Intelligence
| General Information | |
|---|---|
| Parent Stat | Mind |
| Values | |
| Stat Min | -10 |
| Base Value | 0 |
Intelligence represents a character's ability to reason, analyze, understand, and solve problems. It governs feats of intellect ranging from deciphering an ancient text to designing a machine, identifying a flaw in an enemy's plan, or figuring out how an unfamiliar device works. Intelligence is not simply a measure of how much a character knows. It represents the ability to take information, make connections between seemingly unrelated facts, recognize patterns, and arrive at useful conclusions.
Intelligence can also play an important role in research and invention. The creation of new spells, potions, artefacts, weapons, constructs, and other inventions may require considerable Intelligence, particularly when the character is attempting something that has never been done before. Intelligence may also alert a character to things that do not quite make sense: an object that is subtly out of place, a pattern that should not exist, a suspicious flaw in an otherwise convincing illusion, or a sequence of events that suggests someone, or something, is manipulating the situation. Where Memory asks, "What do I know?", Intelligence asks, "What can I figure out from what I know?"
Intelligence Checks
When performing a feat that relies primarily upon reasoning, analysis, invention, deduction, or problem-solving, the GM may ask for an Intelligence Check. A basic Intelligence modifier is zero, but more intelligent characters such as Wizards, Akimsiliks, or an Akimsilik Wizard may have high Intelligence modifiers even at low levels of Power.
An Intelligence Check is performed by rolling a 20-sided die, to which the Intelligence bonus is added, or the Intelligence penalty subtracted. A total roll of 11 or higher indicates success. Extremely difficult tasks may require a higher roll, as determined by the GM. Critical successes occur when the required total is reached or exceeded on a natural 20. This may inspire the GM to sweeten the outcome of the check. Conversely, a natural 1 is an automatic failure, even if the addition of a bonus would otherwise exceed the required roll. This Critical Failure may inspire the GM to impose additional consequences upon the failed feat of intelligence.
Feats of Intelligence are extremely varied and might include designing or building a golem, creating a new weapon, developing a new spell or potion, deciphering an encoded scroll, solving a puzzle, identifying a magical mechanism, determining how an unfamiliar artefact works, or recognizing a pattern hidden within seemingly unrelated information. Intelligence may also be used when investigating a mystery, analyzing evidence, identifying a weakness in a structure or device, or determining the most logical explanation for an unusual event. The GM should generally call for an Intelligence Check when the character must work something out, rather than merely remember something they already know.
Intelligence Saving Throws
When something happens to a character that Intelligence alone can mitigate, the GM may call for an Intelligence Saving Throw. The player rolls a 20-sided die and adds their Intelligence modifier to the roll. The resulting total indicates to the GM whether the character recognizes, understands, or mentally resists the effect, or is subjected to the calamity requiring Intelligence.
Intelligence Saving Throws are unusual because most physical and mental dangers do not simply ask whether a character can reason their way out of them. They are most appropriate for effects that attack the character's ability to understand reality or make rational judgments. Examples might include:
- Recognizing that an apparent object or creature is actually an illusion.
- Detecting a false conclusion deliberately implanted in the character's mind.
- Recognizing a magically altered pattern before acting upon it.
- Determining that two seemingly unrelated events are connected by an unnatural effect.
- Resisting a magical compulsion that attempts to overwhelm the character through an elaborate deception.
- Identifying a magically disguised creature or object when the deception can be defeated through reasoning.
- Recognizing that an apparently impossible situation has been constructed through magical or psychic manipulation.
- Resisting an effect that attempts to confuse the character's ability to distinguish cause from effect.
- Understanding an alien or supernatural phenomenon quickly enough to avoid its consequences.
These kinds of attacks are extremely rare and often involve psychic, magical, or spiritual powers that defy ordinary intelligence. An Intelligence Saving Throw is therefore not simply a test of whether the character is clever enough. It represents the character applying reason and understanding when something is actively attempting to make that understanding impossible.
Loss of Intelligence
A character's Intelligence may be reduced by disease, curses, special creature attacks, magical effects, psychic assaults, or other conditions that impair reasoning and mental acuity. A reduction in Intelligence results in a corresponding reduction of the character's Intelligence modifier and may also cause the loss or suppression of powers that require a minimum Intelligence modifier. Such an effect can be particularly disruptive to characters whose abilities depend upon invention, magical research, or complex reasoning.
The effects may be temporary or permanent, depending upon their source. A temporary reduction may disappear when the underlying condition has been cured or the effect has ended. A permanent loss is considerably more serious and may leave previously familiar problems suddenly difficult to solve, while also placing Intelligence-dependent powers beyond the character's reach. Permanent losses of Intelligence can be recovered by Powering Up and converting Power to Intelligence in the Player's Workshop.
Related Stats
Intelligence is one of the three Mind stats, along with Memory and Charisma. Together, these stats describe the fundamental capabilities of a character's mind. Intelligence represents reasoning, deduction, invention, and problem-solving; Memory represents the ability to retain and recall information; and Charisma represents the ability to express the self and affect the thoughts, feelings, and actions of others.
The three Mind stats are also used to calculate increases in a character's Mind Point totals, making them particularly important to spellcasting characters such as Wizards and Witches. Intelligence is therefore not simply a measure of how much a character knows. It represents the ability to take what the character knows, recognize what does not fit, and work out what comes next.
| Copyright © 2021-2026 by Robyn Blaber and Will to Power Games. All rights reserved. Content on this website may not be reproduced without written permission of the copyright owner. |
