To go back to the OP's question - a character like Conan comes to mind immediately.
Completely uneducated, totally illiterate, with common sense and savvy, strong survival skills, etc... not to mention 'animal magnetism' and an extremely strong personality.
I'd play the character as the kind to say more with a look than anyone else.
1/5,000,000? By my math, the odds of a 3 are 1/6*6*6*6, so 1/1296. And that's just for an individual roll, which you do 6 of each character, so more like 6/1296.
That roll, plus 2 18s, which I think is 1 in 62? So is it 1/ 1296x62x62?
But then I suppose there is something for rolling 6 times and I'm not sure how to figure that in. Still 1 in a few million.
You're doing a lot of assumptions there to come to the conclusion they rolled 18s. He said 19, and 20. Which are entirely out of the possible results range.
We'd have to assume he rolled 18s, and then also put them into Wis and Cha and then is intentionally putting racial bonuses into ... Wis + Cha.
No one does that. There is no way they rolled 4d6 and rolled 4 1s, for a 3 result. then also happened to get two 18 results. but chose to then put them into Wis and Cha, but also add their racial bonus to wis and cha.
Your're looking at a statistical improbability combined with a behavioral improbability. It didn't happen.
They just rolled the wrong dice.
First of all, just because it's an incredibly rare event, doesn't mean it won't happen. In the millions of characters that get rolled for D&D, it's gonna happen at some point.
Secondly, if they're putting their 18s in any two stats, those are the stats they want to be good at, so it makes sense to put the racial bonuses there as well.
Thirdly, they came to the board with a question about a set of stats. "You couldn't have rolled those stats, and even if you did, you put them in the wrong place", is a decidedly unhelpful response.
1/5,000,000? By my math, the odds of a 3 are 1/6*6*6*6, so 1/1296. And that's just for an individual roll, which you do 6 of each character, so more like 6/1296.
That roll, plus 2 18s, which I think is 1 in 62? So is it 1/ 1296x62x62?
But then I suppose there is something for rolling 6 times and I'm not sure how to figure that in. Still 1 in a few million.
You're doing a lot of assumptions there to come to the conclusion they rolled 18s. He said 19, and 20. Which are entirely out of the possible results range.
We'd have to assume he rolled 18s, and then also put them into Wis and Cha and then is intentionally putting racial bonuses into ... Wis + Cha.
No one does that. There is no way they rolled 4d6 and rolled 4 1s, for a 3 result. then also happened to get two 18 results. but chose to then put them into Wis and Cha, but also add their racial bonus to wis and cha.
Your're looking at a statistical improbability combined with a behavioral improbability. It didn't happen.
They just rolled the wrong dice.
First of all, just because it's an incredibly rare event, doesn't mean it won't happen. In the millions of characters that get rolled for D&D, it's gonna happen at some point.
Secondly, if they're putting their 18s in any two stats, those are the stats they want to be good at, so it makes sense to put the racial bonuses there as well.
Thirdly, they came to the board with a question about a set of stats. "You couldn't have rolled those stats, and even if you did, you put them in the wrong place", is a decidedly unhelpful response.
I'm mostly just asking them the question, because it is statistically highly unlikely and it'd be an odd character build to have both wisdom and charisma be your high stats.
They haven't been back to respond to how they came up with those rolls, so we're left to speculate. They've only had 2 posts so they might be new to the game and got it wrong, it would help them to sort out their stat rolling method. And I did suggest Forest Gump as an example of a high wis and cha, low int character.
To go back to the OP's question - a character like Conan comes to mind immediately.
Completely uneducated, totally illiterate, with common sense and savvy, strong survival skills, etc... not to mention 'animal magnetism' and an extremely strong personality.
I'd play the character as the kind to say more with a look than anyone else.
Conan was expressly highly intelligent and relatively well educated. Most versions of him are literate in one or more languages.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
I'd suggest that you read or re-read the Conan books... his education came much later in life.
Even when he was able to speak multiple languages, his ability to read them was a definite growth arc.
Lastly, let's focus on what the OP was asking for, which is how to play a low INT, high WIS/CHA character, instead of nitpicking easy to grasp character types.
Education and intelligence aren't the same thing, that's the issue: a character's intelligence score is not dependent on having a lot of education even if it's common to treat it that way.
As far as I'm aware, there are no examples of humanoid NPCs in 5E having an Intelligence score that's a 3. There are very few with ability scores of any kind that are below a 6. The only examples of creatures of any type in the game with an intelligence score of 3 are animal-level intelligence creatures that don't have the ability to speak or comprehend languages. I give the same advice every time this question comes up: a player character shouldn't have a 3 for any ability score, if they rolled that low the GM should either let them reroll or boost it up to a 6, minimum.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
On a roleplaying standpoint, I'd play them just having an incredibly shut-in childhood with no practical experience. I'd even accept it if they can read or write (parenting, etc), but no absolute knowledge of history, geography, language, and so on. Just like, in general book-dumb.
If you don't want three stats, then mandate point buy/standard array. I agree with that choice; I don't like the extremely high variance rolling gives to characters.
But once you allow/mandate rolling, it's on the table, and I think it ought to be. It's within the supposed bounds of a PC's stats. It only becomes an unplayable problem when you start mandating extreme interpretations like "3 int can't speak or comprehend language". (And those 3-int animals have the ability to communicate with each other.)
It's not an extreme interpretation to say that a character with a 3 for intelligence has the communication and learning abilities of an animal because animals are literally the only examples of characters with 3 intelligence in the game.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
If a 3 is supposed to be unplayable, it shouldn't be possible for somebody to start with it. (2d6+5 for starting stats or something like that would be a perfectly valid roll if you want to avoid it.)
As for the "animals have 3 int" argument. Yes, they do. And they're perfectly functional creatures, capable of existing socially, learning, planning, communicating with creatures they don't share a common language with, etc. (Heck, bears have a 2 int, and bears are pretty smart.)
Can they communicate like humanoids? No. Most humanoids can't reflexively leap at a prey animal like a cat can. Humanoid brains are more specialized for language and socialization than a cat's, so it's not unreasonable that one, even with low int, can still communicate, operate socially, etc. D&D int is more about knowing stuff. Real-world intelligence includes int, wis, and cha, and is really more complex and hard to quantify than that.
If a 3 is supposed to be unplayable, it shouldn't be possible for somebody to start with it. (2d6+5 for starting stats or something like that would be a perfectly valid roll if you want to avoid it.)
As for the "animals have 3 int" argument. Yes, they do. And they're perfectly functional creatures, capable of existing socially, learning, planning, communicating with creatures they don't share a common language with, etc. (Heck, bears have a 2 int, and bears are pretty smart.)
Can they communicate like humanoids? No. Most humanoids can't reflexively leap at a prey animal like a cat can. Humanoid brains are more specialized for language and socialization than a cat's, so it's not unreasonable that one, even with low int, can still communicate, operate socially, etc. D&D int is more about knowing stuff. Real-world intelligence includes int, wis, and cha, and is really more complex and hard to quantify than that.
You may have noticed that beginning in 3.0, the game has increasingly pushed the idea of using point buy or the default array for stat generation instead of rolling dice?
Yes, animals get along fine with 3 int. As animals. Not as adventurers. They're not wielding weapons, wearing armor or clothing (that isn't put on them by someone else), or basically anything else that we regard as being characteristic of civilization.
I also find it interesting that questions/arguments about playing a character with a 3 for a stat only ever seem to come up regarding intelligence. You really don't ever see someone asking about how to play a character with,3 strength (nor do we see anyone trying to argue that such a character would be able to act mostly normally but would just have trouble trying to lift things vs struggling to get out of bed).
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
If a 3 is supposed to be unplayable, it shouldn't be possible for somebody to start with it. (2d6+5 for starting stats or something like that would be a perfectly valid roll if you want to avoid it.)
As for the "animals have 3 int" argument. Yes, they do. And they're perfectly functional creatures, capable of existing socially, learning, planning, communicating with creatures they don't share a common language with, etc. (Heck, bears have a 2 int, and bears are pretty smart.)
Can they communicate like humanoids? No. Most humanoids can't reflexively leap at a prey animal like a cat can. Humanoid brains are more specialized for language and socialization than a cat's, so it's not unreasonable that one, even with low int, can still communicate, operate socially, etc. D&D int is more about knowing stuff. Real-world intelligence includes int, wis, and cha, and is really more complex and hard to quantify than that.
You may have noticed that beginning in 3.0, the game has increasingly pushed the idea of using point buy or the default array for stat generation instead of rolling dice?
Yes, animals get along fine with 3 int. As animals. Not as adventurers. They're not wielding weapons, wearing armor or clothing (that isn't put on them by someone else), or basically anything else that we regard as being characteristic of civilization.
I also find it interesting that questions/arguments about playing a character with a 3 for a stat only ever seem to come up regarding intelligence. You really don't ever see someone asking about how to play a character with,3 strength (nor do we see anyone trying to argue that such a character would be able to act mostly normally but would just have trouble trying to lift things vs struggling to get out of bed).
3 strength would have no issues doing normal everyday things like getting out of bed. in fact, they can lift/carry 45 lbs with no additional issues... this sounds like plenty of people I know irl.
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I'm probably laughing.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.
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To go back to the OP's question -
a character like Conan comes to mind immediately.
Completely uneducated, totally illiterate, with common sense and savvy, strong survival skills, etc... not to mention 'animal magnetism' and an extremely strong personality.
I'd play the character as the kind to say more with a look than anyone else.
First of all, just because it's an incredibly rare event, doesn't mean it won't happen. In the millions of characters that get rolled for D&D, it's gonna happen at some point.
Secondly, if they're putting their 18s in any two stats, those are the stats they want to be good at, so it makes sense to put the racial bonuses there as well.
Thirdly, they came to the board with a question about a set of stats. "You couldn't have rolled those stats, and even if you did, you put them in the wrong place", is a decidedly unhelpful response.
I'm mostly just asking them the question, because it is statistically highly unlikely and it'd be an odd character build to have both wisdom and charisma be your high stats.
They haven't been back to respond to how they came up with those rolls, so we're left to speculate. They've only had 2 posts so they might be new to the game and got it wrong, it would help them to sort out their stat rolling method. And I did suggest Forest Gump as an example of a high wis and cha, low int character.
Conan was expressly highly intelligent and relatively well educated. Most versions of him are literate in one or more languages.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
a few things here:
I said a character "like" Conan.
I'd suggest that you read or re-read the Conan books... his education came much later in life.
Even when he was able to speak multiple languages, his ability to read them was a definite growth arc.
Lastly, let's focus on what the OP was asking for, which is how to play a low INT, high WIS/CHA character, instead of nitpicking easy to grasp character types.
Education and intelligence aren't the same thing, that's the issue: a character's intelligence score is not dependent on having a lot of education even if it's common to treat it that way.
As far as I'm aware, there are no examples of humanoid NPCs in 5E having an Intelligence score that's a 3. There are very few with ability scores of any kind that are below a 6. The only examples of creatures of any type in the game with an intelligence score of 3 are animal-level intelligence creatures that don't have the ability to speak or comprehend languages. I give the same advice every time this question comes up: a player character shouldn't have a 3 for any ability score, if they rolled that low the GM should either let them reroll or boost it up to a 6, minimum.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
On a roleplaying standpoint, I'd play them just having an incredibly shut-in childhood with no practical experience. I'd even accept it if they can read or write (parenting, etc), but no absolute knowledge of history, geography, language, and so on. Just like, in general book-dumb.
INT is mainly ability to learn, understand, and derive logical conclusions from inputs. That is my take.
With INT 3 you lack so many basic functions, that you are already immune to certain spells.
For me, and my table, INT 3 for a player is unplayable.
If you don't want three stats, then mandate point buy/standard array. I agree with that choice; I don't like the extremely high variance rolling gives to characters.
But once you allow/mandate rolling, it's on the table, and I think it ought to be. It's within the supposed bounds of a PC's stats. It only becomes an unplayable problem when you start mandating extreme interpretations like "3 int can't speak or comprehend language". (And those 3-int animals have the ability to communicate with each other.)
It's not an extreme interpretation to say that a character with a 3 for intelligence has the communication and learning abilities of an animal because animals are literally the only examples of characters with 3 intelligence in the game.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
If a 3 is supposed to be unplayable, it shouldn't be possible for somebody to start with it. (2d6+5 for starting stats or something like that would be a perfectly valid roll if you want to avoid it.)
As for the "animals have 3 int" argument. Yes, they do. And they're perfectly functional creatures, capable of existing socially, learning, planning, communicating with creatures they don't share a common language with, etc. (Heck, bears have a 2 int, and bears are pretty smart.)
Can they communicate like humanoids? No. Most humanoids can't reflexively leap at a prey animal like a cat can. Humanoid brains are more specialized for language and socialization than a cat's, so it's not unreasonable that one, even with low int, can still communicate, operate socially, etc. D&D int is more about knowing stuff. Real-world intelligence includes int, wis, and cha, and is really more complex and hard to quantify than that.
From a DDB character sheet.
You may have noticed that beginning in 3.0, the game has increasingly pushed the idea of using point buy or the default array for stat generation instead of rolling dice?
Yes, animals get along fine with 3 int. As animals. Not as adventurers. They're not wielding weapons, wearing armor or clothing (that isn't put on them by someone else), or basically anything else that we regard as being characteristic of civilization.
I also find it interesting that questions/arguments about playing a character with a 3 for a stat only ever seem to come up regarding intelligence. You really don't ever see someone asking about how to play a character with,3 strength (nor do we see anyone trying to argue that such a character would be able to act mostly normally but would just have trouble trying to lift things vs struggling to get out of bed).
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
3 strength would have no issues doing normal everyday things like getting out of bed. in fact, they can lift/carry 45 lbs with no additional issues... this sounds like plenty of people I know irl.
I'm probably laughing.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.