How does one roleplay a 49 Intelligence? Plus! Mega Super *BONUS* Questions!

[msoya]

Read the short story Understand, by Ted Chiang.
http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/under.htm

That might give you some ideas, although that might be slightly higher than 49 (I'm not an expert on the meaning of ability scores)

 

[two]

2) Such a character might even realize that it is only a character in a roleplaying game, and thus might take life a lot less seriously.

Ever read that old detective story where the detective is so durn smart he realizes he's a character in a story and that, given the genre, he WILL know who the murderer is by the end of the story. So, he goes on a bender, and when the final page rolls around points at a random guy who is hauled off to jail. Got the right man, too. Had to (it was the end of the story).

That's a seriously smart detective.

 

[jmucchiello]

How do you even have a 49 Int? Aren't there caps for magic item, and magical stat enhancement?

At 35th level, it isn't too hard. Take 18 base, +8 (every 4 levels), +5 Inherent bonus (wishes), +12 epic headband of intellect, 6 selections of the Epic feat Great Intelligence (which you get 5 shots at (levels 21, 24, 27, 30, and 33) so your class must also have access to GI as a bonus feat). Ta-da, 49 Int. And that is without aging.

 

[Sebastian Francis]

First: How the *heck* do I roleplay my Archmage with an intelligence of 49? It's a really high level game. I'm simply at a loss, and am considering having the character just go mute and only listen, never speak.

The very fact that it's possible to *have* a character with a 49 Intelligence is one of the things I dislike about 3e.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm back to the "Third Edition Culture" and "Why 3e Bugs Me" threads...

 

[Mystery Man]

Only speak in metaphor....

"Darmok and Jilad at Tinagra."
"Shaka, when the walls fell!"
"Mirab, his sails unfurled!"

....and so forth.

 

[takyris]

Dang. Somebody already suggested the Ted Chiang story. But consider it seconded.

As DM, assume that if the fight is a planned fight, then everything goes his way. He has whatever spell he needs memorized and available as necessary. Have him wear a ring of epic spell storing, and have it contain, again, whatever spell he needs. With whatever metamagics he needs. He's that intelligent. He planned everything.

Also, look up feats or abilities based on intelligence. A level of, what, Duelist, for Int-to-AC? Arcane Strike (he guessed vaguely) for Int-to-attacks? Is there anything that lets you add Int to saves, like a Paladin adds Cha? There oughta be. That would be sweet.

Roleplayingwise, you've got a few options:

-Brooding and quiet: Others have suggested this. Good option.

-That ghost-guy from Angel. He sounds like a dope a lot of the time. He tosses so much garbage data out there that you take him for granted, never realizing that that's exactly what he wants you to do -- that he had the whole thing planned from the get-go, and that you've just done exactly what he wanted.

-Crazy. Always fun to be crazy. I mean, he can take out an 18th-level party with Grease, just because of the save DC. He can play "How many magic missiles will it take to kill you" all afternoon. And so on.

 

[Arkham]

Talk like Yoda.

That always works.

 

[Anabstercorian]

I just want to say thank you for showing me that wild, wild story. It was awesome. A little terrifying, too!

 

[Umbra]

Multiple Personality Disorder (or whatever its called nowadays). His high intelligence proved too much for his psyche and it devolved into 3 personalities with scores of 18, 18 and (the dumb one ) 13. Each specialises in a particular area of brilliance.

Otherwise you need to work closely with the DM and other players.

Out of Game ask the others to give you the ending to a story, riddle, etc they are going to tell and while playing jump in with the solution. Get them to give a fragmented idea that the rest of the group don't understand but which your character acknowledges as brilliant and then proceeds to explain.

You can also play it silent and when something happens and you say 'Just as I thought' and the others complain 'Why didn't you tell us!' you can state 'I was only 99.9424730% sure it would occur? Less intelligent beings add a random factor that sometimes cannot be correctly analysed'.

 

[Delemental]

You could play up the idea that your character is so smart he would have considered the consequences of actions that are far, far removed from the current situation. I remember reading a story long ago (can't remember what it was, though I seem to recall it was a fairly well-known author) where the main character was part of some organization that used time travel to fix societal ills by going back in time and making what would seem like a trivial change, but whose long-term consequences would create the results they desired (things like moving a box off a shelf in a storeroom, that ends up centuries later creating world peace).

It's almost a license to act completely randomly - or, to simply play him however you choose, and even if you make a 'mistake' (like finding Ancient-and-Terrible-Evil-Which-Man-Was-Not-Meant-To-Discover #6) you can explain it away with a simple "I know exactly what I'm doing... perhaps it makes our lives more complicated now, but the good people of the year 22,348 will thank us, I assure you."