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="JonnyP71" data-source="post: 6828961" data-attributes="member: 6788862">While I agree that players should use the numbers as a guide to how to roleplay characters, it's not limited to just the raw base stats - as the PCs have training in the form of Proficiency.A low Int character will start from a low base for Int based skills, but with the help of proficiency can learn to overcome *some* of that - but even with proficiency is unlikely to perform an Int based skill as well as a PC who is more naturally adept at those skills due to a higher starting Int modifier. But if the high Int character never learns the skill, the less naturally able can move ahead of them through becoming more proficient.Look at this with a real world example:- my father-in-law is a decent bloke, but he's not intellectually gifted - Int roughly 8-9 on the D&D scale (He doesn't do computers so I'm safe from him ever seeing this <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":P" title="Stick out tongue    :P"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":P" />).  He left school at age 15 with no qualifications, but got a job in a garage fixing cars - he went on to work as a mechanic for 40+ years, (therefore gaining a high level of proficiency).  That experience lends itself nicely to other fixing tasks - he's fixed our washing machine and our plumbing.  But give him a maths puzzle to solve and he'd throw it back at you moaning.  Ask him a simple quiz question and he would struggle.- like most D&D players (75% of the players in my groups have degrees, 2 are doctors, 1 is a university professor), I'd class myself as pretty bright - I was IQ tested at just over 140 (Int about 14 on the D&D scale). I can solve logic puzzles, enjoy maths problems, have been on various tough TV and Radio quiz shows.  But I can't fix cars, washing machines or plumbing - because I've never learned.  I have no 'proficiency'.Mechanics, puzzles, quizzes - all Int based skills in D&D terms.  There's 50-60 IQ points between my father-in-law and me, but there are intelligence based tasks at which he is far better than I am!So in my opinion it is fine to play a low Int character as having some aptitude in an Int based skill, as he has taken the time to learn proficiency in that skill.  He will not be especially good at that task until he gains proficiency through levels (practice, repetition), but he can improve.Just as a 120 lb weakling can learn to climb (strength), someone with a stutter can learn to overcome it to give speeches in public (charisma), a clumsy person can learn to knit (dexterity).. and so on.</blockquote>

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