19 is still only a +4 Int modifier, and a head slot for it is pretty major with some of these helmets we get in the later game. I see nothing particularly game-breaking here. And it's not a competitive game anyway, so you really shouldn't even be that worried about making everything perfectly balanced.
Who said the first thing about "perfectly balanced." I mentioned "intent." Besides, tabletop doesn't go handing out static 19 stat items at tier 1 either. Basic game design dictates you shouldn't be handing out items in the first 25% of the game that last for the entire game anyway. You want players always looking forward to levelling up - be that stats, powers or equipment.
Speak with Dead is where he SHOULD be super intelligent in this case. Or if you were to contact his soul. It's what his mind was like when he died. I'd imagine when you die, your soul would have whatever mind you had when you died. Resurrecting him without it resetting his intelligence to its natural sense would also make sense, but it's kinda irrelevant on a corpse.
That just doesn't make any sense at all. He's dead... you took the headband... the magic is no longer affecting him.
