PDA

View Full Version : A low Int character...



Milskidasith
2009-07-27, 12:01 PM
I'm pretty new to roleplaying; I really haven't done much freeform RPing, and this is my first game of D&D. I'm a cleric with 17 wis and 16 cha, but 7 int (not super low... but still pretty damn bad). I'm just not sure on the distinctions between wisdom and intelligence; I can't really figure out what would fall under intelligence and what would fall under wisdom. (besides that he's probably good at solving puzzles).

Strawman
2009-07-27, 12:10 PM
I think that in general, wisdom applies to the long term and the philisophical, while intelligence would be short term and detail-oriented stuff.

The character would know what the best plan for the party is, but would not know how to go about making that plan. The character would be able to get a read on a person's character and intent, but would not be able to figure out a person's motivations based on the situation they are in (A high wis/low int character could figure out that a king is selfish and evil, but would not be able to figure out what selfish and evil plan the kill might do).

At least that is my interpretation. The distinction in the game is kind of vague and suspect. I would recomend figuring out a distinction that appeals to your sensibilities, and then stick to that distinction consistently.

Douglas
2009-07-27, 12:14 PM
High wisdom: lots of common sense, very perceptive, good judgment
Low int: poor memory, can't handle complex things, slow learner

Solving puzzles typically (it depends somewhat on the type of puzzle) falls under intelligence, so your character would be bad at solving puzzles.

jmbrown
2009-07-27, 12:16 PM
Wisdom deals with common sense and insight. Intelligence deals with analytical and rational processing.

A low intelligence/high wisdom character will be naturally insightful but dull of wit. He knows the best course of action but not necessarily the steps to accomplish it. A wise but dull leader knows instinctively the most defensible locations but struggles in the planning phases.

Basically, roleplay your character as a simple man with great insight. He notices the minute details few characters can pick up on but doesn't care (or simply can't comprehend) the why's and why nots.

Gorbash
2009-07-27, 12:19 PM
Just buy a Headband of Int +4 and you have a reasoning of an average human.

Riffington
2009-07-27, 12:23 PM
Watch Forrest Gump.

Milskidasith
2009-07-27, 12:24 PM
Thanks for the help, guys, though I'm still a little bit confused. I'll try to follow the advice, although since the definitions given here are different from each other, I'll stick to Strawman's "roleplay it one way consistently" thing.

Riffington
2009-07-27, 12:28 PM
Another thing: you are perceptive enough to know you're an idiot. But you are also a good judge of character. So you are unlikely to make plans yourself - you are much more likely to find someone you trust, and listen to them. And when listening to more than one person, you can sort of tell which one is making sense and which one has an ulterior motive/is too blinded by a goal/etc.

Tengu_temp
2009-07-27, 12:32 PM
What jmbrown and Riffington said. Including the Forrest Gump part, and not only because it's a great movie.

Rhiannon87
2009-07-27, 12:34 PM
I've always kind of viewed INT as book smarts and WIS as "street smarts" or common sense. Your character will struggle with academic topics such as language, history, mathematics, puzzles (as already mentioned), etc. But when it comes to surviving in the wilderness or noticing minute details, they'll be quite good. It's kind of up to you to figure out how to roleplay the character-- they might be frustrated with their difficulty in understanding the things that come so naturally to the wizard or rogue, or they might be content with having a different realm of knowledge. There's a lot of interesting RP options to go with here.

Moriato
2009-07-27, 12:35 PM
When I think of a high wis, low int character the first thing that comes to mind is a tribal leader, or shaman. He may not know how a crossbow works, or have any mathematical or scientific skill, but he does know a lot about nature (survival is a wis skill after all).

Ask a high int character why the sky is blue and he'll tell you about prisms and the refraction of light.

Ask a high wis character why the sky is blue and he'll tell you a story about how some ancient creature or diety painted it that way in order to please some other ancient being for wealth or love or what have you

In a D&D world, they could very well both be right.

Berserk Monk
2009-07-27, 12:36 PM
wisdom: common sense
intelligence: book smarts

Darcand
2009-07-27, 12:36 PM
With those stats I would think of yourself as a street-smart charmer with little in the way of education.

Voldecanter
2009-07-27, 12:38 PM
If you go by 1 INT = 10 IQ , You have 70 IQ .

That places you in the below 80 range , below 80 is considered mentally 'innocent' so maybe watch "I am Sam" or "Forest Gump" for inspiration if you want to RP a 70 IQ . Or just act like act like a low-functioning autistic ( Some Autistic people have great awareness of their surroundings , like they know everything in the room and it's EXACT Place , however this is a mental disorder and not nessesarily a low IQ , this would make more sense for a flaw.)


Or you can just take + INT Item .

Milskidasith
2009-07-27, 12:40 PM
I'm getting a lot of "I notice minute details" posts despite the fact that search is an int skill, and thus I suck at it.

Thank you for all the help.

Spiryt
2009-07-27, 12:44 PM
Or just act like act like a low-functioning autistic ( Some Autistic people have great awareness of their surroundings , like they know everything in the room and it's EXACT Place , however this is a mental disorder and not nessesarily a low IQ , this would make more sense for a flaw.)


But autism is actually good for high Intelligence, very low wisdom, not reverse.


I'm getting a lot of "I notice minute details" posts despite the fact that search is an int skill, and thus I suck at it.


But Spot skill that you need for "noticing" things is wisdom skill. Search is for actually searching something methodically in some area.

And thus low intelligence is indeed bad for this.

Tengu_temp
2009-07-27, 12:44 PM
I've always kind of viewed INT as book smarts and WIS as "street smarts" or common sense.

I always cringe at the "intelligence = book smarts, wisdom = street smarts" connection. If that'd be true, then why most rogues have decent to high intelligence and moderate to low wisdom? Book smarts = various Knowledge skills.


If you go by 1 INT = 10 IQ , You have 70 IQ .


I'm a bigger fun of IQ = int*5+50 (so 85 IQ in this case). Still not accurate, but closer to real life statistics.


I'm getting a lot of "I notice minute details" posts despite the fact that search is an int skill, and thus I suck at it.


Spot, however, is a wisdom-based skill. Got ninja-ed on that, of course.

Milskidasith
2009-07-27, 12:46 PM
I don't see notice anywhere on the D&D wiki, unless you mean spot.

Tengu_temp
2009-07-27, 12:51 PM
Yes, I meant spot (and fixed it in my post, as you can see). Too much 4e and Mutants & Masterminds.

jmbrown
2009-07-27, 12:56 PM
I'm getting a lot of "I notice minute details" posts despite the fact that search is an int skill, and thus I suck at it.

Thank you for all the help.

Yes you notice them but you have trouble analyzing them. A high wisdom person will notice a loose floorboard but a high intelligence character connects the loose floorboard to a trap cleverly hidden in the wall.

That's the difference between search and spot. Search is an analytical action. Spot is an intuitive action.

Riffington
2009-07-27, 01:07 PM
I always cringe at the "intelligence = book smarts, wisdom = street smarts" connection. If that'd be true, then why most rogues have decent to high intelligence and moderate to low wisdom? Book smarts = various Knowledge skills.

Also, nobody really has a clear understanding of what street smarts are.

If street smarts = "it's dark and the neighborhood is bad. Maybe you shouldn't go for a walk in your 4" heels" then yeah, that's wisdom.

If street smarts = "know to talk to Officer Dan because otherwise his partner will bust up your poker ring" then that's Intelligence+Knowledge Local.

If street smarts = "always has the last word" then it's mostly Cha.

So street smarts can mean "Intelligence plus education that is taught on the street rather than in the classroom". But it's used to mean so many different things that it could be Int, Wis, Cha, or Dex depending on the specific sentence.

Devils_Advocate
2009-07-27, 07:09 PM
It has been said "Intelligence is knowing what to do; Wisdom is doing it. (http://www.angryflower.com/lordot.gif)" Also, "Intelligence is how smart you are; Wisdom is how dumb you aren't."

But if you ask me, one of the best guidelines to keep in mind is that animals tend to have Wisdom over 10, but significantly lower Intelligence. So, if an animal can preform a mental task about as well as or better than an average human, it's not Int-based. If humans can perform a mental task better than any animal, it's probably Int-based.

For example, your character probably understands very well that "Fire bad!", while the party Rogue may not fully grasp this.


If you go by 1 INT = 10 IQ , You have 70 IQ .

As I recall, if a random human has 3d6 Int, then 1 point of Int equals 5 points of IQ. Of course, converting Int to IQ only tells you the IQs of characters in the setting. IQ measures intelligence relative to average human intelligence, which is not a constant (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect). So that still leaves open the question of how smart the average human in D&D is compared to the average human in, say, the modern United States. So direct comparisons in intelligence between people in the real world and people in D&D still aren't possible until you establish how smart 10.5 Int is. Yeah, we know that it's an IQ of 100, but that's not a fixed level of intelligence.
So 7 Int is actually an IQ of around 82, whatever that means in DnDland.

Ninetail
2009-07-28, 01:02 AM
I'm pretty new to roleplaying; I really haven't done much freeform RPing, and this is my first game of D&D. I'm a cleric with 17 wis and 16 cha, but 7 int (not super low... but still pretty damn bad). I'm just not sure on the distinctions between wisdom and intelligence; I can't really figure out what would fall under intelligence and what would fall under wisdom. (besides that he's probably good at solving puzzles).

Your character is a very intuitive and likely very spiritual person. You aren't much for the more academic pursuits. You're poor when it comes to analysis and interpretation, have a poor short-term memory, have trouble reading or writing lengthy texts with complicated vocabulary or performing arithmetic. You can't construct complicated thoughts, either; your planning skills are limited.

However, you have an innate sense of the way the world works. You are likely to trust to faith and fortune rather than to "science". (Speaking of fortune, you probably can't sit and calculate statistical odds, but you have a good instinctive grasp of probabilities, and your first impulse is almost always toward the "right" choice. You might screw yourself up if you try to sit there and think things through -- second-guessing yourself -- but when you follow your first instinct, it rarely leads you astray.)

You're very observant and have a good long-term memory. Presented with a course of action, you can probably tell whether it's a good idea or a bad idea -- at least, based on what you know about it.

You have an iron will, but you're very understanding and empathetic, so you usually don't come off as negatively stubborn. You connect naturally with people. You can't prepare a speech to save your life, but when you extemporize, you're a gifted orator; your speech is simple, but moving. You're not a talented formal debater, but you can usually get others to come around to your position when you're speaking from the heart. You have a natural connection to people, just as you do to your faith and the greater world.

You know enough to realize that you're not as bright as most people. You probably leave the decision-making to others, instead using your gifts as a sounding board -- considering the presented idea to determine whether it's a wise course or not. You are likely to be a natural mediator.

One way of playing it, anyway.

Winthur
2009-07-28, 01:22 AM
Try entering this kind of mindset:

I don't trust this guy. Maybe it's the way he was ranting about destroying the Pharaoh right before he told all those Steves to kidnap us? Nyeh, I'm probably just being paranoid.
:smalltongue:

Milskidasith
2009-07-28, 01:24 AM
What's with the Nyeh? It reminds me of Joey from YuGiOh abridged.

Winthur
2009-07-28, 01:44 AM
Maybe because it IS from YGO Abridged. Nyeh. :smalltongue:

Lysander
2009-07-28, 02:26 AM
Another way of looking at it is that Wisdom consists of value judgments, while intelligence consists of mechanical analysis.

A smart person can tell you if a battle strategy is tactically sound. A wise person can tell you if fighting is the only option.

A smart person can understand an engineer's proud explanation of how a complex machine works. A wise person will notice that the engineer is lonely and unmarried.

A smart person will count cards in poker. A wise person will call someone's bluff.

A smart person will consult a map. A wise person will ask a local for directions.

A smart person knows the names and apperance of edible plants. A wise person knows to taste a single berry of an unknown plant and see if it makes them sick or not before eating more.

A smart person is widely read. A wise person paid attention to their teacher.