D&D 5E Removing INT, replacing it with?

[DND_Reborn]

Physical: a combination of Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution.
Mental: a combination of Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma
Magical: a measure of one's affinity to magic, the supernatural, and the paranormal
Power: a measure of your character's ability to affect others in some way
Defense: a measure of your character's ability to resist others in some way
Luck: a measure of your character's good fortune.

This reminds me of an idea from d20 SW and combining it with a system I was designing where there were three abilities and three saves.

But then you run into this...

we are playing a completely different RPG with vastly different dice mechanics. But that's what I think it would take to remove Intelligence (or any other ability score) from the game.

 

[billd91]

Replace it with Brain and rate it with Big, Medium, and Little.
Or is that for my Winnie the Pooh RPG? I forget...
wanders off and hums in the sun

 

[Baron Opal II]

Well, you've put a good bit of though into it, and the consequences of it. It sounds reasonable at first blush.

Of all the mental stats I would remove or condense Intelligence would be the last. I would sooner merge Wisdom and Charisma into Willpower and leave attractiveness, intimidation, seduction and the like to RP, skills, and feats. So this seems like an odd choice to make. But, let us know how it works.

 

[J.Quondam]

everything is unkillable until it gets killed

Just give the sacred cow a statblock.
PCs will take care of the rest.

 

[Mordhau]

The simplest thing to replace Int with it Education, it's 90% there already.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

The simplest thing to replace Int with it Education, it's 90% there already.

Yeah, I can see it being only knowledge and leaving logic, reasoning and all that to RP. If a player want to play an idiot who knows lots of trivia, it would be possible.

They'd be playing as me in a fantasy setting, though.

 

[Oofta]

Replace it with Brain and rate it with Big, Medium, and Little.
Or is that for my Winnie the Pooh RPG? I forget...
wanders off and hums in the sun

But if you use Brain, what will Pinkie do? He'll never be able to take over the world now!

 

[Winterthorn]

I have often thought to replace Intelligence with Memory. Alternatively one could use Learning or Education. Education sounds a little too modern though (btw Traveller, almost as old as D&D, has 6 stats of which Education was used to good effect in that system), so I would go with the more antiquainted term Learning. (IIRC GURPS used IQ, but that had similar problems to play effectively like INT.) With Learning it is I think conceptually easier to play a poorly/highly educated character than an idiot/genius - and it I think it would be easier for the DM to adjudicate situations. YMMV

 

[Malmuria]

Stealing liberally from other games, I would reduce the classic six down to three: Fortitude (Str and Con), Agility (Dex) and Presence (int, wis, cha). Beyond that, anything your character should know based on their background, they do. If something is uncertain you could roll Presence, or roll 2d6 as a dm and figure out the result.

So yes this means that the character will be about as clever and persuasive as we are as players. But that's fun for me, rather than just rolling to succeed all the time.

 

[Jacob Lewis]

Being intelligent doesn't make you knowledgeable. It just means you have the capacity for comprehension, the mental dexterity to work out problems quickly, and to make logical deductions on your own.

The problem is the system itself. We have a tendency to rely on codified representations of everything in the game as if it had real-life equivalencies. But that is the nature of the game. Just remember you don't need to roll dice for everything.

You can start by breaking your players out of the habit of asking for rolls all the time. Does the ranger really need a roll to see if he can identify a plant? Unless it has a significant game reward, just say yes. It's not unreasonable.

Likewise, your character with a soldier background probably knows a few things about forced marches, basic patrol strategies, and local rank insignias. Just talk to your players, have a discussion, figure out what makes sense. It's a lot more fun to share your world rather than hiding it from behind pointess skill checks.