D&D 5E So 5 Intelligence Huh

[Maxperson]

Yes.

You should, since you use it. I on the other hand have never posted here with the intent to deceive.

 

[TheCosmicKid]

Don't the rules handle this?

Eg upthread [MENTION=6787503]Hriston[/MENTION] gave the example of making a knowledge check to recall facts about the London Underground (or some other salient element of the gameworld). A PC with a low INT will suffer a penalty to that check, reflecting his/her weaker recall and reasoning abilities.

Presumably the character also suffers a penalty on attempts to decipher unfamiliar (but somewhat cognate, so in-principle decipherable) languages/dialects, and on INT-governed perception-style checks.

The complication is that already set out by other posters: a penalty to appropriate checks.

The problem is that [MENTION=6787503]Hriston[/MENTION] also spoke of making decisions to the best of the player's abilities as opposed to the character's abilities. If the player knows what the London Underground is, making a decision to the best of his abilities means making the decision using that knowledge. Making a check to see whether his character knows something he knows would be "mak[ing] stupid decisions for your character based on the OOC knowledge that the character has an Intelligence of 5", which Hriston has taken a stand against. I don't think anyone disputes that the Intelligence modifier should be applied as the rules say it is. What's at issue is all the times when the need for a check is ambiguous.

 

[Maxperson]

Don't the rules handle this?

Eg upthread [MENTION=6787503]Hriston[/MENTION] gave the example of making a knowledge check to recall facts about the London Underground (or some other salient element of the gameworld). A PC with a low INT will suffer a penalty to that check, reflecting his/her weaker recall and reasoning abilities.

The bonus alone substandard as a metric. Otto is not 15% less likely to get something right. Mongo is not 15% less likely to get something right. Both of them have what would be a very low 5-6 int and both of them are roleplayed very well, despite having a stat penalty that would indicate far less stupidity if all the mattered was the bonus.

 

[Maxperson]

You should, since you use it. I on the other hand have never posted here with the intent to deceive.

Stop harrasing me Mechapilot. Go bother someone who will take it.

 

[MechaPilot]

Stop harrasing me Mechapilot. Go bother someone who will take it.

Max, I have no desire or intent to harass you. Those who know my history as a poster know that I don't do that, and that I try to be as civil as possible when conversing with others. There are many things that are worth my time, but intentionally trying to make someone else feel bad is not one of them. If you feel harassed by me, then, in the interest of promoting goodwill, from this point forward I will refrain from clicking either Xp or laughs for any of your posts.

 

[iserith]

That's not what I asked. I asked whether or not some portrayals were inconsistent with some ability scores. If Arthur the player has a character named Sherlock and plays him as a brilliant detective, but on the character sheet Sherlock's Intelligence score is 5, is this an inconsistency or not?

No, it is not inconsistent in my view. Sherlock will be 15% less likely to succeed than a character with a 10 or 11 Intelligence score, if and when an ability check is called for by the DM - that's all. (Or 5% less likely to succeed on an Intelligence (Investigation) check than a 10 or 11 Intelligence score character without training would be, presuming a +2 proficiency bonus.) Smart play on Arthur's part is to try to avoid making Intelligence checks if at all possible by attempting to take actions that are automatically successful. That's true of all characters though in my experience regardless of ability scores: Avoid making ability checks if you can.

Having said that, maybe Arthur needs some help building a character that is more effective at the kinds of things he wants to have the character do, but his portrayal is not inconsistent with his ability scores. His portrayal can only be inconsistent in my view with what he has already established for the character as I explained upthread.

 

[Maxperson]

Max, I have no desire or intent to harass you. Those who know my history as a poster know that I don't do that, and that I try to be as civil as possible when conversing with others. There are many things that are worth my time, but intentionally trying to make someone else feel bad is not one of them. If you feel harassed by me, then, in the interest of promoting goodwill, from this point forward I will refrain from clicking either Xp or laughs for any of your posts.

Thank you.

 

[iserith]

Nice Strawman. I've not said there is an "Exactly this stupid" ideation for say a 5. I said a 5 is low and it's up to the player to roleplay it as low and not high. The rules determine that it is low, so it is low and needs to be roleplayed as low.

And I've not said "exactly this stupid" either. You're said you must roleplay with low reasoning or you're doing it wrong. What does it mean to roleplay with low reasoning? Who gets to decide what is reasonably low?

The rules do not support your position. You're welcome to your preference though. You don't need to try (and fail) to justify it with rules.

 

[iserith]

Stop harrasing me Mechapilot. Go bother someone who will take it.

While some people treat Laugh as a downvote, all it does is make you rise on the Top 100 Chart of Funniest People on Enworld. I'm #7! Two hundred seven more laughs and I'll be #1!

I'm at 956 XP right now which puts me at #10 in XP received. It's going to be a climb to take down Gary Gygax at 8292 XP, but I'm up for trying.

 

[Yardiff]

If Otto's player established his or her character as believing that the London Underground is a political movement, then Otto's player would be contradicting that which was already established by acting as if Otto's did not believe that.

Before it is established, however, Otto's player is free to decide what Otto thinks the London Underground is. He or she may say Otto believes it to be a political movement or a railway system as he or she likes. If Otto's player said something like, "Otto tries to recall what the London Underground is based on what he's read ," then the DM can decide to call for an Intelligence check with an appropriate DC. At this point, Otto's Intelligence score comes into play by imparting a -3 modifier to the check (if Otto has an Intelligence of 5) and he is 15% less likely to recall what it is than another character with a 10 or 11 Intelligence.

You keep bring up the -15% less chance then average...by the same reasoning a -25% less chance then average,e which is an int of 1, is still playable as a highly intelligent character that just has a -25% chance of doing int based skills.