Intellect Devourer ate my Intelligence

You could consider the player to have suffered having all his levels drained. The other players that care for him, could imprint on the "new born baby". As the dwarf relearns at an accelerated pace an opportunity to have a completely new class and skills can be offered.

UngeheuerLich said:

Yes. Xanathar guide recuperation rules that override the phb rules allows for very slow regeneration of attribute losses.
Ask your DM if they are used for your campaign.

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What page is that on? I can't seem to find the rule you're referencing.

Hawk Diesel said:

What page is that on? I can't seem to find the rule you're referencing.

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I only have the D&D Beyond version, but it's in the Downtime Activities section, under Relaxation.

We had the bard use Polymorph to change the fighter into an ape. (The spell replaces the target's statistics, including mental ability scores). It allowed the character to still participate in the fight and other monkey-business there-after.

Hiya!

MarkB said:

That factor does have to be weighed against the question of where is the fun in playing a dribbling vegetable for the duration of the time it takes to complete a more extended quest?

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True enough, but then we start going down the whole rabbit hole of "If something detrimental happens to a PC, then the DM shouldn't have let it happen without providing a quick means of countering said thing"...which leads to "..and if we're gonna do that, then why bother with ANYTHING bad happening to the PC in the first place?". Slippery slope, IMNSHO.

What we do is the PC of said character either pulls out another one from their character book, or (more favoured) they take over the roll of an NPC hireling or henchman. Hell, we've even let someone play another PC's pet...on more than one occasion.

Anyway, my point is, is that sometimes bad stuff happens to PC's. It's part of the game. Is it "fun" to have you fighter reduced to a vegetable state? Not really. But without the possibility of it happening (or something equally bad), or having any such thing be 'easily' countered by simply "Oh, great, there goes 1 hour of PC time and 500gp. We get 500gp of X, then take an hour and cast Y. OK. Now lets keep going". Sometimes this is fine, and in some games I'm sure it's the norm. What I was trying to point out was that there are a LOT of "non-mechanical" means (pretty much infinite, seeing as it's an RPG) of overcoming "bad stuff" that happens to a PC.

If the group really wants to keep the PC played (as opposed to the Player taking over an NPC), then allow for a "temporary INT boosting herbal tea" or something. Have it cost some amount of gold for the 'rarity' of the tea leaves and/or liquid. When drunk, it puts the drinkers Int at 3 if it is lower than 3. If it is higher, it has no effect. Now the PC's have to keep the tea safe and have the means to boil water. That is enough of a drawback as the PC's adventure to find the 'Golden Mushroom' and all that. Playing a character with a 3 Int can be...interestingly fun!

Resorting to the more mundane 'mechanical means' misses a golden opportunity... ...to explore the more narratively magical aspect of the campaign. YMMV.

^_^

Paul L. Ming

pming said:

True enough, but then we start going down the whole rabbit hole of "If something detrimental happens to a PC, then the DM shouldn't have let it happen without providing a quick means of countering said thing"...which leads to "..and if we're gonna do that, then why bother with ANYTHING bad happening to the PC in the first place?". Slippery slope, IMNSHO.

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Yeah, but there's a difference between something bad happening to the PC and something bad happening to the player. If the PC is reduced to a vegetative state, and the player has to basically wait around twiddling his thumbs while the party goes on an extended quest to restore him, that's in some ways worse than the PC just being outright killed.

As you say there are other options, and in this case it sounds like the players found one of their own - polymorphing the PC into a beast to allow the character's continued participation, at least in combats - but anything which results in a player feeling unable to contribute effectively during a session is not going to enhance the fun.

MarkB said:

Yeah, but there's a difference between something bad happening to the PC and something bad happening to the player. If the PC is reduced to a vegetative state, and the player has to basically wait around twiddling his thumbs while the party goes on an extended quest to restore him, that's in some ways worse than the PC just being outright killed.

As you say there are other options, and in this case it sounds like the players found one of their own - polymorphing the PC into a beast to allow the character's continued participation, at least in combats - but anything which results in a player feeling unable to contribute effectively during a session is not going to enhance the fun.

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Assuming that the PC being dead isn't also "solved" by having the party go on a medium-length quest to restore him.
Or wait an equal amount of time for a good point to have a replacement character show up.

In this age of smartphones and mobile games, being asked to chill for an hour or two isn't the end of the world.

Prakriti said:

I thought the rule was that if ANY ability reaches 0, the character dies. Is that not a rule in 5E?

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Not in 5E. The intellect devourer's statblock states that a character with Int 0 is stunned until they regain at least one point of Intelligence. So can't take actions/reactions, auto fails Dexterity and Strength checks, and attacks vs. stunned creatures have advantage. Basically useless until the Intelligence is brought up above zero.

CrimsonCarcharodon said:

Not in 5E. The intellect devourer's statblock states that a character with Int 0 is stunned until they regain at least one point of Intelligence. So can't take actions/reactions, auto fails Dexterity and Strength checks, and attacks vs. stunned creatures have advantage. Basically useless until the Intelligence is brought up above zero.

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Interesting. So it depends on the monster, or maybe the ability. With the Shadow, for comparison, draining a character's ability score to 0 (in this case, Strength) results in death.

MarkB said:

That factor does have to be weighed against the question of where is the fun in playing a dribbling vegetable for the duration of the time it takes to complete a more extended quest?

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Ask anybody who plays a Rapier-wielding Gnome Paladin. They would know.