Need help for role-playing low intelligence with high wisdom

[Pikashell]

Hello! Yesterday I rolled for stats for my next character. I will be playing a cleric and I rolled pretty nice stats besides a 7. I plan on putting the 7 in intelligence but I'm really not sure how I'll be able to properly roleplay a 7 int and 17 wis character. Funnily enough irl I'd probably have higher int than wis and it's really hard to relate to this guy.

In terms of backstory my character was a warrior of a centaur tribe but one day he got seriously injured and had a near death experience. He barely made it alive and during his recovery he started recieving visions of a deity telling him to become a man of god and spread his message.

My questions are: How do I role play a character with low intelligence and high wisdom? Should I put the 7 in dex instead because of his injury and near death experience?

[Naanomi]

Intelligence in this edition can mean a lot of things; it can be uneducated instead of ‘unsmart’... what is your background?

[Pikashell]

Intelligence in this edition can mean a lot of things; it can be uneducated instead of ‘unsmart’... what is your background?

I'm going for outlander

[Naanomi]

I’d go with ‘uneducated’, you were raised in the plains with your isolated tribe, what do you know about magic or other people’s and their beliefs? You were a runner and hunter; you didn’t need to know more about animals and plants than what was edible or not. Sure, you may be a bit gullible because of that naivety (and fall for illusions easily...) but you have good instincts that get you by well enough. Trust your gut not your head

[OldTrees1]

One example:
You understand a lot but know little. Intuitively things just make sense but you don't know why they are true. On rare occasions your gut instinct is wrong / incomplete and you don't have a foundation to double check it. On the other hand you often reach a suitable / workable conclusion faster than it would take to "figure it out" which can appear like foresight or precognition, but really it is just your gut instinct.

You are also very observant, maybe more than you realize. As the party tries to figure out who murdered the count, you have a gut instinct it was the viceroy. You can't explain why because it is "just a gut feeling", however actually you had subconsciously noticed the viceroy carrying a concealed weapon.

You also have trouble with "figuring". If you don't have a gut instinct, and you take the time to think about the situation, you will probably draw a wrong conclusion. Maybe just an incomplete conclusion. As a result maybe you have low confidence in your own reasoning unless your gut chimes in.

[Naanomi]

Mechanically, low INT means...
~bad at knowing/recalling facts about a variety of topics
~Bad at noticing details via investigation, and thus are vulnerable to illusions
~don’t resist some magic, mostly Psionic type effects
~are very vulnerable to intellect devourers

[Trafalgar]

Go for Forest Gump.

"I don’t know if we each have a destiny, or if we’re all just floatin’ around accidental-like on a breeze. But I, I think maybe it’s both."

"When I got tired, I slept. When I got hungry, I ate. When I had to go, you know, I went."

"Mama always said, dying was a part of life. I sure wish it wasn’t."

"Now, mama said there’s only so much fortune a man really needs… and the rest is just for showing off."

[Unoriginal]

As an example, Floon Bragmar, from the Dragon Heist module, has 7 INT. He's fully literate, is competent at his day job as a gigolo, and has successfully pulled at least one criminal scheme when the occasion presented itself. But he's definitively the vapid, brainless beauty type.

Low INT high WIS is generally "notice a lot of things but don't know much".

[TigerT20]

Low-int characters can be a great source of comedy but not in the way you think.

Detritus from Discworld, for example. He isn't actually that stupid, but he's still considered quite thick and is constantly trying to prove everyone wrong; so, for example, when a dog starts talking to him he doesn't tell anyone because he a) doesn't know if dogs always do that and have just never done it before with him in the room and b) doesn't want to be seen as the idiot that didn't know dogs can talk.

So one view could be that they're quite reclusive and don't really ask questions.

On the other hand, you could also portray it as someone who is just constantly barraging the other party members with questions, passing on all information to someone more intelligent as soon as you get it, and generally showing the entire world how much basic information they lack.

Another view could just be that they ask stupid questions. Like 'what's the opposite of pork?' (it's salmon, the pig lives lazily but the salmon opposes the river's current and conquers it) or 'can I play a Kender?' (the answer is always no).

It's your decision what you want to go for really. Maybe your Charisma score could let you decide?
Just try to avoid something that'll annoy the rest of the group unless your character is meant to do that, and even then try and make sure that it's only the characters getting annoyed, not the players.

[Samayu]

INT can equal logic and knowledge, while WIS can be intuition.

Watch what the PHB says about skill checks:

INT: Intelligence measures mental acuity, accuracy of recall and the ability to reason. Logic, memory, education, deduction. Arcana, history, investigation, nature, religion, communication, estimation, disguise forgery, lore.

WIS: Wisdom reflects how attuned you are to the world around you and represents perceptiveness and intuition. Reading body language, understanding feelings, noticing the environment, caring for the injured.Animal handling, insight, medicine, perception, survival, gut feelings.

[Greywander]

High INT, low WIS I typically associate with an eccentric, absent minded genius.

Low INT, high WIS would be more like the reliable farmhand who isn't well educated, but has a lot of practical knowledge and is very aware of their surroundings.

This is also born out with the skills and their associated ability scores: INT is mostly knowledge skill, while WIS includes things such as Medicine, Animal Handling, Survival, Insight, and Perception. Practical, pragmatic, and down-to-earth.

[Naanomi]

INT/WIS disparity isn't the stat I usually struggle most with. I think the biggest challenge is very high CHA with very low INT. I had a 3e Sorcerer rocking 4 INT and 30+ CHA... why is my 'got kicked in the head by a mule and now can cast spells' guy so convincing to others?

[CMCC]

Do you watch critical role?

[noob]

INT/WIS disparity isn't the stat I usually struggle most with. I think the biggest challenge is very high CHA with very low INT. I had a 3e Sorcerer rocking 4 INT and 30+ CHA... why is my 'got kicked in the head by a mule and now can cast spells' guy so convincing to others?

Presence.
Maybe that sorcerer just makes people subconsciously feel their power just by the way they walk confidently.
Maybe this sorcerer despite not finding the right word tells them with the right intonation.
Or yet maybe you can just feel being crushed and their superiority due to their magic actually crushing you a bit just because they are looking at you.
Or their garishly flamboyant clothes make them look heavier and just makes you disoriented enough they seize the opportunity to sway your opinion toward their side because intuitively people respect might and those who looks mighty inspires that intuitive respect (this is why things like shoulder pads actually exists).