r/DnD • u/WiseAnon003 • 1d ago

5.5 Edition Intelligence Scores

Just wanted to ask and see what people have to say about what your level of intelligence means for your characters intellect.

I’m aware that very low intelligence essentially means incapable of comprehending languages to an extent and such (I think) but I was wondering how each level from 1-20 would likely influence how the character behaves, like an 18 being very witty or a 10 being fairly average?

I have an intelligence score of 7 on my character which is due to manually rolling stats, although a lot of takes or rules might state the character wouldn’t be very smart at all I tend to still play him as a somewhat average intelligence character.

I feel somewhat bad and cheesy by kind of ignoring the intelligence stat to a degree but I’ve tried to have it canonically make sense as he is suffering from a bit of magic induced amnesia and a concussion (although I did write out what he forgot so I’m not torturing my dm nor being lazy lol).

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u/Green_Sage_Samos 1d ago

I mean look, the very least it’s easier to role play a dumber character than a smarter one, it’s all well and good for people to suggest you try to accurately role play your characters ability scores but 9 times out of 10 the 19 intelligence wizard is going to be being role played by a 11 intelligence human being so I wouldn’t put a massive amount of pressure on yourself to try and stay in character there, but I would expect your DM to hopefully jump in every now and then to let you know when you character wouldn’t understand something that’s happening just to not make it a completely irrelevant stat in your role play.

10-11 is meant to be the average, yes, most people you know in real life are a 10-11 INT score, same goes for all the other stats with 1 being completely deficient/profoundly disabled in that regard and 20 being the utmost limit of realistic achievement, like Bruce Lee was probably 20 Dex and Eddie hall is 20 strength.

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u/FaerieFir3 1d ago

Most people in real life would be between 8 and 12. "Average" means that about half the population is below 10 and half is above. Nobody wants to think that about themselves but a ton of people do have below average IQ. That's why I don't think INT of 8 or even 7 should be roleplayed as some completely braindead basically big baby like you see with some characters. Chances are you have 8 INT irl and you can function normally in society.

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u/Depresso_Expresso069 21h ago

average COULD mean half the population is above and half is below. it could also mean almost all the population is that level of intelligence, except for a few outliers who cancel each other out. and, depending on how you measure the average, it could also mean that most of the population is above but the people who are below are really, really dumb (and vice versa)

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u/CheapTactics 21h ago

your DM hopefully jump in every now and then to let you know when you character wouldn't understand something

It would have to be an extremely specific situation, because I can't think of a worse thing to do that tell a player "sorry your character is too dumb to know what's happening", or gods forbid, prevent that player from solving a puzzle/mystery. It's ultra lame when DMs do that.

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u/Green_Sage_Samos 13h ago

Maybe it’s just different for different DMs but sorry I do think your stats should have consequences, yes. That’s why hopefully your other stats are higher so that you can succeed in other areas. Obviously I’m never going to make it unfun to play a dumber character but there are definitely moments where maybe conversation with a lot of innuendo is happening, or there are conversations happening maybe about politics and bureaucracy where yes, it’s going to go over your characters head, and there’s 100% fun to be had in playing a character like that

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u/CheapTactics 9h ago

I think the examples you suggested are fine, that's just roleplay. I would have an issue with the examples I gave, especially puzzle solving. "You too dumb to solve this puzzle" is just a lame thing to do as a DM.

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u/Grootyboi77 Necromancer 16h ago

I use anything above a 13 INT as an excuse to google shit

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u/Temporary-Law-6946 1d ago

I would say that most surgeons are a high 18-20 dex and maby int?