Tawmis wrote: ↑Wed Jul 20, 2022 9:54 pm
So for Wisdom - it's defined in 5e as:
Wisdom reflects how attuned you are to the world around you and represents perceptiveness and intuition.
This goes into those skill checks -
https://5thsrd.org/rules/abilities/wisdom/
That makes sense. I'm asking because I created a D&D Sphinx for my story (still writing it, a year or so after drawing up plans!). She is the Last Sphinx(TM), released from her vows, and all she's wanted to do for the past 1,000-odd years is to die, so that she can be united with the only other Sphinx she knows. (Aww). Of course, it's not that easy -- immortal spirit and all that.
The only person who can release her is a former blacksmith, now a gladiator, who she busts out of the gladiator school. But with him, come complications!
He's very scared of her, as he should be, and he misses his old life with its certainties (food, shelter etc.) The gladiator school's owner is after him - a gladiator who escapes is bad news. And a former enemy is after him too. Not to mention, the city of Rome wanted all those gladiators to come to the city and fight to the death etc. -- for the glory of Rome!
Does he have help? Yes. The Sphinx is quite powerful (D&D Sphinxes tend to be), and he also has his former cellmate, a somewhat-naive but kind young gladiator. But is that enough? How can they get food? Shelter? How can they save their friends? How will they avoid the Romans - and especially the Roman centurion, whom even the Sphinx is wary of?
Anyway, that's all by the by. I was asking about WIS and INT, because I drew up my Sphinx as a high-INT, low-WIS character. She's very intelligent, can cast spells etc (especially illusion), but she's trying to understand humans and how they work. (After all, she'll be living with one soon).
To illustrate that, I created a scene in Rome, where my Sphinx disguises herself as a human (Illusion FTW!) and walks around Rome. She finds a temple, enters, finds two newlyweds, and asks them "What do humans -- er,
other humans want?" (What a question).
Anyway, the male grins and comes on strong. He wants a house, good food, and a good f---
-- and then his newlywed wife intervenes: "Honestly, Marcus! Can't take you anywhere!"
The Sphinx pretends to be a Vestal Virgin, to embarrass Marcus even more. It doesn't work. So she asks: "Is that all? Shelter, sustenance, and ... making smaller humans? How does that work?"
Cue a scene where the blushing bride tries to explain to an uncomprehending Sphinx ... without being explicit at all .. how sex works. "You mean he ... and she ... and then ... oh my!" Blushes all round.
"Well, I don't know how anyone can't stop laughing long enough to do it. It sounds ... enjoyable?"
Marcus bursts in. "It can be, if it's done right!"
Cue more rebukes from his new wife, and they argue all the way home. Sphinx can't imagine why.
I'm in two minds about this scene. I've carefully kept it M-rated or lower (nothing explicit), because my audience is 14-year-olds and younger. But I'm sure someone, somewhere, will take offence, and I don't want that.
What do you think?
Also, does that scene sound right for a high-INT, low-WIS character?
