Help needed : how to play this ?

[Aloïsius]

I rolled a new PC, a CG wizard air genasi, for the city of the Spider Queen. My problem is that, when using his headband of intellect he has 26 INT and ... 6 WIS. How would you roleplay such a thing ? Highly intelligent and absolutely fool ?

 

[Terra_Ferax_Mark]

intelligence and will power don't go hand-in-hand.

For example: Merlin was pretty sharp, but he was a sucker for a pretty face (Nimue, the lady of the lake).

The character you describe is probably impulsive. For each ability penalty, why not take a "mentally blind" factor where you impulsively seek that thing out (magic wands, rings, rubies, free ale) and then when presented with the opportunity to obtain your blindsights, go for them.

Or perhaps you're old enough to know better, but still young enough to try

I hope that helps.

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

Wow. With a wisdom like that, I'd probably play him as having serious trouble relating to the outside world. Completely non-empathic, so he blunders a lot in social situations, because he has no concept of what others think and feel. Tends to project his own emotional state onto people around him. He can solve an incredibly difficult math problem or a linguistic riddle with ease, but ask him to tell if someone's upset, and he overlooks things like tears, shaking with rage, etc. Unless, of course, he himself is upset.

 

[Aloïsius]

I do think he will be very impulsive, but :
May be I forget to say that I gave him two ranks in sens motive ? Ah... he is an air elemental savant, by the way.

 

[Mr Fidgit]

i think the example in the PH is perfect for this. an absolute genius. an absolutely clueless, absent-minded genius (as in - why bother picking a lock on a door when i can disintegrate it? why walk when i can teleport?)

did you roll a 6 Wis, or does the headband reduce your Wis? i can't tell by the way you wrote it

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

...May be I forget to say that I gave him two ranks in sens motive ?

Which is completely cancelled out by the whopping wisdom penalty.

This is just my interpretation of wisdom, of course. But the PH includes "perception and intuition" as part of wisdom, and goes on to say wisdom is "related to being in tune with and aware of one's surroundings." I interpret that to include social interaction (being in tune with and aware of other people around you, since other people are a natural part of our environment), especially when you consider that Wisdom modified skills include Sense Motive, Innuendo, Listen, and Spot.

 

[Mark]

Meglomaniacs tend to be supra-geniuses but lack the basic wisdom to see the fatal flaw in their plans. Bond villians might be the classic example of this. They devise incredibly complicated plans but feel the need to explain its intricacies, to stroke their own egos, even as they give the other side the time and means to foil them. It might be that you could choose your spells in a very single-minded way; all offense or defense for a given day as if the top priority is the only priority. A melee-oriented person might bring the perfect weapon to destroy the Big Bad forgetting that additional weaponry might be better suited to handling the various minions that will also be confronted.

 

[Aloïsius]

i think the example in the PH is perfect for this. an absolute genius. an absolutely clueless, absent-minded genius (as in - why bother picking a lock on a door when i can disintegrate it? why walk when i can teleport?)

did you roll a 6 Wis, or does the headband reduce your Wis? i can't tell by the way you wrote it

I rolled a 6 and a 8. The 6 I put in STR, the 8 in WIS, but air genasi have +2 INT +2 DEx -2 WIS -2 CHA...So this character has two 6 (and the DM made us roll 4D6, reroll the 1...)

 

[Aloïsius]

Which is completely cancelled out by the whopping wisdom penalty.

This is just my interpretation of wisdom, of course. But the PH includes "perception and intuition" as part of wisdom, and goes on to say wisdom is "related to being in tune with and aware of one's surroundings." I interpret that to include social interaction (being in tune with and aware of other people around you, since other people are a natural part of our environment), especially when you consider that Wisdom modified skills include Sense Motive, Innuendo, Listen, and Spot.

Yes, in his background, I made him walk into wall and enter a gnoll campment without realizing it (just before he got captured)
However, I think he will realize that he has a problem. As Mark say, he could be somewhat megalomaniac (a common tendancy for genasi, who feel indeed superior), especially if he often uses detect thought ("I can't understand what think this nice girl, let's read her thought ").

 

[Aloïsius]

Thank for all the help !
So...
impulsive, megalomaniac, distracted, non-empathic (but try very hard), paternalistic (does he consider the other party members like pet companions ? Using the detect thought spell, even without reading the mind, allow him to see the gap between him and other people). And he is a storm-loving sissy. Other ideas, something else that will relate to his alignment : he is good, something that does not look easily compatible with an impulsive, non-empathic megalomaniac ?

His supernatural ancestor was a sylphe, and, coming from Deepingdale he has some amount of elven blood. Do you think that the use of a ring of sustenance will further alter his mindset from the norm (no need to eat nor drink) ?