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An intelligence of nine falls exactly beneath the average for an ordinary human being (which is 10), so the best advice is, he's got a good grasp on common sense, he's very good at convincing people of things, but at the same time, he lacks the ability to understand certain high concepts. For example, when the rogue or wizard starts up trap or magic babble, he might scratch his head, nod, and then reply "oh, all right, it's a miracle, gotcha" or something of that nature. In other words, he wouldn't be completely stupid, but there are many things he can't wrap his head around.
Forest Gump would probably closer to a 7.
I find it easiest to just take the Int score, multiply it by ten, and then replace Int with IQ, and there you go. Below average IQ that stems into retardation (7 or below) should be played as such. Anything above that is slightly below average, then average, and then above to extreme. Course...IQ isn't nearly reliable enough in real life, but for the purposes of roleplaying, meh, it should do.
Hope that helps.
His int isn't that low. I always assumed 8 int to be the 100 iq mark (due to 3.5 scales), so I would play him however you want (outside of professor level intelligence of course). As far as examples, I would go with any action hero that doesn't spend any time studying his opponents or use out of combat knowledge to solve complex problems. His moderate wisdom will help him with simple problems however, and you could make a habit of offering common sense solutions to such problems.
First impression here is a guy who is big, strong, personable, but who doesn't value abstractions or intellectualising. He's simple and direct, but not stupid or foolish. He's probably sharp enough to know his limitations, so he's not a boor about it. People with books do stuff he doesn't really understand, so he just forbears to comment on it; he'll trust the person rather than the knowledge if it's someone he is friends with, if they aren't a friend he'll trust his own sense of right and wrong.
About that 9 INT - don't sweat it. His God does his thinking for him. Play it like that and you'll do well.
From what I understood in 3.5 10 was average for a human PC, 8 was normal for the average human. Being 9 puts you at just below your average adventurer, but still smarter than your common layman. You really don't have to play him as slow at all, unless you want.
A technique I saw and recommend to my players when they are stumped. Is that for each postive modifier for a stat, write a positive adjective describing that stat (ex. +4, 4 positives). Each negative, a negative one (-2, 2 negative ones). If the modifier is a 0, then it is an unremarkable part of your chracter.
I recommend looking at the core rulebook and their descriptions of each stat to help you arrive at the appropriate adjectives.
These scores would be suitable for a person of extraordinary physical strength, a powerfully magnetic personality, sturdily built and robust who also has a deft touch and a light foot. He would make good choices and demonstrate solid common sense and would be smart enough to utilize his stronger attributes while recognizing that he is no genius.
These stats would be just about perfect for playing a version of Lancelot, the prototypical paladin.
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Let's see... STR: 18 He's strong, likely always has been, so would be used to people asking him to help them move, or pick up heavy things.
Dex: 13 well, he's also graceful. maybe he took some tao-bo from billy blanks, or some yoga-bootie ballet.
Con: 15 he's very healthy, likely only gets sick when everyone has the flu. maybe he's a health food nut? You could play him like one of those narcissistic lunk heads at the gym, but his CHA is too high to be the annoying sort.
INT: 9 Okay, so he's a little slow, but not bad. Kind of like the trucker you meet at the truck stop who wants to complain about gas prices, but if you try to explain the economics of it to him he gets lost pretty quick.
WIS: 13 Okay now he's looking like a country bumpkin sort. not so educated, but lots of good common sense. maybe he'll put out bits of wisdom like "a fish in the net is better than two in the river."
CHR: 17 Very likable. okay, I'm thinking Jethro from the original beverly hillbilly's now. except he's not a klutz.
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Jack O'Niel from star gate.
Thats O'neill with two L's!
He looks like a student that got C's and D's in school, I wouldnt stress an Int of 9 much at all, just dont go around solving all the puzzles
He's wise enough that being a little low in INT would not be noticible. Maybe he doesn't care much for "book learning".
He's average in int, no one will notice that with his mighty thews, shining teeth, etc.
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He's the perfect Paladin: strong and hardy, with a convincing and strong personality, filled with the wisdom of his god(dess) and not smart enough to recognize the contradictions and absurdities in the holy texts...
A nine is only barely below average. Forrest Gump is far, far, far less intelligent than that. Even DMs/players that believe, contra the way the actual game mechanics work, that anybody with an intelligence penalty talks like Cookie Monster and is all but incapable of ever doing anything smart wouldn't expect someone to play a 9 as particularly dim. Chances are that you know quite a few people with Intelligence scores of 9; depending on how you think the curves work, it could be that you know dozens of people with Int 9, and they're not just the very dimmest people you know. The guy with Int 9 isn't the guy you call up for help with your taxes or the guy who's quickest to figure out what the tip should be, but a nine in Int is no real handicap whatsoever.
You COULD choose to play him as rather dimwitted, but it's going to look incongruous a lot of the time, because even with a 9 he has a fairly good chance of succeeding on random int-based checks when a smarter charater fails. (The mechanical differences between different player stats are much, much smaller than a lot of people treat them.)