Advice for playing a stupid character

[Sejs]

Have catch phases and common sayings: Mommy always said...

M - O - O - N, that spells druidic avenger. *nod*

Int 8 is within the realm of average for humans, I would think.

True enough. Lower end of average, but still not Tom Cullin material. I'd put that more around int 4-5. At int 8 he probably thinks pro-wrestling is real and it's perfectly acceptable to have a car on blocks in your yard, but he can still tie his own shoes without difficulty.

 

[IcyCool]

Play a Paladin.

Who was it that had the Lizardfolk Paladin quote in his sig?

Something like, "Live to eat, find guilty meat."

 

[awayfarer]

I'm playing a 6 int/6 wis orc barbarian currently. Sounds like this guy will be smarter but heres a few things that I find work.

Try and stick with words that have no more than two syllables. Mispronunciation is also a good idea. When somethings plural, refer to it singularly and vice versa. Use as few words as possible to get your point across....if you have one. have a small selection of words that you use frequently. Personally, every other sentence for my barb contains the word "smash"

Start sentences with "uh". Ity makes it appear like you're struggling just to gather your thoughts. Mistake some things for others. "Drag-on? Dat ting dat have wheels and horsies pulls it right?"

One thing to be careful about is not screwing things up or ticking off other players. A stupid character may not know any better than to hit the button that says "DO NOT PRESS" but they may also be so oblivious that it never occurs to them to touch it in the first place.

Something thats worked for me is just randomly starting in on a story out of nowhere. "I not eat soup cause dis one time I almost drowns." or "priest say holy symbol kill zombies. He right cuz I gots holy symbol of Vangal and it stop zombies good" ((Note: The holy symbol of Vangal is an axe.))

I should also say that after a while I was starting to get a bit bored with him. A lack of intellect means that you really can't contribute to planning and a lack of skill points means that you ahve few skills worth a damn/useful to the group. Having an intelligent weapon can make a stupid character a little more RP'able. Particularly if the weapon is vastly more intelligent than the wielder.

 

[Umbran]

Thanks for the help, folks. This is a low-Int, high-Wis character (Druidic Avenger). His scores aren't that appalling (Int 8), but the player is used to very high-Int characters so I was looking for things to help balance out that tendency.

I'm going to think in terms of things that don't require the player's cooperation - if he could remember, you wouldn't need to ask...

Actually ask for the die rolls when he asks for things that would use his Intelligence score. For example, most of us probably have characters implicitly Taking 10 on Knowledge checks all the time, because we know they'll pass. This guy won't.

Going further, don't give him as much information as everyone else on most topics, and don't allow the other players to spell things out for him afterwards. An ignorant player is a good stand-in for a dumb character.

Even further, if you are playing a game where "winging it" is the standard DM manner, you can be contrarian - if the player abuses his own intellect for his character, have some things the player comes up with be wrong, retroactively.

Note: be careful about this one - if the thing the character tries is "common sense" it probably ought ot work, as that tends to be wisdom. If it requires a logical train of thought to come to the answer, the character is less able to get there.

 

[Vague Jayhawk]

In one of my games I am playing a low intellegence Lawful Good Dwarven Cleric of Moradin.

I have a blast trying to play him exactly like "The Tick".

 

[Storyteller01]

Try this:

http://www.community3e.com/dn/class/d20clod.pdf#search='clod%2C%20d20'

 

[Dragonbait]

Not only is 8 Int not that bad, but its totally average for a lizardfolk. Uneducated, primitive, what have you, but they are not dumb. Most of the suggestions here work best with a person from a culture that's about the equivalant to the standard D&D human culture, and probably with an Int of 7 or less.

You're player is smart. I think he'll get it...
Unless IRL he has a high Int and low Wis, then he might not understand

 

[fusangite]

Intellectual capacity is not contained exclusively in the INT score. What we think of as intelligence is contained to greater or lesser degrees in INT, DEX, WIS and CHA. The question you are really grappling with here is: How does my character think?

I try to answer this question by looking at which of these attributes is highest when I have created him. A character's highest mental attribute is going to be his main way of knowing the world. If a character has a high CHA, whether his INT is high or low, his main way of knowing is going to be interpersonal; a character with a high WIS is going to have a way of knowing that is centred on intuition and observation; a character with a high DEX is going to know the world spatially and kinesthetically.

It will be easier for you to understand the ways in which your character is not smart once you have got a handle on the ways in which he is. That way, you can focus on redirecting your own intellect into the way of knowing the character is good at. People often have the idea that the way to play low-INT people is to have them make lots of perceptible mistakes; this is not actually a trait of low-INT people but of low-CHA people. Instead, your character should try to direct attention away from himself in situations where he is not mentally capable and towards himself in situations where he is. Did you ever see My So-Called Life? Jared Leto's character is the perfect example of what I'm talking about. (If not, rent it -- it's the Firefly of high school soaps.)