PC on table with highest INT

There's a limit to human intelligence. Even Mensa members and shit make mistakes and poor judgement calls. If he's got an Int score of like 25 then you can always just deus ex machina some bullshit thing he had "had planned the whole time!" but that's kinda shitty regardless.

INT only controls your ability to succeed on knowledge checks and Investigate. It doesn't determine what words you say.

That sounds pretty autistic and elitist towards players who aren't scientists, user. TBQH.

Do environmental science majors get druidry? Do music majors get to play bards? Do theology majors get to play clerics?

Did nobody play any sort of martial character?

You sound like the fucking Big Bang Theory.

>play a stupid or uncharismatic character
>still end up doing all of the dialogue and investigation because everyone else is just waiting to be led around by the nose

Holy fuck this. The worst is when the cunts you have to lead through the campaign complain that you become the "protagonist", even though they are the ones that completely refuse to take the initiative even when they are given all the chances and hooks in the world.
IT AIN'T MY FUCKIN' FAULT I LIKE TO PLAY THE DAMN GAME YOU SHITS
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

>playing high charisma character
>constantly drunk whenever in town because character is an alcoholic
>have to roll all my checks at disadvantage
>still pass

Roleplaying this character is killing my body.

Robert Downey Jr.?

>This thread again

I know how you feel. This is but a sample of my previous campaign.
>RRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'M THE FUCKING BULLYWUG FIGHTER YOU FREED FROM SWAMP ELVES!!! WHY AM I TALKING TO THE KING !!!!

kek, he is a manlet elf bard too

I'm a Ranger School graduate, does that mean I can only play a ranger?

Does my lack of a college degree mean I have the option of playing a Barbarian?

Do I have to play a Dwarf because I'm a metalworker by trade?

>tfw you have working knowledge of several fields of sciences, but don't have a degree in any because it's too expensive.
Does that make me a sorcerer user?

So if you didn't have any military, martial art, or other fighting training you couldn't play as a fighter, right? Or would you just have -5 to all your rolls?

Give him an axe and point him in the right direction, might as well get something useful.

Like lumber

If I beat the tar out of everyone else at the table, do I get a bonus to strength?

I don't know why everyone is so angry with that post. It sounds like a fun campaign between a bunch of academic friends. I have a BSc in bio, what school do I cast? Am I a druid?

Did you not get that was the specific theme of that specific campaign they played or are you actually this ragingly autistic

did you wanna suck my benis like your mum did last night?

I joined a Rogue Trader game that had already been going for a while, taking the RT role after the previous NPC one died. The rest of the party doesn't seem to have too much initiative on their own, so I guess it's a good thing that I'm playing the de facto leader. Unfortunately for them, I'm also playing the RT as a mix of horribly incompetent bumbling fuckup and horrifyingly competent smoothtalker, the end result being that he gets otherwise reasonable and rational NPCs to go along with his absolutely godawful ideas. They occasionally turn out wonderfully, because god damn can the guy power through most scenarios with charm and a refusal to acknowledge any and all problems, but the stressful situations he keeps putting everyone in is prompting the other players to start being more proactive.

It's great fun.

Sounds kinda fun
Too bad I dropped out of college

>say something autistic and get made fun of for it
>wow guys can't you see I was being autistic ironically? What a bunch of faggots you guys are

I don't think he mentioned or even implied any use of irony in their decision, user. You seem angry about something.

So what if you've got three majors?

Would a pilots license get me anything?

Would my characters starting wealth be based off my current real world assets?

>it's "muh statistics OOC/IC mismatch" episode on Veeky Forums again
DO YOU ALSO COMPLAIN WHEN A SCRAWNY MANLET PLAYS A FIT MUSCLED BARBARIAN, YOU FUCKING RETARD?
YEAH, I GET IT, YOU WANT MENTAL AND SOCIAL STATS TO MATCH WITH THE PLAYER'S, BUT IF YOU REALLY WANT IT - THEN DON'T PLAY SYSTEMS WHERE INTELLIGENCE, CHARISMA OR WISDOM ARE STATS, YOU RETARDED PIECE OF SHIT.

>Hey guys! We're all college grads, and wizards have universities and do magical research. Why don't we do a campaign where we studied magic instead of science?
>Hey yeah that sounds fun! Since I'm a physicist does that mean...

I'm not even the guy you're arguing with, and the only autistic people in this thread are the NEETs who are offended that formally educated people exist in the world.

It depends. If the people in the game were indeed all scientists, then its fair, but if its a group of scientists playing with neets and barring them from having fun then it's just elitist and mean, unless they at least give them a balanced alternative set of options.

> barring them from having fun
You can stop someone from having fun????

>playing with neets
>without the intention of mocking, humiliating them and driving them to suicide
>ever

You can by stopping them from performing the action or undergoing the process which makes them experience said fun, user.

>DM: "Alright, so it looks like you'll have to solve this murder mystery. Where do you want to start investi-"
>That Guy: "lol I roll Intelligence to figure out who did it XDDDDDDDDDD"

Followed by:

>DM: "Uh, you can't just do that..."
>That Guy: "Muh agency! That DM! Le Railroad! XDDDDDDDDDDD"

Remove Intelligence and Wisdom from the game, replace them with Education and Intuition.

Charisma can stay as an add-on to social checks, not the be-all-end-all.

I actually did something similar, as a test to weed out autists.

STR martial? 45 pushups.
DEX martial? 100 m in 11 seconds or less.
High CON? Hold breath for 200 seconds.
INT caster? STEM degree.
WIS user? If divine caster, a demonstration of belief. If not, solve ten zen coans in my presense.
CHA class? A thorough interview with your SO present. If bard, a demonstration of creative talent. Published works preferred.

If you can do none, you have no place at my table. So is if you try nd fail. Only those who call me out on this bullshit are actually considered and may get to the table if they're okay dudes/dudettes in general.

>
>doesn't have a degree
>wants to be a barbarian
Better hope you know flower arranging.

>INT caster
>STEM degree

Le only STEM degrees equate to being intelligent

It's not a requirement, but it is an easy way to be sure.

You can be pretty inteligent whilst having a degree or qualification in other fields, although I agree that in general you can be sure someone with a STEM degree at least has decent mathematical or critical thinking skills, whereas other academic fields may grant degrees that are a bit wishy washy. I'd consider people doing plumbing, Translation, Economics, Mechanic work. Philosophy, Eletrician work, smithing/metalworking, music etc to be fairy inteligent as well,

Don't stress about this too hard.

Step 1
Just take the time to ensure that he always has two backup plans so he can keep going 'all according to keikaku' or whatever.

Step 2
If you have more gamer friends outside of your game group, take the one who is most likely to help you and explain the character and the situation. There's plenty of people who don't have time to game regularly, but have the knowledge, creativity, and knowhow to help run an npc and come up with cunning plans, traps, defenses, and plottwists relating to a villain.

Step 3
Even if you fail as the villain or do something incredibly dumb, that's ok. Have a good in game explanation for why he couldn't utilize all of his intelligence. Maybe he approached a topic too emotionally, maybe he was betrayed by some underling at a critical point, maybe he just has some sort of blind spot. Afterwards it will help explain the story around the villain better and reinforce your player's suspension of disbelief.

Finally, good luck.

Geniuses are largely very persistent idiots.

The spoiler explains all.

that's just not true though. like, none of it. even people who get art degrees will tend to have a higher IQ than someone who does skilled labor like plumbing or carpentry as a career.

But he can roleplay using magic, does he?

It's not about being smart, or charismatic, it's about succesfully pretending you are in a controled environment for a limited period of time.

We're all just foolin here.

ah I see, tis a test of spirit.

>IQ is an objective numerical IRL stat point demonstrator for a difficult to define concept composed of a series of cognitive functions

legit good advice
two heads are better than one

It's also the strongest predictor of future success and the ability to win in competitive games like chess.

Sometimes it's hard to tell in Veeky Forums.

>the strongest predictor of future success
I bet you really believe that.

You'd be surprised. Sometimes I really wonder how some of these people got their degrees.

I'm not sure I buy that it's the strongest predictor of future success, but I can believe it might be the best indicator of chess skill. I'm not saying IQ tests are meaningless and inconsequential and not demonstrative of anything whatsoever, I'm saying they're flawed and reductionist. Sure, they can probably somewhat measure some skills and specific cognitive functions, but not the whole span of capabilities of the human mind.

I am an amateur illusionist. Does that count?

It is. Children with high IQ are more likely to be wealthy in late adulthood then wealthy children without high IQ

>then
than

You're likely to be successful if daddy knows successful people

Not reductionist, just a generalization. I don't think people who create IQ tests claim to measure 'the whole span of capabilities of the human mind', but they can pick out the smarties from a group of individuals

I'm not saying that doesn't happen, of course it does some time. But if daddy knows successful people it's probably because he's successful, which would probably because he has a high IQ, like the successful people he knows, and you probably have a high IQ as well, because you're the offspring of a high IQ individual.

That's the thing, being "smart" or having that word, or using "inteligence" as a word to measure all the individual particular capabilites a human mind has, is reductionist, I think. Some people may read particularly fast, or have great memory, or have really good spacial awareness, or be able to visualize objects in their minds and rotate them easily, or have great arithmetic skills or perfect pitch of fuck knows. IQ does give you a good general indicator of the particular traits it does measure, which seem to be skills related to logic in itself like geometrical puzzles, mathematical ones, riddles, etc, but it can't measure everything. In fact, certain people that have shit IQ scores may happen to be excellent at other things, such as emotional manipulation.

Let's not forget that skills related to balance and dexterity also stem mostly from the brain btw (although to group them with "inteligence" is far fetched, but the point is that they originate in your organ responsible for other cognitive tasks)

>Let's not forget that skills related to balance and dexterity also stem mostly from the brain btw (although to group them with "inteligence" is far fetched,
That's exactly why IQ tests are meant to measure what the creators of the tests and people in general call 'intelligence'. They're not saying people with high IQs are necessarily good at emotional manipulation or dexterity, or that people with low IQs can't do shit. They're specifically measuring 'intelligence.'

>play a high charisma character
>make convincing out-of-character explanations, arguments, and sales pitches
>"roll for it"
>fucking >10 every time
>"the guard doesn't believe you were in the alleyway taking a piss, roll initiative"

I used balance and dexterity as examples of skills linked to the brain to show that the brain is in charge of more than one type of ability, but maybe that was a poor example. The emotional manipulation one isn't, though. That requires literal "inteligence": The ability to read a person, to register subtle body cues, to act in a certain way whilst being aware of your posture, tone of voice, physical contact, to have a quick mind and tongue. That all related directly to what one would conventionally refer to as intelligence.

I guess I'd say "Inteligence" might be measured accurately by these tests in regards to what a common person would refer to as inteligence, but perhaps this common understanding of what inteligence is is in itself inherently flawed and doesn't take into account the other mental capabilities you may have that make up what I'd personally refer to as intelligence.

>But if daddy knows successful people it's probably because he's successful, which would probably because he has a high IQ
He's successful because he knows successful people. It's very much an in club kind of thing where opportunities come to those in the right places. IQ isn't very relevant unless you're somewhere on the far ends of the spectrum.

I always run it such that a Charisma and/or social skill check is required, but giving a good argument gives you better odds via a bonus or lowered DC. It's a lot easier to convince the guard you're actually an undercover cop than it is to convince them you're God, but at the same time, even a convincing argument can be foiled by poor presentation.

...

I know that feel. I was doing an adventure as a pretty stupid orc who had a pretty intelligent party when we found a magically sealed door with this written next to it. I figured it out pretty fast but my friends took way longer.

Another one was yet another magic door that said
O T T F F S _ _ _
and yet again the rest of the party couldn't figure it out.

forgot my pic

If they're a bunch of degree-holders and/or they're all fine with the premise, what's the problem?

I mean, it sounds like even those with degrees are limited in caster selection by the nature of their degree. An Environmental Science major might be limited to playing a Druid. Maybe a Physics major can only take Evocation and Abjuration. Perhaps Enchantment requires Psychiatry or Neuroscience. Maybe Bards require being able to play an instrument or holding a Fine Arts/English degree. Rogues require knowing how to pick a lock, crack a safe, scale a rock wall or do magic tricks. Fighters require you to practice Fencing or MMA.

You're taking a weird degree of offense at someone who gave an example of something he and his group did: something he didn't even recommend others do.

Of course nepotism and networking play a role, and I"m sure there are some people who can find their way into success even lacking IQ (although if you just look at the statistics higher IQ people are consistently more successful so it's a bit strange to argue this anyway).
There are some things you are forgetting to consider.
1. why does this person know successful people? there can be many causes, but certainly having some skill or ability which make him valuable to a successful person would be one of the more common causes.
2. Why are the successful people he knows successful in the first place? Again, of course nepotism and being friends with the right people is a factor, but of course a more intelligent person is going to have the upper hand in trying to succeed at something than someone not so intelligent.
3. Decay success. If a successful person is less intelligent, say they lucked their way into success somehow, they are more likely to eventually fail than a more intelligent counterpart. Additionally, 'unworthy' people who get into successful positions only because they know successful people are more likely to fail once they get the job they weren't qualified for
4. Intelligence is a heritable trait. If intelligent, successful people are favoring family members, be they children or cousins, they are incidentally favoring intelligent people.

That doesn't even count as a cypher jesus christ man how can it take more than an attosecond to "solve" that mellon shit?

>I guess I'd say "Inteligence" might be measured accurately by these tests in regards to what a common person would refer to as inteligence, but perhaps this common understanding of what inteligence is is in itself inherently flawed and doesn't take into account the other mental capabilities you may have that make up what I'd personally refer to as intelligence.
I don't think it's a problem for those mental abilities which fall outside the realm of what's considered 'intelligence' to be seen as different things. I mean, discriminating between different things with different words we can use to refer to them is kind of the point of having language in the first place. So people know exactly what we're trying to talk about when we decide to use words.

I can't solve these...

spoke too soon

> real life dumbass got triggered
Kek. Go play a barbarian user.

Yea I'm very stupid I actually only play stupid characters because I can't play anything else properly

The issue is that when people think of intelligence, they just tend to this of it as "brain power". How would you define inteligence?

I actually really liked your definition (assuming you're the same guy)
"That's the thing, being "smart" or having that word, or using "inteligence" as a word to measure all the individual particular capabilites a human mind has, is reductionist, I think. Some people may read particularly fast, or have great memory, or have really good spacial awareness, or be able to visualize objects in their minds and rotate them easily, or have great arithmetic skills or perfect pitch of fuck knows. IQ does give you a good general indicator of the particular traits it does measure, which seem to be skills related to logic in itself like geometrical puzzles, mathematical ones, riddles, etc, but it can't measure everything. In fact, certain people that have shit IQ scores may happen to be excellent at other things, such as emotional manipulation."
I'm sure a dictionary definition would be good enough though.

user please tell me the answer I'm dumb but I wanna at least be in on it

sent you a pm with the answer

>person is roleplaying
>is actually not playing a self-insert character
>bad thing
Yea how about you go and fuck yourself with a pitchfork please

I'd equate 100 m in 11 seconds with STR personally

Thanks user, it helped.

user cmon please don't be mean

>Modern setting with people that are suppose to be normal people thrust into extraordinary things
>Takes two hour for players to figure out how they would get a spare hour to meet up on something while keeping the characters jobs and family matters in order. This none of them have a steady job for more than a year and live with their parents.
It's like the people with the most time for roleplaying can't even roleplay normal people due to lack of experience.

The first one is "speak friend and enter". I'll leave the means of solving out as an exercise for you.

the first one? I thought they were both the same thing and user forgot the picture, maybe that's why I was confused.

neither can I, but I don't even know what the puzzle is supposed to be

oh it's obvious now, thanks. I don't knwo what the one with the magical door and missing spaces is, though.

High intelligence comes with a cost. You don't get to be super intelligent without getting a mental draw back. He could be a rocket science or a chess master but he's so rational that he's terrible at dealing with other people as they don't act rational. Or he could get flustered when he's defied which makes his anger over ride his intelligence.

Lots of way to make a genius into a retard.

What about the people who go through with it because it sounds like fun to try and bullshit your way through/entertainment for everyone involved even if you fail?

I mean, that much is obvious to me- I'm not that guy, just saying- but then what does OTTFFS_ _ _ translate into? Even using the cipher, it's still just BGGSSF_ _ _, which is just as incomprehensible.

>High intelligence comes with a cost. You don't get to be super intelligent without getting a mental draw back.
Only if you're using point buy characters. With rolled stats and genetics you can get a character of your example or one of many others.