Played a goliath in AL and kept rolling well on intelligence checks despite having an Int of 8, so roleplaying his epiphanies was always fun. Thunk was his name, ‘cause that sound Thunk make when Papa drop Thunk.
We had a group that was basically all spells and Melee DPS, but no Rogue. It became a problem. So my goliath barb hacked a tree trunk out, bolted it to a long chain, bolted some handles to it...and carved a face into it. Trunk the Timber Rogue.
Locked chest. Trunk will take care of it. Smash the lock until it is "picked."
Locked door. Battering ram of finesse.
Might be traps down the hall? Throw Trunk down it and drag it across what could be pressure plates.
Need to smooth talk some info out of bandits? My goliath would ask questions amd when they wouldn't give me the info "Trunk, dis guy here ain't hearin' me...maybe you can speak gooder wit him..." like a terrible ventriloquist then smash a toe. Then repeat the question with a squeaky voice.
By the end, it was like my character had two personalities. He'd have conversations with him and kept his share of the loot (which came out of the barb's cut) seperate, buy him drinks and get weird looks at taverns. He was the most dutiful rogue we've ever adventured with.
Trunk had a lot of darts, burns and scars, but he was dependable.
I know this post is over a year old, but it’s really great. Read it a few days ago and laughed, just came back to it to read it to my wife (with the entire parent post for context). She laughed too, haha.
Right now I'm playing Ton, a kobold fighter who likes big axes. Recently we had a session where all of our characters made wishes that got slightly monkey's pawed. Except Ton. He wished for a big axe. He was given an axe bigger than he was. Even though there's no way he could use it in combat, he dragged that thing back to our base, super happy about getting exactly what he wished for.
That's how I've been playing my Barbarian. One time I rolled a high investigation check and found a secret passage. RPing though, Rembrandt just leaned up against a rock which opened a door
Something similar, my Dwarf Barbarian rolled high investigation and found a hidden passage, but it was just "Hey, look at this shoddy craftsmanship, I could knock this wall down with my bare hands!" Which he proceeded to do, lol.
I did a low-int valor bard who was constantly "showing how smart she was" by telling the party totally-not-true trivia facts. Like "whales vomit salt, that's why the ocean is salty" and "some ladders are carnivorous."
High Cha low Int like that are fun. You have have a perfect grasp of the language and speak eloquently, but you are absolutely wrong about everything you talk about. You give the most well spoken speech the village has heard in decades, but it’s about how horses are actually a type of wingless dragon and how ham grows on trees.
FWIW 8 shouldn't be that stupid, 10 being avg. and 12 being just a bit clever. Int 8 is like being an illiterate adult maybe. 6 is where things get really dumb.
That's good. It's for my investigative journalist PC I'm making soon. She's going to be very weak physically. 6 sounds about right for how I picture her.
For Str of <10 we used to use the concept of take the number and double it, and that's the age of an average kid with that strength. Your average healthy 20 year old is a 10. An 8 str is the average 16yr old still coming into her body. A 6 is a 12 yr old by comparison which feels right for like a kobold. It's not perfect but it's a way to think about it.
Well, incapable of carrying 91 lbs without negatively impacting their movements. They can still deadlift 180 lbs, they just won't be running around doing cartwheels and such.
I don't know. Most of the people I meet daily are fairly stupid. I'd think average intelligence doesn't mean much. Plus, with the amount of idiots I've had come into my place of work who couldn't read signs I'd say most of the population is illiterate as well. You might need a 12 to be able to read.
come into my place of work who couldn't read signs
I hear you, but I'm more optimistic. I think most people can read, but absolutely hate doing so. Look no further than r/dndmemes for supporting evidence.
Ignoring a sign is not an issue of intelligence it's an issue of wisdom.
I think most people are fairly intelligent, they have just devoted their brainspace to things of value to them which may or may not hold value to the situations they find themselves in or the other people around them. Calling others around you unintelligent because they don't have the same knowledge as you feels a bit naive.
Like imagine going into a Nuclear Power plant and having them explain an issue with the Reactor you need to address then plunking down a giant manual in front of you like "Surely you can read!" Then scoffing that you must have a low intelligence because you don't know this stuff and/or can't/won't read the giant manual.
That would never happen because there is an understanding that the knowledge is highly specialized. But this happens all the time in other areas of life. Most people know a LOT of shit that is relevant to their lives and their life experience. But that may not overlap with a task they need to resolve.
I have met a lot of doctors and nurses in my life with incredible and deep understanding of health, the human body, and encyclopedic knowledge of conditions who nevertheless cannot understand simple board game rules or whose eyes glaze over if you try to explain some nerdy ass shit to them. There's just no room in their brain for that and it is so far out of the wheelhouse of their usual knowledge but I wouldn't call them stupid because the rules of a resource gathering board game seem too abstract and fussy for them.
You're right, things that are common sense such as reading a sign would be wisdom, although outside of DnD most people tend to relate the two as one thing. And yes there are other forms of intelligence. Some may be really knowledgeable in some areas but not in others. However, I'm inclined to disagree that most people are intelligent. Yes there are plenty of people who are, but there's more who aren't.
People who don't understand the most basic concepts even when spoon fed to them. Intelligence is the ability to learn. Knowing things makes someone knowledgeable, not intelligent. If you must explain simple concepts (and I'm talking stupidly simple every day concepts that apply to most people) to someone multiple times and they can't comprehend it, yet still have enough interest to keep asking you, then that is a lack of intelligence.
I do agree that having an interest in something or it having value to you in some form will make it much easier to learn it, that's why the board game example is a terrible example. If someone's not interested in it because they perceive it as boring, then they will struggle to learn it even if they're incredibly intelligent.
I do agree simple things can be hard and complex things can be easy for some people. I know a guy who couldn't figure out how to use a flip phone back in high-school but he works for NASA now as an engineer. Some peoples brains are like that. But your average person usually isn't.
Now I'll admit I am heavily bias on this. I've spent years working in retail in a small town where half the population is on drugs and a good amount of them are Amish. The stupid questions I got every day for years were enough to make me lose faith in humanity. Not every customer I met was stupid and the ones who were could have admittedly been playing dumb in hopes of a discount or to get what they wanted, but I just don't have any hope on that.
Is there any lore for this? I was under the impression that the average stereotypical towns person, as in an uneducated Everyman, would likely be about 6-8 INT, with 10 being above average and everything above 10 being degrees of exceptional intelligence/knowledge.
Maybe it can vary from setting to setting, but given we’re often supposed to be playing as exceptionally gifted adventurers (or not, depending on builds), having stats that scale up more above 10 makes more sense
Like if 10 is average, yet your powerful wizard is at 16, it seems less impressive.
For as long as I can tell and if I remember correctly, a Commoner (human) has had basic 10s across the board in D&D by default. At least that's how it is in 5e.
Also, though 10 is supposedly human average, the distribution from 0 to 20 isn't necessarily even. While Int goes down rather gradually from 10 to 0 (0 being either mindless or dead), ability scores of 16 and up seem to approach monstrous or heroic abilities when comparing humanoids to big monsters. So 16 could already be considered genius, and anything higher than that might be "super genius".
Consider that no matter what natural Int modifier, everybody can roll at least a 10 with decent odds, even at -5. But only the very highest have any chance of rolling a 25.
See this is how you roleplay these scenarios. Sure my int is low, but you know what my character knows a lot about? Fighting. Fighting all types of bad guys from grand magical ones to brutes. So if I roll high, we can make it work. Voices always help 😆
I DMed for a Low-Intelligence Barbarian with a really clever player, whenever he rolled high on an Int check he would rp having a nosebleed and it was always hilarious.
This made me think of my current character named Brick 🧱. He’s a gnomeish barbarian with a strangely square divot in his head. His 10 Int (8 +2 racial bonus) is just enough to make sense between the long pauses while his brain reboots.
I know. It’s difficult to make a dumb gnome so I have to take some RP liberties. Brick Mortarson isn’t the sharpest egg in the attic by gnomish standards but he gets by in his day to day.
DM allowed me to play a full orc barbarian named Maloch (original orc name, I know). Maloch had a splody hammer. Maloch was probably dumber than the splody hammer. Maloch liked to throw the hammer whenever the rest of the party was too busy deliberating.
I had a character with an 8 cha but almost a full year of weekly sessions passed before I rolled less than a 15 on the die on various charisma checks. I eventually started putting points into diplomacy and performance (this was in PF1) to reflect the fact that he's apparently actually good at those things.
I was Jorun, son of Jorun. Who came from the farming communities in the rugged hills, Jorun was a good sheepherd, but he was also a real damn good wrestler (like, turkish oil wrestling). Jorun was wise, but not smart, and he had a strong personal conviction. A good aligned himbo, group absolutely loved him.
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u/KingWeebaholic Jan 10 '23
Played a goliath in AL and kept rolling well on intelligence checks despite having an Int of 8, so roleplaying his epiphanies was always fun. Thunk was his name, ‘cause that sound Thunk make when Papa drop Thunk.