[RPG] How to handle PCs with 1 or 2 intelligence

dnd-3.5epathfinder-1eroleplaying

There are some situations where a PC's intelligence may drop to animal levels due to ability damage/drain/burn. I would like to know how they act and do they still have access to class features and feats that they have acquired? I would assume at this point they wouldn't be able to speak either since humanoid intelligence ends at 3.

Best Answer

The closest I can find to relevant RAW is in the rules for monster races:

.. creatures with an Intelligence score lower than 3 are not playable characters.

But this doesn't necessarily mean that a PC with temporary int damage should be made an NPC.

I'd definitely allow any feats they haven't lost the prerequisites for. (Animals have feats, after all.) Same with class features; only those explicitly requiring intelligence (such as wizard spellcasting) should be lost.

Can they use skills? Can they speak, and understand speech? Well, in 3.5 you don't retroactively lose or gain skill points due to a change in intelligence. So, I guess strictly speaking yes! (And again, animals get skill ranks.) The PC will probably have more ranks than an animal, but this isn't as strange as it seems -- intelligence is described as "how well your character learns and reasons." Losing intelligence doesn't necessarily make you forget what you've already learned.

I'd probably use the pathfinder rules (which were certainly a common houserule in 3.5), and say that permanent changes do have an effect on skills and languages, Flowers for Algernon style.

So, other than simple penalties on Int based checks, and the loss of any abilities with an Int prereq, there aren't many mechanical effects here. It should absolutely have a large effect on how the PC acts (really large! they're dumber than a toddler!) but that's more of a roleplaying thing. I suspect most players would play it for comedy, but tragedy is always an option.

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