Roleplaying advice requested
BelgarathMTH
Member Posts: 5,653
Okay, so I'm roleplaying a chaotic good barbarian named Morak Lionheart. He has the usual 18, 18, 18 stats, and a 16 charisma. His intelligence is 10, but his wisdom is 7.
The character concept is that he's brash, stubborn, a hard drinker, a gambler, and an incorrigible womanizer, but he means well. He won't hurt anybody innocent, but he always loves to rush into combat, rage, and fight without thinking. He'd rather die than run away from a fight.
I've already had him blunder into Liandrin's spider house, where Imoen and Jaheira promptly died. He raged, and he and Khalid were (surprisingly) able to finish off the spiders without getting poisoned.
Then, he met Garrick, and was interested in the reward offer. He thought Silke was hot and he wanted to hit on her, so he agreed to what she asked.
I decided that a wisdom of 7 meant that he would not get the hint from what Feldepost's men said to grasp what was going on. He didn't even listen. He just winked at Silke, grinned, flexed his muscles at her, and then attacked. After it was all over, Jaheira blasted him, saying "Don't you ever *think*? She tricked us into killing innocent men! I will lead the party now! You have shown yourself unable to handle the job."
Well, he feels bad, but there's no way on earth he's going to allow that. He thinks Jaheira is hot, but she's married, and she doesn't know a woman's place. He wants a younger, unmarried witch to join him, and to adore him. So, he won't be staying with Jaheira and Khalid much longer.
He also really liked Garrick, and was very disappointed when Garrick turned on his mistress, said "You're just as bad as Mistress Silke!", and ran off. Then, Silke, while full of compliments (Morak really wanted *her* to be his witch), also refused to join and left.
So, here's the question: just how foolish is a wisdom 7? Do you think Morak would just never learn? Must he *always* make the wrong decision based on his impulses?
I guess what I'm really looking for here is a discussion of how to roleplay a bad wisdom score in a chaotic good character who is mostly out to just carouse and fight, but who will obviously have to mature through the storyline.
The character concept is that he's brash, stubborn, a hard drinker, a gambler, and an incorrigible womanizer, but he means well. He won't hurt anybody innocent, but he always loves to rush into combat, rage, and fight without thinking. He'd rather die than run away from a fight.
I've already had him blunder into Liandrin's spider house, where Imoen and Jaheira promptly died. He raged, and he and Khalid were (surprisingly) able to finish off the spiders without getting poisoned.
Then, he met Garrick, and was interested in the reward offer. He thought Silke was hot and he wanted to hit on her, so he agreed to what she asked.
I decided that a wisdom of 7 meant that he would not get the hint from what Feldepost's men said to grasp what was going on. He didn't even listen. He just winked at Silke, grinned, flexed his muscles at her, and then attacked. After it was all over, Jaheira blasted him, saying "Don't you ever *think*? She tricked us into killing innocent men! I will lead the party now! You have shown yourself unable to handle the job."
Well, he feels bad, but there's no way on earth he's going to allow that. He thinks Jaheira is hot, but she's married, and she doesn't know a woman's place. He wants a younger, unmarried witch to join him, and to adore him. So, he won't be staying with Jaheira and Khalid much longer.
He also really liked Garrick, and was very disappointed when Garrick turned on his mistress, said "You're just as bad as Mistress Silke!", and ran off. Then, Silke, while full of compliments (Morak really wanted *her* to be his witch), also refused to join and left.
So, here's the question: just how foolish is a wisdom 7? Do you think Morak would just never learn? Must he *always* make the wrong decision based on his impulses?
I guess what I'm really looking for here is a discussion of how to roleplay a bad wisdom score in a chaotic good character who is mostly out to just carouse and fight, but who will obviously have to mature through the storyline.
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Comments
To answer your question more directly: if there's any ability score that measures your character's ability to ponder and learn from mistakes, it's WIS, and that's what your guy sorely lacks. 7 WIS is pretty damn foolish, and the prospects of him bootstrapping him aren't too good. On the bright side, there are the tomes for him to furrow his brows over.
What I have to decide is what kinds of people he is going to get along with, and how often I have to plow into situations when I, the player, know that the handsome but foolish Morak is probably commiting suicide. I think the guy is kind of like a Klingon, that is, any Klingon except Worf.
I know he hates bullies and bullying, and he sees himself as a defender of the bullied. That's probably why he trusted Silke - it looked to him like three big ruffians picking on a pretty lady who couldn't defend herself. It's always going to be easy to trick him, unless I decide that he meets someone he will listen to. I'm thinking Branwen for the BG1 portion of the game. I kind of doubt he's going to mesh with Jaheira, because there's a personality clash going on there.
EDIT: Oh, and also, he'd probably get along famously with Minsc and Dynaheir. Minsc and he should be buddies, and Dynaheir and Branwen would be their better halves who are also the brains of the operation. Later, I'm thinking maybe Aerie would be exactly his type, and also his redemption, if he winds up needing that.
EDIT #2, okay, based on advice here, I'm tweaking his weak-side stats a bit. I lowered the charisma to 13, and raised the wisdom to 10. That way, I won't feel so pressured to always be foolish when deciding what the character would do - he at least has average capacity to learn from his mistakes.