D&D General Bannerets: The Tactical Geniuses with Int 8

[JPL]

One of the bits I really liked out of 4th ed. was the warlord, a leader class which depending on billed could benefit from a high Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma score. I hope we will eventually see a fighter build for 5th ed. for smart and/or cagey leaders.

For now, the new banneret is a good step towards a non-magical leader / buffer subclass. But you're probably looking at Int as a dump stat, so the party leader that (or battle captain, at least) is the dumbest guy in the party.

But I figured out an archetype. "Lucky Jack" Aubrey, from the Master and Commander series. He's a tactical genius at sea, and has a great understanding of leadership. He knows his trade. But he's not out there making a lot of History checks, right? He speaks several languages, but not as well as he thinks. Granted, he does show a late-blooming brilliance as a mathematician and astronomer, but he's basically a good example of a guy who might be modeled with a low Intelligence, but who is nevertheless brilliant within his own field.

 

[Mannahnin]

It's a game attempt. Jack Aubrey's brilliance at sea but hapless incompetence on land/in business and politics is certainly fun fodder for novels.

I'm not sure such a person is adequately or accurately modeled by a low Int score, but I do think there's something to the notion that a person who's not generally very bright or perspicacious can still be very skilled within their field of special interest/dedicated study.

 

[JPL]

I'm not sure such a person is adequately or accurately modeled by a low Int score, but I do think there's something to the notion that a person who's not generally very bright or perspicacious can still be very skilled within their field of special interest/dedicated study.

A further thought --- a great tactician who was not known for book learning said, "Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth." The banneret is more the guy who improvises in the heat of the moment, rather than the chess master who is ten steps ahead.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I'm not sure such a person is adequately or accurately modeled by a low Int score.

I kind of agree with you, but on the other hand, I feel that real people are far too complex for D&D's "six ability scores" and can often be both excellent and terrible in the same ability, depending on what part of that ability score you're referring to at any given moment.

Take myself, for example, with the ability score "Dexterity": I have very little grace, flexibility, or natural skill at something like dancing, or say, something like basketball. But I can juggle while standing on a board on a ball. Sure, some of that is simply "practice", but I do have innate balance and hand-coordination. So, do I have a high DEX, a low DEX, or something in the middle? Who knows!

So, I think it would be appropriate to say that a Jack Aubrey-type could be modelled as low-INT. He's a blockhead, really. But he's gifted in a few areas, as well. Including navigation, which required some pretty serious mathematics.

 

[DEFCON 1]

We can also just hope that there will be players who will build their character to theme and not just min-max for mechanical benefit. If someone is going through the effort of making their fighter a banneret, you would like to see them actually embrace the concept of the character fully and not just dump INT.

 

[THEMNGMNT]

Jack Aubrey is the perfect example of a min-max'd character.

Jack's player: "But you said this was going to be a nautical campaign!"

Stephen's player: chuckles [adds another skill point to Bureaucracy]

 

[Stalker0]

I kind of agree with you, but on the other hand, I feel that real people are far too complex for D&D's "six ability scores" and can often be both excellent and terrible in the same ability, depending on what part of that ability score you're referring to at any given moment.

Its the classic problem with using any simple model to try and emulate the complexities of real people.

For example charisma oftens is used as:
1) The "beauty" stat
2) The "force of personality" stat
3) The "strength of your soul" stat

and of course, there are beautiful people that couldn't put together a string of words to form an argument if their life depended on it, and people ugly as sin with beautiful voices that could captive an audience in song. But you lose some of that nuance when you go to 6 stats, or even 12 stats. Again any simple model will have that problem.

You also have the problem that narratively, many fantasy motiffs often have the fighter as the "leader" of the party....but in dnd terms it just makes more sense for that to be the high charisma or high int (or maybe high wis) characters. They would just be better leaders in general...but that narrative element still sticks with many groups.



At the end of the day, in dnd terms, higher is supposed to be better. If a class is meant to be a "leader" type class, then it should be rewarded for high charisma or high intelligence. While the notion of a character whose "an idiot, but is so stupidly good in one thing that other people follow them"....is just not modeled well in dnd terms. The character should just be competent, and that is why they are a good leader, its as simple as that.

 

[JPL]

Jack Aubrey is the perfect example of a min-max'd character.

Jack's player: "But you said this was going to be a nautical campaign!"

Stephen's player: chuckles [adds another skill point to Bureaucracy]

Stephen is a system-breaker. Brilliant surgeon / naturalist. Espionage agent. Speaks a dozen languages. Crack shot, deadly fencer. Maxed out in Intimidation. Cellist. Does just fine with the ladies, when he tries.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

It's a game attempt. Jack Aubrey's brilliance at sea but hapless incompetence on land/in business and politics is certainly fun fodder for novels.

I'm not sure such a person is adequately or accurately modeled by a low Int score, but I do think there's something to the notion that a person who's not generally very bright or perspicacious can still be very skilled within their field of special interest/dedicated study.

You got to remember that 10 is average for commoners. 9 would be a good score, for this, not the brightest spark but with hard work, dedication and the proper motivation will get there.

 

[sevenbastard]

Stephen is a system-breaker. Brilliant surgeon / naturalist. Espionage agent. Speaks a dozen languages. Crack shot, deadly fencer. Maxed out in Intimidation. Cellist. Does just fine with the ladies, when he tries.

When you rolled stats sometimes you get all 18s.