D&D 5E (2014) So 5 Intelligence Huh

[jaelis]

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

 

[Umbran]

So what would you do if you rolled a 5 for an ability score.

Some time back, I was running a 2e game, and a player of mine rolled up a paladin with a decent wisdom score, but a 5 or 6 Int.

He played it by way of learning disability, and an inability to construct logical chains or structures. So, his Wisdom meant he could tell when a plan was a bad plan, but he could not clearly articulate *why*. He was a Paladin who relied on his intuition - the player discarded any course of action that he'd thought about for more than just a couple of minutes. The character typically didn't do anything obviously stupid, but he spent zero time considering whether his actions were *optimal*, as optimization is a logical thought process that his character just wasn't good at.

 

[Spookykid]

i'm the man with no name, Zapp Branigan at your service

 

[LoreMaps]

If you ever played BG2 you can see how much fun you can have with these stats (ok similar):

 

[ccs]

So what would you do if you rolled a 5 for an ability score.

I'd make sure I played it as a noticeable feature of the character.

In our 1e game my Paladin only had a Dex of 6.
Mechanically all this did was cause a 1pt AC penalty. And of course make it a lot harder for me to pass dex checks (you wanted to roll = or less). I can easily deal with these effects. Get better armor/more magic +s, avoid doing things where dex is a major factor (climbing around in the rigging of a ship for ex), or taking extra precautions (if able) when I must take a risk.
RP wise? At least once a session I'd occasionally roll a random dex check against myself - when operating in poorly lit conditions, on stairs, fighting on the wet decks of a ship, etc. And since we spent ALOT of time in the Underdark....

 

[Zardnaar]

I'd make sure I played it as a noticeable feature of the character.

In our 1e game my Paladin only had a Dex of 6.
Mechanically all this did was cause a 1pt AC penalty. And of course make it a lot harder for me to pass dex checks (you wanted to roll = or less). I can easily deal with these effects. Get better armor/more magic +s, avoid doing things where dex is a major factor (climbing around in the rigging of a ship for ex), or taking extra precautions (if able) when I must take a risk.
RP wise? At least once a session I'd occasionally roll a random dex check against myself - when operating in poorly lit conditions, on stairs, fighting on the wet decks of a ship, etc. And since we spent ALOT of time in the Underdark....

Our 2E Paladin rode his horse into the underdark with a continual light cast on his shield. Said Paladin died to a swarm of umberhulks.

 

[leonardoraele]

So what would you do if you rolled a 5 for an ability score.

I wouldn't force him to roleplay if he doesn't wants to, its not cool. But if he wants to, the ogres are a reference. They have 5 Int score and they are all like "duh duh shiny hat you have"

Anything in between the human's and the ogre's intelligence is also ok to roleplay. This is the player's character, he created it and he chooses how to roleplay it. The scores must be just a guidance.

 

[Istbor]

Eh, I usually don't allow stats lower than 7.

 

[Azurewraith]

We do 4d6-1 re-roll ones and twos so this doesn't come up in our games. If it did i would play him a a bit of a simpleton with difficulty with short term memory( mainly because i think it would be fun)

 

[Maxperson]

So what would you do if you rolled a 5 for an ability score.

Roleplay the Forest Gump that he is.