[RPG] Why do clerics need wisdom

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In basic D&D Clerics' primal Stat is wisdom. But it does not effect neither turn undead nor their spells. So why do they need a high wisdom? Just for the exp bonus?

Best Answer

In older D&Ds, not everything is tied tightly into things written on your sheet. Assuming that it works like modern D&D and that you can bring in modern D&D assumptions about what matters most—what's on your sheet—is a common mistake that can lead to de-optimising a character. There are mechanics that only appear within the adventure notes, there are ad hoc situations that will be judged by eyeballing the PCs' stats or testing them with a d20 roll, there are monster abilities that trigger off PC stats.

Your stats, therefore, should not be considered merely a source of bonuses. Your stats are what you are capable of, just yourself, when all of your abilities, gear, spells, and friends are missing, damaged, irrelevant, or stripped away by misfortune or misadventure. They are what lies between you and the unknown when you're in dire straits. A cleric is known for their wisdom, so a less-wise cleric will always be at a slight disadvantage, but whether that matters and makes any difference when the chips are down is something you can't know until you're tested by adventure.

So yeah, you don't "need" a Wisdom of 15 compared to a Wisdom of 13, but that's not the point. When you write down 13, you are saying "I am not as wise as the next cleric." Similarly, a lower strength means you're not as strong. There's no such thing as optimising here, just making a statement and then living or dying by it. You're making trade offs, with neither being better than the other. After all, you can't optimise for what you don't know, and old D&D is all about venturing into the unknown to see if you can come back better off. You can optimise for the short-term mechanical bonuses that are immediately obvious, but that's not wise, that's just making a wager that you won't need the other stat more and higher later.

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