The secret to writing (or playing) characters that are smarter than you are is that you can take your time coming up with what they do. Maybe in-game your character has a razor wit and would have a snappy comeback for any situation. Out of game you’ve got a list of pre-prepared retorts you can bust out as needed.
1st off, intelligent =/= eloquent.
That said, no one can play a character smarter than the real life DM. If you are dumb and the DM is smart, he can tell you what your character would do with more intelligence. If you are smart you can think of it yourself. However, if the DM is dumb, it won’t matter how smart you or your character is, because the universe your character inhabits is made of stupid.
I always encourage my players to paraphrase if they’re trying to be more than they are in real life. It’s totally fine to be like “I tell him with a lot of big words that he’s a doodyhead”
This! The only time I had my bard perform (use performance) is when I was trying to solicit help from someone, but telling the plain truth (as my character has been doing so far) would put the party at risk, so I told the DM:
I will tell the story as if it were an epic tale told across generations of bards. Can I use performance for this?
The DM allowed it. I rolled the die and got a fairly high roll. The person I was asking help from was so moved they swore they’d help the party with the utmost of their abilities.
Besides, the DM has just told the table the same story (targeted to my character, but the rest of the table had a listen), and it’s just annoying hearing me recite that same story they just heard from the DM (who is far better than me at telling stories).
The only time I acted out in character (in the main story in that campaign, and that other time was debatable, as it’s more of a caricature than in-character) was in a fairly impromptu scene between me and another character. The rest of the table, including the DM, was just too shocked at the impromptu act. In hindsight, it played out like one of those romcom anime scenes. And I came out of it all: “wtf was that?!”
I know this is a joke, but if you really want to improve your character play, I highly suggest taking a full week, spending 20 -30 mins a day roleplaying to imagined scenarios, replying to them out loud.
As most actors can tell you, if you want to nail down a character all you need is practice, once you gain that confidence you’ll be the most interesting character at the table
Pretty accurate for high INT esp with low charisma and/or wisdom.
Sputtering angry nerd is super valid.
I say “fuck you, you big asshole” in smartese. Or is it smartlish. My character would know. 😞
My most controversial/unpopular D&D opinion is that high CHA characters should only be played by high CHA people.
What if an awkward person wants to have a power fantasy about being a smooth talker? What if they want to play a warlock or bard?
I had a 3 CHA character and I struggled to actually be that low of a charisma irl because I kept talking normally, so I had to fake stutters and be extremely creepy to make up for it. Oh and I was schizophrenic. Didn’t plan for it. GM made me do it.
Counter-hot-take: Rip the charisma stat and its skills out of the game. It’s half-baked as it is. The cha classes can be moved to int or wis.
