The shitty part about that system is people want to be powerful so they make characters that usually fit within their class. Meaning dump stats. And suddenly the barbarian, with an int of a sapient rock, has an idea but cannot voice it in character because their char is “stupid”. The exact opposite for mages or bards - the bard is a “face” that talks to everyone for the checks. Worse yet with charisma checks - a dude that doesn’t know how to be as charismatic as a 20 stat bard, suddenly needs to be a smoothtalker (since charisma is treated differently in many tables, it’s not just “I try to distract the guard by talking at him”, it’s “I tell him XYZ”)
I actually love playing low Intelligence high Wisdom characters because of this. Wisdom dictates your Perception, but Intelligence dictates how smart you are. As a low Int high Wis barbarian, I have often noticed things way before the rest of the party. And if I’m trying to role play that (especially if my Charisma is low,) I may not be able to eloquently explain what I have noticed. So it leads to a lot of “I get tired of listening to the party ramble about what we should do next, and smash my way through the hidden door cuz that seems like the obvious next thing to explore” moments.
There’s nothing quite like the party wizard initially being horrified that you took your axe to a random bookcase, only to be pleasantly surprised afterwards when he notices the passage behind the splinters and wreckage.
The shitty part about that system is people want to be powerful so they make characters that usually fit within their class. Meaning dump stats. And suddenly the barbarian, with an int of a sapient rock, has an idea but cannot voice it in character because their char is “stupid”. The exact opposite for mages or bards - the bard is a “face” that talks to everyone for the checks. Worse yet with charisma checks - a dude that doesn’t know how to be as charismatic as a 20 stat bard, suddenly needs to be a smoothtalker (since charisma is treated differently in many tables, it’s not just “I try to distract the guard by talking at him”, it’s “I tell him XYZ”)
I actually love playing low Intelligence high Wisdom characters because of this. Wisdom dictates your Perception, but Intelligence dictates how smart you are. As a low Int high Wis barbarian, I have often noticed things way before the rest of the party. And if I’m trying to role play that (especially if my Charisma is low,) I may not be able to eloquently explain what I have noticed. So it leads to a lot of “I get tired of listening to the party ramble about what we should do next, and smash my way through the hidden door cuz that seems like the obvious next thing to explore” moments.
There’s nothing quite like the party wizard initially being horrified that you took your axe to a random bookcase, only to be pleasantly surprised afterwards when he notices the passage behind the splinters and wreckage.