> The description of the intelligence ability in the PHB mentions cleverness
> specifically. Cleverness is an aspect of intelligence, just as memory and
> deductive ability are, and is no more "intangible" than any other aspect of the
> ability.

Reminds me of how, after my player's do something stupid, they always
whine to me complainin that their characters wouldn't have done anything
stupid like that cause their characters are far more clever than they are
plus their character are supposed to be knowledgable about the world
around them while to they themselves it's all alien. I've never ever let
them redo anything stupid they did (though they really try hard to make me
do it), but they keep on whinin nonetheless...

> I agree with your assessment of the role-playing effects of ability scores, but I
> think cleverness is actually linked to intelligence rather than wisdom. Wisdom
> covers things like willpower, enlightenment, "common sense" and intuition.
> Intelligence is the more intellectual aspects of the mind--memory, learning,
> reasoning, creativity and cleverness.

That's how I handle Wis, too. But I've seen lots of misconceptions as to
what the Wisdom attribute in AD&D entails exactly. Perhaps the name
"Wisdom" is a bit misleading. Maybe that's a good idea for the 3rd ed
AD&D: change the name of wisdom into something else.
I sometimes explain Int, Wis, and Cha likes this: Int is the mental
equivalent of Strength, while Wis is the mental equivalent of Con, and Cha
is the mental equivalent of Dex. Int and Str both determine the power of
your body and your brains respectively, Wis and Con define the energy you
have to continue exerting that power and withstand other people's power,
while Cha and Dex help you react to other people's powers and direct your
own powers. Of course, their not completely analogue to each other, but
it sometimes does help me explain things. Maybe we should make them
completely analogue for the 3rd ed AD&D... :)

> Because RW intelligence is a rather difficult thing to quantify, I suppose it is
> understandable that someone might not see cleverness as being an aspect of the
> ability, but it seems pretty clear to me that it is from the description in the
> PHB that it is intended to be an aspect of that ability. A player playing a
> character with a low intelligence score as a clever person would not be
> "role-playing" very well.

It's a bit hard to roleplay a high-intelligence character as clever when
you're not that clever yourself, though... :)

- the Falcon