I am going to play a sage sorcerer with extremely high intelligence (over 30). To better represent this extreme intellect, I intend to ask my GM to allow my character to have eidetic memory (also known as photographic memory). Since I do not have eidetic memory myself, it will fall to the GM (and other players, I suppose) to help remind me out of game of any important details that I might forget, but that my character wouldn't.
Does such a request strike you as cheating, unfair, cheesy, or in some manner unpalatable to your personal senses? I wonder if I might be asking too much.
As long as the intelligence isn't acquird through cheesy means, it seems to stand that you'd need to simulate that your character is smarter than you, just as a 7 int barbarian should not be solving every puzzle the party faces. Plus, it will involve all the players and they get opportunities to make you as a human look dumb, and isn't that what friendship is really about?
If it helps, the character has a +24 or higher mod in every knowledge skill.
If nothing else, I'm going to have the knowledge skill opened up at all times when playing said character. That table of DCs (almost all of which I auto-pass against) means my character automatically knows a great deal about his surroundings. Among other things, he will never truly become lost, as he will always know the closest community or noteworthy sight (and will be able to tell you about its history, local laws, and secrets as well).
I think this has a lot of potential to be fun.
I am going to play a sage sorcerer with extremely high intelligence (over 30). To better represent this extreme intellect, I intend to ask my GM to allow my character to have eidetic memory (also known as photographic memory). Since I do not have eidetic memory myself, it will fall to the GM (and other players, I suppose) to help remind me out of game of any important details that I might forget, but that my character wouldn't.
Does such a request strike you as cheating, unfair, cheesy, or in some manner unpalatable to your personal senses? I wonder if I might be asking too much.
I think they should do that anyway.
My mindchemist alchemist has an "eidetic memory". My suggestion? WRITE EVERYTHING DOWN! I'm constantly taking notes on everything so I can reference it in game.
Remember that an eidetic memory and a photographic memory are not the same. Someone with an eidetic memory can call upon the memory of all their senses, not just visual.
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Well, the GM/players could just tell you every time you know something. Eidetic memory and instant recall are not the same thing. I know of ONE person who has photographic memory. And while he can tell you anything he has ever read, he needs to be prompted to bring back the "page". He doesn't just go around spouting pages of stuff he's read at random.
I don't think its much different to have you "take 10" versus having this "named ability". And well, if they forget to tell your character something, it may simply be that you didn't finish reading the "page". Because sometimes that takes time also (the person I know still needs time to get to the part of the page they want the information from)
An Int of 30+ outside of the game world would be absolutely stupefying to behold. Such a person's mind would be so blazingly fast as to exhaust those around them. They would constantly be bored, having noticed, analyzed, processed, and formed a conclusion about every bit of data around them within seconds.
In game, where magic items and ancient wizards are more commonplace, I'm not sure.
Sitting here discussing it with a roomie: An Int 30 character would probably be perpetually bored, unimpressed, and come to the correct conclusions long before anyone else; depending on his age/personality, if he chose to chare his findings, he would do so dismissively or like a parental figure. Condescending either way, but the attitude would differ.
We also think combat would be a lot like in the recent Sherlock Holmes films. His vast knowledge combined with the speed at which his mind operates means he has the drop on everybody.
A bit much to ask of a GM for benefits, but things you could play up as part of your character.
Intelligence has nothing to do with an eidetic memory. I have a friend who I'd say is average intelligence but has eidetic memory. He's a wiz at trivia but that is about it. Or if you ask him about car parts or porn stars he's a know it all but he's not rocket scientist.
A friend of mine has this type of character, except he has just above average intelligence.
He really emphasizes the maddening effect that this has on anyone who suffers from it. It's not a boon, it's a curse. He'll go off on tangents for hours, perfectly explaining a scene from 5 years ago in excruciating detail. This often renders his character not very helpful because he's too busy reciting. He routinely fails social interactions because the NPC asks him a question and he answers it the only way he knows how: in full and vivid detail.
His favorite memories are the memories of nothing that occur from when he is forcefully knocked unconscious and thrown thru walls, as he doesn't remember it.
I'd gladly allow it, so long as they emphasize the negative aspects of it, and don't just use it as a free way to get ahead in the game.
Does "my character is evil and just a little bit crazy" about cover the negative aspects of the curse? :P
Change that to a "lot a bit crazy", and sure!
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I am going to play a sage sorcerer with extremely high intelligence (over 30). To better represent this extreme intellect, I intend to ask my GM to allow my character to have eidetic memory (also known as photographic memory). Since I do not have eidetic memory myself, it will fall to the GM (and other players, I suppose) to help remind me out of game of any important details that I might forget, but that my character wouldn't.
Does such a request strike you as cheating, unfair, cheesy, or in some manner unpalatable to your personal senses? I wonder if I might be asking too much.
Yes very much so. At best I would let you take notes and refer back to them.
You don't let your players take notes?
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I wouldn't allow it for two reasons.
First, for metagame reasons, it potentially causes table problems -- the Player asking if his PC ever saw such-n-such before or arguing that indeed he has seen such-n-such, slowing down the game and potentially frustrating the session. Plus, note-taking is a good way for Players to keep these kinds of records (as others have said).
Second, INT does not, game-wise, make a PC "intelligent." It gives some PC Classes bonus spells, modifies select Skills & gives extra Skill points. That's what having a high INT gives you. That's sufficient.
Now, if your DM wants to make Eidetic Memory a Skill w/ an INT modifier -- and give it to you as a Class Skill, that's something cool for you to design.
But it should not be added new to the game as described in the OP.
IMO it breaks the believablity of the game if characters who are more gifted than their player and are actually living in the game world aren't allowed to pick-up on things and reach deductions commensurate with their ability scores.
To put it another way, by and large we geeks aren't known for our athleticism. Most of us would consider it to be a dick-move if the GM didn't allow our characters to perform feats of strength and agility just because the players themselves can't demonstrate them. Why then should it be any different for the mental ability scores?
Just because one of my actual players may only have an 8 or 9 Wisdom, doesn't mean that his 18 Wisdom character should be oblivious to all the details of the world around him. If a PC isn't oblivious then you should damn well remind the player that there's a waterfall nearby before they have their character try to swim across a river. If they are a supra-genius, they should probably be able to solve that annoying puzzle from the adventure even if their player can't.
While ability score modifiers and skill ranks can account for a lot of this in terms of stuff that's codified in the game mechanics, there are a lot of areas where the GM really just needs to step back and throw the player a bone. I'd say extrapolating an extremely high Int combined with a heavy investment in knowledge skills as an enhanced type of memory is perfectly reasonable. Sometimes GMs need to allow hints to be given to keep the characters believable and internally consistent.
Personally I'd rather my local players were paying attention to me rather than shuffling thru notebooks every time I mention something that might possibly be a clue. Of course I also routinely index my PbP with pertinent keywords and link to relevant wiki entries so maybe I'm the oddball in that respect. ;)
Heh, well trying to sift thru about 9K posts for something can be a bit tricky. I'll admit, I probably use the index at least as much as my players — if only to ensure continuity. ;)
I'd say you get to take and reference all the notes you want to. Knowledge DC's scale pretty nasty depending on the foe though, so my caution is this: if you go past "reasonable maximum bonus" on these check boni, some one like me is going to parse out the information in much smaller bits. (A vampire, to know *everything* in terns of weknesses/defenses, should clock in at a 42 DC.)
Second, INT does not, game-wise, make a PC "intelligent."
Intelligence (Int)
Intelligence determines how well your character learns and reasons. This ability is important for wizards because it affects their spellcasting ability in many ways. Creatures of animal-level instinct have Intelligence scores of 1 or 2. Any creature capable of understanding speech has a score of at least 3. A character with an Intelligence score of 0 is comatose. Some creatures do not possess an Intelligence score. Their modifier is +0 for any Intelligence-based skills or checks.
Emphasis mine.
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Let's not confuse Fluff with Crunch.
What Foghammer put in Bold is Fluff -- obvious Fluff but Fluff nonetheless.
Mechanically, INT is for Skill points, extra spells for some Classes, and select Skills & Spell DC modifiers.
Fluffwise -- absolutely one could roleplay a PC with eidetic memory -- but that's roleplay, that's Fluff. Crunch-wise, I wouldn't allow it.
I would, however, help a Player design Eidetic memory as a Skill a PC could put Ranks into. I think with a bit of design-work it could be done reasonably well.
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I am going to play a sage sorcerer with extremely high intelligence (over 30). To better represent this extreme intellect, I intend to ask my GM to allow my character to have eidetic memory (also known as photographic memory). Since I do not have eidetic memory myself, it will fall to the GM (and other players, I suppose) to help remind me out of game of any important details that I might forget, but that my character wouldn't.
Does such a request strike you as cheating, unfair, cheesy, or in some manner unpalatable to your personal senses? I wonder if I might be asking too much.
Yes, but not the eidetic memory part.
It should absolutely not fall to the already-overworked GM (or even the other players) to take the time and effort to remind you of stuff. They can certainly do so at their leisure and convenience, but you'd get no right to complain if they miss something, and go back for a ret-con or re-do.
It should be your responsibility to actually take the effort to WRITE EVERYTHING DOWN. Tough on you? Yeah. Too bad - you're the one wanting the photographic memory.