PDA

View Full Version : Advice on roleplaying half-orc cleric (god of strength) wisdom 17, intelligence 7



Adumbration
2007-09-26, 11:41 AM
So. Hi. I'm a bit newbie here and in DnD over all, have just played a couple of sessions so far. (+ Reading Order of the Stick from the beginning to end in two days)

I'd like to have some advice on how to play a very wise but very dumb character. So far I've just played him pretty much as if he had at least average (10) intelligence but since even our dear sorceror's familiar hawk is just one notch below 7, I've started to wonder if I should somehow try to roleplay it.

Also, if you have any advice for a newbie player over all, I'd appreciate it greatly! Our group basically consists of 5 inexperienced players and an experienced player as our DM. He's an exchange student from Australia to here, Finland. (If you're reading this, I think you've been great so far!)

Duke of URL
2007-09-26, 11:53 AM
An INT of 7 should imply trouble even speaking common clearly, and forget about being functionally literate. High WIS/low INT can be best represented as having common sense, folklore, and intuition, but not formal learning, logic, or critical thinking.

For example, (s)he will "know" something is true, whether it is or not, but will be unable to explain why it is true.

Bassetking
2007-09-26, 11:57 AM
High Wisdom, low int character? Well, the easy route out of this one can be summed up with the following phrase:

"Everything I ever needed to know about life, I learned from Kindergarten."

You're not bright. You're not inventive. You're not going to be the one who sees through the intricate traps, or who chains a devil in manacles of wits and diplomacy.

You CAN act as the party's "Voice of reason." You're not bright, but you're certainly not DUMB. Fast-talk, bluffs, and illusions fall before your granite-like grounding in the world as-it-is. The phrases "I always learned..." or "Momma Said..." or "When I was..." can serve well your representation of a character with a wealth of practicality, but a dearth of implementation.

For a first time investigation into this type of character, look into "Of Mice and Men"'s Jody, or, more accessibly and directly relevant, Tom Hank's representation of "Forrest Gump".

Playing with a seven intelligence means there's going to be some issues for you. Choose some character traits that will follow. When the party is hatching its great big plans to slay the dragon, demand that they spell out to your character "WHY" They're all dressing up in chicken suits. Have your character require his party to make him understand why a plan has to proceed in a certain manner, *IF* that manner seems to run contrary to common sense. Don't be afraid to point out "We'd have a better chance of fighting the Dragon inside the cave than outside. Dragons can fly, we can't." Use... Use truths. An in character distaste and displeasure at mistruths, subtleties, and convoluted logic may serve to illustrate a frustration at "A willful ignorance towards common sense."

If you've watched "Blazing Saddles", we're not going quite so far as "Mongo only pawn, in game of life..." But you may be looking to aim towards something closer to "Momma always said life was like a box of Chaw-ka-lits..."

Adumbration
2007-09-26, 12:01 PM
Just realized something. He's illiterate. He's a cleric. He has the spell Read Magic. "That's a scroll of Shocking Grasp." "How do you know? You can't read." "Well, my momma used to tell me..."

Oh, and thanks for the tips so far. I'm definitely going to try out some of them in our next session.

Miles Invictus
2007-09-26, 12:42 PM
Why is he illiterate?

Serpentine
2007-09-26, 12:54 PM
I played a character like this - half-orc rogue/Catlord, Wis ~16, Int ~7 (Shea like kitties ^_^). I played her as having a very well-developed sense of self-preservation. Living on the streets - and being naturally dim - meant that she skimped on the book learnin', logic, complex thought processes, etc, but her instincts and senses were honed sharp. Don't undervalue a moment of prescience; your character might be slow on the up-take and have trouble thinking through problems, but that doesn't mean he can't have the occasional flash of brilliance.

Belkarseviltwin
2007-09-26, 01:44 PM
Why is he illiterate?

Seconded. All classes start out being able to read all languages they speak, unless you are a straight Barbarian.

my_evil_twin
2007-09-26, 01:51 PM
Who is it who said, Int is how smart you are, Wis is how dumb you aren't? That's been my favorite definition a lot of the time.

I think it's a little harsh to say your cleric should have trouble talking, but he should probably speak slowly (since he thinks slowly) and avoid big words or complex sentences. When things get complicated, the low Int guy is going to have the hardest time keeping up.

On the other hand, your cleric is extraordinarily wise. He should nearly ooze common sense and perception. Although he's the least likely in the party to come up with a cunning plan, he's also the least likely to do any of the mind-numbingly dumb things that adventurers are famous for ("Black ball smells like ozone? I stick my hand in." "Unidentified potion? I drink it." "King of Killyouia? I moon him.")

I don't know why he should be illiterate. There's no minimum Int for literacy, as far as I know. He might have a better grasp of liturgy than everyday writing, which would explain him reading magic scrolls but struggling with the newspaper.

Querzis
2007-09-26, 01:53 PM
I played a character like that too (though it was not as extreme as this, he had 15 wis 8 int). Anyway, if you want an example, we had the choice between climbing a big hill and going in a pass between the hill and a mountain. We were also in hobgobelins territory. As everyone go in the pass I say: «We should climb the hill.» The Wizard say : «Why? We are not really good climbers, its gonna be very tiring and take a lot more time then going in the pass.» Those are the logical answers to this problems, its more LOGICAL to take the pass. So I replied: «Yeah but if there is archers on the mountain or the hill its not gonna be hard to hit us in the head». Its more WISE to climb the hill. Even though they were no archer, on the top of the hill we were able to see some hobgobelins preparing an ambush at the end of the pass just after a corner with two hobs with tower shield in the front and lots of archers and sorcerer in the back. We rained death on them.

Wisdom come from your personnal experience and what you learn from those experience. If you are wise but not logical/intelligent then you are not likely to ever formulate a plan, do some maths or prepare a trap but you are likely to see whats dangerous or wrong about a plan, question the utility of math in the first place or see through an enemy trap. Intelligent people are good at school or in a council, wise people are good on the street or in a tavern.

Edit: By the way I dont see why he SHOUDNT be illiterate. I had a fighter that was illiterate for roleplay purpose. He was from a poor family in a village where there were no book and learned to be a fighter from mercenaries, sure he talk 3 languages since he travelled a lot but there is no reason why he should be ABLE to read! So if you decided to make your cleric illiterate because he shoudnt be able to read I totally support you. The only class that should always be able to read are wizards for obvious reasons (if you cant read you cant even become a wizard anyway).

BardicDuelist
2007-09-26, 01:57 PM
To who ever made the "Of Mice and Men" reference: There is no character named Jody. I believe you are refering to Lennie.

As far as that goes, Lennie is an excellent example on how to roleplay this character's inteligence.

Bassetking
2007-09-26, 02:06 PM
To who ever made the "Of Mice and Men" reference: There is no character named Jody. I believe you are refering to Lennie.

As far as that goes, Lennie is an excellent example on how to roleplay this character's inteligence.

Mea Culpea, Mea Maxima Culpea. It's been... good lord, has it really been over a decade since I read "Of Mice and Men"?

Regardless. Yes. Lennie was the individual I misidentified. Thank you, Bardic Duelist for catching that.

Tormsskull
2007-09-26, 02:25 PM
I've always looked at Intelligence as measuring book smarts, knowledge, and the like, where as Wisdom measures common sense/instincts.

Here's an example:

Two people spot a dragon:
A high Int / low Wis character's point of view:
"Look at that, a Dragon. You know dragons have been around for a long time, they live for so long. And they speak Draconic, pretty obvious I suppose since the language is named after them. They also have what's called a breath weapon, which allows them to expel a substance from their lungs, like fire or acid for example."
A High Wis / low Int character's point of view:
"That things huge, I'm sure it is more powerful than us, and if I remember correctly it can spit fire out of its mouth."


I know some people in real life that I would describe as low Intelligence. They generally don't know much about history, politics, logic, academics, etc. They can communicate alright with words, they just don't use "big words". Generally speaking, unless you had a long time to sit and talk with them, you probably wouldn't even know that they had a low Intelligence (using a comparison of D&D stats to real life).

Wraithy
2007-09-26, 03:11 PM
one take on this would be that wisdom is instinct and intelligence is analysis.
if you whent for this approach your character would only trust their gut, if you don't think a person is lieing, then they aren't. this can be done mechanically by never redoing a sense motive against bluffs, stick with the first result. your first reaction is the "right" reaction, be impulsive and stubborn (although these traits aren't reliant on the stats, they do blend well).
to sum it up; you think with your body, not your brain.
and lets face it, with 17 wis your body is alot more reliable.

Citizen Joe
2007-09-26, 03:33 PM
Wisdom is knowing what was and what is. Intelligence is knowing what may be.

Intelligent people ask how things work, wise people accept that they do.

As high wisdom, low intelligence character, rely on tried and true methods. Don't get all fancy and creative, just "hit the nail with a hammer". Hold grudges, don't ask WHY someone did something against you, just remember that he did. Have a marked distrust of change, not because change is bad, but because you can't envision what it will do. Throw around the terms 'slippery slope' and 'precedence' a lot.

Wolfwood2
2007-09-26, 03:42 PM
I've always regarded intelligence in D&D as meaning that you don't have a lot of skill points and don't do very well at Knowledge or Search checks.

Be sure to highlight your lack of skill points by always having to go to your clerical powers for solutions. If you can't solve it with a spell (or brute strength) just turn up your hands helplessly and grin.

Roleplay your lack of ability to make even 'Common Knowledge' knowledge checks by always asking your friends for reminders on things.

Otherwise, give your character any personality you like. Don't let any of the other players tell you you're playing 'wrong' or the PC is too dumb to come up with a plan. A lot of a PC's personality and mental state will fall outside the scope of stats.

Citizen Joe
2007-09-26, 05:47 PM
As a cleric you get 2+INT modifier skill points (x4 at 1st level). Well you have a -2 penalty from your 7 intelligence, so you get NO skill points at all.

daggaz
2007-09-26, 05:53 PM
Zounds... I wouldnt say Lennie was very wise, either. He was just all around mentally retarded. He liked the puppies, he knew he would get in trouble but he played with them anyways. He knows he always smooshes them, but he does it anyways. He couldn't understand at all what George was talking about, when he forbade him to talk to the pretty girl. Anybody with half a sense of wisdom would understand that, there is no math involved. Its all about life experiences, and Lenny never learned from his. Hell, he couldn't even barely remember most of his. Lenny was nothing more than a giant ball and chain, and his only purpose was to give George character and cause him to develop. And to act as a major plot device.

Forest Gump was a far better example.

daggaz
2007-09-26, 05:55 PM
As a cleric you get 2+INT modifier skill points (x4 at 1st level). Well you have a -2 penalty from your 7 intelligence, so you get NO skill points at all.

You always get a minimum of one skill point per level. Same thing as hitpoints. (some people do play with negative con modifiers, believe it or not)