon" data-source="post: 5746628" data-attributes="member: 463">I agree with that, especially in 3e & 4e D&D where the game expects you to min-max stats to have a functional PC.  STR 20 or INT 20 doesn't mean much when every Fighter or Wizard PC has that, every hobgoblin grunt min-3 has STR 18, etc.In 1e AD&D, INT 20 was 'supra-genius', IQ 200, but in 4e I find it works best if you just treat it as a +5 on INT-based checks.  It may be 'twice' normal human intelligence, but not on an IQ type scale; if I have to peg it then in IQ terms it's more like IQ 150*, or roughly 3+ standard deviations above the norm.   Likewise the STR 20 guy with +5 on STR checks is just twice as strong as a normal (healthy, adult) man in most respects; and the STR or INT 5 guy (-3 on checks) is roughly half as strong or smart.But I'd prefer not to have to try to relate raw 4e stats to reality at all; it's the derived d20 modifier that actually matters and that defines in-world reality.*Treating it as IQ 150 rather than otherworldly IQ 200 has the advantage that the player may not necessarily be all that much less smarter than the PC! <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=":)" />  The player of the INT 20 Wizard PC in my FR campaign is an academic bioethicist, for instance.  <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=":)" /></blockquote>

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