Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 4978752" data-attributes="member: 58197">And it can certainly be. The character I just described is taking that 8 Intelligence as a roleplaying direction; it's shaped his life to a tremendous degree, and continues to shape his life as he starts exploring the possibility that he's got other options than being an unthinking brute as I originally conceived him - that maybe he's actually a reasonably bright guy.The thing is, I don't see what is gained by enforcing a rule that says he can't evolve in that direction. What does it add to anyone's experience? Why have an Intelligence score that imposes such restrictions, instead of a &quot;Knowledge&quot; or &quot;Education&quot; score that works exactly the same way mechanically, but doesn't extend beyond the mechanics?The place I'm coming from is seeing every character with below-average Int being played in one of three ways:<ul>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">Kronk the barbarian. Who is hugely entertaining for everyone at the table, and I have no problem with such characters, but it's more stand-up comedy than roleplaying.</li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">Completely ignore the stat and play as smart and articulate as everybody else.</li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">Ignore the stat except to occasionally say, &quot;Oh, wait, I can't figure this puzzle out because I'm not smart enough.&quot;</li>
</ul>This (and especially that last one) leads me to think we'd be better off without Intelligence as a roleplaying element. Instead, encourage the player to think about the character's persona, and to pick some character traits to use as a springboard for developing that persona, without the DM trying to &quot;enforce&quot; those traits.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Dausuul, post: 4978752, member: 58197"] And it can certainly be. The character I just described is taking that 8 Intelligence as a roleplaying direction; it's shaped his life to a tremendous degree, and continues to shape his life as he starts exploring the possibility that he's got other options than being an unthinking brute as I originally conceived him - that maybe he's actually a reasonably bright guy. The thing is, I don't see what is gained by enforcing a rule that says he can't evolve in that direction. What does it add to anyone's experience? Why have an Intelligence score that imposes such restrictions, instead of a "Knowledge" or "Education" score that works exactly the same way mechanically, but doesn't extend beyond the mechanics? The place I'm coming from is seeing every character with below-average Int being played in one of three ways: [LIST] [*]Kronk the barbarian. Who is hugely entertaining for everyone at the table, and I have no problem with such characters, but it's more stand-up comedy than roleplaying. [*]Completely ignore the stat and play as smart and articulate as everybody else. [*]Ignore the stat except to occasionally say, "Oh, wait, I can't figure this puzzle out because I'm not smart enough." [/LIST] This (and especially that last one) leads me to think we'd be better off without Intelligence as a roleplaying element. Instead, encourage the player to think about the character's persona, and to pick some character traits to use as a springboard for developing that persona, without the DM trying to "enforce" those traits. [/QUOTE]

Verification