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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AlViking" data-source="post: 9823825" data-attributes="member: 6906980">Why is the intelligence of a mastiff or cat not an appropriate measure?  The stats have to mean something - and in the case of a 3 it's the lowest ability anyone anywhere in the world could have without being altered by accident or disease.  EDIT - said something that came off as offensive, I apologize.But we do have extremes, a 3 and an 18 represent those extremes.No, it means that I make different assumptions than you do.  Someone with an 18 strength is the equivalent of a top tier athlete that has spent years in physical training.  Someone with an 18 intelligence is at an Einstein or Steven Hawking level of intelligence, even if they're a Sheldon Cooper with an 8 wisdom and charisma.  Someone with a 3 intelligence is on the opposite end of that spectrum.  Things like IQ tests are fundamentally flawed so we don't have a way to accurately measure it in the real world does not mean we can't assign a number to it in a game.I agree it's simplified but it still roughly equates to human capability and includes the entire spectrum of potential.I think ability scores should matter and affect your character's RP as much or more than adjustments to chance of succeeding on skill checks.  They can play into flaws or not depending on what I view as the character's strengths and weaknesses.  But if my character had a 3 intelligence that means they're going to be severely limited in what they do because they are at the rock bottom of intellectual capacity possible for a human.I'm not judging how other people play and it's not like I ever measure players on whether or not they are "correctly" playing their character.  I disagree with your point of view but I'm only talking about how I run my characters and games.  I solved the issue in my games of someone with a character with a 3 intelligence playing a genius long ago by using point buy.We all play with different assumptions and different reasons.</blockquote>

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