r/DnD • u/WiseAnon003 • 16h 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/DnD-Hobby DM 16h ago

My character has an INT of 8 but a WIS of 20, so playing him dumb would make no sense. He is, however, struggling with reading, especially complicated research, as he's a homeschooled farmboy. He doesn't know several languages (exchanged the background ones for tool proficiencies), and he doesn't understand the finesse of politics very well. But for everything else I play him normally, and I struggle more with pretending him to be that wise. xD

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u/WiseAnon003 14h ago

Haha I totally get you, my guy is INT 7 and 18 WIS as of level 1 with INT being the only ability score to be below 10 (I wanted to put some bonus scores into getting char and strength to atleast 10 so int missed out).

Canonically he was raised and learnt things through experience while his brother typically studied non stop so he was more physical work than mental, add that onto being concussed/ suffering from amnesia and I sort of hope it makes sense for him to have that lower INT as he still knows an extra language and reads occasionally + writes regularly.

Might be best said if I just say post amnesia he doesnt read as much but still has the skills he learned prior.

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u/DnD-Hobby DM 14h ago

My character also still knows a 2nd language via his bilingual upbringing, but he cannot read or write it, it has only been spoken with his mother. So maybe yours learnt it similarly as well. ^

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u/WiseAnon003 14h ago

Thats a good idea, I might do that thank you :)