Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Intelligence 1 main character

In the Fallout series of games, you can create a character with intelligence equal to 1. In this case (in Fallout 2, for example) he will not be able to communicate normally with others, and will only moo and answer in monosyllables, not understand what is being said to him the first time, but he will be able to lead dialogue on an equal footing with the stupidest creatures with which a normal character cannot talk.

That is, the character would be like the ape-like half-cretin, epsilon from the book by Aldous Huxley "Brave New World"

Let's fantasize if this was possible at Baldurs Gate. Would you make a playthrough like this? (not the first playthrough)
What things would be changed?
What opportunities are blocked, what new ones are open?

Most of the information on quests will be given to us in the most simplified form, companions will treat us with pity and condescension, many NPCs will be annoyed by our stupidity.
More detailed conversations will be possible with ogres, goblins and animals.
In some cases, "fool's luck" can help, special dialogue options

I know there are people who want to romance Sazza. I think in this playthrough, Minthara and Laezel would treat us like shit, and at the goblin party we would get only Sazza as a romantic interest. For example like this.

I would only accept this proposal if this also meant that I dont get to select any proficiencies at all except for maybe one.

No, with INT 1 you wouldn't even be able to talk or comprehend language. Even wild animals like wolves have INT 3. 4 is the bare minimum INT needed to be considered sapient.

Even at that point though you'd be way too stupid to be attractive to the average goblin. Or even a very stupid goblin. The average goblin statblock in 5e gives them 10 INT, which means they're about on-par with the average human. It is their WIS and CHA that are lacking at 8 each. This is likely because while goblins aren't educated they are pretty good at devising traps.

INT 4-5 seems what you're looking for, and that'd put you on par with the ogres we see in the game.

At which point we'd also need to consider the game balance of being able to drop your INT to 4 and then find a headband that gives you INT 18 fairly early in the game.


Personally if we're going to have an "idiot" playthrough I'd rather it be a personality tag than tied to our stats. You can be an idiot wizard who's great at math and spells but utter crap at paying attention to the world around him and constantly makes heinously bad decisions.

Well, the way I see it, is uh, .... unh, daagh .... mmmnf ... ooohooo, argh? Graaah!

The stone has no intelligence, while the squirrel has 3.
And who has intelligence 1?

Yes, I think 4-5 intelligence would be enough for such a passage. But I think it's not right to be "great at math and spells" with intelligence 4. The whole fun of this walkthrough is that you are an idiot, and everyone perceives you as an idiot with a dead brain. Even the goblin Sazza looks as a more wiser and smarter.

You may like arcanum.

I liked my idiot and brutal half orc.
There was also the idiot savant background: You get an int bonus, but you talk like an idiot and you can use your int only for technical skills (e.g. build a tesla gun ) or gambling.

There was a suggestion i saw to be able to select personality at character creation which would define the characters expressions and body language (serious, cautous, positive etc) there could be a dumb option where the character looks blankly at everyone talking and if you select dialogue it wouldnt speak but try to show

Kinda funny concept but as one pointed out animals need more int to survive in the wild... not to mention this was the day/age theyd have likely drown such a creature in the river at birth... ;D

Do like the idea of playing a simple, completely manipulatable, almost Frankenstein type character through... basically a pawn in whoevers plans you end up aligning with instead of the alpha type... might try this after launch/time or two through...

Lump the Enlightened journal is 3rd best thing in the game in my personal ranking.

Well no, my suggestion was that you could take the "idiot" trait without lowering your INT because being an idiot isn't about merely not knowing things. It is about making incredibly dumb decisions, not paying attention to others, and misinterpreting things. All of which can reasonably be done with 18 INT. Gale has 16 INT but he still decided messing with ancient forbidden magic was a good idea.

If you wanted to be a complete imbecile who is also bad at math and magic you'd just take 8 INT plus the idiot trait. But having high INT shouldn't stop you from being a moron. I've known lots of really, really stupid but well educated people in my life.

I'll put it this way...if your character has an Intelligence of 1, I'll have YOU carry the packs, and let the mule lead you by a lead rope.

In fact, I'll tie you up outside the dungeon and let the mule come along as a party member. At least the mule will know who to kick - you'd probably just bang your head against a wall.

Come to think of it, in Faerun, some rocks would have a higher Intelligence - gargoyles and stone giants for example. So the rock wall joins my party ahead of you, just in case.

You do realize that every human being is an ape - and in this game so would be elves, dwarves, halflings, and gnomes.... the game was completely designed by apes...

Intelligence doesn't automatically mean you know things; there is a difference between intelligence and knowledge - intelligence is more about the ability to apply concepts and make plans - though it make it easier to acquire knowledge. But all the examples you are citing fall under wisdom - those are wisdom issues.

Yes, I'm just quoting Aldous Huxley. In the caste system of brave new world, epsilons occupy the lowest position, they are deliberately made very dumb by adding alcohol to a test tube with an embryo. Epsilons - ugly and monkey-like creatures that are often handicapped. They’re too stupid to be able to read or write.

In DnD intelligence is directly proportional to your knowledge base. Every skill barring Investigation is a check to see if you know a fact or not. So intelligence in the context that we're discussing is basically your knowledge stat.

No, that is skills or proficiencies depending on what edition you are playing. To quote the 3.5e player's guide -since I don't recall where I saved the 5e one:



For example, using that version since I have it on hand and am much more intimately knowledgeable on it - a character with an 18 intelligence score may know a whole lot about knowledge (medicine) and knowledge (the planes) but clearly have to defer to an intelligence 6 character on knowledge (history) because they didn't invest in that knowledge. Intelligence has a potential toward knowledge, but it doesn't necessarily apply. In fact, you can have a character with high intelligence with no specialized knowledge at all if they put all their skill points into jumping, hiding, moving silently, and such. Or, to use 5e, if their proficiencies are all in charisma and physical things. I have a few skill levels invested in knowledge (3.5e) but someone less intelligent than myself may very well be proficient with knowledge (5e).

They'd have to make entirely new "dumb" conversation animations for this to be successful.. . As it is your character already looks too smug (or weirdly empathetic when you are trying to be mean) in some of the scenes. Nothing would be more laughable than a character with a smug or haughty expression when your conversation response was actually "DUHHHH!" That being said I do love dumb dialogue options for low INT characters. Unfortunately this hasn't been successfully pulled off for some time in gaming.

For more realism and more immersion, a writer who is going to work on low IQ answers must also be very dumb. What do you think?

It would be an interesting option when the NPC uses a metaphor or allegory, and the main character with minimal intelligence takes everything directly. Then the NPC makes comments about how dumb the character is

don't think anyone would seriously engage in such masochism and spoil their game, but this could be a fun opportunity for a second or third playthrough. Don't need to pay too much attention to this, but Larian can add some fun dialogue

Intelligence 1? You want to play as a radish.

Radishes have 0 intelligence. A rabbit has 1 intelligence.