D&D 5E How do you regain INT after an Intellect Devourer attack?

[FormerlyHemlock]

I have a 13th level Cleric who is sitting in a puddle of his own drool with an INT of 0 after coming off the wrong end of a run in with an intellect devourer. Lucky for him the party killed the little thing before it could finish the job. Does INT return after a long rest, short rest, a point an hour or what?

Sorry, you're perma-stunned until you can find someone to cast Greater Restoration on you. At my table they traded favors with a Couatl, twice.

Although, the Shadow Monk did have an ASI after the fight in which he was intellect devoured, and he spent it to raise his Int back up from 0 to 2, which removed perma-stun. He got his Greater Restoration a couple of days after but I still thought that was a clever use of an ASI. (He wanted higher Int anyway so it wasn't a totally short-term thing.)

 

[steeldragons]

I think that... kinda...circumvents the whole idea of having a 0 in Intelligence. Whether he's conscious or not is really...completely irrelevant. He's a vegetable. He can't speak. He doesn't even have the intelligence of a lower life form. How is he expected to "think" anything...let alone focus his thoughts into a coherent sentence, prayer...even simple desire!...to notify his deity he needs/wants some help?

 

[Sezarious]

I think that... kinda...circumvents the whole idea of having a 0 in Intelligence. Whether he's conscious or not is really...completely irrelevant. He's a vegetable. He can't speak. He doesn't even have the intelligence of a lower life form. How is he expected to "think" anything...let alone focus his thoughts into a coherent sentence, prayer...even simple desire!...to notify his deity he needs/wants some help?

Oh, look, from a RAW perspective I completely agree with you, but the OP is the DM and it doesn't sound like he wants to deal with slowing the game down. Some people have said this could be a good opportunity for plot development and I agree. He would be perma-stunned at my table too. It's just I get the feeling the OP wants to make a ruling instead and find the most plausible ruling he can.

 

[Ahrimon]

Aaarrrgh! I didn't even think of that! Yes, if he keeps trying, he can simply use his divine intervention! It says that any cleric spell or domain spell would be appropriate. He's above 10th level, so he has the feature. It's perfect. As long as you could justify him being conscious at 0 Int, he would be begging his dirty for help and his deity would very likely just intervene with a greater restoration.

Personally, I'd just make it automatic and get on with the fun. There's nothing that can kill the fun more for a player than sitting around not able to participate. My 2cp.

 

[TheCosmicKid]

Personally, I'd just make it automatic and get on with the fun. There's nothing that can kill the fun more for a player than sitting around not able to participate. My 2cp.

Yeah, there are a lot of good suggestions in this thread if you do want to make a big deal out of it, but if you don't, just read it like 3E ability damage and have it heal at 1 point per day or something.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Kind of a tangent, but I hear the "make a side-quest out of finding the cure" response a lot, and I wonder how feasible that is in the middle of an adventure. "We spent three weeks of travel to arrive at this ruins to follow up on the duke's plot. Oh... well, I guess we turn around and head back to town to heal our friend so we can get back to the actual mission. Hope this place doesn't end up being a nest of these things."

I get it for interlude moments, but mid-game, I just think it may wreck the pacing to not have something close by pr something the PC's were aware of. Plus, things like petrification make it difficult for the party to actually move the impaired individual to the side-quest healer or sacred spring.

On topic for the OP. Maybe have something heal him, but have him owe that entity. Maybe not a dark god or demon, but even a Fey interested in just messing with mortals could be interesting to tie a PC to. Maybe that ties in with the result of the Divine Intervention, without intellect the player is just a conduit, and could potentially contact just about anything or anyone who may "help"

 

[Mouseferatu]

I dunno if he needs to be able to form a sentence. If you're talking about divine intervention, I don't know that it really needs to be the character who activates it. The player activates it, but it could easily be flavored as "The god sees what's happened to his powerful servant and takes steps" rather than "The cleric asks for a favor."

Of course, it might require some sort of quest/assignment, but that doesn't have to happen now. The DM can save it for a plot point down the road. "Hey, remember when I restored your mind?" your god says to you in a dream. "Now I require a service in exchange..."

 

[Grakarg]

I think a headband of intellect would be very handy

 

[Saeviomagy]

You could also take the tack that having your intellect set to 0 is a permanent magical effect, at which point

https://twitter.com/jeremyecrawford/status/642537146541174784

makes it dispellable. This would be my personal favourite, because it means the attack is fixable by any class with a spell list, instead of being limited to clerics, druids and bards.

 

[MARCVS AVRELIVS]

Kind of a tangent, but I hear the "make a side-quest out of finding the cure" response a lot, and I wonder how feasible that is in the middle of an adventure. "We spent three weeks of travel to arrive at this ruins to follow up on the duke's plot. Oh... well, I guess we turn around and head back to town to heal our friend so we can get back to the actual mission. Hope this place doesn't end up being a nest of these things."

Well, in a case like that, I'd probably suggest not using Intellect Devourers as opponents. Or any creature that would inflict any kind of damage that would require some kind of healing/restoration that the party may not be able to access in the tempo you'd want the game to maintain.

By including an opponent that has the ability to reduce a character to Int 0, as a DM I'd be pretty much intending there to be a side-quest or some kind of story beat for the characters to restore anyone so damaged.