D&D 5E Don't play "stupid" characters. It is ableist.

[CleverNickName]

I’m not convinced that needs to be tied to a stat at all.

Agreed, this seems like more of a Personality Trait or Flaw.
EDIT: Heh...I just saw your edit.

 

[Lanefan]

I’m not convinced that needs to be tied to a stat at all. In 5e, it could be a Flaw. In any edition, it could just be a roleplaying choice the player makes.

That assumes stats don't define the character. In my view they do, to some extent, and a DM (or another player) would be quite justified in asking out-of-game why a high-Int high-Wis character kept doing unwise or dumb things.

 

[Vaalingrade]

That's kind of another aspect to this: a lot of DMs use forcing players to play 'stupid' (yeah, not using the actual word we're talking about) or otherwise mentally impaired characters as a punishment for taking low mental stats in a move they see as powergaming.

Which is exacerbated in 5e due to the mental stats, especially INT being mechanically useless for most classes.

Also, poor choices seems to have nothing to do with a person's intellect or wisdom and everything to do with their motivation. You can, for example, get anyone to join a cult if you time it right and use the right technique.

 

[Charlaquin]

That assumes stats don't define the character.

Not so. One can believe stats define the character and still believe a smart character capable of making dumb decisions.

In my view they do, to some extent, and a DM (or another player) would be quite justified in asking out-of-game why a high-Int high-Wis character kept doing unwise or dumb things.

I’m not a fan of policing other people’s roleplaying, but even if that’s part of your table culture, smart people do dumb stuff all the time.

 

[Faolyn]

Then what stat and number would you see as reflective of someone who did go out of their way to do stupid things?

I don't.

As I said, I worked with intellectually disabled adults. None of them went out of their way to do stupid things just because they had a low IQ. And the stupid things that they did do were things like running into traffic or eating out of garbage cans because they didn't have the ability to remember safety protocols.

A lot of low-IQ people don't do out of their of their way to do stupid things. And plenty of higher-IQ people do do a lot of stupid things, probably because they're able to come up with what seem like plausible justifications.

 

[Bill Zebub]

Not so. One can believe stats define the character and still believe a smart character capable of making dumb decisions.

I’m not a fan of policing other people’s roleplaying, but even if that’s part of your table culture, smart people do dumb stuff all the time.

And so-called "dumb" people often make very smart decisions.

 

[Bill Zebub]

Also, poor choices seems to have nothing to do with a person's intellect or wisdom and everything to do with their motivation. You can, for example, get anyone to join a cult if you time it right and use the right technique.

There's also domain intelligence. Just think of how often somebody who achieves tremendous in success in one field believes (and starts spouting) absolute nonsense in an unrelated field. Music -> Politics is only the most obvious example. Linguistics -> Economics is another one that comes to mind...in one particular case.

Then there's the case of my father-in-law, which is Investing -> Pretty Much Anything.

 

[ReshiIRE]

This is why I wouldn't consider a lot of programmers or software engineers (including me) 'smart'. We have a lot of knowledge in software engineering, maybe other fields, maybe we EVEN know how to learn other things well.

Doesn't make us smart. Lord above knows, the amount of absolutely silly and shite mistakes I make... I am not a smart individual.

 

[Scribe]

And plenty of higher-IQ people do do a lot of stupid things, probably because they're able to come up with what seem like plausible justifications.

My son would feel personally attacked, if he had enough awareness of self to realize this describes him.

 

[Voadam]

I think that thinking about the D&D stats too much in relationship with the OP is not very helpful, as I was trying to convey earlier. This is not a D&D specific problem.

If you have a game, and in this game your PC has mental stats, and they happen to be poor. How do you roleplay that? If your own (the player, not the PC)'s mental capacities are roughly in-line with your PC's mental capacities, it should be fairly easy (although it's hard to determine if this the case due to the Dunning-Kruger effects...). But they aren't, your portrayal may veer into offensive caricature - ie ableism.

So I repeat - the main question, the challenge here, is how to portray such a character.

Playing dim or dumb does not need to be effectuated by a portrayal that is a mocking caricature of the mentally disabled, which is what ableism would be in this context.

A number of ways to go.

A character who picks up on only certain aspects of what is going on. They will focus on that part and ignore the others.

A character who just does not get it, either befuddled and confused or shrugging it off and ignoring it. A character could keep requesting that others repeat or explain stuff.

A character who thinks they get it, but are incorrect and so go on from that false premise.

Think about characters in media you think are dim or dumb but not offensive caricatures. The Tick. Joey from Friends. Use such characters as your roleplay models if you want.