How stupid is stupid?

[awayfarer]

I've been playing an orcish barbarian with 6 intelligence and 6 wisdom for a while now. I think I do a pretty good job of limiting his mental prowess but lately I've been wondering; how stupid should he really be?

I limit his vocabulary as much as possible. I leave all the thinking up to others naturally. Generally I won't have him act without direction, largely so as not to tick off other players by triggering traps or causing problems but also because this character is certainly not a leader. Combat-wise his main strategy has been "charge and smash with greataxe" but I've been making some allowances now that he posesses (Almost the other way around) an intelligent greataxe thats significantly brighter than he is.

I think I can narrow this down into a few questions.

1: How would you play such a mentally limited character?
2: While raging, would you drop all manner of tactics and simply have them start swinging at the nearest target?
3: Would you mitigate any of this if the character had some sort of external influence like an intelligent item or say, was posessed?

Just curious how other people have done this. This is my first character with single digit mental stats.

 

[Vrecknidj]

I don't think that the rage combined with lower Int and Wis scores necessitates being a blindly swinging attacker. I mean, even a horse or a bear or something can get spooked and get "enraged," but it won't necessarily attack just anything.

I do wonder about the intelligent item issue--that could prove to offer lots of fun role playing opportunities.

Dave

 

[greywulf]

I've played an INT 6, WIS 7 half-orc rogue, and ran him like Randy from My Name is Earl.

"But Doku said to stand by horses and watch out for goblins. They were orcs though. Doku didn't say nuthin about orcs, so I didn't holler. Does this mean we've got to walk now?"

"This end of the club is much better. It's pointy, so I can poke with it. See? (OUCH!) See? (OUCH) Round end don't poke so good."

 

[Tonguez]

The thing is 6 is only a -2 not great but is it really that bad?

1. Wisdom in D20 has more to do with Perception than commonsense and so he needs to be played as being non-observant and largely unaware of whats going on around him - he is very easily taken advantage of and can quite easily simply not notice the dangers around him (how he survived this long has to be considered)

2. Animals (including the smarter kinds) have Int 2 and things like Dogs, Chimps and Porpoises are all capable of tactics (albeit most have higher Wis scores.
So he isn't Einstein, he has a hardtime working out anything more complex than counting to 3 and can probably cope with at most 2 instructions at a time. He can think ahead and is able to focus on getting a desired outcome but this will be done in the most direct manner with no consideration of 'what if-then' situations or risks/contra-indications. If his Cha is also low - average he may not be able to cope with setbacks.

As to your questions

1. As above
2.Nothing in Rage indicates he should simply be swinging at the nearest target. I'd say he wont assess whether the opponent is stronger than him or not (due to his lack of Wis) but will use some sense
3. Depends on how vocal the Intelligent weapon is. It might give suggestions but in a fight will the PC have anough wits to act on the advice before he acts on instinct. I'd also have the weapon not being listened to during his rage (where he definately wont have time to heed the advice)

 

[Iku Rex]

Int 6 is not all that stupid. An earlier thread on the same topic:http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=142262 .

I tried to make an IQ to 3d6 Int "conversion": http://www.enworld.org/showpost.php?p=2459861&postcount=8 .

Basically:

IQ 50 or lower - Int 3
IQ 50-60 - Int 4
IQ 60-74 - Int 5
IQ 74-89 - Int 6-8
IQ 89-100 - Int 9-10
IQ 100-111 - Int 11-12
IQ 111-125 - Int 13-15
IQ 125-132 - Int 16
IQ 132-150 - Int 17
IQ 150 or higher - Int 18

 

[Rl'Halsinor]

There are many creatures/monsters that are low in the wisdom and intelligence departments, but nevertheless have a cunning that is dangerous. Perhaps he is slow in learning from his mistakes but he does learn -- eventually -- and a cunning of his own begins to develop.

Maybe you could have him attach himself to a "smart" yet friendly PC turning to him or her in times of indecision or when things appear too complex.

 

[ValhallaGH]

He's a professional warrior. He may not think of new ways of killing things but he'll remember every way he's ever been exposed to and he'll see how he can use it in a fight. Why? Because a professional warrior that doesn't do those things doesn't live long enough to add "professional" to his job title.

He might forget names, directions, locations and even parts of his past (though most stupid folk are uncannily clear on the few things they do remember) but he will always remember how to kill things. It's the thing he's best suited to, however he may feel abou it.

 

[Klaus]

Your Barbarian with an Int 6, while raging, is FAR more intelligent than, say, a tiger. He'd be like a predator, but with human-level intelligence.

 

[awayfarer]

Maybe you could have him attach himself to a "smart" yet friendly PC turning to him or her in times of indecision or when things appear too complex.

I actually did this to an extent with my girflriends last character. She was playing a favored soul with an intelligence of 8 and a good wisdom score. My estimation is that she'd be smart enough to figure out things he wouldn't but on a close enough level that she could explain things in terms he could understand.

He's a professional warrior. He may not think of new ways of killing things but he'll remember every way he's ever been exposed to and he'll see how he can use it in a fight. Why?

My gf and I had a conversation a little while ago about this same topic. She thought a good idea might be to consider BAB as sort of a characters "battle IQ". I like the idea and thats one of the reason I've been leaning towards making him a little more savvy in combat.

 

[Banshee16]

I've been playing an orcish barbarian with 6 intelligence and 6 wisdom for a while now. I think I do a pretty good job of limiting his mental prowess but lately I've been wondering; how stupid should he really be?

I limit his vocabulary as much as possible. I leave all the thinking up to others naturally. Generally I won't have him act without direction, largely so as not to tick off other players by triggering traps or causing problems but also because this character is certainly not a leader. Combat-wise his main strategy has been "charge and smash with greataxe" but I've been making some allowances now that he posesses (Almost the other way around) an intelligent greataxe thats significantly brighter than he is.

I think I can narrow this down into a few questions.

1: How would you play such a mentally limited character?
2: While raging, would you drop all manner of tactics and simply have them start swinging at the nearest target?
3: Would you mitigate any of this if the character had some sort of external influence like an intelligent item or say, was posessed?

Just curious how other people have done this. This is my first character with single digit mental stats.

I've always kind of run it that characters have an IQ roughly 10x their INT score, so a 6 INT is about 60 IQ...definitely not very high....someone with very limited mental abilities...possibly almost mentally handicapped.

Banshee