Intelligence vs Wisdom, any practical differences?

[consolcwby]

The OP asked if there was a difference was between Intelligence and Wisdom or if they could be combined. Semantics wise, these are just name-spaces. We could call them anything - Mind and Spirit, or IQ and Savvy, etc. But, MECHANICALLY there MUST be a difference. Otherwise why have them at all?


An example from my homebrew PnP The Tiny Quick D12 Implementation Rules - "Every stat must have a profound mechanical purpose no matter how it may change the game. Take for example IQ and Intuition. Functionally, IQ is both the common Intelligence and Wisdom stats - either a magician or a priestess will have this as their requisite stat since all magic comes from the same plane of magik, as defined in the game terms documentation. Intuition is functionally both Perception and Psyche stats -used only by the esper class skilsets, also defined in the game terms docs. The design function decision for both of these stats were simple: To avoid redundancy and allow better customization of characters based on skillset even though the characters may have similar stats. The downside, obvious to myself, is a lack of major stat granularity."


So, basically, what it boils down to is a trade-off based on mechanics, whether to combine these stats or use them. BUT - if used, they MUST BE USED EXTENSIVELY. Otherwise, it is a tertiary stat at best. I hope this helps the OP.

 

[Tai_MT]

In general, the two are different.  Intelligence is a measure of how smart you are and how much information you've absorbed.  Wisdom is a measure of how much actual experience you've got in the real world and the vast majority of your learning has been through experience.


In short, one is book smarts, the other is street smarts.


For design purposes?  Eh, no clue.  Personally, I see no reason to have either stat at all in an RPG, save for heavy role play ones like D&D and such, where they are stats because of the lore (most wizards are book smart, so they need a high INT, physical spellcasters or non-traditional spellcasters typically need a high WIS because all of their learning was done via an apprenticeship without books and research and by mostly trial and error... so... personal experience).

Honestly, I just roll with the basic array for most RPGs.  Attack, Defense, Magic, Magic Defense, Agility, Luck (or I sometimes turn Luck into Reflex).


Not sure if that helps you at all, but I hope it does.

 

[Marquise*]

I'm thinking of that weird quote in I Robot that kinda sounded like one of the character was the dumbest intelligent person he knew.

 

[DiMach]

I see Intelligence as the ability to learn new skills and use the information around you. Wisdom is what you use that knowledge for.

I.E. A Barbarian cursed with 1 Int wouldn't know that someone attacking his party was an enemy so wouldn't automatically defend them, but if the party told him it's a threat, he'd know what to do to defend them.

Additionally this would also make the low int character really gullible to anyone and susceptible to abuse.

 

[jaykeith]

Wisdom is the application of knowledge. Intelligence in general is your perceptive ability to recognize patterns and information and assess that information.

Knowledge is like being on a train track and knowing that trains use the train track to travel. Intelligence is perceiving that if you stay on the train track you could get hit by the train and die, which would be stupid. Wisdom is getting off the train track.