Bestow Greater Curse - How does someone with 1 Int/Wis/ or Cha act?

[DarkJester]

Bestow Greater Curse (Spell Compendium) gives the option of reducing one of the target's ability scores to 1. For strength, dexterity, and constitution the effect is fairly obvious. How about the mental stats? I figure it's got to be more debilitating than simply getting a penatly to some skill checks but to what extent?


Going by feeblemind, it seems fair to say you wouldn't be able to use associated skills. What of spellcasting? Could a cleric reduced to 1 intelligence still be capable of casting spells? Feeblemind prohibits it, but that is explicitly written into the spell, so I'm not sure how far it should extend those provisions.

What about a character with 1 charisma, but otherwise normal abilties. Would he function normally but everyone would hate him?



Additionally, bestow greater curse has the quirk of not being able to be removed by the caster at the level it is gained. Or am I overlooking something here?

 

[Notmousse]

A cleric with Int of 1 would still be able to cast any spells without a verbal component (Having a subhumanoid Int score means he no longer has a language).

One with a Wis of 1 would be incredibly impulsive, devoid of the normal mental limiters we have he'd have something akin to ADHD on 'roid rage.

Someone with a Cha of 1 would effectively be autistic to a crippling level. Communication would be difficult at best, and he'd be unable to express himself in a direct or impactful way.

 

[Sejs]

An Int of 1 or 2 means you're completely and utterly animalistic in your perception and understanding. You think of things in very basic, emotional terms. You are incapable of long-term planning and anything more than vague association. Party = family. Startling things are dangerous. Fight or flight. Things you arn't familiar with are probably a threat, etc.

A Wis of 1 or 2 you're pushing borderline catatonic insanity. You have next to no personal willpower. Your perceptions are hazy and unreliable at best. You have no cushion of common sense to rely upon. You are very impulsive and irrational; even if you're still quite intelligent, that normalizing 'base' upon which that brilliance rests is all but gone. Even if you can do rotational-system coordinate substitution in your head, you're still convinced that the Shadow Council is controlling everybody's thoughts thru their drinking water.

A Cha of 1 or 2 and you're only marginally aware of the difference between creatures, between self and other and between other A and other B. You are completely unassertive, pliant, and apathetic. Chances are you're easily given over to groupthink, because expressing individuality is something beyond you. A charisma that low indicates every bit as severe a mental handicap as having an int or wis of 1. Generally speaking, the only creatures that have a charisma that low are unintelligent undead, oozes, and golems.

 

[TheCrazyMuffinMan]

All this sounds accurate. Having a charisma of 1 would seem as though Vecna ripped your soul from you and used it as toilet paper. You would seem to radiate pure negativity, and you would likely not even feel human. A 1 cha character would be as though they were a robot at best, and a lesion in the fabric of society at worst. The world would think so, and he probably would too. If WIS is also bottom, suicidality or self-harm may even be present in the affected. People who don't even know you would ignore your existence at best or hate you to the point of actively wishing for your extreme harm or demise (or even causing it). If Charisma == an External factor like beauty or appearance, you would likely look (and maybe even sound) like the essence of death itself, and equally repulse perfect strangers.

Having a wisdom of one would be like those sort of people far too mentally disturbed to function in society. The highest security rooms of the nut house would likely house those of WIS 1.

Having an intelligence of one would reduce you to animalistic thought, and basic instinct. There's another thing that would essentially dehumanize you, though not to as sickening a degree as a charisma of 1. Any actual sentience is a mere wishful thought at this int.

 

[Milagroso]

This is good stuff. I'm putting this in my notebook for future citation. Mehhehheh.

I would imagine that with a Cha of 1, you might be so crippled that you are filled with self doubt, are indecisive, and apathetic. I think if that were flavored enough in presentation, that might be enough to talk an NPC into suicide. Or would we need the Wisdom down some too?