Brainless fun

[Mad Hamish]

I've just started a new campaign playing a 7 int, 7 chr fighter and so far (2 sessions in) it's a huge amount of fun.

Who else finds it amazingly fun to play a character like that?

 

[dragonis111]

for some that's a standard fighter, sacrifice unneeded stats to buff str, con, and dex.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

I seldom want to forfeit the ability to utilize my own smarts in making decisions for a dumb character, but I do enjoy roleplaying low charisma as appearing dumb.

My Goliath character from a while back had something like Int 14 Wis 12, but low charisma. I had him speak in common and other languages with irritating grammar errors and slipping in and out of talking about himself in the third person. It worked so well that the other players (not characters) actually got annoyed with it and tried to avoid roleplaying interactions with him whenever possible. The real great part was in his own thoughts (which would include telepathic speech, but that never happened), or whenever he spoke his native language of Gol-Kaa, his speech was incredibly sophisticated and casually laced with complex vocabulary. But no one spoke Gol-Kaa so to them he was just some nit-wit with a speech impediment.


Currently I'm playing a Dervish who's smart enough for Combat Expertise, and has a positive wisdom as well. She's a tactical genius, but in normal interactions acts very child-like and seemingly unaware of basic knowledge, often engaging in long running questions of "why?", which I try to play up for comedic effect, but for all I know so far it could just be annoying the crap out of the others (I hope not). She acts dumb as a ploy, though, to cause people to underestimate her. She also figures it helps with getting her friends (the party) to dismiss her not-so-good, oftentimes sociopathic ideas/actions as just some other crazy thing out of that crazy head of hers, as opposed to how she'd be viewed if she acted cold and calculating.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, I'm a huge fan of the Obfuscating Stupidity trope. Not so much actual stupidity, though.

 

[Angrydad]

I like the whole obfuscating stupidity schtick, though it can be difficult to carry out effectively in game. Playing a dumb character is sometimes a load of fun though. HULK SMASH!! is pretty satisfying.

 

[Holy Bovine]

I tried to play a an Int 5 Half Orc Paladin in 3E. Didn't go so great as I had a hard time not coming up with plans and suggestions that my dim witted PC just couldn't know. The group imploded by level 4 so no great loss I suppose.

 

[Swedish Chef]

I like the whole obfuscating stupidity schtick, though it can be difficult to carry out effectively in game. Playing a dumb character is sometimes a load of fun though. HULK SMASH!! is pretty satisfying.

I played a Dwarf Barbarian with an Int and Wis of 8. Not quite dumb, but definitely not playing with a full deck. His warcry was "Drathgar Smash!". Yeah, at low levels he didn't do a whole lot of smashing, but by about level 4 he was definitely a force.

 

[Tovec]

I've never personally run a character like that but I was a DM of a pair of Half-Ogre Barbarian brothers. Both with Int in the area of 5 or 6. Their Wis and Cha weren't much better.

Krogg and Skrogg in their first session terrorized a farm because they wanted Cow.
Game two had them picking fights with the rest of the party on a boat. Even using a druid as a large great-club.

A few sessions later they nearly got creamed by an Elder Earth Elemental. I mean I had to do something to keep them in check. Two 10ish feet tall ogres who nearly s*** themselves looking at a 40+ tall muddy creature.

Two of my most favourite and beloved PCs.

 

[Allegro]

I go a different way usually. Wisdom is the perfect dump stat for me because I think once you realize your character by 3rd level has enough gold to live comfortably for the rest of their life and yet you still continues to adventure something must be wrong. Plus I like creating overly elaborate solutions to simple problems that go horribly horribly wrong.

 

[Queranil]

One of the characters in my group plays a human Oracle with Int 4, Wis 10 and Cha 24 (or something that high).

He has some far away orc heritage and he plays him like an intelligent primate who can talk (who wants to fight, eats, sleep and ).

It is pretty fun, although the player admits it is very difficult to do so. Especially the inside difference with Int and Cha.

 

[TarionzCousin]

In 2E Al Qadim, I inherited a level 6 Half-Ogre fighter from a guy who moved away the week after I moved to town. He had just received the legendary Mattock of the Titans as a gift or something. IIRC, it was the only +6 "weapon" in 2E at that time--but it was also a shovel.

The character had a 4 Intelligence and a 3 Wisdom. He didn't grok the idea that he could attack with a shovel. It drove the bossy player crazy, as that guy lived to order other people's characters what to do. The rest of the group loved it, of course, because the bossy guy had appointed himself the "party leader" and never failed to demand people obey him.

My PC only figured out that he could attack with the shovel a dozen sessions later when we encountered a big black "earth" dragon--of course you can shovel earth!

After that, I went back to throwing the shovel down and drawing my Great Scimitar in every fight. Bossy guy threw fits and went bald.

Ah, good times.