How would you roleplay this character? A charismatic but stupid, small, monsterous songsmith.

[kagayaku]

This is a goblin bard for D&D 5e but I figure this applies to any edition or game, hence posting in the general forum. I'm just looking for ideas and tales of other people's characters really, but also just insight into the way other people treat the mental stats in general.

His Intelligence and Wisdom scores are both 8 (where 10 is 'normal human') so I imagine he's noticeably a bit dim; gullible, struggles with arithmetic, doesn't really plan ahead, fails to notice fairly obvious things, etc. Because he's of a monstrous race there's a limit to how good looking he can be, but maybe he's got a bit of a cheeky grin and big, round eyes. Or maybe he's ugly as anything but still charming.

I was thinking I could make him endearingly charismatic rather than impressively charismatic. Kind of like a bulldog that everybody loves, even though he's ugly, non-lingual, and won't stop eating things that reliably make him sick. He could be naive, trusting, outgoing, generally well meaning, and mischievous but far less cunning than he thinks is.

As for the bard part. What kind of songs would you give a stupid, but charismatic character to sing. Part of the appeal of playing a bard for me is rewording snippets of songs the group likes (or hates ) but maybe this guy's songs would be more like football chants, or all the songs would just have awful lyrics.

If you've played a dumb but charismatic bard (or any character) that was particularly good fun before, then I'd love to hear about it!

 

[ElectricDragon]

Dumb but charismatic? I remember a half-ogre that was so big, dumb, and ugly it looked like he fell outta the ugly tree; hitting every branch on the way down. He made up for the actual fearsome features with an innocence and total belief that he was the smartest, wisest, most beautiful, and strongest. He imitated everyone he met and everything he saw. He acquired a necklace of fireballs on one adventure and decided that was all he needed to be a mage and badly singed the party in the next encounter (the mages got together and taught him about area effects by placing him in a small room and casting stinking cloud in it and slamming the door shut on him). He made his own portable hole upon hearing of one. It was a string of 10 backpacks tied together that he drug behind him (leaving a big trail and giving a -10 to his move silently checks). I remember the 1/2ogre jumping from the top of the mast of a ship (one mage enlarged him in mid-air) to belly-flop onto a werewolf. Did I mention he wore silver full plate?

He went to the seediest part of town to ask people on the street to teach him how to pick pockets because the party thief refused to teach him how. He successfully picked up the person attached to the pocket he attempted to pick.

 

[Eltab]

I've heard one musician play a WOODEN BOX like a drum - and get many different tones out of it ! Your Bard might be able to do likewise.
He can also tune a stick or a club. He understands rhythm; in fact it inspires him to do better. Melody? Not so much...
He carves simple whistles out of twigs and branches ... and sometimes bones (he knows not to bring THAT into town, though).
He's so small and just cute - after he cleans himself up a bit - so people react well to him.
He can take advantage of the fact that he is being treated like a precocious kid (13 yrs old?) rather than a full-grown adult.
He could have a gift for limericks or four-line "doggerel" poems.
I like the 'football cheers' idea; for a twist, see Aladdin's Genie during the "final Boss fight" scene.

 

[billd91]

Like a bear of very little brain?

Oh, the butterflies are flying,
Now the winter days are dying,
And the primroses are trying
To be seen.

And the turtle-doves are cooing,
And the woods are up and doing,
For the violets are blue-ing
In the green.

Oh, the honey-bees are gumming
On their little wings, and humming
That the summer, which is coming
Will be fun.

And the cows are almost cooing,
And the turtle-doves are mooing,
Which is why a Pooh is poohing
In the sun.

For the spring is really springing,
You can see a skylark singing,
And the blue-bells, which are ringing,
Can be heard.

And the cuckoo isn't cooing,
But he's cucking and he's ooing,
And a Pooh is simply poohing
Like a bird.

 

[kagayaku]

made up for the actual fearsome features with an innocence and total belief that he was the smartest, wisest, most beautiful, and strongest. He imitated everyone he met and everything he saw.
...
I remember the 1/2ogre jumping from the top of the mast of a ship (one mage enlarged him in mid-air) to belly-flop onto a werewolf. Did I mention he wore silver full plate?

Hah! Wish I'd have seen it, sounds like a great comic relief character. The belly flop one is actually a very creative, if not entirely sensible, use of that silver plate. xD I like the imitation idea, sounds like an "anything you can do I can do better" character that always gets proved wrong.

He's so small and just cute - after he cleans himself up a bit - so people react well to him.
He can take advantage of the fact that he is being treated like a precocious kid (13 yrs old?) rather than a full-grown adult.
He could have a gift for limericks or four-line "doggerel" poems.
I like the 'football cheers' idea; for a twist, see Aladdin's Genie during the "final Boss fight" scene.

This! This is the way I'm leaning right now. And that Aladdin fight is a good twist indeed! I think I prefer the limericks idea but it might come in handy from time to time with my bardic inspirations. I forgot how good that movie was.

Like a bear of very little brain?

Sad to say it took me until the 4th verse (you know, the one with his name in it) to figure out which bear this was. Guess I don't need to worry about roleplaying an 8 for intelligence.

Still, it's not every day I get poetry recited to me on the internet. D&D is a strange thing. Haha.

 

[Jhaelen]

This reminds me of Deekin Scalesinger from the Neverwinter Nights CRPG.

It also reminds me of a highly charismatic orc Swordmaster I once played in Earthdawn. What I enjoyed most about playing him was that he was basically a coward. He was really good at all those fancy moves and fencing, but it was only for show. Put him in a life & death situation and most of his concentration would be occupied trying to avoid spoiling his pants. However, he was a really skilled actor and good with words, so he would vastly prefer to talk his way out of potentially dangerous situations. I could imagine playing a bard based on that concept would work equally well.

 

[TwoSix]

Pretty easily.