Rolling stats

[Saltmarsh]

Your just as likely to get s good stat as a sucky one daryen, no one loves low stats but they can add a lot to the way you roleplay a character it doesn't mean that they are useless
One of my best characters I had was a fighter with 6 dex , ok she was a bit clumsy but didn't stop her from doing her job she was never going to be a tightrope walker but she was a good fighter and lots of fun to play .
Characters which dont really have a weakness are more boring to me because theres no real sense of achievement if theres no challenge.
Going back to my fighter if shed had an ok dex then a lot of good roleplaying and humorous events would have been lost

[Saltmarsh]

I also agree with solomoriah assuming that someone with a low int is automatically going to do the stupidest thing possible in a given situation is also wrong, they may do something rash or without realising that its foolish but it doesn't mean that they always do the dumbest thing possible I tend to find that players who do that aare just doing it to be disruptive and be the centre of attention .
I've played a few characters that weren't to smart but they never used to do anything that was obviously a bad thing to do .

[SmootRK]

I have always equated low Intelligence as slow thinkers; low intelligence becomes the opposite of witty quick thinking.

Always hard to separate character INT from Player Knowledge. Been that way since gaming began. There is always a bit of metagaming going on; with player knowledge filtering to the character. But, tell the player to slow down the character responses is a little easier to Role Play.

[Solomoriah]

One of the characters in one of my playtests is a fighter with 18 Strength but a slight Dexterity penalty (don't remember exactly how much). He's a fun character, honestly, not much good with ranged weapons but he tries anyway.

[Rosisha]

I have always equated low Intelligence as slow thinkers; low intelligence becomes the opposite of witty quick thinking.

Always hard to separate character INT from Player Knowledge. Been that way since gaming began. There is always a bit of metagaming going on; with player knowledge filtering to the character. But, tell the player to slow down the character responses is a little easier to Role Play.

Or you could have an savant type character. Where maybe they're very quiet or slow in most normal situations, but somehow, always know exactly how many days the rations will last. You could play this multiple ways - or maybe they're "wrong in execution", but somehow always manage to get the right answer. My favorite example of this is from the show Disney Cartoon Tailspin. When Baloo gets a job skywriting, he misspells everything but only the first three letters mattered for the code. Still, his spelling becomes a problem later on in the episode, but is saved by his team. So you still need teamwork, and you're still not as smart as the Wizard, but you can get the job done after a fashion, as long as you have friends (YAY moral lessons!)

[Solomoriah]

For me, Intelligence and Wisdom are a measure of how much help I'll give the character (as the GM) while the player gets to be as smart or foolish as he or she can manage.

[spielemusik]

If I was just a player, I'd take the random rolls, that seems like fun to me with the randomness (you don't get to pick your hair color or aptitude at birth do you?) - if they were really bad I'd see what the GM wanted to do. For my kids while I'm acting as GM, I let them choose their class, roll once to see if they can get above 9, and then give them 1 ability swap for the rest of their abilities. They might not get the race they want. The "gifted" single ability swap usually goes towards constitution, at the detriment of charisma.

[daryen]

Eh, I figured I'd be in the minority, but I still stick with letting stats be better. Sure, in real life I don't choose my hair or eye color, but I specifically play the game because it isn't real life. I want to play someone different, or me but better (with magic!).

Note that I am still not talking pluses everywhere. Perfectly fine playing straight 10s. Just trying to avoid the dregs. Don't have to be the best. Just trying to not be the worst.

[Rosisha]

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[Dimirag]

My AD&D Thief has a 5 Wisdom Score, he has a 16 Dexterity, 11 Intelligence, and 10 on every other score, but its fun to play, granted, the low Wis does not impedes him a lot.
I use the low Wis as a kind of "cloistered" person, he didn't have much contact with the outside while growing, and he is actually immature and childish.

In Basic Fantasy the score also don't have much of an impact, they are a secondary helping thing, but I understand people don't like it to play characters with really low scores of with several lowered ones, specially on games with houserules like ability under rolls or that grant more class benefits based on an ability score.