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Message: <blockquote data-quote="BoldItalic" data-source="post: 6828438" data-attributes="member: 6777052">When you say "nonsensical", do you mean that rogues are not allowed to take expertise in Investigation if they have an Int of 5? Do skills have qualifying stats in your game? If so, that is a houserule. Or are you saying that you think that skills in general are nonsensical? That 5e is wrongly designed? If so, you have a bigger issue. Could you clarify, please, so that we do not misunderstand each other?Laying that aside for the moment, if we test his reasoning ability by presenting a task that requires it, he has a better than average chance of success. It doesn't matter how he does it inside his head, or how it came about historically, if he can demonstrate the ability to reason successfully, it is reasonable to role-play him accordingly.The Int score measures several different things. In the case of this hypothetical rogue, it represents a lower than average ability to recall lore.Not a savant, I think. That would imply that he was outstanding at it and able to amaze people with his ability. I'm only positing a character with slightly better than average Investigation. Nothing special. Just +1.My point is that low int doesn't necessarily imply a poor ability to reason. It could do, and if there are no compensating factors then you would be justified in role-playing the character accordingly but if there are compensating factors, they need to be taken into account. A character who is able to perform well at Investigation (which is the only skill check defined in the rules as relating to reasoning ability) is, by any measurable or observable test, able to reason.Remember, PCs do not know their own ability scores. Only players know that. In-game, my rogue is not stupid as far as he and the characters around him are concerned, just ignorant and unschooled in lore. And that is easily explained by his Urchin background. Should he not be role-played accordingly?Unless your character is quite good at coming up with sensible plans despite being poorly educated? This is perfectly possible, as my rogue example shows.I'm beginning to like my rogue. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /></blockquote>

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