NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Voadam" data-source="post: 2703588" data-attributes="member: 2209">Anyway, back to the original topic.In my games I tell the players they play the characters and make decisions for the characters. A character's int is mechanical, it determines  bonus skill points, bonus languages, int skill modifiers, whether a character qualifies for certain feats, and affects certain class powers like wizard spellcasting. Smart characters will not prevent dumb player decisions.My players know not to expect a riddle or puzzle or social interaction to be handled by dice checks.Generally riddles and puzzles have been like the following.In White Plume Mountain the wizard put in a guardian sphinx. Answer her riddles and she lets you go by, because that's what sphinxes do, its a magic or cultural thing for them. Fail to answer correctly and she will attack and try to eat you.If the players answer the riddles or kill the sphinx or figure out a different way around then they can go on deeper. Success on the riddle generally means less resources spent on a fight and they are fresher when they meet the next challenge than they might otherwise be.I chose to handle the riddles by letting the players try to figure them out. In character they could try divinations or other mechanical tools to aid them or just work on them by the player's deductions.Other options I could have used include int checks for hints (whichI'd have to make up), and int checks for flat out success. Neither of those options appeal to me.</blockquote>

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