D&D 5E Int 8, Wis 8, Cha 18 Sorcerer

[aco175]

I was thinking Forrest Gump. Nice and likable. Able to follow directions well. Not many people go to him for advice though. He may latch onto another party member for advice on when to attack or where to go.

"Is this a good time for a fireball."

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

What would this character be like? I mean 8 is like the opposite of 12 so I would think that someone with a 8 in Int and Wis would just be slightly below average in both those regards.

One way I told the player to think of it is that he is perfectly normal but often slightly wrong. He knows about Dragons and there breath weapons but sometimes gets them mixed up and has issues remembering them according to type.

As far as his 18 Cha goes that's fine. He is simply a very likeable fellow even if his bulbs don't burn the brightest.


What do you guys think? How would you work it?

Gilderoy Lockhart.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

A successful politician

Really, don't stress too much over the 8 Int and Wis. Typically players overthink their negative scores and start thinking that Int 8 means retarded and Wis 8 means incapable of following what's going on. A score of 8 is just slightly below average. I didn't do the math, but I think roughly more than 20% of normal people would have Int 8 or lower. Adventuring heroes have better scores typically, but the interpretation of ability scores is still based on normal people. So an Int 8 character might be just someone who's not so good at math and science, and a Wis 8 character someone who's a bit absent-minded, but really that -1 modifier means even less, it's just a few % chance less in a d20 roll.

And you'd find yourself almost completely unable to communicate with those 20% of people. Those are the people who are dim in the opinion of people you consider dim--and anyone with an Int 6 is dim even in their eyes.

If you post on this forum, you're probably in the upper third of the IQ distribution. You probably went to college and know a lot of people who went to college. Call it Int 12ish. If you post on this forum and are good at it, you're probably somewhat higher on the distribution than the upper third. Now try imagining that you're someone who looks at this meme:



and fails to immediately recognize it as nonsense. It's hard to imagine, right? And yet there are people who need articles like this one (http://mashable.com/2016/01/12/powerball-meme-bad-math/#7Me4XnPmOmqm) to tell them it is nonsense. Call that the Int 9 vs. 10 boundary. Int 8 is a step below that. It might be the people who don't understand the article debunking the meme, and so continue to believe in the "Powerball cure for poverty".

Note: these people probably also think they're average or above-average in intelligence. (See Dunning-Kruger effect.)

 

[jgsugden]

There are a lot of ways to play each of these attributes. You have to combine them for yourself in a way that makes sense to you.

Wisdom 8 is slightly foolish. You might go with the guy a bit too quickly. You might trust people too much. You might misunderstand some basic truths. There are a lot of ways to manifest it - pick some things that sound foolish and work it into the PC. You don't have to be foolish in every way - just a bit foolish.

Intelligence 8 is not that bright. An 80 to 90 IQ is a good example. Some realllllllly outdated materials out there can describe what that might be like - something like: "Above the threshold for normal independent functioning. Can perform explicit routinized hands-on tasks without supervision as long as there are no moments of choice and it is always clear what has to be done. Assembler, food service." A PC with an 8 intelligence needs to be directed how to do anything complex. They struggle to understand directions. They need to rely upon others for help to understand.

When you combine the two, you end up with someone that struggles to understand and may struggle to take help in dealing with the issue...

But when you throw in that 18 charisma, maybe you have someone that everyone wants to help despite the challenges and bad calls. Perhaps you have someone that everyone cheers for or stands behind as a symbol of exactly what you can overcome. Despite not understanding everything, despite making bad choices, PC 24601 inspires others with tenacity and stoicism!. People may know he doesn't have the track record of success with his choices, but they still find it hard not to fall in line behind him when he decides to charge the vast orc horde.

Or, perhaps, he is a cloaked figure that radiates power. He speaks slowly... he ponders everything he hears ... he doesn't act quickly... but when he acts, the world feels his presence and trembles.

 

[S'mon]

And you'd find yourself almost completely unable to communicate with those 20% of people. Those are the people who are dim in the opinion of people you consider dim--and anyone with an Int 6 is dim even in their eyes.

If you post on this forum, you're probably in the upper third of the IQ distribution. You probably went to college and know a lot of people who went to college. Call it Int 12ish.

This is assuming INT = IQ x10, right? Because if we assume the 3d6 bell curve then INT 8 is only slightly below average, more like IQ 90 or so (I'm a lecturer and I'm pretty sure I've had students around IQ 95...)

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

This is assuming INT = IQ x10, right? Because if we assume the 3d6 bell curve then INT 8 is only slightly below average, more like IQ 90 or so (I'm a lecturer and I'm pretty sure I've had students around IQ 95...)

I didn't have a precise mapping strategy in mind, but the 3d6 bell curve works as well as anything. On 3d6, 26% of rolls will be 8 or less. (I'm borrowing from here instead of recomputing from scratch. I assume that guy has his math right but I didn't check it since it's in the right ballpark.) Being in the bottom 26% seems roughly compatible with your guess of IQ 90.

How well did you communicate with your IQ 90 students? (Or was IQ 95 your absolute lower limit, and you didn't have any 90s at all?) My experience is that there is a lot of friction (you're either saying things that they can't understand, or you're simplifying so much that it chafes). IMO, it is not easy at all to roleplaying being in their heads unless you roleplay them as reclusive types who rarely speak.

Have you ever seen the Big Bang Theory? Do you remember when Penny brought by a date who was worried that they might actually blow up the moon by measuring the distance to it with lasers? That guy was about Int 8. He was dumb even in Penny's eyes, and Penny is dim in the eyes of everyone else on show, by virtue of being average. (She's had some community college, like 64% of Americans, but hasn't actually gotten a degree yet, unlike 44% of Americans, so call her somewhere around the 45th-55th percentile.) Actually TALKING to that guy at length would be extremely stressful for me.

That's roughly how I guesstimate Int 8: you're dim in the eyes of people that other people consider dim.

 

[MoonSong]

What would this character be like? I mean 8 is like the opposite of 12 so I would think that someone with a 8 in Int and Wis would just be slightly below average in both those regards.

One way I told the player to think of it is that he is perfectly normal but often slightly wrong. He knows about Dragons and there breath weapons but sometimes gets them mixed up and has issues remembering them according to type.

As far as his 18 Cha goes that's fine. He is simply a very likeable fellow even if his bulbs don't burn the brightest.


What do you guys think? How would you work it?

Actual play experience here. First, a catch, Int 8 isn't really that low, it is still within one standard deviation from average (which -I think- is why in AD&D penalties didn't start until you got 7 on a score). From my interpretation, you can still read with some fluidity and have a decent -though somewhat limited- vocabulary. You'd struggle with math and wouldn't go with big words, and you'd need some things explained to you twice, but it isn't that crippling.

The same with Wis, you'd be gullible, quick to trust, easy to misguide, prone to overlooking stuff and impulsive.

Together you'd have a lovable idiot, maybe one of these charismatic leaders that lead happy masses into epic failure. I haven't played this combo in a while, since I don't usually have somewhere else to put these extra points.

Anyway this is very possible and not crippling at all. Feeble-minded, flighty, easily distracted, happy go luck, taking stuff literally, acting veery brave -though in truth being very stupid-, going with the flow and even convincing others that you have hidden depths. Kinda like the main character of The man who knew very little, Chance the Gardiner from Being There or 90% of what Pinkie Pie does -sans these brilliance moments-.

 

[Horwath]

I would say that in medieval setting a character with 8 int and 8 wis would NOT survive first few levels. Any adventuring outside their home village without babysitting from a party would most likely be a fatality within weeks.

Adventurers are adventurers as they are above average, and they get bored of their village as it's too simple for them.

If you spread out ability point buy to buy cheap scores(up to 13) that is 13,13,13,12,12,12. add human to that and you get 14,14,14,13,13,13 scores. Above average in half, and good in half of the scores.

 

[Corwin]

I'd play him like Chris Pratt's character, Andy Dwyer, from Parks & Rec.

 

[Valetudo]

Name him Tadd and join a sorcerers frat.