Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Sybill 01-15-06, 07:26 PM	So, I'm having some problems playing my new character. She's a kalashtar psion with an intelligence of 19 and a wisdom of 5. I'm wondering how she would act. Because I realize that she's incredibly smart, knows lots of things and can spout off knowledge and languages like its nothing. But how do I play such a low wisdom? She's basically insane, so what I've been doing is having her be kind of ADD with some memory issues and a bit oblivious to the world around her. I don't really know whether I should come up with awesome tactical plans (from my high intelligence) or if I should just chase butterflies all the time, though.
Cymraegmorgan 01-15-06, 09:23 PM	Play it as Short Attention Span Theater, and oblivious to the obvious. Forget to come in out of the rain.
Feor 01-15-06, 09:46 PM	Yeah, Wisdom is, in broadest terms, common sense while Intellignece is more book smarts. So she should be able to solve a complex logarithmic mathmatical problem in her head in 20 seconds while composing music and reciting every leader of every nation of Eberron, but should be confused as to why someone would want to arrest her for taking an apple off the table in the market. And if anyone decides to get romantic... You could come up with awe inspiring tactical plans with no loop holes and impossible to defeat... but you might then be upset when the soldiers used your plan and killed the enemy, you didn't realize the soldier asking for your plan was actually going to use it. :P
illiterate 01-15-06, 10:36 PM	If you don't know how someone acts with very high int and very low wis, you have not attended enough cons. 'nuff said.
Shaggy_Shaggs 01-16-06, 04:40 AM	(dons fireproof protective gear) Another way to look at it is to take the Adolf Hitler example. The man was apparently highly intelligent, had big plans and put them into motion, but he was also off his rocker. In addition to the standard Hitler bad, Holocaust, etc, google and consider the "miracle of Dunkirk". This was not the sign of a high Wis score. What is your character's alignment, btw?
Bellator_33 01-16-06, 04:42 AM	If you read discworld, think leonard of quirm. He comes up with the most dangerous ideas, but his lack of understanding of human nature leads him to believe no one would ever use explosives, or a giant catapult. Go with the awesome battleplans, but then dont do anything about it or get distracted by a pretty flower that catches your eye
geekling 01-16-06, 07:13 AM	Have brilliant ideas that should work, but sometimes, or even most times, don't really see the wider picture of things or think these ideas completely through. Getting a tad fixated on one aspect of the problem forgetting (unless reminded) that this problem is only part of it. Umm... Let me do you an example. Party of adventurers doing adventuring stuff in a dungeon/ tunnels/ building that sort of thing. They suspect that there might be a possibility that they might be followed, but does not really have the time to stop and confirm this suspicion but press on with the task at hand. They pass through a door, just a simple not even locked door a bit further on there is something that will take the whole party a while to sort out before they can continue, not a fight situation more of a puzzle thing. Your high int - low wis character might get a flash of inspiration. It'd be a really useful thing if they could get some warning if someone would open that door behind them, give them time to abandon the task at hand and get battle ready. They do not have the resources to leave someone behind to watch the door. Brain wave! lodge a sword in the crack between the door and doorframe - if someone opens the door, swords falls down with a loud clank = they know someone is coming. The fighter dude has the biggest, heaviest - loudest sword of them all, it's only logical that his ought to be the one to rig the door with. Completely failing to see the bigger picture of getting advanced warning don't really do them much good if their meatshield is unarmed because his big bad sword of killing stuff is all the way over at the door - behind the baddies.
Borne Of Hate 01-16-06, 12:58 PM	here is an example of low wis high int person..... The dumb girl/guy in high school who whas a total bimbo but got really good grades. think of it that way.... you think up a really good plan but when the plans go awry you get TOTALLY confused, embarassed, and even a little defensive
Elbethamore 01-16-06, 02:06 PM	You can be the "absentminded professor." A genius who always forgets to tie his shoes. In general, high int low wis characters can be a lot of fun to play. There's lots of good ideas coming into this thread. It's been fun to read.
Sybill 01-16-06, 03:26 PM	Hey, thanks everyone for all the good ideas. Leonard of Quirm does sound like a good starting point at least for my character (who is True Neutral, btw). We had something happen in our session where she turned into a Remorhaz (i.e. giant snake that can eat people and is huge sized) where she was trying to kill some guards who were exterminating their prisoners. She ended up killing the guards, but ran over more prisoners on the way than the guards themselves were killing. Now, she's kind of like, I did what? Since she is true neutral, I was thinking I'd have her kind of oblivious to consequences of her actions. She does what needs to be done no matter what the cost (seeing as she doesn't usually realize it until after anyway, if at all). Does this sound about right? This combined with the slight ADD aspect? So, I appreciate any input, as I'm still trying to really develop her. Thanks :D
tiercel 01-17-06, 11:57 PM	I tend to think of high-Int, low-Wis people as ones who are good on the details but who often miss the bigger picture. Your typical villainous fiendish, cunning, nigh-unstoppable BWU-HA-HA-HA plan that has one glaring weakness, for instance. An example that popped to my head is from Thomas Miller's online D&D fiction epic, The Adventurers ( http://www.peldor.com/ ). With the help of Google, a few quotes about Alindyar (a ridiculously high-Int wizard), and later his friend Belphanior (a multiclassed wizard/fighter/rogue with less Int, but apparently more Wis) will suffice: Alindyar: So far, we have accompanied our stone golem throughout the house; even the attic floor has proven solid enough to bear his weight without collapsing. This house was exceptionally strongly built! Peldor: Hmm. Still, that's an _awful_ lot of weight to have roaming about. Alindyar: Aye. That is why Lyra and I are looking into new forms of golems...constructs that are formidible, yet not bulky. ...he had recently completed one of his more ambitious and rewarding projects: the electricity golem lived and moved. Well, in a sense. It had been necessary to confine the thing within a glass sphere, though Alindyar was close to working out the means to funnel the golem into a smaller, more portable glass jar. Lyra had brought up the issue of whether the golem was intelligent or not, but as far as they could tell, it exhibited no sentience beyond a primal need to touch living beings. Of course, actually _controlling_ the thing was another matter, but the answers would come eventually. With Alindyar and Lyra, they always did. Alindyar: Well, for my part, I have invented no new magicks...only that electricity golem. (he gestures to the glass sphere which holds the flickering, arcing being) Belphanior: Have you considered the possibility that that thing could be neutralized by dumping a bucket of water over it? Alindyar: (ponders this, raising an eyebrow) Belphanior: Sorry.
Malruhn 01-18-06, 12:52 AM	I personally like the brilliant but misguided ideas. With fifteen minutes, a ball of string and an apple peel, you can fashion a catapult to defend the cottage. However, you built the catapult INSIDE the cottage. The town is under attack by werewolf-orcs (isn't there another thread on this?) :LOL: You devise a PERFECT defence that will ultimately destroy any were-critter than comes within 100 yards. Unfortunately, you only put it on the ONE road leading into town - and were-orcs would NEVER go across a field, would they?? I also see you being a potential TPK. The party tank is surrounded by evil nasties? Center Cloudkill on the tank... or fireball... Oopsies!!