Intelligence vs Wisdom in D&D

Question

I'm working on a new character for a campaign I'm rejoining. He's being asked to steal something from the party. He has no loyalty to the ruler who asked him to do this, so I thought perhaps his motivation would be that she told him the item would reverse the negative effects of a magical item she had used (she turned his partner to stone). BUT, his Wisdom is 16 and his Intelligence is 10. Based on my understanding of those 2 characteristics, while his low intelligence might make the use of the item sound believable, his perception would allow him to know that she is lying. Does that sound right?

Answer 1

Ask your DM, who will decide if an ability check is called for.

What you are asking about here is usually determined via an ability check, which the DM asks for when appropriate:

An ability check tests a character's or monster's innate talent and training in an effort to overcome a challenge. The DM calls for an ability check when a character or monster attempts an action (other than an attack) that has a chance of failure. When the outcome is uncertain, the dice determine the results.

So in your situation, you might ask the DM something like:

Does the ruler’s description of the item sound suspicious?

And your DM might then ask for an Intelligence (Arcana) or Wisdom (Insight) check to either discern something about the nature of the item or sense if the ruler is being honest. Personally, I’d give the player the choice of either of these checks, allowing them to choose to leverage their Intelligence or their Wisdom. In either case, the dice ultimately decide the outcome, with the character’s ability scores and potential skill proficiencies contributing to the likelihood of success.

Answer 2

While it’s certainly desirable at most tables for a character’s stats to match their behaviour, they can’t tell you everything. And you needn’t be led by them; if you want your character’s background to include being deceived, then that’s what happened. Most GMs are fine with this amount of freedom, provided the backstory fits in with the intended tone, narrative and world of the game.

That said, while a 16 Wisdom is pretty high, it can’t tell the whole story. What are your character’s proficiencies? Their skill in each of these specific areas - knowledge of how magic works and noticing they’re being deceived (which is different to general awareness) - might not be much different.

For example, if the character is level 1 and proficient in Arcana with an Intelligence of 10 (which is average, not especially low), then their bonus to understand the plausibility of the ruler’s claim is +2. With 16 Wisdom and no proficiency in Insight, their bonus on a roll to detect a lie is +3. And this would potentially be an opposed check - if the ruler is a practiced and charismatic liar, she could easily have a much higher bonus than that, making it entirely plausible your character was fooled.

And all that assumes your character even has reason to be suspicious in the first place. This ruler has already demonstrated her power over the character - turning their partner to stone. If what she says matches what she can do, your character might not be on the lookout for lies anyway - especially if they’re already under stress in this situation.

Answer 3

We all have off days

A stat score is just that: an indication of your average skill in that area. It can certainly influence how you make decisions, but, imo, saying that a certain score would prescribe a certain behaviour is taking it a bit too far.

This is even part of the game: a WIS 16 (+3) character might roll a 2, ending up with a roll of 5 while a WIS 8 (-1) can still roll a 20.

As other answers point out, the skill proficiencies add another area of nuance; you might be really smart (eg INT 16=+3) but you can still be worse in Arcana than someone moderately smart (INT 12=+1) who's been training hard in it (and eg has a Prof. Bonus +3).

We all want to believe what we want to believe

Sure, you might be thinking "she seemed a bit suspicious, could she be lying?". But are you going to let this influence your decision? Your partner has been turned to stone -- will you let a chance to fix pass because you suspect that there's a chance she's lying?

Perhaps that's a way for your character to join the party: they realised the item can't solve their problem so they return it (or they discover this while they are stealing it and stop).

There's always someone ~smarter~ more charismatic

WIS16 is indeed high, compared to the average; but you're competing against another person! It's not really a stretch to assume that a ruler might have a pretty high charisma score, on top of being skilled to eg Deception.

As a side note, Perception might not even be the best way to represent detecting a lie; I'd lean towards Insight (opposed by the ruler's Deception):

Your Wisdom (Insight) check decides whether you can determine the true intentions of a creature, such as when searching out a lie or predicting someone’s next move. Doing so involves gleaning clues from body language, speech habits, and changes in mannerisms.

The story must flow

In the end, consider how this impacts the game. Your character needs to be introduced somehow so you should work with the DM on the way; having a roll doesn't really make a sense imo.

What are you going to do if you roll high and your character doesn't believe the ruler? Are you going to create a new character or wait until there's another opportunity to be introduced -- and how do you explain the coincidence that it's the same party?

If you feel that your character wouldn't believe the ruler (with or without a roll), it'd be better to consider other reasons. Does your character even have an option? What is the ruler going to do if your character declines?

I'm not advocating that you should just do what the DM asks; there could be very good reasons this doesn't work with your character (eg a paladin might be extremely hesitant to steal, without a very good reason; or your character might be a renown diviner known for detecting lies; or you just don't want to play a character that would steal). But this is best resolved by discussing this with the DM and reaching a solution to introducing the character.

Answer 4

You Should Discuss This With The DM Separately

What you have described here is the motivation for your character to join the party - that is a very big part of your character and will likely carry them through a large portion of the game, if not all of it.

Instead of trying to figure out if your character should be able to, mechanically, see if something is wrong with the statement, you should talk this over with your DM to decide what the most interesting answer for that would be, in order to keep your character (and yourself) engaged in the game.

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As an aside, it is entirely possible for you to decide that your character is fooled by this ruse anyway, in order to engage them with the story. Your character is more than just the stats you have written down on a piece of paper.

Sometimes it is more interesting for a smart character to be fooled, or a wise character to believe something that isn't true, than it is for them to follow their stats to the letter.