Discerning & Conceptualizing Wisdom in D&D

Wisdom rating will act much as does that for intelligence.

D&D Vol. I: Men & Magic, 1974

Helpful quote, I know. Besides acknowledging that wisdom is the prime requisite for clerics, along with some guidelines on how a wisdom score can be adjusted to affect a character’s overall experience point bonus, the above sentence is all the original three Dungeons and Dragons booklets ever said about wisdom. Despite my love for OD&D, that’s a pretty half-baked conceptualization for one of the three primary abilities. At least it was half-baked in its originally published form. It seems Gary Gygax just needed a mechanical parallel to the strength and intelligence prime requisites for fighting-men and magic-users, respectively. What wisdom actually measured had to either be deduced by the dictionary meaning of the word or ascertained in actual play with other players.

The first revision of D&D edited by Eric Holmes in 1977 offers no real improvement on understanding the wisdom ability score outside of its mechanical role as the prime requisite for clerics. It’s not until the publication of the Advanced Dungeons in Dragons Players Handbook in 1978 that Gary Gygax provided some more conceptual meat.

Wisdom is a composite term for the character’s enlightenment, judgement, wile, will power, and (to a certain extent) intuitiveness. It has a certain effect on saving throws against some magical attack modes. It is of utmost importance to clerics, their major characteristic, and those with wisdom of 16 or greater add 10% to earned experience.

AD&D Players Handbook, 1978

Although using different words, Tom Moldvay continues the same understanding of wisdom in the 1980 revised basic edition by stating that,

The word “Wisdom” refers to inspiration, intuition, common sense, and shrewdness. Wisdom aids in solving problems when Intelligence is not enough.

D&D Basic Rulebook, 1980

Moldvay lines up with Gygax through the use of synonyms or a synonym-like phrase.

This understanding of wisdom as an ability stressing some measurement of intuition, insight, and judgement continued through the various editions, and eventually a kind of situational awareness becomes more explicitly associated with wisdom. In my opinion, such situational awareness makes sense (see below) because the meaning could be an expansive view of judgement, common sense, and intuition. Unfortunately, character awareness in D&D is often understood narrowly and reduced to little more than routine mechanical rolls in later editions that represent stale and uninspiring perception checks (fight . . . urge . . . to . . . rant).

Whatever . . . I’m rambling again. Here’s what I want to talk about now. Why is wisdom “of utmost importance” to clerics? I want to consider (likely in a rambling way) why an ability that measures a character’s intuition, judgement, awareness, and level of enlightenment should be the central ability for the religiously and spiritually focused cleric class. In doing so, I hope to give the wisdom ability score more interesting and colorful depth. While exploring this topic, I’ll also give a brief nod to the use of wisdom for the other two original classes in my meanderings.

Without getting too far into the linguistic weeds, the noun wisdom generally refers to one’s knowledge and learning. The noun is comprised of the Old English wis (“wise”) and the Old English suffix –dom, a suffix in this context indicating that one possesses the state, condition, or quality of wis. The Old English wis has many meanings, as well as many cognates in other languages. The adjective describes one who is learned and experienced. Importantly, someone who is wise is one that possesses the ability to discern and judge rightly. Wisdom can be traced linguistically to roots with meanings connected with “to see” (i.e., “to know”). Think of Keanu Reeves and The Matrix for a pop culture reference highlighting the connections between seeing and knowing. Anyway, all of this matches up with Gygax’s description of wisdom as encompassing enlightenment (a discerning state of insight or knowledge), judgement, and intuitiveness.

Therefore, characters with high wisdom scores are better able to discern situations and/or judge rightly. Another way to put this would be to state that wisdom is the ability “to see” (i.e., “to know”) a situation in a way that leads to proper discernment and judgement. I find this a bit more helpful than reading, “Wisdom rating will act much as does that for intelligence.”

So, for wise fighters, that might mean having the ability to quickly discern the viable tactics of a combat situation (and yes, this can be accomplished with or without a wisdom/perception check!). A wise fighter might also, for example, have better insight into an enemy’s weaknesses, or that same fighter could better discern the morale of retainers/hirelings/henchmen or troops and know best how to address the situation. Besides relying on rote memory and learned ritualistic formulae, a wise magic-user may have better insight into the metaphysical workings of the chaotic energy known as magic. A wise magic-user may be more aware of magically attuned areas.

Extending the concept of wisdom to seeing/knowing the world (seen and unseen), the universe, and even the underlying workings of reality itself results in an ability score with a rich metaphysical and spiritual connotation. For some campaigns, it might be helpful to view wise clerics as spiritually connected characters that see the world/reality as it really is. Perhaps they see beyond the superficial or mundane level of physical reality. Depending on the campaign, perhaps clerics steeped in wisdom see into, or have an intuitive grasp of, divine realms. Clerics may be able to better discern the interactions of higher powers (either beneficent or malevolent). Perhaps they have a more insightful and discerning grasp of the interplay between Law and Chaos? Additionally, the wiser a cleric, the better able a cleric is at discerning the will of their chosen deity. With wisdom may come better awareness of a deity’s presence, and perhaps this leads to seeing/knowing how such a divine presence interacts with the world around the cleric.

Wisdom need not always be concerned with the otherworldly, the metaphysical, or higher powers. Wise clerics also judge rightly in the context of their religious value systems. So, for example, a cleric character might be called upon to wisely adjudicate local disputes due to their ability to rightly discern situations. As Moldvay wrote, “Wisdom aids in solving problems when Intelligence is not enough.” One could understand this to mean that when there is no precedent or existing law that can be recalled or drawn from memory (i.e., one cannot rely on the ability of intelligence), then the cleric must draw on the insight and intuitiveness of wisdom to discern and judge the situation rightly.

All of this helps better explain why, from an early stage in D&D’s history, a high wisdom score provided better odds for a character attempting to fend off magical attacks such as charms, phantasmal forces, fears, and so forth. Several reasons might be used to explain this advantage. Such characters could have a better chance at “seeing” through such falsehoods due to their discernment of the actual situation at hand. The reason could also be due to their penetrating understandings into the greater workings of the campaign world’s reality; or, perhaps, they simply have an innate sense of intuitiveness that renders them less susceptible to such attacks. Perhaps they have the force of will to bend their perspective of reality back into place. And let’s not forget a cleric’s connection with a higher power, or powers. For example, perhaps there are some particular wise and devout clerics so acutely aware of, and in tune with, their deity’s will for them that attempts to lead them astray through magical persuasion, fear, confusion, or illusion are more difficult to accomplish.

Such is the power of wisdom.