18 Wis - Insanity question

[Scarey Nerd]

Is it even possible for a character with this high Wisdom to go insane? My backup character (an Archivist) has 18 Int and Wiss, and I can quite easily see him slipping into insanity because of the dark texts he handles all the time, but that 18 Wis might prevent said insanity.

Thoughts? Thanks in advance :smallsmile:

[PrGo]

That could be handled as a different stat.

Srd has something on sanity (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/campaigns/sanity.htm).

[Yora]

Insanity due to low wisdom probably represents a state of mental disorder in which a person is no longer able to correctly interprete the things he sees and hears.

The lovecraftian insanity usually is the result of understanding too much. When playing a high Wis character that is mad, I'd made him act still in a very sane way. He understands what's giong on, and he knows what he is doing.
But at the same time he may have very different views what actions are appropriate in certain situations. His action still make sense, but his fear of the things he learned make him consider very drastic actions that appear much too extreme to other people. He's not content with killing all the zombies that haunt a temple, but he insists on burning the entire thing down, soak the ashes in holy water, and place lots of magical wards on the ground. Just to make sure the evil is really gone! With things like these, you can never be careful enough (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCbfMkh940Q). :smallamused:

[Psyren]

Well, according to the Taint mechanics in the same book, high Wis makes it harder to lose your sanity (increases your taint threshold.) The sanity rules in UA also give you a benefit for high Wis.

I wouldn't call 18 Wis unbeatable though, even a first-level character can get that much.

[tyckspoon]

Oh, yes, quite, especially if you're ok with the Lovecraftian school of insanity-causing terrorhorrors- your high Int and Wis can actually make you more vulnerable to that kind of influence, because your curiosity and your understanding are enough to follow some of the deeper implications where lesser minds would ignore them.. and so you get a little bit paranoid, because there are Things out there, and you're the only one who knows about them, but there are signs, oh yes, always some signs, so you watch out for your party because they don't know how to watch for themselves.. and then some day your party is looking at you horrified after you Flamestriked a peasant's cottage.. for the good of everybody, naturally. The 'decorative' carving they had near the door looked like the mark of (insert possibly-made-up Eldritch Abomination/Demon/unfriendly Vestige here.) You couldn't let those cultist-peasants finish whatever they were doing in there- best to cleanse it with holy fire...

[Psyren]

@ tyckspoon: That just sounds like high Int to me actually. High Wis (i.e. strong common sense) would help you realize some things are best left uninvestigated.

[Esser-Z]

High wis and insane?

Sometimes you're REALLY REALLY WISE. Othertimes, you're totally nonsensical. It varies.

(I did this with an average int barbarian once. He was sometimes stereotypical dumb barb, sometimes quite smart. It averaged out to, er, average!)

[Callista]

Yes, they certainly can. They are very unlikely to become psychotic, though, because Wisdom involves one's perception and analysis of the world, so those perceptions will remain accurate.

However, most types of mental illness haven't got anything to do with psychosis (in fact, only a few do: Schizophrenia and related disorders, bipolar disorder, depression with psychotic features, and the dementias).

PTSD actually involves being more perceptive (hypervigilant (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypervigilance), from always looking out for anything dangerous). People with depression actually see the world in a less biased way ("depressive realism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depressive_realism)"). People who have panic attacks are unusually sensitive to their own bodies. And people with sensory integration disorder (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensory_Processing_Disorder) (often found in autism) may be so sensitive to the world around them that it can be literally painful.

So, yes, high-WIS characters can have mental illnesses.

[Psyren]

Yes, they certainly can. They are very unlikely to become psychotic, though, because Wisdom involves one's perception and analysis of the world, so those perceptions will remain accurate.

However, most types of mental illness haven't got anything to do with psychosis (in fact, only a few do: Schizophrenia and related disorders, bipolar disorder, depression with psychotic features, and the dementias).

PTSD actually involves being more perceptive (hypervigilant (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypervigilance), from always looking out for anything dangerous). People with depression actually see the world in a less biased way ("depressive realism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depressive_realism)"). People who have panic attacks are unusually sensitive to their own bodies. And people with sensory integration disorder (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensory_Processing_Disorder) (often found in autism) may be so sensitive to the world around them that it can be literally painful.

So, yes, high-WIS characters can have mental illnesses.

I'm with you on this one; this is how a cleric would go crazy imo.

[oxybe]

i see it like this:

a high int character is a walking wikipedia. lots of collected information on various subjects but doesn't really apply it in any direct or interconnected fashion.

a high wis character is a walking tvtropes. is able to connect together lots of bits of information together, but doesn't have much information on those bits.

a high wis character going crazy? you become so genre savy and able to see the tropes, sub tropes, ect... that you start missing the point and go into cloudcuckoolander territory. you start off looking for information on D&D tropes and somehow end up a little while later (unknowingly) reading about ho yay.

[Flickerdart]

High WIS > high Spot check > I can see into forever :smalleek:

[ericgrau]

As far as I interpret existing example(s) such as derro and the definitions of wisdom and insanity, insanity can lower your wisdom, i.e., ability to understand what's around you. But a high/low wisdom does not necessarily prevent/cause insanity. A high wisdom (discovering dark texts) and intelligence (understanding dark texts) might even increase your chance of going insane.

[Scarey Nerd]

Perhaps I should mention that the character is very, very Evil, one of the most devout worshippers of Hextor you could get. If he went all the way into cloud-cuckoo-land, he'd probably get delusions of grandeur about his own abilities and try and achieve his ultimate goal.

Killing Heironeous :smalleek:

As a player, I think it's a stupid thing to attempt, but as a character he thinks he could do it. Think Topher Brink from Dollhouse "If I think I can save everyone, is that curiosity or arrogance?!"

[WinceRind]

High WIS > high Spot check > I can see into forever :smalleek:

And it stares back!