D&D General Your favorite low-stat character

[Voadam]

My favorite was a one-shot first level 1e AD&D game. I rolled really poor scores but came up with a magic user with a 9 intelligence, the 1e minimum to qualify for the class. At 1st level in 1e the attacks for magic-users is only one less than fighters or clerics. With a single light spell, no armor, and a dagger I played him as Rambo and got by on intimidation.

 

[Eltab]

My 4e Dual-Stat Star'lock dumped both DEX & STR (point buy), so I could not wear armor beyond Leather. By L10 I had decent-to-good Saves but I still had to run away from farmers bearing pitchforks (or any other melee combatant).

Edit: I also played the classic Basic Rules magic-user with one spell a day, a robe for 'armor', armed with a dagger, and 1 HP.

 

[Swarmkeeper]

The INT-5 Sherlock Holmes!

Wait... wrong thread?

 

[Shiroiken]

Back in the day, I got into an argument with a fellow DM about Raistlin from Dragonlance. He argued that a character with that low of Con couldn't survive, while I said a mage with enough intelligence and helpful allies like the companions could do very well. He decided his next campaign would be Dragonlance and we agreed that I'd build a magic-user (1E) with a 3 Str & Con, along with an 18 Int & Wis, just to see how long I survive. I was basically a mooch, adding very little to the group other than information and guidance, as all my spells were selected for survival. The other players didn't mind, not only because of my intelligence and wisdom (as a DM I had way more information and insight into the game, reflecting my character's abilities), but because they knew of my little "wager" with the DM.

About the time I hit level 4 the DM decided I was proving my point too well, and tried to kill me off in order to prove his. During a particularly nasty adventure, we were fleeing an army of draconians when we came to a cliff. The draconians were right behind us, so we either had to jump or fight (we'd be attacked in the time it took to climb down). We knew we couldn't win, so we jumped, with everyone but me taking 5d6 damage; I cast Feather Fall to the dismay of the DM. We thought we were in the clear when suddenly another band of draconians somehow were already at the bottom of the cliff, and when we fled we somehow ran into another unescable cliff! The party was really banged up from the last fall and didn't think we could survive another one, so I ordered everyone but the barbarian into the rogue's portable hole. The barbarian would take the portable hole and jump, then release us as soon as he got down (before we ran out of air). I could see the consternation in the DM's face, and when the barbarian jumped, he declared that everyone in the portable hole took half damage "from being bounced around." This led to a host of arguments by the rest of the group, because not only was I finally dead, but so was the thief and the cleric was at deaths door.

The DM stuck to his ruling in an attempt to "prove" his point about the non-viability of my character. The cleric was saved by the ranger shoving a potion of healing down his throat, but the thief and I were dead. While the DM maintained he was correct, everyone in the group knew that I was victorious.

 

[Lanefan]

Funniest low-stat character I've seen recently was in a one-shot a year or so back: completely random stats using a rather extreme generation method left one player's character with three stats of 5 (!), a 14, and the other two in between somewhere. One of the 5s went into wisdom, another into con, and I think the third went to intelligence; the 14 went into dex and the character became a thief.

A very, very incompetent thief.

She had two pockets in her robe. Hell knows how she got these things but one pocket was full of peanut butter and the other was full of gunpowder. And she constantly forgot which was in which pocket, meaning on at least two occasions she offered someone gunpowder as a snack, while watching her trying to blow up the peanut butter was truly hilarious.

Eventually, she ended up kinda mashing these two ingredients together by repeatedly putting them back in the wrong pockets - never mind that by the end her hands were covered in a thick layer of mostly-black goop - and I think unintentionally invented plastic explosive in the process!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Way back when, I asked a DM if I could play a human fighter with all 18s in the physical stats and all 6s in the mental ones. He let me do it.

Bear was a gentle giant. He had been trained to be a fighter because of his physical gifts and willingness to please. He found employment as the bodyguard to the party thief who more or less used him as a human shield. Others in the party were annoyed, but nobody wanted to go through Bear to punish him.

One day, the thief stole something he REALLY shouldn’t have, and was discovered by the City Watch. He ran for his life, holding on to his loot. He made it back to the party without being caught, and they ALL reluctantly (and somewhat angrily) decided to run. But before we could make it out, the Watch found us again. As the party scrambled to escape via a bridge, the thief shouted something along the lines of “Bear, DO SOMETHING!”

Bear stopped, turned and drew his 2 handed sword as he faced the oncoming watchmen. He held the bridge while the party ran. The guard eventually struck him down, but by then, the party escaped.

Because of real-world events, I had to miss the next few sessions of the game. I came back to find that the rest of the party had killed the thief and turned his body & booty in for the reward, which they then used to refurbish an orphanage in Bear’s name.

 

[toucanbuzz]

I don't get to play often, but played a DCC (Dungeon Crawl Classics, like old-school D&D mixed with 3rd edition) funnel (you control 4 peasants at 0 level and whoever survives a meat-grinder adventure becomes a 1st level adventurer). Purely random 3d6 stats rolled down the line.

Survivor of my funnel in our Appalachian mythology run was a 3 Intelligence, 14 Strength, 12 Wisdom fighter. Called him Forrest, figuring he wouldn't last long. Forrest proved me wrong and grew on me. With the Wisdom, he realized he wasn't as smart as everyone else and didn't like it when people made fun of him. He had a very "black & white" approach to the world: momma sez if something is botherin' ya, hit it and see what happens. His "momma sez" rules were his code and I ended up drafting my list of them. There was frustration as Forrest couldn't always grasp things or communicate as well as the others, but he never let this slow him down. Against all odds, this guy ended up being a hero to his valley, a symbol of courage and unwavering loyalty in the face of fantastic foes.

In 5E, there's a built-in assumption by design that "crap stats" = can't win as easily = not as fun. That's philosophy for another thread, but I liked that DCC by design forces gamers to often taken sub-optimal characters and see what you can do with them.

 

[Ogre Mage]

I'd say Misty Vale, my half-elf Divine Soul Sorcerer X/Life Cleric of Selune 1. On the surface she seemed like a charming but bubbleheaded wimp spouting hippy cliches. But appearances were deceiving. She was much tougher and more insightful than she looked.

Strength 6
Dexterity 14
Constitution 16
Intelligence 9
Wisdom 18
Charisma 18 (later raised to 20).

 

[Alzrius]

The INT-5 Sherlock Holmes!

Didn't I see him in Without a Clue?

 

[Gorg]

My favorite low stat character of all time?

Dingus! My Gully Dwarf fighter. I don't even remember the specifics- this was mid 1990s, and our games usually included plenty of funny smelling "green tobacco"... I just remember that he had very low scores in both intelligence and wisdom, not so great Charisma and Dex, and average strength. He wasn't even my creation! I owned the Dragonlance 1-4 module compilation and the campaign setting and such, and was reading through them one day when I came across a very evocative picture of a gully dwarf sentry. It was a skinny bearded guy with a helmet 2x too big, clutching a spear- and peering suspiciously with a one eye squinted sideways look. I showed the picture to my DM, and said "I want to meet THIS guy!!"

And we did, a couple of sessions later. We talked our way past him, and ended up impressing him so much, he gave us a guided tour of the gully dwarf city- and introduced us to "Da boss!" When the party moved on, he followed us. (Dingus hero worshipped our bard, and was in awe of our Elven Wizard) The DM then handed me the character sheet, and said he's yours now! Dingus provided quite a bit of rp fun, and a lot of comic relief.

Of my current 5th ed characters, Gary the mage has by far the worst ability scores. 9, 10, 11, 15, 14, 8, and I rerolled a few quadruple snake eyes... And he is human, so he got a +1 to every score, lol. I'm not even sure WHAT to do with my Ability score increases... Shore up those with painful penalties- like that 8 charisma? (thank gods we haven't run into any spellcasters that like spells with cha saves!) Boost his AC and remove that str penalty by giving each a +1? Maybe Con, for more health and better saves? Oddly enough he doesn't get hit very often- and usually makes his saves. The abjuration school has been a good choice so far.

I play him as a mid level noble's 4th son. Technically a noble- but not in line for anything. Thus he ended up a Wizard's apprentice and researcher. He's smart, perceptive, and has good horse-sense- but rather under-developed people skills. Not much of a talker, and little patience for fools or overly glib types. He IS, however VERY loyal, and those who impress him and win his trust can count on him. He's lawful good, a follower of Azuth, and was raised in a family that revered Torm. Gary is of Chondathan descent. He, and Paddy- our Cleric of Lathander work well together, and constitute a real 1-2 punch.

His career as an adventurer began when the wizard he was apprenticed to decided he'd taught him all he could for now, and it was time for Gary to put his lessons to practice and get some real world experience. So he sent him with a caravan, and letter to deliver to a colleague in Silverymoon. Bob and Frank happened to be along as guards. Paddy was encountered along the way, as a fellow traveller. Gary fairly quickly became fond of Bob and Frank- and their easy banter and lively senses of humor. They reminded him of his older brothers and cousins. He admires Paddy for his open hearted nature, generosity, and his charismatic personality.