D&D 5E So 5 Intelligence Huh

feartheminotaur · Feb 18, 2016

jaelis said:
Plenty of archetypes in literature you could play from... Homer Simpson, Lennie Small, Hodor, Jayne Cobb, ... all pretty different takes.

Oh, Nine Hells, no. "Hodor" would (and already is) get so old, so fast. It's like Apu's description of the B-Sharps; it's something slightly funny at first, that seems less funny each time you hear it. I mean, to each their own...maybe I should add this to the 'dealbreaker' thread

feartheminotaur · Feb 18, 2016

I'd phonetically spell out or mispronounce words. "The why-zards from ta-hay we-are red row-bees"

Maxperson · Feb 18, 2016

feartheminotaur said:
Oh, Nine Hells, no. "Hodor" would (and already is) get so old, so fast. It's like Apu's description of the B-Sharps; it's something slightly funny at first, that seems less funny each time you hear it. I mean, to each their own...maybe I should add this to the 'dealbreaker' thread

If the player enjoys playing it, though, why would it bother you? Personally, I can't stand playing mentally deficient PCs, but that's me. I've seen others have a great time with it.

Rod Staffwand · Feb 18, 2016

I always liked playing wizards with very low Strength and/or Con scores since the low survivability ups the challenge quite a bit. I had an elf wizard with a 5 Strength and 7 Constitution that was a lot of fun to play, especially since he was really curious and wanted to stick his nose in all the dark corners.

Wisdom is my favorite dump-stat for martials, since I'll take any excuse to act recklessly. It's just a shame that it's tied to important saving throws in later editions. I usually dump Charisma and pretend I dumped Wisdom.

But, overall, I don't like or enforce RPing low stats. Stats are stats. Roleplaying is roleplaying. I had a 3.5 ranger get drained down to 3 Charisma and the DM insisted I roleplay it. I didn't much care to but ended making him so obnoxious to fellow party members and every NPC we met that he got annoyed and ended the game.

Umbran · Feb 18, 2016

Maxperson said:
If the player enjoys playing it, though, why would it bother you?

Because you're trying to communicate with someone who only ever says, "Hodor". That's not something that impacts only the person playing - it impacts interactions with other players, which means it impacts those other players, too.

Shticks that make play more difficult, and lead to very limited interactions, get old fast.

feartheminotaur · Feb 18, 2016

Maxperson said:
If the player enjoys playing it, though, why would it bother you?

Lots of stuff people enjoy bothers me - from conversations of "Hodor, hodor, hodor. hodor? hodor!" to auto-tune "songs" to not using turn signals to shooting off fireworks at 3 am on a random week night. I'm not going to stop them, but there's no forced enjoyment symbiosis.

As I said, to each their own, but Hodor-ing would get on my nerves very quickly.

Inglorin · Feb 18, 2016

Whenever someone mentions low Int I always remember this great thread on reddit. Yes, I am that simple...

https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/3b2are/100_things_i_learned_as_the_low_int_low_cha/

Lanliss · Feb 18, 2016

Umbran said:
Because you're trying to communicate with someone who only ever says, "Hodor". That's not something that impacts only the person playing - it impacts interactions with other players, which means it impacts those other players, too.

Shticks that make play more difficult, and lead to very limited interactions, get old fast.

The party could play it kind of like Lassy the Dog. The player says "Hey, there are some goblins raiding that village" and in game the barb yells "AGGGGGH*hacking sounds*" and wildly flails his arms in the direction of the village.

The Crimson Binome · Feb 18, 2016

A character with Int 5 would be noticeably less-intelligent than most people, but it would still take prolonged contact before anyone figured it out. It's a penalty of -3, which means you figure out a DC 13 riddle only a quarter of the time, instead of 40% of the time, and you can never succeed on a DC 18 task which other people might eventually figure out.

It definitely would not be noticeable after casual interaction, and the character might avoid big words, but would use what they knew just as well as anyone else (kind of like how a halfling can use longsword, but a greatsword is just beyond them).

The basic 5E rules are inadequate for expressing the range of characters cited in fiction. If someone was actually as stupid as Homer Simpson, then that person would not be going out on adventures.

Tectuktitlay · Feb 18, 2016

Saelorn said:
A character with Int 5 would be noticeably less-intelligent than most people, but it would still take prolonged contact before anyone figured it out. It's a penalty of -3, which means you figure out a DC 13 riddle only a quarter of the time, instead of 40% of the time, and you can never succeed on a DC 18 task which other people might eventually figure out.

It definitely would not be noticeable after casual interaction, and the character might avoid big words, but would use what they knew just as well as anyone else (kind of like how a halfling can use longsword, but a greatsword is just beyond them).

The basic 5E rules are inadequate for expressing the range of characters cited in fiction. If someone was actually as stupid as Homer Simpson, then that person would not be going out on adventures.

Alternatively, they would be going out on some of the best adventures EVAH.... Also, possibly having some of the largest impact on the world you can imagine. To such degrees they have a huge reputation, their name known by most everyone, yet have no idea. Think Groo the Wanderer.

D&D 5E So 5 Intelligence Huh

feartheminotaur

First Post

feartheminotaur

First Post

Maxperson

Morkus from Orkus

Rod Staffwand

aka Ermlaspur Flormbator

Umbran

Mod Squad

feartheminotaur

First Post

Inglorin

Explorer

Lanliss

Explorer

The Crimson Binome

Hero

Tectuktitlay

Explorer

Similar Threads