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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ruin Explorer" data-source="post: 8088046" data-attributes="member: 18">????????Why would low WIS = serial killer? That seems like a leap in a very random direction.I agree totally re-rerolling stats if you would have to RP a character in a way you don't like, but who rolls stats that way, in 5E, in 2020? Even in 1989, we used "arrange to taste" so no-one was forced into that. If you're rolling you're necessarily accepting you might not get the character concept you want, too.I think we agree though. But we're discussing someone volunteering to have 5 INT, even demanding to have 5 INT, not being forced into it.So why give a real-world example, particularly one that's basically a definition of ADHD, and one which more closely matches issues with WIS? Rhetorical question, I guess.That's workable, if the player is good enough at that, sure, but that's not Sherlock Holmes. Main point is, the PC will be making a significant effort to RP how their low INT plays out, probably a much bigger and far more interesting effort than "I hav iNt fife so I are dumB"-type approaches. I like it. But again it's not Sherlock Holmes, which is the problem I have here.I don't think this holds up to the slightest scrutiny, and surprised you typed it out and then didn't edit it out. You can absolutely track footprints in Eberron, and Sherlock would obviously immediately take on board that magic existed and adapt his methods (probably after secluding himself in a magical library for a decade to learn how magic works and walking out of there a level 5 Wizard or something). The whole point is he's smart, not an idiot-savant. An idiot-savant would be totally stuffed by the rules changing in that way. Sherlock would adapt. He would discard the way gunpowder works like you discard a fast-food wrapper.This makes zero sense. Sherlock Holmes isn't an idiot. He constantly updates and adapts his methods. He's not irrational (in the broad sense). Sherlock Holmes isn't crazy, either. He's not going to insist that gunpowder works when it doesn't. He'll be surprised, then take things on board. You teleport our world's Sherlock Holmes (book version say) to Sarn, and he'll be extremely successful, if he can survive the shocks of the first few weeks.What you seem to be describing is a severely mentally-ill person who would constantly make delusional assertions about how things work.If a player wants to play someone who is severely mentally unwell like that, well, first off I'd discourage them because approximately 95% of attempts to do that end up in a pretty stereotypical/bad comedy place that's frankly at best uncomfortable if you know actual people with schizophrenia, delusions, or the like, but assuming they were a master of subtlety and capable of pulling it off, I'd expect them to be exactly what I described earlier in this thread - REPEATEDLY - the man who walks into a room and utters a load of total bollocks with great confidence. I'd also say INT 5 wasn't really the appropriate way to do that unless their mental problems are extremely deep-rooted, like, they can't solve puzzles, they can't parse complex text (but they could of course pretend they did), they're bad at math, and so on.You need to RP INT 5 as a full array of being bad at INT-based tasks, not just "cute insanity" when its convenient/funny, if you're going that way. Just like we'd expect someone with STR 5 to RP their character as weak, not just "weak when its funny/convenient". The Lizardman example you gave is awesome and would do that. "IM SHERLOCK HOLMES BUT IM NUTS LOLOLOLOLOL" is eye-roll.(My personal bugbear here is CHA though, as a DM I have HAD IT, seriously HAD IT with players who dumpstat CHA then try to act like this means they're totally likeable and cool and charming, just not a great leader (and sometimes they even forget the last bit!). INT is the second-worst for this though - low WIS people often play it up, sometimes even excessively, but INT? Pffft, you're lucky if some players even acknowledge that they picked INT 10 or even 8. I was delighted when one of my players totally subverted his own portrayal of his INT 9 Barbarian after he got a Headband of Intellect though.)</blockquote>

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