Today, our series on Ability Scores shifts focus away from the physical and toward the mental, starting with Intelligence.

When it comes to mental acumen, Dungeons & Dragons embraces a distinction between education and experience. Intelligence represents your character’s book learning, while Wisdom represents their street smarts. Just like in life, the line between the two is blurry at best, and how that division plays out at the table will depend as much on your DM’s perspective as on any rule.

Your Intelligence score represents your character’s ability to reason, remember information, and think logically. You might make an Intelligence check to extrapolate the location of a hidden room from the floorplan of a building, or to decode a secret message with an unknown cipher.

When you make a Skill Check for Arcana, History, Nature, or Religion, you’re relying on Intelligence to help you recall lore you’ve learned on those subjects, and apply it to your current situation. When you make an Investigation check, Intelligence helps you find clues and use them to draw conclusions.

Intelligence is also the spellcasting ability that powers the magic of Wizards and Artificers. If you’re playing one of those characters, your Intelligence modifier will affect your to-hit rolls when you cast some spells, and help determine how hard it is for an enemy to avoid others.

Next time on Roll Factory we’ll look at the other side of that mental coin, and talk about Wisdom.

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