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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sacrosanct" data-source="post: 9677726" data-attributes="member: 15700">A bit of a disclaimer first. I know lots of people don't want to play a PC with a lot stat. Or how they want to play a heroic PC and a low stat seems to take away from that. That's perfectly fine. I'm not judging folks who like that playstyle at all. Just commenting on my own experience and to present my own case as to why having a low stat can actually be more fun to play. Longish post following...Ever since standard array and point buy options came about, rarely did players use the rolling option, especially newer players.  I almost never saw a PC with a stat lower than 8 any longer.  An 8 stat is not low--it's just slightly less than average. A whole play experience just disappeared (Shadowdark brings this back but it's basically gone from the D&D game and has been for decades now). Let me give you a recent example. In my 1e game, I'm playing a human fighter with a 6 INT. He's always dreamed of becoming a knight, and acts like one with exaggerated aplomb. One of the fellow players is playing an assassin.  He happened to have a target in the keep (from Keep on the Borderlands). Somehow it was just he and I together who went to a dinner hosted by the target. The assassin poisoned the target but things got confusing and chaotic pretty quickly. The guards attacked us, and I was convinced they were the ones who invited us into a trap based on what the assassin was telling me (no ability checks, this was all role-played out, which is another topic.*..).  We ended up setting the place on fire to hide our murder but I thought it was an accidental fire--the assassin did it when I was preoccupied. He also ended up stealing an item from the place.We were basically Pinky and the Brain. We didn't plan on it being like that. I never planned on doing something like that as a PC. It was all organic and natural as it played out. But it was fun and spontaneous. Sometimes the best sessions are those that have unexpected turns and twists in the story. My initial thought of my PC was to be an honorable knight and in the first session I was involved in murder, arson, and burglary all without knowing it lol. We had a good laugh.  None of that would have happened if I didn't have such a low INT score to cause me to miss clues.And it's not just INT. I've played PCs with low CON, or low STR, or low CHA.  Having a low stat often opens the door for more role-playing opportunities and helps keep every PC from feeling like a cardboard cutout of everyone else.* As is common with AD&D, rather than rely on ability checks for the social pillar, we just role-played it all out. In 3e and beyond, I see a lot more dice rolls to see if you tricked the guard, or found the trap. Nothing wrong with that, just a different play style. [ATTACH=full]407770[/ATTACH]</blockquote>

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