D&D 5E Weird Interpretations for High/Low Ability Scores

[Todd Roybark]

So let's flip the question, if a 5 INT means you are a gormless drooler, what do You do with a Knowledge Cleric?

In between casting 9th level spells, and wiping drool, this street legal character also is rocking a +9 to two "Knowledge" skills.

A 5 INT character is more mentally capable in pure 5e D&D mechanics, then some people are allowing for.

I also offer the Beastie Boy defense:

Well I be dropping the new science
and kicking the new ka-knowledge
MC to a degree, that you can't get in College!

Shakespeare, don't know Brooklyn...screw the "traditional" definitions !

 

[iserith]

If a character in your game proclaimed that the universe existed in the minds of a small group of humans (naming you and your players) and the attempted actions of everyone in it were adjudicated by you, sometimes with the aid of dice, would you have the gods of knowledge and truth in your game judge that as essentially true, essentially false, or unknowable?

The DM isn't in the business of adjudicating what the PC proclaims in this instance. They can say whatever they want.

 

[iserith]

Sure. You could spontaneously add in college degrees, aliens beaming the info in, and all kinds of things that weren't in the PCs history and would have affected prior play had they been there. I view that sort of retconning as a flaw, not a feature.

Or one could just offer something more reasonable that makes sense in context.

It's not a table or house rule to use the definition of roleplay.

If you say so.

 

[Maxperson]

So let's flip the question, if a 5 INT means you are a gormless drooler, what do You do with a Knowledge Cleric?

In between casting 9th level spells, and wiping drool, this street legal character also is rocking a +9 to two "Knowledge" skills.

A 5 INT character is more mentally capable in pure 5e D&D mechanics, then some people are allowing for.

That's pretty deficient compared to the average smarts knowledge cleric next to him, and woefully inadequate compared to the one with the 20 Int that's rocking +17's to both of those skills and runs the department.

 

[Maxperson]

If you say so.

So if the rules had said, "Roleplaying is talking in a high, squeaky voice," that's all you would have accepted as roleplay in 5e short of table rules to alter it?

 

[iserith]

So if the rules had said, "Roleplaying is talking in a high, squeaky voice," that's all you would have accepted as roleplay in 5e short of table rules to alter it?

Yep. The books tell us how the game is played. If I don't like that, then I can change it or play something else. Since I don't like being judgmental about how other people portray their characters' ability scores or trying to work out why a player made a particular decision for his or her character, D&D 5e's position on the matter works just fine for me.

 

[Todd Roybark]

That's pretty deficient compared to the average smarts knowledge cleric next to him, and woefully inadequate compared to the one with the 20 Int that's rocking +17's to both of those skills and runs the department.

Yep...he is the dumb one at the monastery or the University.
At the bar...not so shabby.

 

[Maxperson]

Yep. The books tell us how the game is played. If I don't like that, then I can change it or play something else. Since I don't like being judgmental about how other people portray their characters' ability scores or trying to work out why a player made a particular decision for his or her character, D&D 5e's position on the matter works just fine for me.

See, I don't accept the a game company can define blue as red or up as down. Some definitions defy those attempts and roleplay is one of them.

 

[Maxperson]

Yep...he is the dumb one at the monastery or the University.
At the bar...not so shabby.

Sort of like Rain Man. Pretty shabby outside of a few narrow fields where he can spout facts without being able to do much else.

 

[iserith]

See, I don't accept the a game company can define blue as red or up as down. Some definitions defy those attempts and roleplay is one of them.

Perhaps another edition of the game has a more suitable definition for you. I bet D&D 2e or 3.Xe might fit the bill, though I've long since gotten rid of those books so I can't check.