Wisdom effects things like hold person, mind altering spells like charm, dire charm, miscast magic, rigid thinking, confusion, you know, all those REALLY ANNOYING spells that folks like to cast on you to make your life miserable. You know, those spells. Like sending Minsc with a wisdom of 6 into a Siren fight with no protection from evil available and 2 seconds later he goes berserk and slays the entire party. Or if you are solo, nothing will make shorter work of your ever so delicate fighter mage thief then say maybe, Bassilus or the Nashkel assassin casting hold person on you and then smashing your face in. Nothing, and I mean nothing is so embarassing as getting charmed or dire charmed and standing there picking your nose all by your self while your enemies fill you full of swords and arrows.
Wisdom, intelligence, and constitution add to various saves, meaning that it is a bad idea to skimp on any of them. Save vs spells and wands is a combo of all three, so, having all three of them somewhat beefy is a really good idea.
And yes Lemming, Gnomes are great fun, even if they look funny on screen in mage robes. (They just don't look right.... swallowed or something) I had a chaotic evil Gnome named Gnasher the Gnasty. He was an Illusionist. He um, well, he started a failed war against the city of Baldur's Gate. He walked into the Flaming Fist compound and fireballed Eltan, which sadly also vapourized Shar-Teel and Tiax. Let us just say my invasion and Tiax's invitation to take over the world failed.
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