How do you roleplay high wisdom?

[deuxhero]

Being my real life dump stats (along with Charisma, though I have some vague idea of how to do that), other than speaking in koans or things explict in mechanics (understanding other people), how does one act high wisdom?

[Grinner]

Try occasionally quoting Sun Tzu's "The Art of War", as appropriate to the situation.

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[deuxhero]

Pretty similar to the koan thing though...

[Grinner]

Very similar. But, apparently lacking a desire to contemplate the higher nature of the world, do you really have any options?

[Daer]

By speaking only when it is necessary... and surely have something wise to say, or pointing the obvious. :)

[W3bDragon]

Always try to take in the details of what's around you. When the DM first describes the scene, ask further questions about your surroundings. That'll give you a deeper understanding of what's going on around you and allow you to act more wisely.

Example:

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DM: You enter a room. It seems to be the bbeg's library. There are two walls of shelved books, and a grand piano in the corner. There is a small neat study on one side.

Non-wise player: Are there any books on the study?

DM: No.

Non-wise player: Then perhaps he wasn't researching his evil ritual here. Let's look elsewhere.

Wise player: Wait. You said there was a grand piano in one corner. Is it dusty?

DM: No. Its pretty clean. In fact the whole room is pretty clean.

Wise player: Hmm... I play a couple of notes on the piano. Does it seem to be out of tune?

DM: *rolls a dice* Yes. In fact you determine that its terribly in need of tuning.

Wise player: That means that even though the piano isn't used at all, its still regularly cleaned. It would stand to reason that the rest of the room is also as thoroughly cleaned. As such, there wouldn't be any books on the study, even if he has been using it. I highly doubt whoever cleans here, as thorough as they are, would remove every single book and dust it off, but they'd definitely clean whatever books were on the table before putting them back. We should check the books here anyway and look for the cleanest ones. These would probably be the ones that the bbeg has been studying.

Also, a large part of being wise is having a strong (and usually correct) gut instinct. Unlike an intelligent character, who would try to not mislead himself with false assumptions, a wise character would make reasonable assumptions and act based on them. The key word here is act. Just having instincts isn't enough. You need to do something based on them.

Example:

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Premise: Players are fighting goblins in long corridor. The goblins are blocking it completely, with a goblin shaman hiding in the rear ranks casting spells and directing the battle.

DM: Its the shaman's turn.

Players in unison: Enough rays of enfeeblement already!

DM: In fact, the shaman doesn't cast a spell this round. He yells some instructions to the goblins. Two of the goblins in the back retreat from the fight and round the bend out of sight. Wise player, its your turn.

Wise player: The shaman wouldn't have given up the round to give orders if it wouldn't be better for him than casting the rays of enfeeblement he's been destroying us with. I fly over the heads of the goblins and rush past all of them, trying to catch the goblins that ran off.

DM: You'll take several attacks of opportunity.

Wise player: Fine. I have the hps for now.

DM: You take the attacks and rush around the bend. You find the two goblins trying to unlock a door to a cage that's holding a Gorgon.

Players in unison: A GORGON?!

Wise player: I knew it!

[Jay R]

Being my real life dumb stats (along with Charisma, though I have some vague idea of how to do that), other than speaking in koans or things explict in mechanics (understanding other people), how does one act high wisdom?

By not spending too much time playing D&D, and devoting more attention to the important things in life.

...

Oh, all right. Let's begin by recognizing that it's a difficult thing to do. Strength and Dexterity are only modeled by die-rolling, but the most important aspects of Intelligence and Wisdom are modeled by making decisions for your character, which is to say, by playing the game.

Wisdom is (as much as anything) the ability to make the correct decisions. Step one is to study the rules carefully - even the ones that have nothing to do with your character - so you are more likely to understand what the potential consequences of your party's actions are. If the cleric is about to cast a spell, and you point out that it will have an unintended consequence, you're being the wise one. To do that, you need to know what each spell does, whether you can cast them or not.

[Mordokai]

Yes, I am a fan of Igor, why do you ask?

[Starshade]

Isn't Koans the ultimate mark of wisdom?

Spoon Boy: Do not try and bend the spoon; that’s impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth.
Neo: What truth?
SpoonBoy: There is no spoon.
Neo: There is no spoon?
Spoon Boy: Then you will see, it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself.

Strange D&D style Koan's I'd think is specially good for introspective monkish characters, psionic characters, and perhaps some clerics.

Unfortunately, some real gems of wisdom is usually not understandable until you "get there" yourself, thus it looks as stuff from self help books. Saying stuff from books (the big books, philosophers, thinkers, etc), I'd think is an good alternative, tho, I myself would prefer to create new funny Koans.

[Kalirren]

High Wis ... Be aware. Be decisive without being rash. Choose what you say carefully. Admit your mistakes to yourself.

[Techsmart]

the simplest part of high wisdom is a high level of common sense. Unlike in that igor cartoon, the high wis cleric would be the one to look at the horde of orcs, identify whether or not they are hostile, and offer an appropriate recourse for the team. High wis characters also learn from their mistakes very quickly.
Pretty much, the way I see intelligence vs. wisdom is how they can come to a solution. Intelligence comes to a conclusion through forethought. They look at a problem, take the details, and use them to lead to an effective conclusion. Wisdom gets there because they have experience with something related, and learned quickly from that previous encounter. For example,
Intelligence: "Those orcs are charging at us with their shoulders hunched. I remember reading that hunched shoulders in the orc culture is a sign of aggression. Combined with that they are charging at us, it is safe to assume that they want to attack us."
Wisdom: "Last time I saw an orc charging at me with his shoulders hunched, it did not end well at all. He is probably going to attack us"
they both come to the same conclusion, albeit through different routes.
Sorry if this post started rambling a little bit, explaining the difference of mental stats can be a little difficult.

[Kaeso]

Wisdom is a deep understanding and realization of people, things, events or situations, resulting in the ability to apply perceptions, judgements and actions in keeping with this understanding. It often requires control of one's emotional reactions (the "passions") so that universal principles, reason and knowledge prevail to determine one's actions. Wisdom is also the comprehension of what is true or right coupled with optimum judgment as to action. Synonyms include: sagacity, discernment, or insight.

Personally I think the term "Intelligence" in the DnD statistics is quite misleading. Personally I see intelligence as the overall mental faculties of a person, and wisdom as an subgroup of intelligence. Wisdom contains common sense IMHO, but goes beyond it. Wisdom is almost something spiritual, a wise person can control his emotions, understand how people work, understand (rather than just know) certain things etc.

As it often does, Rich Burlew's comic demonstrates this quite nicely IMHO. Durkon, with his high wisdom, often displays a certain understanding of things, including his party members. On the other hand the intelligent but unwise Vaarsuvius is without a doubt the most intelligent individual of the group but is (or was, rather) often very emotional, acting upon his first desires, not thinking everything through and making mistakes that should be below his level. Another good example of wisdom is Redcloak, who has a certain understanding of how the world works and how Xykon works, and thus can easily manipulate him. Of course there are situations in which intelligence and wisdom can overlap, and I believe that in real life wisdom is often in tandem with intelligence.

To explain it in military terms, an intelligent general knows certain strategies and is perfectly capable of using them, even though it results in often brash actions. A wise general is a general that, as Sun Tzu would say, not only knows himself but also knows his enemy. Instead of thinking up a brilliant attack plan and executing it, he prefers to take some time to observe the enemy, see what they're planning to do, see how disciplined the opposing soldiers are. After observing this, he adapts his battleplan to what he just saw. Of course, coming up with a fitting counterplan requires intelligence, showing once again that intelligence and wisdom often work in tandem.

So how do you roleplay a wise character? Make him calm, observant, loose from the everyday humdrum. In the heat of battle, when everybody is getting emotional and agressive, the wise character keeps his cool. When faced with certain doom, he remains calm and tries to think up a solution. When tempted with fame, fortune and the pleasures of the flesh, a wise character remains loyal to his liege, friends and/or cause, unmoving and unwavering. However, despite being above the basic, animalistic emotions, a wise character is not (always) indifferent. Prudence is also often associated with wisdom.

Prudence, which is intimately related to wisdom, became one of the four cardinal virtues of Catholicism.

I think the "rising above your animalistic instincts" element is perfectly represented in DnD mechanics. Higher wisdom, after all, results in higher will saves against enchantments (which, I assume, focus on your deepest desires), fear etc.

tl;dr: The intelligent man knows, the wise man understands.

[Bonecrusher Doc]

"He who stumbles around in darkness with a stick is blind. But he who... sticks out in darkness... is... fluorescent!"

[2xMachina]

For me, high Wis = has slight metagame knowledge. They have high intuition and common sense, letting them have a little Genre Savviness and good prediction of what's going to happen.

[Telonius]

How I roleplay it depends a whole lot on the Charisma of the character involved. If it's fairly low, I usually play it as a person who doesn't say very much, but is extremely insightful when he does. Almost "Silent Bob"-like.

If Charisma is high? Much more animated. Maybe a good psychiatrist, or an advice columnist that actually has some idea of what they're talking about. Depending on the character's history, it might even be something like "The Gambler." He's been through it all, and is going to give you some advice.

[GeminiVeil]

"He who stumbles around in darkness with a stick is blind. But he who... sticks out in darkness... is... fluorescent!"

"Lose 50 experience."
. . . Love that movie.

[Rorrik]

It requires concentrating more on the game than you normally do. As far as the game world is concerned, you will be wiser if you are the one noticing things and fitting pieces together as the story develops.

You should take notes of everything and even study them before sessions. Look over your notes periodically when your character isn't part of the action.

Ask the DM if you can have a 15 minute break every hour or something so your mind can stay sharp and in focus.

If you don't consider yourself wise in real life, than it will take a lot of effort and focus to make your character come across as wise in the game.

[eggs]

I try to imagine somebody wiser than me. Then I think about what he would do. Then I do that.

[Kerrin]

Never sit on a skunk.


Okay, now really ... it can be difficult acting out some characteristic you do not possess in real life. But, you can take clues from other real life people and even characters from literature, movies, etc and base how your character acts out that ability on one or two of those.

[Socratov]

well, that is the common rpoblem with rolepalying one's abilityscores... You cant roleplay an 18 in wisdom, charisma or intelligence unless you yourself are the most wise/charismatic/intellignet person on the planet (that would mean max IQ, max EQ and about 3 lives worth of experience and understanding), which is (depending on statistics) highly improbable. Remember, a commoner is mediocrily wise on most subjects a 12-14 is considered very wise (a wise man in a tribe or something). an 18 (and in some cases even more) is up there in the stellar quatities (or qualities for that matter).

I myself favor the relative apporach: you might roleplay an 8 in wis, but if your wisdom dumpers roleplay a 4 then you are still in comarison really wise (relatively even better since you actually are 2 times wiser then the rest...

[Analytica]

It might be useful to look at low wisdom, then do the opposite.

I had a 22+ INT, 16+ CHA, <8 WIS wizard PC. He could understand any model system and simulate within it, remember any detail, and make grandiose speeches, looking cool while at it. However, I consciously made him ignore information on possible risks, ignore my own guesses as to how others would interpret what he said, and ignore any pretense of politeness. He encountered at one point an undead creature, made no effort at identifying it closer than just some humanoid, and was killed by the Bodak's gaze. Tunnel vision and lack of interpersonal intelligence, basically. He had a Leadershipped butler who was an elderly, high-wisdom rogue whose job was just to make sure he didn't get into too much trouble, hired by the family.

The opposite would be the person that never loses perspective on things, that never gets upset unless they decide to, and that can guess beforehand how others are likely to perceive what they do and how they will react to it. I also agree genre knowledge comes into it, to some extent.

[Socratov]

indeed, there is a reason sense motive is keyed to wisdom instead of charisma (even though charisma governs social interactions and sense motive really is part of social skills/interactions...)

[DrewID]

With as much input from the GM as he/she will give.

Seriously, no one expects you to have your character's physical stats, but you decide how to employ them, then (within the framework of what you try to do) they operate. Now it would be boring to have your GM tell you everything (although it would probably be appropriate for the GM to warn the payer of an 18 WIS character "What you're about to do is foolish"), but do things like ask for input on how things seem to your character. Because given a discrepancy between what you think is a wise course of action, and what the GM thinks is a wise course of action, the GM's pick is going to work, because it is the GM who adjudicates success or failure.

It's like a comedian said, when his mom ask "What do you think you're doing?!", he wanted to respond "It doesn't matter what I think I'm doing. I'm not going to get in trouble for what I think I'm doing. I'm not even going to get in trouble for what I am doing. I'm going to get in trouble for what you think I'm doing."

DrewID

[Lysander]

I always viewed wisdom as sanity and intelligence as number crunching.

Wisdom is observation, precaution, and calculated risk. In a roleplaying sense, I think that would cause you to consider the possible results of any action.

For example, I feel a character with high wisdom would be less likely to drink to excess at a party. It's not that someone with low intelligence doesn't know drinkng to excess can lead to problems, it's that they just don't care because they're having a good time. The wise person can't ignore that nagging voice warning them about the future.

So in a D&D group, you could roleplay wisdom by fully considering the consequences of any plan. You could push to have plan Bs if things go wrong. You could be eager for more information, even if it's not directly relevant to your field of interest.

[Shadowknight12]

Wisely.

No, really.

[JackMage666]

I've enjoyed playing a Low Int, High Wis character in the past. He didn't quite have the brain capacity to develop intricate plans, but he could understand them, as well as offer simple suggestions to improve them. As well, he was very sympathetic towards other cultures and ideas, and possessed an almost constant tranquility. He was also very perceptive, able to notice the small quirks people would make (though not necessarily the meaning behind them.)
In short, he was very good at understanding things he saw or had explained to him, and was able to self-regulate himself with ease, but he wasn't the one developing the strategies or bringing new information to the table.

[zlefin]

While i'm not sure how i'd play one myself; for low int high wisdom I think the Clampett father from Beverly Hillbillies is a good example.
He didn't have a lot of book learning but he had a lot of good sense.

[DungeonMonkey]

I think a lot of these statements are (like the concept of "street smarts", of which I have never heard a specific definition) are motivated by a desire to separate wisdom and intelligence in real life in such a way as to give the poster a high "real life wisdom score", so to speak, therefore validating a poor intellect, so try to look for and disregard them (I saw at least two, just at a first glance). Also, try to take everything you read with a grain of salt, since you (yes, you) are probably going to be drawn towards a definition that gives you a high "real life wisdom score" or "real life intelligence score".

As for the question, I would have to say that it's an intelligent person would excel at linear problem solving, while a wise person would excel at lateral thinking.

Also, ignore the "be more observant" answers. If you try, not only will you probably fail quite spectacularly due to the fact that few adventures will have elements that can be analyzed this way (because unlike the Wise Player example above most adventures are not constructed specifically to demonstrate how one might act wiser by over-thinking everything), but you will also annoy everyone by asking stupid questions every five seconds*.


*You can, however, get some mileage out of analyzing something the DM would never have thought of in such a way that the conclusion you come to benefits you. This may catch the DM off guard and make him rule that what you dictated is true. Just be careful to not to do it wrong, or people may think you're an idiot for thinking such things.




Oh, crap. This was supposed to be short. And most of it is a rant about other people! Quick, think of something clever. Uh...

Oh! And remember that you can't act wiser than you are, because to act wise is to be wise. Also remember what Socrates said: It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool then to speak and remove all doubt.

[Deepbluediver]

Didn't the players handbook differentiate high Intellect as being like book-learning, but high wisdom as being more like street-smarts?
Essentially, I normally see it as being very attentative and aware of the situation at all times. For example, you are able to pick up on the mood of a room or group of people, even without speaking to them a lot. Think of how you would play a low-wisdom character (dense to the point of being obtuse) and then do the opposite of that.

Another way to think about it is to compare it to charisma. I see charisma as being the offensive social stat (getting other people to do what you want) and wisdom is the defensive version (figuring out what other people are trying to get you to do, or what they are implying).

Making good intuitive leaps is another thing I would expect a high-wisdom character to do. This might require a certain amount of metagaming, but this is one situation where I think it could be allowed.

Some of the social stats are hard to define in a vacuum, but you can see how they work out when combined with other things.
Here's a couple of examples (and these are really just the first things that I thought of; please feel free to add others but lets try to avoid this turning into a debate):
The original Sherlock Holmes, as written by Sir ACD, is what I would call a high Wisdom/Intellect but low Charisma character. He has a broad base of obscure knowledge, and fantastic deductive reasoning. But he's so quirky and annoying that only Watson can stand being close to him for any amount of time.

If you've ever watched the show "White Collar" then the main character, Neil Caffrey, is what I think of as High Intellect/Charisma, low Wisdom type of person. He is a con-man with excellent technical expertise and the ability to BS his way through almost any lie. However, he tends to overestimate his own abilities and underestimate his opponents, meaning he frequently gets into trouble and has to be rescued by his FBI friend/handler.

If you've ever watched the show "NCIS" then the leader of the team, Leroy J. Gibbs is kind of how I picture a high Charisma/Wisdom low-Intellect character. Before anyone jumps on my back, I don't think this means he's stupid, but his technical expertise is...dated...at best. However he is an excellent investigator and has an iron-strong command of his team, to the point where he doesn't even need to speak. His inability to get along well with other authority figures is more from choice than a lack of ability to play politics.

I would invite anyone else to provide examples from other tv shows or books, but in order to keep this from getting derailed, lets try to only argue which Stat a certain trait represents in-thread. If you disagree with the way a character is portrayed in the medium, take it to PM's.

[MonkeyBusiness]

Wisdom is often associated with compassion, and this can be interesting to role-play. This does not necessarily mean forgiving enemies and never fighting. But simply trying to look at something from another person's perspective or giving another the benefit of the doubt.

Wisdom can sometimes seem foolish or weak (think of Saruman mocking Gandalf) and sometimes even impractical. If you don't consider yourself wise, this might be one option for you.

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