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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Todd Roybark" data-source="post: 8087883" data-attributes="member: 6920677">That is an excellent point.  The people I play with like role playing, so taking a 5 in a statistic would be considered a challenge for the player to incorporate the stat into an effective character, not something to be min/maxed.DMs should absolutely demand that characters that have unusual stats, role play their stats.That said, as someone who in 1985 played a Half-orc Fighter with 7 INT (less intelligent than a 1e carnivorous ape), and a 3 Wisdom, role playing Lenny from the novella Of Mice and Men is fun, once.If in a rolled stats game, the DM is going to dictate that a 5 in stat must be played a particular way, then the player should be allowed a re-roll of stats.At this point in my life, I have absolutely no desire to potentially spend years of real  life timeinhabiting a role, that I have played a billion times before.This is an extreme example, but if a DM told me I had to play a serial killer, due to a 5 WIS score, I would just pass on the game entirely.I don't feel the need to justify any example.  Intelligence is a D&D artifact..the D&D parameters of Intelligence don't apply to the real world.  Around 50 years ago when D&D was being created, the concept of "G"...general intelligence, had not really changed from 1700's.That is not true today.You might as well be asking me to justify why real world medicine doesn't match D&D mechanics....or what the weight of the color yellow is.In game terms, the Intelligence stat influences knowledge checks and formal inquiry.A Lizardperson character with the Outlander background and a 5 INT shouldnt have to be a gormless drooler.  Instead, they can simple have a world view that is so alien, that what the lizardperson knows, their whole system of knowledge, is utter nonsense to those who do not share the same world view.The -3 to Intelligence ability checks supports this, mechanically, and reinforces the role play choices of the player.The actual Sherlock Holmes in say Eberron, is literally crazy.  Scientific Criminal Investigation is just not how Eberron works...you can't track footprints in a world replete with Pass without Trace, bird droppings and minerals don't make gunpowder. Guns are bound elemental magic items.If a player approaches you as the DM and asks to play crazy Sherlock in Sharn, are you going to say: "No, 5 INT means you must play Ruperick the monkey boy"?[MEDIA=youtube]SKDX-qJaJ08[/MEDIA]</blockquote>

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