Sorry everybody. I needed a break to actually play games instead of just writing about them. I'm running a Star Wars game in which the players are all imperial stormtroopers stationed on a certain moon of Endor, whilst certain events transpire around them. I'm taking the opportunity to try the 2d10 thing and it seems pretty unnoffensive so far.
I just wanted to hash over Wisdom a little.
Wisdom has got to be the ability most often used as dump-stat. And no wonder because it is probably the most numinous and vague of the ability scores. In practice however, characters and people with low wisdom are the worst.
Wisdom gets used for a variety of things; like for rolls where common sense I the key factor, or to represent a character's inner strength. It seems to affect how much deities like a character. And it also gets used for perception and sensory checks. The use for perception may be justified by saying wisdom is some measure of "in-the-moment-ness." But in practice, it comes to mean that Wisdom is rolled up with sensory acuity.
Wisdom is supposed to increase as a character ages. Sounds good for my cleric. Except it's pretty clear to me that some people actually become less wise with age. Did they suffer wisdom-damage at some point? What evil influences could have such a pernicious effect? How do you keep your loved ones safe from toxic influences?
"Will-power" is a strange term. I tend to think of wisdom as a capacity for self-discipline. It is vital to standing pin or discomfort. Part of this self-discipline is the ability to pay attention- to one's surroundings, to others, and to one's own thoughts and feelings. The Buddhist call this the virtue of "mindfulness."
People without much of this virtue tend to make themselves very annoying: Running ahead of the party, carelessly casting AoE spells, getting seduced by mythological sex-monsters, drinking too much at the inn, being noisy when everyone else is planning an ambush. Low wisdom makes you a liability.
I said that Wisdom should not be a hunter's dump stat. A hunter has to pay attention and exercise self control to remain hidden.
A Bene-Gesserit witch would have high wisdom. Dune is cool. Dune? Anybody?
Monks are supposed to use wisdom for punching things. This bothers me. A game should allow for a character to develop powers from a source of inner strength. It's a really cool idea. I'm just not sure that power should make you able to hit stuff harder.
The use of wisdom is a discipline in itself- just like developing one's strength or weapon skill or knowledge of a subject. Fortunately, most games already allow for all of these to be developed through play.
No comments:
Post a Comment