[3.5] Suggestion on how to roleplay large drop in wisdom?

[Chronikoce]

So my wizard had the great misfortune of being in melee range with an allip for several rounds and due to not having access to restoration in the immediate future I shall now be stuck with a wisdom of 3 for at least 1 or two sessions.

So how would you suggest roleplaying a neraphim gish wizard with mental stats of
Int: 18
Wis: 3
Cha: 8

I figure he is still smart but has terrible tactics. Maybe just have the party point him at something and tell him to smack it until they say otherwise?

Anyone have advice on this?

[DeTess]

This depends a bit on what you believe 'Wisdom' represents. As I see it, it's a combination of common sense and empathy (as in, the ability to empathize with others and understand their situation), as well as things like willpower. Your character is still highly intelligent, so I don't think you'd suddenly get bad tactics.

What I'd do is to have him take intelligence without empathic understanding to its logical extreme. A couple of examples:

You are asked with containing a deadly plague in a city. Your wizard's proposed solution would be to simply round up all the ill, put them in a ghetto, then burn the entire ghetto including inhabitants down. The ill would die anyway, and this way the rest of the city is spared from the plague.
You have been tasked with rescuing a bunch of kidnapped villagers. You find them in a cultists lair and start dealing with the issue. You've freed several of the villagers when the head cultist starts chanting in front of his altar, on which several kidnapped children are bound. it's clear he's trying to summon some sort of powerful demon, so you hit them all with a fireball to stop the ritual. Sure, the children died, but you probably wouldn't have been able to rescue them anyway, and a summoned demon might have killed more villagers.
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0595.html


Note that there is a difference between this and going actually evil, as all actions you want to take would still be for the greater good, rather than any attempt to cause undue suffering.

[Jon_Dahl]

Heal, Listen, Profession, Sense Motive, Spot, and Survival checks. These are the skills that have Wisdom as their key ability.

I would play the character as slightly autistic. He doesn't really hear or see anything that well, and he has problems understanding simple jokes. He is unable to abstract anything in conversations and metaphors are his doom. His also fairly helpless and has problems eating a sandwich that has been put in his hand. Maybe he will accidentally bite the table instead.

[Sam K]

Sheldon Cooper from Big Bang Theory.

You don't pay attention to the world around you, and you don't bother with any nuances in social interaction. Everything is taken at face value, or at the value you ascribe to the person (Good advice from people you don't like is stupid, bad advice from people you like is OBVIOUSLY brilliant). You don't get jokes, but not in the "Durr, I don't get it" kind of way, but rather "Well, of COURSE the chicken crossed the road to get to the other side, that is the main reason to cross roads. Of course, a more intelligent creature might have been led to believe something it desired was on the other side of the road, in which case the desire to get to the other side was merely a means to an end. In that case, it would be more appropriate to say the answer is..."

[Rhyltran]

This depends a bit on what you believe 'Wisdom' represents. As I see it, it's a combination of common sense and empathy (as in, the ability to empathize with others and understand their situation), as well as things like willpower. Your character is still highly intelligent, so I don't think you'd suddenly get bad tactics.

What I'd do is to have him take intelligence without empathic understanding to its logical extreme. A couple of examples:

You are asked with containing a deadly plague in a city. Your wizard's proposed solution would be to simply round up all the ill, put them in a ghetto, then burn the entire ghetto including inhabitants down. The ill would die anyway, and this way the rest of the city is spared from the plague.
You have been tasked with rescuing a bunch of kidnapped villagers. You find them in a cultists lair and start dealing with the issue. You've freed several of the villagers when the head cultist starts chanting in front of his altar, on which several kidnapped children are bound. it's clear he's trying to summon some sort of powerful demon, so you hit them all with a fireball to stop the ritual. Sure, the children died, but you probably wouldn't have been able to rescue them anyway, and a summoned demon might have killed more villagers.
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0595.html


Note that there is a difference between this and going actually evil, as all actions you want to take would still be for the greater good, rather than any attempt to cause undue suffering.

Wisdom shouldn't have anything to do with empathy. One can be wise and wicked. Also what you described "IS" Evil. Any of those actions would be grounds for an alignment switch, especially if that became the normal person's course of action. Even if you do things for a good cause, not valuing the sanctity of life makes you an evil person.

That being said to me Wisdom should be about common sense, thinking before acting, and cleverness. Low wisdom would mean that you're still capable of being highly intelligent but prone to act before thinking about the consequences, trusting certain people at face value, and maybe rushing into certain things unprepared. Think about someone who is wise and think about what an "Unwise" person would do. A king could be smart but a really smart king might surround himself by wise advisors.