Blackguards and Wisdom
So the minimum wisdom for a blackguard is 3 unlike for a regular paladin which must have 13.
Is there any disadvantage to having 3 wisdom? As far as I know no paladin or ranger kits gain bonus spells from wisdom as that is a strict benefit for clerics and Druids.
Also there is no spell casting failure like in pnp.
Is there any disadvantage to having 3 wisdom? As far as I know no paladin or ranger kits gain bonus spells from wisdom as that is a strict benefit for clerics and Druids.
Also there is no spell casting failure like in pnp.
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Example: You want high STR, DEX, CON. You can dump INT, WIS, CHA. That means that you just need any 3 out of 6 rolls to be high (since you can basically distribute at will). Now look at what happens when WIS suddenly has a high minimum value: you still want the same stats, but you can no longer dump WIS. You now need 3 high rolls out of 5 rolls - a lower chance than before. Yes your stat total might end up higher, but the chance of getting the stats you want is lower.
Of course, this also conversely means that if you WANT one of the minimum roll stats to be high, it is easier to do so (assuming you still have some dump stats left).
In practice all this isn't a huge deal, though. In PnP there is a lot more going on with minimum stats etc., in BG/IWD it's very easy to get the rolls you want, as you want them.
The game rolls 3d6 for each stats, then the roll of each stat is compared to the minimum.
If one of the stat doesn't reach the required number, the game rolls everything again.
Then if every stats reach the required value, the game makes the total, if the sum is inferior to 75, the game rolls everything again.
Which is another reason why I dislike dual class, because Human have no minimum, which means that you're going to roll a Human Fighter with minimum stats of 9/3/3/3/3/3 and it's very hard to aim for a good 95+ roll and nearly impossible to roll a 100+.
On contrary this is why rolling a 100+ is fairly easy with a Paladin, because nearly everytime you roll, the game is probably rolling ten times or more because so many rolls are going to get discarded. Let's not forget that while the Blackguard doesn't have a Wisdom requirement, it has a higher Consitution minimum (14 instead of 9).
At the end of the day it's fairly logical that higher minimum equals higher rolls in average. If we could create a character with minimums of 18/18/18/18/18/17, you could only create a character with a total roll of 107 or 108. With a probability of 75% of rolling 107, and 25% of rolling 108.
And yes, higher minimum stats result in higher average rolls. But simply looking at stat totals/averages is kind of pointless. Having high numbers in particular stats, dependent on class, is what's important. So as @Lord_Tansheron points out, having a high minimum stat is only useful when that stat is helpful to the class (which it often is). But seeing as how wisdom is useless for Paladins, having a low minimum is advantageous as it provides another dump stat.
It actually doesn't change anything. Here's an example : Let's imagine a character with a minimum Strength of 17 and a minimum Dexterity of 18, it doesn't exist of course but it is easier this way to demonstrate.
Using 3d6, the only way to roll an 18 is to roll 6,6,6. Only 1 combinaison.
Using 3d6, the only ways to roll a 17 are to roll 6,6,5 ; 6,5,6 or 5,6,6. 3 Combinaisons.
So this means, that there are only 4 (3+1) ways out of 216 ( 6 times 6 times 6) to roll at least a 17 with 3d6.
Because the game will only take a roll of at least 17 Strength for our imaginary character, he has 3/4 chances of having 17 Strength and 1/4 chance of having 18 Strength (3 being the number of combinaisons giving you 17 divided by the number total of combinaisons giving you at least 17 which is 4, the same reasonment is true for 18).
Now, the game will roll his Dexterity. His minimum is 18, which means the game will need to roll in average 216 times to roll the 18, because as I said before, there is 1/216 chance of rolling 18.
Let's now imagine that the game rolled something else than a 18 for Dexterity, let's say 13. The game will need to reroll Dexterity, maybe the game will also roll again for Strength, but does it matter ? It doesn't.
-If the game doesn't reroll the Strength roll, the character still has his old chances : 3/4 chances of having 17 and 1/4 chances of having 18.
-If the game reroll the Stength roll, the character once again has 3/4 chances of rolling 17 and 1/4 chances of rolling 18.
So as we can see, it doesn't change anything.
Actually I think the game reroll the stat individually because it would produce less rolls, which means less computer lag. But I could be wrong.
What's important is to know that the game rerolls the stats, instead of raising the stats to the required number, and this is easy to demonstrate. Create a Human Paladin. His minimum Charisma is 17. As demonstrated before, you have 3/216 of rolling a 17 and 1/216 of rolling a 18 with 3d6. Which means you have 216-3-1 = 212/216 chances of rolling 16 or less and 215/216 chances of rolling 17 or less (anything but not 18). Now rolls some times with your Paladin. Do you roll an 18 Charisma on average 1 every 4 rolls, or 1 every 216 rolls ?
In the case of rangers/paladins was also supposed to represent their more attuned senses to tell when people are lying or otherwise attempting to deceive, as well as having other value in skills the game doesn't include (paladins had access to priest NCP which tended to require wisdom, where as rangers got bonuses to a couple extra skills that used wisdom). And of course the passive bonus to saves vs mind affecting spells (or penalty for very low wisdom), which the game also leaves out.
However, Blackguards are NOT paladins (the complete guide of paladins even explicitly states that they are not nor should never be considered the same as simply an evil paladin). They serve a thematically similar function, but that's where the resemblance ends (Blackguards are usually given power directly as a result of a pact with one infernal power or another instead of their faith or strength of will/belief like most other divine casters).
Besides, there are a lot of things not exactly represented within the framework of the game rules. For example, you could be a very foolish Blackguard indeed with your 3 WIS, getting conned by a whole mob of demons out of any soul you'll ever have - but that wouldn't necessarily reflect in your game behavior in any way. You're still a walking death machine, no problem. I mean sure, you'll end up MAJORLY screwed down the road somewhere, but that isn't part of the game, simply because the game depicts a fairly limited window in the character's timeline.