Wisdom describes a character's willpower, common sense, perception, and intuition, whereas Intelligence represents the ability to analyze information. An "absent-minded professor" has low Wisdom and high Intelligence. A simpleton with low Intelligence might nevertheless have great insight (high Wisdom). Wisdom is important for clerics, druids, favored souls, and spirit shamans, affecting the strength and number of their spells, and is also significant for monks, paladins and rangers. If a character is to have acute senses, a high score in Wisdom is needed. Every creature has a Wisdom score.

Wisdom modifiers are applied to:

• Will saving throws
• Heal, listen, spot, and survival checks. These are the skills that have Wisdom as their key ability
• Ranged attack rolls with Zen Archery feat
• Cleric, druid, favored soul, paladin, and ranger spell DC
• Various monk class abilities

Clerics, druids, paladins, rangers, and spirit shamans get bonus spells based on their Wisdom scores (see ability modifier). The minimum Wisdom score needed to cast a cleric, druid, paladin, or ranger spell is 10 + the spell's level.