How stupid is stupid?

[Merkuri]

Funnily enough he has learned to read celestial through magic means. I'm not sure that he actually understands that he's reading.

That was funny when it happened. He's illiterate, but he can read Cellestial.

I belive he's now one of two characters in our group who can read Cellestial. The ones who recieved the same magic as him have been slowly dying out. That'll be so funny if he's the only one who can read it and he has to translate it for the rest of us. I feel like it would be hard to explain to him that we just don't understand the symbols.

Here's an example of this character's stupidity. Being the damage sponge of the group, it was his job to open doors, and he was used to this.

Me: "Let's see, all the other doors on the map drawn this way weren't doors, but traps. I wouldn't open that door if I were you."

Him: "Otay." *opens door - rocks fall down, blocking the entrance to the treasure cave*

Me: "Why did you open the door?? I told you not to!"

Him: "No you didn't. You says you wouldn't open door if you was me. You isn't me. So I open door."

 

[TomWhitbrook]

I think how the individual acts in combat and out of combat are leagues apart for a character like this. While he is generally ill educated, below average in mental faculties, probably insensitive and maybe more than a little absent minded, he probably remains a consummate warrior. Animal intelligence of 1-2 includes the ability to assess threat levels through size, markings and other indicators, and your chap is well beyond that. He may use tactics and strategies you would deem highly intelligent to defeat his opponents. While he might have trouble remembering the weaknesses and strengths of certain types of enemies (through the various knowledge skills), he wouldn't take very long to assess their prowess when actually facing the,. Where he would fall down, I think, is in large mass combats. He's more duellist than soldier, in that he might lack the ability to make decisions based on a comprehensive overview of combat. While he would feint, trip, fight defensively and so on against the foe he's toe to toe with, he might not think of moving across the field to intercept a monster thats moving to attack the party wizard.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Possibly. I wasn't really able to find good info on cepholopod intelligence. Are squid likewise gifted? or are they the dumb cousins?

Well, it's not *necessarily* good info, but it is info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octopus - I guess it will at least have links for further information.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

Possibly. I wasn't really able to find good info on cepholopod intelligence. Are squid likewise gifted? or are they the dumb cousins?

I get the impression that it's mostly just the octopus family, and perhaps just certain members of that group. They're known for things like learning to open the tops of their aquaria in order to scoot across the room, grab a snack, and then scoot back before they die of asphyxiation. I could probably look up some papers from BIOSIS to back up these claims, but I haven't had the time to sit down and do it.