Post/Author/DateTime	Post
lordyuri24 02-22-04, 12:27 AM	I just had a gaming session, which was very short lived. This was because of many things, but mostly from a player who tried to run a Int 3 character. We just couldn't handle the Barbarian of the party being that dumb. Even after about 20 minutes of discussion none of us could figure out how someone could run a Int 3 character reasonably. This character would essentially be as smart as most kitchen appliances. Can anyone offer any tips for playing this penny brained character?
Hubbs 02-22-04, 09:49 AM	Yeah. Don't. Or better yet, since he's a barbarian, have him start misunderstanding folk and flying into a tantrum-rage. Either the others will get rid of him, or he'll kill them. Try introducing less combat-oriented scenarios and more based on skills, and the player might soon grow bored of his character doing nothing but stare vacantly ahead. Stupidity has no place in an adventure; even when you're supposed to be the brawn.
lordyuri24 02-22-04, 12:24 PM	Originally posted by Hubbs Yeah. Don't. Or better yet, since he's a barbarian, have him start misunderstanding folk and flying into a tantrum-rage. Either the others will get rid of him, or he'll kill them. Try introducing less combat-oriented scenarios and more based on skills, and the player might soon grow bored of his character doing nothing but stare vacantly ahead. Stupidity has no place in an adventure; even when you're supposed to be the brawn. He was playing him basically as the stupist character he could imagine, and it never did cease to be funny: [list=1] "Billy wet himself." "BILLY SMASH!" "Billy go bye bye." (Upon Dying) [/list=1] Basically the near-comatose stoner everyone knew in high school with a Greataxe. Boredom was never a problem. As for the place in adventure, this was more of an experiment group than anything. We had 6 characters, including myself as an NPC, all with a 3 in one stat (mine was strength); the only problem was with the intelligence and RPing it, everyone else managed fine (especially the Gnome with 17 Intelligence and 3 Wisdom) except the intelligence.
Morka 02-22-04, 12:56 PM	I would say a gorilla who learned to communicate via hand sings: almost animal intelligence. He should have absolutely no curiosity, and he should prefer to live the same day-to-day life. I would restrict him to have at least on element of neutrality in his alignment, since he is too stupid to understand all this. But other than an "experiment" :rofl:, I would stick with Hubbs opinion: DON'T!
Hubbs 02-22-04, 12:57 PM	I suppose 'experiments' are something different altogether. I'd assumed he took a '3' in intelligence to max out some other score, and that your original post was more of a complaint. Can a character even form coherent word structure at that point? If not, it might be better to make him grunt indecipherable sounds and use some crude sign-language. And tantrums are most likely plentiful, since he has the intelligence of an infant -- or bordering it -- and can barely understand everyone else.
Hubbs 02-22-04, 01:00 PM	Oh! And a gnome with a 3 wisdom? Now there is your pot-smoking slacker. Absolutely no attention span and no ambition.
wulfen 02-24-04, 05:12 AM	In our last party we had a Half Orc with 3 Intelligence and 3 Charisma. The stats were rolled and left as is so it wasn’t intentional. The Half Orc started as a Fighter and ended up as a cleric (F8 C7). Taking the exp hit along the way. We limited the character to 2 words per sentence and any out of game comments that would disadvantage the party we treated as in game. The character came off well and is one of the most memorable. Including 1. Screwing up pretty much every plot in distracting ways 2. Trying to eat my Character after I was polymorphed into a chicken. 3. Taking 6 months (game / real time) to learn draconic from my character (2 levels) then dieing and losing the language for another 2 months. 4. Running from an Orc army while level 4, turns and see only 3 Orc, stops running kills them, then there is 10 Orc, then 20 etc. 5. Getting into a fight in every town because he offended someone because of his intelligence or ugliness.
BriefcaseRonin 02-24-04, 12:11 PM	I doubt his intelligence is equal to that of household appliances, as they seem to be getting more advanced. He'd probably have the intelligence of air, old clothes, and/or a broken down couch. At Intelligence 3 I don't even think he could talk, just grunt and growl a lot. A character like that wouldn't be much more then comedy relief, that or a Close Combat Tank for the other party members to use.
Gingerbread Guy 02-24-04, 03:00 PM	Yeah, I doubt that an Int 3 character could grasp a language terribly well. As said above, probably a lot of grunting and maybe the occasional dimly associated word. Bear in mind, Int 3 doesn't mean a total moron. He's stupid and has the learning capacity of day-old oatmeal, but he may still be very observant [wis] and very expressive or self-aware [cha]. He's just... mechanically challenged. I would play him more like an animal than a human. You have to realise that, unless he has a low wisdom and charisma, he's not likely to do anything dumber than what a dog might do. In fact, he should be able to outsmart a dog more often than not. He might be interested in conversation, but still have no clue what was being said or might even draw false conclusions a lot. If there's anything I've learned about truly stupid people its that most of them don't know they're stupid. The stupid ones that realise they're stupid at least have that much going for them. He probably acts on basic instincts such as the desire possessions, food, shelter, safety and social status. This last one is going to be tough for him among humans, but hils failures don't have to result in violence, even if he's a barbarian. With a decent [not a neg modifier] Wisdom, he will still know the difference between right and wrong and with the right alignment may seek to avoid confrontations. Of course, he's bound to get mixed up every now and then. Otherwise, give him some food and social grooming and he'll be a happy camper. I can picture the group stuck in a dungeon somewhere, trying to explain to the dim barbarian that they need him to lift the portcullis so that they can escape. He just stares at them, not grasping their needs, but happy that he's getting all the attention all of a sudden. After a while, the party gets frustrated, and the barbarian starts to think he's being scolded. His cheeks heat up and he gets defensive. Now he's avoiding them and the portcullis entirely. Just when the party gives up, the Barbarian announces that he needs to poop [using no more than two or three words] and heaves the portcullis open in order to look for a tree or bush on the otherside. lol Could be fun, but overall, I don't recommend it. ~Ginger
Twilly 02-24-04, 03:35 PM	You could play him more like a monkey / chimp . Always look with your hands (instead of just looking, grab the item and study it intensly). - The wizard grabs his magnifying glass to study the gem more carefully. - You pick up the magnifying glass (when the wizard is somehow distracted) and start experimenting with it. First it scares the hell out of you, How did the wizard become so big! Then you keep toying with it. Always agree with the most charismatic pc in the group if you don't know what to say/think. Get confused when the wizard tells you to stop attacking the opponent he has dominated. Act on your emotions instead of doing what logic dictates.
Kupokpok 02-24-04, 07:25 PM	Don't forget to drool a bit too. remember, the guy's as sharp as a.... a.... blunt instrument? :rolleyes:
Hubbs 02-24-04, 09:12 PM	Yeah, but remember. Blunt instruments don't make the same hollow sound when you bang their heads against a wall. :D
BalancedOne 02-27-04, 02:56 AM	Actually he is smarter than any animal(not saying much, but bears mentioning)
Kolo 02-27-04, 12:44 PM	Grunt?
Trydan 02-27-04, 04:29 PM	A lot of this also comes down to what are the other ability scores. I mean, INT=3, WIS=3 will be a lot different to INT=3, WIS=18. However, I think that INT=3 is pointless for a character. If you are stuck with it, fine, but otherwise I'd ask the DM for a reroll (or even just the Default array - 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8). We all roleplay for fun, and if it's not fun, then it's not worth doing. Unless, of course, this is an "experiment" as morka suggested.
kisekileia 03-01-04, 03:02 AM	I'd guess Int 3 would be on about the level of someone with Down's syndrome. Capable of simple conversations, and able to understand very simple instructions, but not functionally literate or capable of abstract thought.
Poocho 03-02-04, 03:18 AM	I think most of you are being too harsh. Correct me if I'm wrong, but 3 is the dumbest a hero can reasonably be. Assuming he's a human, he has enough thinking ability to function; he just can't really process information well or remember anything well. He's not an animal or someone with a disorder (shouldn't disorders be taken care of by rolling on a table or something?), he's just going to need a little more explaning to understand things more complex than "Open the door." Depending on his personality, he will probably be just a follower, doing whatever he's told unless it's too complicated or if it's something he doesn't like. There should be some sort of official source giving examples of how people would be at different ability levels. Just my thoughts, Poocho :)
EvilDuck 03-02-04, 08:27 PM	Originally posted by Kolo Grunt? No thanks, I'm full. -Bad grammar and simple vocabulary is a must. Instead of saying "Let's kill the dragon and get his hoard.", it will be "Kill big lizard, get shiny things!" -Some sort of really outlandish phobia that is continuously acted upon is always good. Example: There's a half-orc war hulk in our party that attacks any dragon he sees. When our druid wild shapes into a dragon, the orc freaks out. It's hilarious. -No motivations besides pursuing base things: food, aesthetic things, stuff like that.
Lhiannon Sidhe 03-02-04, 10:55 PM	I'm currently running a ranger/cleric who is a priest of a wolf-god worshipped by the primitive natives in the land his people were colonizing. His farmstead was attacked by ogres when he was a baby and a group of natives found him and raised him. He took a head wound during the attack so he's not quite as bright as he should be. His mental stats are Int: 5, Wis: 14, Cha: 5. I play him as Feral and animal like. He relies on common sense and instinct to guide his actions, not logic. He dosn't understand why people thinks its strange when he eats off the floor or dosn't cook his meat. Since the people who raised him use primarily bone or wooden weapons, he finds metal weapons interesting and has taken the weapon from every creature we've killed who was weilding one. In the party's stronghold - an evil temple we cleared of monsters and moved into, he's claimed 3 rooms in the basement as his. 1 for his den, 1 for a den for his pack of war-dogs and 1 for his collection of metal weapons, which now ranged in the hundreds, with some masterwork and even the odd magical weapon in the horde.
Kolo 03-03-04, 08:01 AM	Originally posted by EvilDuck No thanks, I'm full. -Bad grammar and simple vocabulary is a must. Instead of saying "Let's kill the dragon and get his hoard.", it will be "Kill big lizard, get shiny things!" -Some sort of really outlandish phobia that is continuously acted upon is always good. Example: There's a half-orc war hulk in our party that attacks any dragon he sees. When our druid wild shapes into a dragon, the orc freaks out. It's hilarious. -No motivations besides pursuing base things: food, aesthetic things, stuff like that. Grunt. :D I'll post here some of the vocabulary my int4 barbarian named Mogg had, uh, "developed"... Shiny -Good Notshiny -Bad Shiiiiiiiny -VERY good Mogg Smash!-VERY bad Choppa -Axe Slasha -Sword Stabba -Knife Sneakypoo -Rogue's tools and weapons Sneakygit -Rogue (and halflings) Woody -Druid (and sometimes elves) Pinwoody -Ranger (Meaning the bows... arrows are "pins") Shaman -Clerics (and anyone who healed Mogg) Pansy -Wizards (and sometimes sorcerers) Booma -Sorcerers (Occasionally a well-endowed woman) Oograh. -(Most common meanings) Fight, Fighter, enemy, enemy of enemy, Brawl, Honor fight, Toilet, Generic insult, Slight dislike.) Ooloograh -Paladin (Ool-Holy.) Big Bad Oograh -Dragons. Mogg hates dragons, but likes their meat :D Ans some words like Big, Tiny (not small, everything's tiny), Up, Down, There, Take. And he speaks in third person. Ex; "Mogg Get in big oograh in cold place. Mogg get hit on head. Mogg not remember much after that." He could also, after three weeks of work, reliably count to three.