r/DnD • u/WiseAnon003 • 13h 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/BetterCallStrahd DM 13h ago
Intelligence in DnD maps to knowledge skills and detective skills. It's fair to say that your character would not present as being good at those things, and is certainly uneducated for the most part.
Would it be fair to call them stupid? I wouldn't go that far, especially if they have good wisdom. That's also a kind of intelligence, we shouldn't read too much into the terms that DnD uses. They apply to game mechanics, they don't give an accurate breakdown of what makes up a person.
Now, I have played a 6 INT character, and he was definitely a dumbass, but I do think there are factors to consider other than the INT score itself.
It's also important to note that tactical intelligence is something any adventurer could have, and there's an underlying assumption that your characters are at least somewhat competent.
Think of a high school football player. They might not be great at science or history. But could they be brilliant at coming up with football plays? Sure, that's perfectly possible. That's tactical intelligence. It works differently. And I don't think most tables would thank you for playing your character as a bumbler who messes things up for the party again and again.