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<blockquote data-quote="Mishihari Lord" data-source="post: 2696322" data-attributes="member: 128">In my experience, aligning a character's actions with his Int &amp; Wis is very difficult to do well.&nbsp; Figuring something out and not being able to do it because your Int is too low is very frustrating.&nbsp; It may make for high fidelity roleplaying, but it's not much fun.Having the DM give you the answers can be just as bad.&nbsp; If the DM is telling you that as an experienced tactician you think you should do thus-and-so, then he's playing your character for you.&nbsp; Evaluating the situation and your options and choosing an action is the only thing a player gets to do.&nbsp; If you tell him what his actions should be you're taking that away from him.&nbsp; &quot;Do this.&quot;&nbsp; &quot;Okay&quot;&nbsp; &quot;Do that.&quot; &quot;Okay&quot;&nbsp; The DM might as well just resolve the combat himself and tell the players how it turned out.&nbsp; Sure you can choose to ignore the DM, but who would do that when it will surely lead to failure?Giving skilled characters additional informaiton is an acceptable alternative.&nbsp; &quot;From their formation, it looks like the group of orcs is getting ready to attack to the left.&quot;&nbsp; or &quot;The look in their eye tells you that they'll break and run if they're attacked again&quot; work.&nbsp; In these cases you're giving the player more information to make the decision, but you're not telling him the answer.We all enjoy using our own minds to some extent.&nbsp; The key to tackling this issue well is to know what your characters like to do and structure the game accordingly.&nbsp; Set things up so that the players make the decisions they want to make and gloss over the rest with dice-rolling and narrative.&quot;The smart character is stumped&quot; isn't a problem with me.&nbsp; I've known plenty of really smart guys who aren't particularly good at riddles.&nbsp; I don't think the stats model this well.&nbsp; A riddle skill would be much better.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Mishihari Lord, post: 2696322, member: 128"] In my experience, aligning a character's actions with his Int & Wis is very difficult to do well. Figuring something out and not being able to do it because your Int is too low is very frustrating. It may make for high fidelity roleplaying, but it's not much fun. Having the DM give you the answers can be just as bad. If the DM is telling you that as an experienced tactician you think you should do thus-and-so, then he's playing your character for you. Evaluating the situation and your options and choosing an action is the only thing a player gets to do. If you tell him what his actions should be you're taking that away from him. "Do this." "Okay" "Do that." "Okay" The DM might as well just resolve the combat himself and tell the players how it turned out. Sure you can choose to ignore the DM, but who would do that when it will surely lead to failure? Giving skilled characters additional informaiton is an acceptable alternative. "From their formation, it looks like the group of orcs is getting ready to attack to the left." or "The look in their eye tells you that they'll break and run if they're attacked again" work. In these cases you're giving the player more information to make the decision, but you're not telling him the answer. We all enjoy using our own minds to some extent. The key to tackling this issue well is to know what your characters like to do and structure the game accordingly. Set things up so that the players make the decisions they want to make and gloss over the rest with dice-rolling and narrative. "The smart character is stumped" isn't a problem with me. I've known plenty of really smart guys who aren't particularly good at riddles. I don't think the stats model this well. A riddle skill would be much better. [/QUOTE]

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