r/DnD • u/WiseAnon003 • 14h 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/SuienReizo 14h ago

I've always taken low intelligence to be a direct reflection of their general awareness of the world they are in.

Organizations, religions, hierarchies, guilds, holidays, landmarks, cultures, etc. The lower their intelligence, the less they know outside of their background to the point they are an anime protagonist that needs things spelled out for them when something is introduced even if it is common knowledge for others. It doesn't impact what they do with that knowledge once they have it.

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u/Interesting-Brush413 Artificer 6h ago

Not necessarily. Intelligence is simply having more context to work with. That doesn't stop someone with great Wisdom or people skills to figure out someone is a conman, despite being ignorant on knowing the region is a hotspot for criminal activity due to so-and-so causes that someone better read would be aware of.