Good way to play a dumb character?

[JobsforFun]

I wanted to play a half-orc/orc barbarian who isn't to bright in the up stairs department. Sort of like Thog from OOTS but I was wondering what are some good ways to play a character like this? I was thinking of naming him Throg or something similar but not entierly sure.

[Sredni Vashtar]

I'm guessing you want to be dumb, yet still effective?

In social situations: Use small, simple words. Misunderstand, misuse, and mix-up common phrases. Ask questions, but forget the answers. Locate someone smarter than you and follow their lead (or do the opposite, who do they think they are anyway?). Don't consider alternate ideas about the things you do know (even if what you know is wrong).

In combat: Go for the simple, obvious route. You are a hammer, everything else is a nail. Fall for your enemy's tricks at least once in a while. (You'll have to walk a fine line here, or you'll be dead weight.)

If all else fails, remember that you're a barbarian. If it doesn't make sense to you, get angry (though you don't have to use a Rage each time).

[JobsforFun]

I'm guessing you want to be dumb, yet still effective?

In social situations: Use small, simple words. Misunderstand, misuse, and mix-up common phrases. Ask questions, but forget the answers. Locate someone smarter than you and follow their lead (or do the opposite, who do they think they are anyway?). Don't consider alternate ideas about the things you do know (even if what you know is wrong).

In combat: Go for the simple, obvious route. You are a hammer, everything else is a nail. Fall for your enemy's tricks at least once in a while. (You'll have to walk a fine line here, or you'll be dead weight.)

If all else fails, remember that you're a barbarian. If it doesn't make sense to you, get angry (though you don't have to use a Rage each time).

Thanks for a little bit of the insight, I of course want to be effective. I wouldn't want to hindre my friends in anyway. I will probably end up following one of our wizards, most likley the one who is a elf but was turned into a child from the fountain of youth when he was 600 years old. The other wizard is a Kenku and well, we all know how'd that go...

[rbstr]

I guess it kinda depends on what you see as wisdom vs. intelligence too.

It can be kind of tough to separate since in IRL "intelligence " kinda covers a lot of wisdom-type stuff.
Int in DnD would be picking up patterns and solving puzzles. Reading/comprehending. Formulating strategy. Remembering stuff from a book. Solving a math problem.
Where wisdom is more in-combat tactics, noticing things, recognizing danger and traps. Estimating math problems.

The moderate wis but low int person might get they're being lied to but not have any idea why. They might recognize that the pictograms on the wall will help solve the puzzle but not get the actual mechanics of how.

[Aett_Thorn]

Go for a combination of Fezzik from the Princes Bride and Biff from Back to the Future.

[Beelzebubba]

I think dumb people don't recognize sarcasm or subtlety.

Take people at the face value of their words, ignoring how they say things, will do a lot.

[Honest Tiefling]

Throg is a barbarian stolen from his tribe after training to be a protector of the tribe's lands to become a gladiator. Throg is aware that getting back is impossible (the names that the culture who enslaved him differ from the names he is used to, so that's an issue). He is a stranger to these lands and has a lot of issues adapting. His time in the gladiator pit showed him that the city is vicious in its own way, but in a way he does not comprehend.

Getting busted out of the pit by a child was really embarrassing at first, but now Throg realizes that the mage rejuvenated themselves, which must be powerful magic! And they must be important to somebody to warrant a second life. Throg is an honorable man and will not disappoint his tribe, even if he may never see them until he has battled his way to the afterlife. He owes this strange mage-child a life debt, and will repay it.

This backstory accomplishes:
1) How he is bad at being intelligent. He knows some things, but he either cannot adapt them (to heal this wound, we must gather thuk'kra root!...Oh. You don't know what that is. Well, I have only heard of it so, good luck!), and has issues understanding the environment he is currently in. (This guard is trying to steal my weapon! No city would ever want warriors travelling the streets without weapons, that's just silly!)
2) Explains why he would follow one of the mages. Not only are they clearly competent and/or important, they saved the character's life. Double points if the life debt is entirely unwanted but the barbarian insists because that is honorable.
3) Gives a very good reason why the character would not go out on their own, since they would presumably have a grudge against people who are not in the party.

Overall, I'd consider RPing him as a slow thinker that is having issues adapting. They don't read or write (or at least, not this language), don't understand phrases or large words and often get them wrong. They don't understand other people's customs, and really can't understand why people would do things in this way when the tribal ways obviously make more sense! When in trouble, default to violence instead of retreat, scheming or diplomacy.

[Demonslayer666]

There are three mental stats in D&D, all three combine to form your smarts; retained information, awareness, and social interaction. A low score in any could be viewed as dumb.

A low intelligence would struggle to retain information, and would confuse things often.

A low wisdom would be oblivious and not notice potentially harmful things.

A low charisma could be awkward in social situations.

[jaappleton]

I played a Half Orc Bear Barbarian named Grom. LOVED that character.

Of course, INT was his dump stat.

Grom once beat an entire Goblin clan single handedly, and declared himself King of Goblins. Wore a cheap copper crown and a tattered robe. Took a Goblin servant, and they discussed how to fix the Goblin economy. Their plan consisted of numerous stick figure drawings, and whenever Grom got in trouble in a town, he'd scream "DIPLOMATIC IMMOONITY".

Maybe that'll give you some inspiration on some RP ideas?

[Naez]

I've done this myself back in 3.5. I played a CG halforc barbarian with an Int of 5, total, not modifier.

Now the number 1 thing I did to make the character endearing was he recognized how dumb he was. Nothing is more insufferable than an idiot who doesn't think they're dumb.

As such he often would ask others for help or point out opportunities for them to shine often while doubling as comic relief. He had decent Wis and average Cha so he could recognize when the situation required skills he didn't have and had a party member help.

A dumb character will be the epitome of Occam's razor the simplest and most straight forward solution is their solution, which in dnd is almost always violence.

The biggest thing Int seems to count for in dnd is knowledge retention. So really you could just play a seminormal character with a horrid memory. Up to you really.

[rbstr]

I think dumb people don't recognize sarcasm or subtlety.

Take people at the face value of their words, ignoring how they say things, will do a lot.

That's mostly a low wisdom person. Those are all insight checks in particular.

[Vogie]

I need to stop reading old literature... I was confused, as dumb used to mean someone who couldn't speak, a la mute.

I think the best thing to do is just be very simple-minded. Like the Hulk, Samson, Drax from Guardians of the Galaxy, Hodor, Lurch from Hot Fuzz, et cetera.

[GlenSmash!]

The best play to play a dumb character is one that thinks they're smart. Use big words every chance you get, but mispronounce them. Come up with the most interesting tactical plans, that all involve charging in and hitting things with a big axe.

[JobsforFun]

The best play to play a dumb character is one that thinks they're smart. Use big words every chance you get, but mispronounce them. Come up with the most interesting tactical plans, that all involve charging in and hitting things with a big axe.

I was thinking of making a Google Doc of some big words for him to use but of course miss pronucing them/using the wrong word in the wrong connotation.

[ruy343]

I wanted to play a half-orc/orc barbarian who isn't to bright in the up stairs department. Sort of like Thog from OOTS but I was wondering what are some good ways to play a character like this? I was thinking of naming him Throg or something similar but not entierly sure.

"Wait, what's a money?"

"No touch! Glowy things not good - Ancestral magics not for you."

Just being completely awestruck when someone uses magic you don't understand.

You don't have to be totally dumb, but just not knowledgeable, and asking questions that seem obvious to everyone else. It totally gives your friends a chance to roleplay, deciding how much they keep you in the dark, and how OK you are with that.

[Brawndo]

I'm currently in a campaign where I play a Rogue with an Intelligence of 8. My main inspiration is Bolin from The Legend of Korra.

He's good-natured, helpful, and really useful in a fight, but not very bright. Of course, my low INT is balanced with a high DEX, which I can count on to save me from myself when I make dumb decisions.

Me: "Alright, I'll pick the lock, but I'm gonna check for traps first."

DM: "Make an Investigation check."

Me: (rolls) "4."

DM: "There's definitely no traps."

Me: (rolls a 27 on Thieves' Tools, picks lock, sets off poison needle trap)

DM: "The good news is, the door is open. Bad news is, Rinn is on the ground unconscious and foaming at the mouth."

Party Druid: (pours antidote into my mouth) "That went about as well as expected."

I like to make Religion/Nature/Arcana checks that I know I won't pass, and the DM lets me make up whatever story I like (it's never true).

I suggest ludicrously outrageous plans for the other players to shoot down. Sometimes they involve building a giant wooden rabbit.

I say things like, "Ice Spider Pass? Why do you think they call it that?"

Last week, an NPC told my character, "Maybe you're not as dumb as you look," and the whole party had a good laugh. (My character is in fact significantly dumber than he looks.)

I also play him as gullible, which can lead to interesting adventures, like that time a mysterious stranger approached me alone and hired me to sneak into a prison to murder a "very bad man." We still don't know the whole story, but that guy was kind of important and appears to have been in prison for his own protection, pending his testimony in a criminal trial. The king rewarded us with this man's now-vacant mansion as a reward for completing an unrelated quest. None of the other characters know about this (though the players watched the whole thing happen).

I gave 2000 gold to my character's sister, to help cover her husband's gambling debts (he gambled it all away and then left her).

When I went to visit a friendly wizard's magic shop and it was closed, I decided it was rude to break into someone's house that I'm friends with so I climbed up to the roof and shouted down the chimney while there was a fire going. I choked on smoke and almost fell of the roof, but for an excellent Dex save.

I didn't like the idea at first, but I'm having a lot of fun playing a stupid character.

For all the time they spend stopping me from investigating mysterious things by poking them with sticks, the party also knows that if they need a place snuck into, something retrieved, or there's an enemy that needs some holes poked in their kidneys, I'm the guy for that.

[Douche]

Instead of trying to make yourself sound dumber, try speaking a language that you know very little of, but people would know the common phrases. In other words, speak spanglish - but with all the other phrases you know thrown in there. Use this as much as possible to illustrate that you're not good with language.

For instance, instead of "How's it going?" you say "Que Pasa"

A guard asks you where the thief just ran to "Uhh, je ne c'est pas! El bandito ran towards la palazzo!"

etc.

I just think it'd be funny to, instead of speaking broken English, try to speak broken "every-language"

[fbelanger]

Drax from the Guardians of Galaxy make a good template.

[NinaWu]

If it's a dumb character who wants to be thought intelligent, maybe use big words they've heard but don't understand, use words out of context, mispronunciation of words, make comments on cultural things such as art that don't make sense, poor grammar, mix up proverbs by combining 2 eg 'people in glass houses laugh hardest' etc. Maybe they answer eagerly before hearing the question in full or just make stuff up when they don't know the answer. Have them agree with someone who has said something that was wrong.

[scalyfreak]

I always thought Jayne Cobb was a good example of someone with lower than average intelligence. He's good at his job, he's cunning and a competent tracker of whoever he has decide to hunt across the 'Verse, but I think we can all agree that he's not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed.

[Specter]

If you mean in terms of intelligence, remember that it also involves memory. You could be the semi-alzheimer 's guy.

- So when do we talk to the king?
- Dude, we did, yesterday.
- We did?
- Yeah, we did.
- WHY WOULD YOU LIE TO ME?
- I'm not. Believe me.
- Oh. So... the prince now?

[JobsforFun]

"Wait, what's a money?"

"No touch! Glowy things not good - Ancestral magics not for you."

Just being completely awestruck when someone uses magic you don't understand.

You don't have to be totally dumb, but just not knowledgeable, and asking questions that seem obvious to everyone else. It totally gives your friends a chance to roleplay, deciding how much they keep you in the dark, and how OK you are with that.

Agreed, do not if anyone still looking at this post but I really did enjoy this dumb adorable half-orc

The main bad guy of our campaign was in disguise and was talking on a stage to people who wanted to invade his Castle
Villain: "Would you like to step on stage?"
*my goes up on stage*
Villain: "Ladies in gentlemen this is an average half wit"
My character: "Throg's mom says Throg is below average *while waving of course*"

Never knew playing a dumb character could be this much fun. Now I just need to think of nicknames for the PC's in my party because who needs to remember names?!