How do you play a hyper-intelligent character?

[RobbyPants]

It's a hard comparison to draw. There are lots more ways printed to increase your Int in 3E than in 2E. A lot of 2E involved DM fiat, wishes, or similar means. I think there were some Tomes back then, too, but I don't remember the specifics of them.

I think gnomes got a +1 to Int (and -1 Wis), but they were otherwise limited (you could only play a fighter, thief, cleric, or illusionist, and you had some pretty strict level caps, so you'd never be able to cast Wish).

[Unbeliever]

This is a really nice suggestion. Coupled with the Uncanny Forethought feat, you could really get that "I knew you'd do that... which is why I prepared THIS!" vibe going quite well.

Ok, so how do you do it as player? Int 20+ is basically standard of wizards, I mean hell, you can start with 20 easily, and it just goes "downhill" from there.
Which is why it's so funny when the idiot player plays a wizard.... (yeah, we had sessions where we would basically do little else except laugh at him. Harsh, maybe, but.... there was just no way you couldn't.)

As many posters have noted, having a high Intelligence doesn't mean you make good decisions, especially tactically.  Richard Feinman was almost assuredly "smarter" than Generals Patton and Eisenhower, but somehow they didn't have him running WWII. 

I also think that's what mechanics are there for.  As others have noted, things like Uncanny Forethought are, in my opinion, the preferred way of handling these things.  You can also use spells like Celerity and Anticipatory Strike to show that you've anticipated the enemy's every move and taken countermeasures.

[caelic]

I think people are overlooking the role rules mastery plays in simulating extremely high intelligence.

Let's be real here: the typical CO board poster understands how the D&D universe works better than any physicist understands how the real universe works.  No namby-pamby chaos theory here; he or she can calculate with precise certainty exactly how likely it is that a given action will be successful.  A wizard can calculate the precise trajectory a lightning bolt will take, and have an encyclopaedic knowledge of the capabilities of creatures.

If more is needed, simply allowing a player with a highly intelligent character a few minutes to look up a reference, or to formulate a plan, is appropriate; the character formulates the same plan in a few seconds.

[McBeardly]

High intelligence could be represented by allowing the player more time to think about an action to be performed.

[Kajhera]

Be well-educated in common knowledge, have a deep understanding of a few/number of subjects (like weaknesses of foes), have a knack for all kinds of tinkering.

[Bloody Initiate]

One of the GMs for my group helped a player play his super-intelligent character but simply giving him tons of information, saying the character would have deduced that much freely and easily. Basically the GM helped the player by giving the player more information than is usually recommended because the player's character was smarter than both the GM and the player.

I tend to say "fuck you it's a stat" and forbid any attempts to make 18 intelligence "the smartest a human can be" and 30 intelligence "far smarter than we can ever comprehend." It's a stat. You get spells from it. That's enough. The idea that I should waste mine and everyone else's time catering to your SAD-ness is ridiculous to me, it pays for itself. I think most of this shit comes from optimizers not being as one-dimensional as is often suggested. They want to feel like their character has something special going on considering all they sacrificed to get it (Like: you're a kobold) and so they want to be "smarter than any being that has existed in the known real world" but really they're just an old kobold because they wanted badass stats. No one ever does something for just ONE reason, but one reason is usually the biggest motivator a midst a host of smaller reasons.

So if a person has 26 intelligence I'm going to slam them every time they do something stupid, whether I'm the player or the GM, and encourage them to play as intelligently as possible, but really it's just a stat and I'm going to end up excusing them for whatever they do, because it's a game. There are plenty of intelligent people doing stupid things. There are intelligent people with bad tempers. There are stupid people who behave intelligently and go about their lives with an amount of caution and planning that makes lots of intelligent people look like idiots. People are different. Efforts to glean extra value from something that is already making you awesome just look greedy to me.

But really if you want to play a super-intelligent character I suggest my buddy's solution of simply allowing the player to metagame like crazy with lots more information than a normal person would normally be able to extract. There are still unknowns you can bring to bear, but if you're allowing a madly intelligent character in your game AND expecting them to play that way then you better set up for it. If you aren't going to set up for it, then tell them "it's a stat, because frankly I didn't prepare for a character who is worlds smarter than me or you."

If you were asking from the perspective of the player and only the player, "do your best" is really all I can offer. You just have to make a conscious effort to play like a very intelligent person would play. You will probably do better than you expect, because a person of average intelligence who is focusing will often outsmart a person of above average intelligence who isn't trying. A super genius doesn't necessarily try that often, especially if they're really a super super genius and yet they're adventuring for some reason, sounds lazy to me.

[Whisper]

So lets say thas as a dm you have a super-intelligen wizard with stat over 20.....
How do you think you should play him since he is way smarter than you(even a genius is Int 18).....

Nope, wrong. Let's actually *use* some intelligence, and see what happens with a 3-18 scale and a normal distribution.

So, the least advantageous reasonable method for getting 3-18 as an unskewed normal distribution (bell curve) is 3d6. This means that the probability of an 18 Int is 1 in 6^3, or 1 in 216. That's .46 percent of the population.

But if we look at the distribution of the closest thing we have to a real-world measure of intelligence, the IQ score, the top .46% of the population... that's not even an IQ of 130!

Which ain't all that special, folks. Go to any good university, hang around the natural science or the engineering department, and you can't heave a rock without hitting several dudes with IQs over 130. Hell, a good portion of Densa members are smarter than that.

In fact, if we do a linear extrapolation, with Int 10.5 as an IQ of 100, and Int 18 as an IQ of, say, 125, then solve:

10.5x + c = 100
18x + c = 125

7.5x = 25
x = 3.3333333333333333...
c = 65

so

IQ = 10/3 Int + 65
10/3 Int = IQ - 65
Int = 3/10 IQ -  19.5

So a genius (IQ 145) has an Int score of about 24. And a really rare prodigy (IQ 175) has an Int score of about 33.

Now, I've done these calculations a bunch of times and those number vary slightly depending on who you consult for your bell curve IQ numbers. But the point is that 18 is hardly a ceiling for human intelligence. Hell, there are probably several other people in this thread with Ints over 20.

So, that being said, we should probably divorce the notion of real intelligence from Int altogether, and conceptualize Int as a sort of scholarly aptitude that allows you to commit arcane rituals to memory.

[JohnnyMayHymn]

Well, back then, an Int of 21+ was pretty much unattainable by PCs, at least until extremely high levels. There was very little available in the way of adjusting scores back then except for Strength.

A closer analog to this would probably be an Int of 30+ in 3E. Something that could happen, but only after extreme investment.

I don't know 3E, but if Neverwinter nights is anything like it, then it's really easy. As it is you can easily reach 26 by lvl 4 or so...

In Neverwinter Nights, you can set your stats as high as you want at lvl 1 with the console commands; however, there is a practical limit on Str b/c at a certain point your max carry weight rolls over to zero and you become overencumbered even if carrying nothing.

[caelic]

Now, I've done these calculations a bunch of times and those number vary slightly depending on who you consult for your bell curve IQ numbers. But the point is that 18 is hardly a ceiling for human intelligence. Hell, there are probably several other people in this thread with Ints over 20.

...and that's assuming we accept IQ as a valid measure of raw intelligence, and discount the forms of intelligence which aren't covered by such tests.

So, that being said, we should probably divorce the notion of real intelligence from Int altogether, and conceptualize Int as a sort of scholarly aptitude that allows you to commit arcane rituals to memory.

...or at least keep in mind that the Intelligence stat, like IQ, measures only a few specific aspects of intelligence.