Wisdom vs. Insanity

[Gizzard]

A popular module I am running suggests that if a PC drops to zero Wisdom, he falls into a catatonic form of insanity.

I was thinking about this, and noticed that there is a large gap in the PHB stats table for Wisdom, as if it wasnt quite clear to the designers what Wisdom in the 3-7 range actually means. (For the record: 1 WIS = Gelatanous Cube, 2 WIS = Shrieker, 8 WIS = Orc.)

So, what do people think a very low WIS means in RP terms? Can it be connected to certain forms of insanity? How would you deal with a PC who had lost 6 points of Wisdom, for instance?

(I think it would be much more interesting to assign a PC some sort of mental impairment if he dropped to 1 WIS rather than just suggesting, "You have an urge to cruise down the hallway with your mouth open in hopes of attracting food. " ;-)

 

[DM with a vengence]

Low wisdom means you just aren't very aware of your surrondings, such as a Gelatinous Cube. Basically, a low wisdom means that just don't know what's going on.

Some good ways to do this would be: Hallucinations (You see your mother as a drow...), Paranoia (You think the cleric might be lying, or charmed), strange desires (Maybe sleeping with that dead orc will give you powers) etc.

For more information, CoCd20 has a good section on insanity, and there might be something about that in the Book of Vile Darkness.

 

[Umbran]

So, what do people think a very low WIS means in RP terms? Can it be connected to certain forms of insanity? How would you deal with a PC who had lost 6 points of Wisdom, for instance?

I don't think it's conected with what we'd commonly think of "insanity". In the case of zero wisdom, the character may exhibit effective signs of catatonia - wisdom covers perception, and with zero wisdom one ceases to be able to percieve the outside world. The character becomes wrapped into their own mind.

I'd think very low wisdom might be more analogous to certain mental disabilities than insanity.

 

[Mark]

I suppose that if you wanted to move things beyond the basic mechanical implications of what it means to have a low wisdom...

You might describe things and situations in much simpler and unsophisticated terms. Rather than ever describing things in a way that might warn of danger, keep descriptions naive. Treacherous circumstances should be put forth as commonplace and undaunting. When walking into a seedy tavern, someone with a low wisdom would likely not be aware of the suspicious faces, noticing instead the one fellow smiling warmly, despite anyone else seeing the fangs within the grin.

My two cents, anyway...

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

Re: Re: Wisdom vs. Insanity

I'd think very low wisdom might be more analogous to certain mental disabilities than insanity.

Yep. Certain psychoses and dystocias, certainly. Anything involving an inability to make associations.

A really low wisdom character would probably be non-empathic. Completely unable to pick up on emotional and social cues, and unable to attribute emotion to others (one component of autism is currently thought of by some researchers as being a blown up version of this).

A really low wisdom character would attribute his or her own emotional state to others (as do many people with mental disabilities or psychoses). If he was happy himself, he would miss all the obvious signs that a person was upset, continuing to think the other person was happy right up until that person hit him in the nose. He probably sees that the person is crying or gritting his teeth in anger, but he fails to make the association that those things mean something bad.

And it wouldn't be just social situations. Look at the wisdom modified skills: Sense Motive, Innuendo, Listen, Intuit Direction, Spot, etc. With an abyssmally low wisdom, the character would be unable to attach significance to things around him. Yeah, he "spots" a bandit with a nocked bow in a tree, but he fails to make the associative connection that tells him that's a dangerous thing.

 

[Larry Fitz]

Going with Mark and Umbran. Wisdom is not intelligence, low wisdom does not make you insane it makes you supernaturally naive. When a Fireball goes off a character with a Wisdom of 2 might think "Warm..." just before being incinerated, you can still perceive you just don't make any kind of value judgement. It would be difficult to maintain an alignment at this level I would think, or the DM could rule that you act instinctively within some extreme definition of your alignment because your individual ability to make judgements is so impaired.

Larry Fitz
Instigator
Living Imagination, Inc.

"Urdok got shinies, but but no friends, who be Urdok's friend?"
-Urdok, just before his shinies were stolen.