Satyrn
First Post
Did 5e change up one of those monsters? Because I'm not sure how one could mistake a hideous snake-haired woman for a slthering snake-bodied man.
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D&D 5E The Int 8 Party: A Solution?
- Thread starter Werebat
- Start date
Warmaster Horus
Explorer
Did someone say Party!
<typical Int 8 party>
I'm not all that down with having a PC with an Int of 8 because I feel unless there's a good reason for it, my PCs should be at least average intelligence.
<typical Int 8 party>
I'm not all that down with having a PC with an Int of 8 because I feel unless there's a good reason for it, my PCs should be at least average intelligence.
Satyrn
First Post
The future barbarian will just bully the nerd (future wizard) into writing the test, though.
The quarterback (future fighter) will convince his cheerleader girlfriend (future bard) to do the same.
The future rogue will just steal the answers, and sell a copy to the warlock.
And so on. Nothing will change.
But if you're lucky the dumb future paladin will be too noble to cheat and he won't get to join the party.
Sword of Spirit
Legend
That's another cool way of handling it.
I generally roll knowledge checks secretly for the players. It might be fun to roll one for each character, and then tell the players what their individual characters believe. That way the party will probably figure out that certain characters are more knowledgeable and more likely to be right (and the players probably know who has higher Int and proficiency), but they might not be right this time, so the debates can actually be in character.
iserith
Magic Wordsmith
In a social interaction challenge I wrote up for my new campaign, the PCs are basically "interviewing" for a job. The stakes are that the better they do in turning both "interviewers" Friendly, the higher their offer. If they don't do as great, they get a lower offer.
In that challenge, there are two times when an Intelligence check may come into play. Both come with tangible benefits. First, if the PCs attempt to recall lore about either of the two interviewers, a success grants them some useful information which imparts advantage on a subsequent Charisma check to influence them, if that information is used in some way. Kind of like what you might expect from a successful Wisdom (Insight) check. Later, one interviewer asks the PCs what they know about a particular aspect of the job they're discussing. The efficacy of the response may be determined with an Intelligence check and the result influences the opinion of the interviewers as to the PCs' competency.
So, here we can see that having a decent Intelligence contributes directly to the PCs' bottom line - do better in the social interaction challenge, get paid more. This goes to what [MENTION=6698331]Sword[/MENTION]ofSpirit and others have been saying - include tangible benefits in the course of play (across all pillars) for having a decent Intelligence and you will tend to find that players will invest in it.
Another good way to avoid this issue is to just not give a flumph about what your players choose for their ability scores. But I guess that's easier for some than others.
In that challenge, there are two times when an Intelligence check may come into play. Both come with tangible benefits. First, if the PCs attempt to recall lore about either of the two interviewers, a success grants them some useful information which imparts advantage on a subsequent Charisma check to influence them, if that information is used in some way. Kind of like what you might expect from a successful Wisdom (Insight) check. Later, one interviewer asks the PCs what they know about a particular aspect of the job they're discussing. The efficacy of the response may be determined with an Intelligence check and the result influences the opinion of the interviewers as to the PCs' competency.
So, here we can see that having a decent Intelligence contributes directly to the PCs' bottom line - do better in the social interaction challenge, get paid more. This goes to what [MENTION=6698331]Sword[/MENTION]ofSpirit and others have been saying - include tangible benefits in the course of play (across all pillars) for having a decent Intelligence and you will tend to find that players will invest in it.
Another good way to avoid this issue is to just not give a flumph about what your players choose for their ability scores. But I guess that's easier for some than others.
Satyrn
First Post
Just to help you summon ths right pact weapon: @Sword of Spirit
Shadowdweller00
Adventurer
A player in a modern society with expansive, detailed, in-depth education and easy access to resources like mass-produced books and cheap paper? Probably not so much. A character in a pseudo-medieval fantasy society where the overwhelming majority of the population are too scared to wander anywhere near danger, where there are no mass produced goods, where education is likely much more limited and expensive relative to average incomes, where books are likely to be literally written on the backs of several dead sheep, where most encounters with monsters result in hideous death, and where there is likely no established authority on such creatures (such as a monster manual) to differentiate between fact and wild rumor...that case is another story entirely.
[QUOTE="Robert Howard - Tower of the Elephant (Conan)]He had never seen an elephant, but he vaguely understood that it was a monstrous animal, with a tail in front as well as behind. This a wandering Shemite had told him, swearing that he had seen such beasts by the thousands in the country of the Hyrkanians; but all men knew what liars were the men of Shem. At any rate, there were no elephants in Zamora.[/QUOTE]
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Slit518
Adventurer
One thing I would say is make them see their Intelligence in a different light when it comes to roleplaying and decision making. Have their Intelligence Score relate to the character's IQ. Now that they know this, they have to act out what they think somebody with that IQ would be like.
Also, put a lot of Intelligence based skill checks, puzzles, and saving throws in there as well.
Check out this free, one-page packet on determining a character's IQ score,
http://www.dmsguild.com/product/208621/IQ-for-the-Adventurer
UngeheuerLich
Legend
But I assume you have more than 9 int. So you automatically pass all DC 5 checks...
Those 8 Int people were doodling something in their books, and all they remember that medusa and yuan-ti have snaky parts...
The skill monkey used your house rule to gain even more skills and the Paladin, A class that already needs 3 high attributes and has a feat tax in the form of Resilient Constitution was further penalized?
You're going to need to get rid of the 27 point buy if you want players to move away from min-maxing. 27 points is too few to sacrifice power for flavor in campaigns like Curse of Strahd.
If anyone has seen the Dice, Camera, Action play of CoS, the DM had to give them a way out. Since their party was high on special snowflake syndrome and low on combat efficacy and general resource efficiency.
Having just defeated Strahd at level 8 in a party of 4, watching those podcasts was quite an experience.
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