Hey guys,
I'm a new poster here at ENWorld (this place is great, by the way!), and I was wondering if I could get some advice.
I'm sure this has been discussed many times over. While I haven't been able to find too many pertinent threads (I still can't figure out how to Search), the main theme I've seen in threads discussing intelligence penalties is that they're a bad idea in general.
I can understand that a low intelligence score has its own penalties built right into the game - characters with low Int will often have average/poor skill levels, and few skill points to choose from each round. That in itself is enough of a 'penalty'.
However, I know that the players in my campaign appreciate a bit of good humour. And it just so happens that 3 out of 4 players decided to take rather low intellect characters. The Ranger, Cleric and Bard all have Intelligence scores low enough to have a negative modifier. Hilariously, the Fighter is the only one with a positive Intelligence score (14).
Anyway, especially in the case of the Cleric (who will probably feel the effect of the lack of skills per level very quickly), I have advised all my players to not junk their Int score in favour of more 'usable' abilities (like Str, Dex, etc...). I let them know that Intelligence works behind the scenes a lot more than they might imagine, but they're stubborn in their belief that they'll be fine (and, they probably will). Especially the Cleric, who's idea for a character was one who would be a wandering for-profit Cleric - which is a themed character I believe he gleaned from Trigun - with a blind belief in his religion.
Anyway, the point of this post is to get some feedback, and possibly some interesting ideas. My group is a very good humoured group - they like little oddities and a bit of humour injected into the campaign.
So, my question is this: Can I get some interesting or funny ideas of how to create some humourous situations out of my party's lack of intelligence? I'm not looking for anything particularly annoying - like I said, I'm not interested in hard penalties (in battle, etc...). However, I think poking a bit of fun at the "Dunce" group of adventures would be somewhat amusing for the group out-of-character (in social situations, etc...).
(That being said, if anyone has any more harsh Intelligence related penalties to suggest, and a legitimate reason behind thinking it's necessary, I'm willing to hear that too... But that's not the main point of what I'm looking for.)
Thanks in advance!
Bryan
AKA: Dachande
I'm a new poster here at ENWorld (this place is great, by the way!), and I was wondering if I could get some advice.
I'm sure this has been discussed many times over. While I haven't been able to find too many pertinent threads (I still can't figure out how to Search), the main theme I've seen in threads discussing intelligence penalties is that they're a bad idea in general.
I can understand that a low intelligence score has its own penalties built right into the game - characters with low Int will often have average/poor skill levels, and few skill points to choose from each round. That in itself is enough of a 'penalty'.
However, I know that the players in my campaign appreciate a bit of good humour. And it just so happens that 3 out of 4 players decided to take rather low intellect characters. The Ranger, Cleric and Bard all have Intelligence scores low enough to have a negative modifier. Hilariously, the Fighter is the only one with a positive Intelligence score (14).
Anyway, especially in the case of the Cleric (who will probably feel the effect of the lack of skills per level very quickly), I have advised all my players to not junk their Int score in favour of more 'usable' abilities (like Str, Dex, etc...). I let them know that Intelligence works behind the scenes a lot more than they might imagine, but they're stubborn in their belief that they'll be fine (and, they probably will). Especially the Cleric, who's idea for a character was one who would be a wandering for-profit Cleric - which is a themed character I believe he gleaned from Trigun - with a blind belief in his religion.
Anyway, the point of this post is to get some feedback, and possibly some interesting ideas. My group is a very good humoured group - they like little oddities and a bit of humour injected into the campaign.
So, my question is this: Can I get some interesting or funny ideas of how to create some humourous situations out of my party's lack of intelligence? I'm not looking for anything particularly annoying - like I said, I'm not interested in hard penalties (in battle, etc...). However, I think poking a bit of fun at the "Dunce" group of adventures would be somewhat amusing for the group out-of-character (in social situations, etc...).
(That being said, if anyone has any more harsh Intelligence related penalties to suggest, and a legitimate reason behind thinking it's necessary, I'm willing to hear that too... But that's not the main point of what I'm looking for.)
Thanks in advance!
Bryan
AKA: Dachande
