D&D General You Were Rolling Up a New Character, and Just Rolled a 3. What Is Your Reaction?

[Horwath]

In fairness, if 18 is supra-genius then 3 is (in modern terms) disabled.

Even more so given that anything less than 3 is essentially non-functional.

Indeed.

For me, a 3 Int means coherent sentences are out the window but that 3-Int character can still be a hero.

Agreed completely.

also the problem with intelligence in D&D that is a combination of int, wis and cha.

some say wisdom is willpower, OK, but why is "willpower" key for perception, survival, insight?
That would be cunning or "intelligence" rather than willpower

and animals have up to 14 wisdom.
that is high cunning.

maybe int should be reserved for just abstract thinking, mathematics, etc.
or how much you can learn.
bonus skill points in 3E were a good description of what Int should be.


turn int, wis and cha into:

Cunning and Willpower

Cunning:
bonus skills,
key ability for all current int, wis and cha skills and tools
bonus languages

Willpower:
all current int, wis and cha saves.
magic ability for all classes. attack, DC, damage

 

[DammitVictor]

It’s the defects that make the character.

This is true, and people say it a lot, but it's not true in the sense that people say it.

Character flaws make characters interesting. Foibles, blindspots. Things that cause characters to make mistakes and errors in judgement, things that make them imperfect human beings. The sort of thing, in short, that bad authors and many roleplayers-- without judgment-- are unwilling to let their characters do.

Being weak, or clumsy, or sickly aren't interesting. They're the flaws that authors and players give their characters when they don't understand the assignment.

I'm not going to argue about this, I'm just stating a preference. I'm a normal standard person in real life, for a game I want to be a bit bigger than life.

I'm disabled in real life. Physically, mentally, socially... kinda like the dungeon wheelchair thing, I respect that some disabled people want to play "someone like them" in a fantasy setting, and some people want to explore those limitations in a safe, nurturing environment.

I have no such desire, I have never had any such desire, and I wish they would show me the same basic courtesy without lecturing me about the "immaturity" of my preferences. When I play D&D, I want to play the characters that D&D uses to explain its classes, and the NPCs from the novels-- Conan, Jiriel, Geralt, and Drizzt Do'Urden don't have dump stats, and they are flawed, fascinating characters.

So, yeah. I'm not going to play a character with a 3 in any ability score. That's not fun for me; thinking about it's not fun for me. I like semi-random chargen to give characters a more "organic" feeling than pure point buy... but my games have high floors by design unless a player wants to play a handicapped concept.

 

[DammitVictor]

Dumping Wisdom is always the answer!

Why?

Because you get to let loose your inner gonzo idiot for as long as the character lasts.
And because you'll probably be rolling up a new one in fairly short order.

Problem is, I generally want to play my inner gonzo idiot with really strong senses and inhuman determination. In my experience, the correlation between willpower and common sense with high Wisdom is the inverse of real life.

For me, if you're not at least trying to play to your stats (particularly the low ones) you're cheating.

I feel like the disconnect between this sentiment and overgeeked's... in addition to myriad other problems... is why the Discourse on this topic is so incredibly aggravating. I do find it curious why so many people simultaneously argue that PCs need to have low ability scores as "interesting character flaws" and that a low ability score doesn't have to "mean anything" besides the mechanical penalty to the actions it covers.

Also, plenty of dumb people think they’re smart, bores think they’re charismatic, wimps think they’re tough, fools think they’re wise, and so on. The rolls will be what the rolls will be.

Dunning Kruger is not Fred's heroic older brother.