I seem to have permanently had my INT and CHR reduced to 3 so until I can afford a Restoration I'm not sure how to roleplay this.
I don't want to disrupt the group so this is what I do.
With my high perception I typically have noticed things before other players so I would say things out loud, "Look, pretty!!!" pointing at the enemy creature that I spotted.
I don't attack unless someone in my party has been attacked first. I don't move optimally tactically during combat, but don't provoke unnecessary AoO.
I have a high Sense Motive and am not sure when to believe other players or NPCs when they tell me things. Should I take everything literally?
Well Mr. Fishy's dog has a two Int...so go all animal cunning. You can't reason effectively but you can perceive a threat...real or imagined, someone makes a sudden move draw steel...
What class are you playing?
I would say you understand most of what people say, and understand when people are lying (though you probably won't have the sense to say so subtly). Something like a very young child.
Take everything literally and have ZERO tact. Think Forest Gump on steroids. With a sword.
Master Arminas
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You most certainly would NOT take everything literally. Your ability to understand intent is wisdom based. With a wisdom that high you would have little difficulty understanding the intent of someones words even if you didn't recall the exact meaning of the words.
Yes with a 3 Charisma it would be a good choice to RP the lack of tact. Saying everything straight without any guile and without any effort to soften your words.
3 Int is the lack of book knowledge or any skills that rely on knowing things. Suggestions might be to constantly ask what things mean, or maybe RP the forgetting of details. Maybe even mix up facts deliberately as part of RP.
If you have a penalty, you can still read and speak your racial languages unless your Intelligence is lower than 3.
I interpret this to mean you are restricted to your racial language. That may or may not be significant to your group.
Your low INT will not affect your WIS based skills, except for the ranks you should (?) temporarily remove. Your sense motive still operates optimally. You do not ever have the need to "think through" what your sense motive tells you.
This is the holy fool concept, possibly to extremes...
You don't care about propriety or cleverness. You do care about honesty and what is "real." You would probably treat a king and a beggar based only on their alignment and intentions. You may tend to be absorbed in how wonderful the world is and fail to understand basic things like how a door works, or how one bathes. Think stoner hippie.
Even better, you are continually utterly unable to explain what you mean. You have the most amazing insight into what people want and if they lie, why the dog is sad, and where it is bad to go, but you can only state this, explanations go the way of "ohh, fingers!!!" pretty quickly. Further, you charisma is abysmal, so you tell people straight out what you think of them, and you don't stop telling them until they show you unequivocally that they know they have an ugly nose. You also feel bad bathing, so you develop a very strong odour. Left to your own devices, you stumble around looking for the thing you have thought about lately, things like demonic cults, virgins, dragons, food, or the corrupt judge, cheerfully asking others to help you. You misapply things. If someone tells you you need to cauterize a wound, you will then try to cauterize the bent spine of a book. You get lost at the slightest opportunity, such as in the inn. If someone gives you instructions, forget half and apply the others out of order. Be huggy, squealy and generally uncomfortable to be around.
Just to play devil's advocate, are the other players in your game doing their best to accurately roleplay their high ability scores, in the same manner that you're trying to accurately roleplay low ones?
Nitpicking aside, a low int/high wis is really equivalent to a magical beast intelligence, combined with extreme cunning. The low Cha just means that you have an extremely poor force of will toward other creatures.
You aren't smart, but you're not a fool, either. You wouldn't be able to figure out a puzzle, but neither would you be a drooling idiot, blundering into a trap. Consider the reason that perception plays off of wisdom.
I don't think you should change your character's personality. I think you should take it to an extreme. So if your character already had a sense of humor, maybe he now tells very unfunny jokes that only he understands or are inappropriately timed. Maybe your character understands that he used to be smarter and now he's always frustrated and angry that he can't remember everything he used to know. It's one of the reason why dementia patients tend to get angry quickly. Also, Charisma can include your looks. I don't know how your stats were lowered but it is entirely possible that you are just butt-ugly right now. Maybe your Charisma is improved when you start to heal or when you become more comfortable with your new appearance.
As for the intelligence, you are already going to have problems with skills so it may not be as hard to roleplay a lower intelligence. I would consider keeping his ideas simple and straight forward. He should also think that he understands the plan when someone else comes up with an idea but he just executes it wrong. Just enough so that the others have to compensate, but not enough that he endangers the party (the other players still should have fun).
In my campaign, one of the characters ended up with an Intelligence of 2 for a day then slowly had it coming back until they found a restoration scroll or wand (I don't remember which it was). He played his character as if he was single minded. When the party got into combat, he picked an enemy and attacked no matter how effective/ineffective he was. He continued to attack until the creature was dead or another party member told him to shoot something else. Out of combat, he would throw ideas out no matter how they sounded. Imagine a brainstorming session with 6-year-olds.
Forest Gump is the easiest, a +3 on sense motive really isn't that big a deal ... unless you have a lot of points in skills in that regard I wouldn't worry about it.
Well, he specified his high Sense Motive. Since we already know his 18 Wisdom (which is a +4, by the way), I would assume he also has ranks. :)
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Also high wisdom = high will. You are probably very stubborn.
Wisdom also represents your willingness to think something through before acting. With the disparity between Wisdom and Intelligence, I would say that the suggestion to have great insight but a lack of explanation is great, but I would have the character deliberate at great lengths what what he wants to say, and then perhaps forgetting it anyway.
Scenario: The party has been asked to recover a team of miners from an old mine they were trying to reopen:
[After being silent for a long time, during an important discussion.]
OP: "Wait! Me need speak!"
Ally: "Hold, our compatriot wishes to say something. What is it, friend?"
OP: "Me want say..."
Party: "..."
OP: "No remember... [trails off, waits for others to return to conversation, and then, loudly...] Oh, pretty bird is dead! Noooooo-hoo-hoo-hoooo pretty bird!" [/clue]
Answering some questions asked so far. I'm a Zen Archer. A creature bit me and my INT and CHR was reduced to 3 over several hours. The party has no means to restore this at this time.
+8 Sense Motive
+11 Perception
Alignment: LN
I don't want to disrupt the party.
An example of something I did recently was we found the skeletons of this guy's dead party members. I placed the bones in to separate sacks. (I'm carrying them because I'm able to carry extra load)
I said, "Hey, your dead friends I have." *shakes sacks and grins*.
Later when we arrived at a temple and someone mentions the dead party members we found. I take the sacks out and dump the bones into separate piles and then try to arrange them and say, "You make good?" *pouts with big puppy dog eyes*
In combat I attack the nearest enemy. If there are multiple enemies nearest me I roll randomly. I take basic direction from other players. Like when a player says attack the guy with the red cloak if there were two I would roll randomly and shoot that one. So far we don't have any type of combat plan yet that is more complex than attack the people attacking us.
The other players so far haven't cut me out of loot, but I don't pay or buy anything on my own, but the other players buy stuff for me on my behalf. (E.g. lodging at an Inn, arrows for my bow, etc...).
Timmy!
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lol, i ran a LN raptorian monk in 3.5.
dm made us roll 3d6, no re-rolls, stats play where you land them.
6 int 18 wis 3 cha
very confuscious like, but it was all nonsense.
run him kinda like "rain man". not "smart", but "wise".
probably very introverted, and either rambles moronically or keeps mouth shut and the occasional few word answer thats profound
a deep thinker with horribly horribly wrong conclusions
On their core level, Wisdom is your ability to assimilate information from the outside world, Intelligence is your ability to process that information and make reasoned decisions, and Charisma is your ability to communicate your thoughts to others.
So, info coming in, processing info, and info going out.
Your character can absorb a lot of info, but he can't do anything with it other than base animal instincts, (perhaps slightly more), and he can't communicate with others on a meaningful level.
Your characters Int is only marginally higher than most mammal's and his Cha is actually much lower. I would most closely compare this too a smart, but stubborn, primate who is keenly aware of his surroundings.
Um he isn't an animal... he is a person. While he probably might have some difficulty with specific terms or complex ideas, He is still himself. A drop in stat didn't remove his language skills or training. He may get some usage wrong considering his condition, but that is pure RP. He might favor smaller words now but he isn't "the Hulk". He can probably still form sentences.
Um he isn't an animal... he is a person. While he probably might have some difficulty with specific terms or complex ideas, He is still himself. A drop in stat didn't remove his language skills or training. He may get some usage wrong considering his condition, but that is pure RP. He might favor smaller words now but he isn't "the Hulk". He can probably still form sentences.
It does, actually. A Permanent loss of Int will result in the loss of languages and skill points retroactively just as a permanent gain of Int results in a gain of skill points and languages.
Huh? Did they change something else now from 3.5e?
Int changes weren't retro active. As far as I know they still use the same rule?
Permanent Bonuses: Ability bonuses with a duration greater than 1 day actually increase the relevant ability score after 24 hours. Modify all skills and statistics related to that ability. This might cause you to gain skill points, hit points, and other bonuses. These bonuses should be noted separately in case they are removed.
Ability Drain: Ability drain actually reduces the relevant ability score. Modify all skills and statistics related to that ability. This might cause you to lose skill points, hit points, and other bonuses. Ability drain can be healed through the use of spells such as restoration.
emphasis mine
Permanent bonuses and drain affect everything related to the relevant ability now.
ok... I was reading up as well.
I was wrong about skills... but not languages.
Your free language skills are set from the Int score at the start of the game (level 1). You don't gain new ones when your Int increases and you don't lose any when it decreases.
The number of bonus languages your character knows at the start of the game. These are in addition to any starting racial languages and Common.
This heavily implies that the only time your Int matters for languages is at the start (level 1) only. After that Int doesn't matter for languages.
Well, let's take it bit by bit.
"Intelligence determines how well your character learns and reasons." So, your character doesn't learn very well, is horrible at logic and analysis, and finds new things hard to absorb.
"Charisma measures a character's personality, personal magnetism, ability to lead, and appearance." So it sounds like your character is unassertive, unsettling, or generally socially aberrant.
"Wisdom describes a character's willpower, common sense, awareness, and intuition." Your character is probably stubborn and defiant, perceptive, and in tune with people and situations.
So basically we have someone who is rubbish at learning new things and relating socially, but has an eagle eye for the practicalities of common sense situations and interaction. Good at seeing how people connect but unable to participate. For the lack of a better word, an idiot-savant.
If you have a penalty, you can still read and speak your racial languages unless your Intelligence is lower than 3.
Don't you need an 8 INT to be able to speak at all? Having trouble finding the rule.
I see this qualifier as protecting your racial language abilities in the event your INT falls below that threshold, but above the animal level of 1-2 INT.
I once had a character with 18 int and 3 wis; I played it like she would be completely aware that that King Cobra had an 1/8th second strike speed, was 96% likely to envenomate, and if it did death was all but certain unless an anti-venom was applied, which I didn't have...I wonder what will happen if I poke it with a stick.
With a 3 int/chr and 18 wis I'd actually play it like a wise old dog, or hillbilly sage. Low on book-learning, but high on common sense.
You'd tend to have a sense of what to do, or at least what NOT to do, with little to no capacity to explain, or even understand, why it was the right move.
Heck...you'd be Jar Jar; so might as well kill yourself now, lol.
Hudax, that's describing what happens if your Int has a penalty at the start instead of a bonus. I don't see any evidence for your point of view. You are assigning extra intent that wasn't stated.
I once had a character with 18 int and 3 wis; I played it like she would be completely aware that that King Cobra had an 1/8th second strike speed, was 96% likely to envenomate, and if it did death was all but certain unless an anti-venom was applied, which I didn't have...I wonder what will happen if I poke it with a stick.
LOL! Awesome!
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I once upon a time had a half-orc who was a barbarian.
I'd rolled a marvelously erratic set of stats. I don't remember the adjustments, but after adjustments I had two 18's into str and con, a 17 into Wis, and a 16 into dex. I also had a 5 into int, and a 5 into cha.
His name was Chak.
He was very gutteral and didn't talk much. Mostly he stood around and let the thief do the talking. He carried a giant club (battle club? Can't remember what it was, or even if it was AD&D or 2nd Ed with Half-Orcs brought up). But the club was about 6 foot long, bound with iron, and had whatever broken weapons he came across pounded through it to form spikes. :)
I played him as quiet and introverted, not having a lot of personality and not being very forceful unless he was mad. Generally, his vocabulary consisted of 'CHAK SMASH!' and 'CHAK NO LIKE!' or 'CHAK LIKE!'. He generally didn't make a lot of sense, but he really was good in combat, and he was always the last one to fall into traps, even if he went first. His perception was very high, so he'd notice things and not realize he should warn other people. The GM would pass me a note that the third panel of the floor in the hallway was slightly canted, so I'd just stop walking on the first one, and then someone else would walk into the trap and set it off. Finally, other people twigged to it and made me go first, so when I stopped, or if I walked funny, they'd watch what I was doing and imitate me.
Only problem was, Chak started finding this amusing, and he'd walk weird just to watch them walk weird. I remember one dungeon where we came across a room with a chessboard like floor. Chak walked across it by hopping diagonally, then hopping forward, then sideways 3 times, then back once, then diagonally two squares, teetering a couple of times to avoid falling, then back again. It took us an hour of real time for everyone to follow him, making dex checks to not fall out of the square they were jumping to. Finally, at the end, the thief was getting really confused, because he'd made a trap finding check every time we avoided a square, and had never found a single solitary trap. Unable to let it go, he finally tossed a heavy backpack onto a square I'd avoided. Nothing happened. He made the fighter toss his backpack on it to, nothing happened. Then he stalked out on the floor and walked around at random, stomping on squares and jumping up and down. Nothing happened.
"CHAK! Why did you jump around like that?!?!"
"CHAK HAVE FUN!"
The GM nearly fell out of his chair laughing at that point, and I nearly got lynched. :) Both OOC and IC. :)
Heck...you'd be Jar Jar; so might as well kill yourself now, lol.
He said only his Int and Cha were effected. Not that he had 3s in every last stat. >.<
Just realized that Restoration has a 100gp material component to restore a single stat that was permanently damaged instead of 1,000gp.
You REALLY need a restoration!
Hmmm, no personal hygiene . . . no tact: TITTIES!
Please, will someone get this man a Restoration, for the love of Diety!
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Um he isn't an animal... he is a person. While he probably might have some difficulty with specific terms or complex ideas, He is still himself. A drop in stat didn't remove his language skills or training. He may get some usage wrong considering his condition, but that is pure RP. He might favor smaller words now but he isn't "the Hulk". He can probably still form sentences.
The hulk had better CHA and probably int......
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Idiot-savants are not wise -- they're high-INT/low-WIS (not the other way around).
IMO the ideal way to play a "suddenly" low-INT/low-CHA/high-WIS is as an amnesiac who's lost his memory. Low charisma is based on forgetting all "social conventions" which people otherwise instinctively adhere to (i.e., 1: wake up; 2: put on pants; etc). But he retains all of his "street smarts" and suffers no penalties to Perception, Sense-Motive, divine spellcasting, and apparently hasn't forgotten how to a bake a cake or sail a ship or other "hands-on" activities (i.e., professions versus skills).
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Idiot-savants are not wise -- they're high-INT/low-WIS (not the other way around).
IMO the ideal way to play a "suddenly" low-INT/low-CHA/high-WIS is as an amnesiac who's lost his memory. Low charisma is based on forgetting all "social conventions" which people otherwise instinctively adhere to (i.e., 1: wake up; 2: put on pants; etc). But he retains all of his "street smarts" and suffers no penalties to Perception, Sense-Motive, divine spellcasting, and apparently hasn't forgotten how to a bake a cake or sail a ship or other "hands-on" activities (i.e., professions versus skills).
Not just that, he is severly retarded, the human minimum, barely above animal. He can sense if people are freindly or out to get him but not smart enough to understand much more than that.
MDT, that is absolutely brilliant.
MDT, that is absolutely brilliant.
Someone with asperger's syndrome might have a 3 Cha. Someone with mental retardation might have a 3 Int. Now combine the two. He knows how to talk, get around, etc beyond what most animals are capable of but he's at levels that represent a significant disorder in humans. The high Wis just means he's really good at noticing things and feeling his way through problems. Just try to do it tastefully. Developmentally disabled people shouldn't be portrayed as just comedy relief. Though I'm sure some comical situations are bound to arise. >.<
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See things, lot of things. And sees them the way they really are. Does not understand their importance beyond basic animal instincts (fear, hunger, lust ...).
Forgets everything, even knowing his fellow PCs or what they were talking about 5 minutes ago. But he knows that he feels comfortable around them and he does not want to see them hurt. And he sees that they care for him.
Cares absolutely nothing for social conventions and reacts only on what feels comfortable/uncomfortable. Will walk around in the nude if it is the comfortable thing to do but will immediately understand that he did something wrong when he sees other people's reaction. Might not understand what they are reacting to though. Also will have forgotten where he left his clothes.
And people who do not know him will react to him in the worst possible way.
...I don't move optimally tactically during combat, but don't provoke unnecessary AoO...
I disagree with this somewhat. You are clever but have little memory or reason. Physical combat is mostly muscle/reflex rote learned response. you are clever enough to realize that you can hit him easier if you flank him (my 9mo old cat has this figured out). What you can't do is reason out that the rogue will get more benefit if you flank for him rather than the barbarian. You also can't remember that the wizard often starts with a fireball so I shouldn't charge until he gives me the go ahead.
...I have a high Sense Motive and am not sure when to believe other players or NPCs when they tell me things. Should I take everything literally?
Your sense motive is still high so you should be able to tell when someone is lying. And you would probably immediately call them on it no matter who they are. "Why boss keep lying to king?" When you do believe them, yes you should take everything very literally for the short time you can remember what they said.
The way I see it, Quantum Steve has a very good analogy.
Wise people take in stimuli, and can see some kinds of connections
Intelligent people can take known information and understand and recall it in important ways.
Charismatic people can act upon whatever their desire is, and even convince others to help them.
OP's Character should essentially be all intake and unpolished interpretations. What you see is what you get.
This reminds me of an incident I had a little while ago with a family member as we worked construction. He has a lot of experience working with his hands, and he's been around the block (High Wis). He also can be a scatterbrain and he dropped out of high school, but just got his college degree at 40. (We were very proud, but still low Int). Besides this, he has nothing resembling tact, or knowledge of social conventions or how to interact with others (low Cha).
When I asked him for an explanation about what the next step in the construction job is, he had trouble forming a complete sentence, got frustrated, and essentially explained it using a series of smacking his hands as he mimed the actions. (With no exaggeration)
Let me know how your story turns out, OP.
You have a 18 WIS, you should attack the foe who endangers you the most. However, of course you have no Knowledge skills, so until your party tells you otherwise, you’d never think to pull out the cold iron weapon, etc.
In D&D, INT means book learning, education. Your wisdom is high, so you are not stupid just completely uneducated.
Also, your DM should not be tossing monsters at the party that the party cannot heal the damage of. When you hit that temple, why didn’t the party get you restored?
We are only level 2 and I was very unluckly with my saving throws.
Also, your DM should not be tossing monsters at the party that the party cannot heal the damage of. When you hit that temple, why didn’t the party get you restored?
With the most recent reply in mind, THIS. I can understand temporary ability drain, but permanent ability drain at level 2 to multiple ability scores is pretty rough.
Some good and interesting discussion in this thread. I like it.
When my group first started playing 3.0, we opted for the 4d6, drop the lowest. The first character was made and four sixes were rolled. Awesome...18 strength. The next roll? Four ones. The half-orc Barbarian "Blarth" was born and played to comical brilliance. It's difficult to roleplay, but, if done well, makes for a very memorable character.
Character died :-( Couldn't get resurrected. Thanks for all the input everyone.
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I seem to have permanently had my INT and CHR reduced to 3 so until I can afford a Restoration I'm not sure how to roleplay this.
Well I would never play a pc with those stats but if you had to you could play him as this guy.