How does your group handle superhuman intellect?

[nijineko]

Yeah, so an Int 36 Demon-lord has had 5000+ years to come up with the McDonald's franchise system ... but can't. 

The Abyss has infinite layers. It's thus perfectly possible that in one of them there's a Mc Donalds Network staffed by dretches, Balors on the kitchen using their flaming vorpal swords to prepare the hamburguers. They make sure to deliver only 100% humanoid meat straight from the material plane, in the form of Mc.Elf, Mc.Dwarf, Mc.Human, etc. Or you can try out the new soul nuggets, along with some hellfire sauce.

Why would a Balor be cooking?

doesn't trust anyone else with the special sauce?

 
Balors don't consider torture to be cooking.  Hold the "meat" with it's Whip, while ~toasting it with it's Sword.  I got to turn this, so it doesn't get grisselly.  Halfling grissel is hard even for a Marillith to get out.  Supposedly the Abyssal Viper Trees are big fans of the McWere-Boar Rib.  But you know, in spite of that intellect they have a really hard time getting the Salads just right.

really... and here i was thinking they used the sword as a spit (helps roast the inside perfectly too...) and the whip as a tenderizer? my mistake.

[Optimator]

I suppose a balor wouldn't normally be cooking, but considering the infinite nature of the abyss one of the many layers with McDonald's franchises could have a washed-up balor working for SP...

[BrokenChord]

Yeah, so an Int 36 Demon-lord has had 5000+ years to come up with the McDonald's franchise system ... but can't. 

The Abyss has infinite layers. It's thus perfectly possible that in one of them there's a Mc Donalds Network staffed by dretches, Balors on the kitchen using their flaming vorpal swords to prepare the hamburguers. They make sure to deliver only 100% humanoid meat straight from the material plane, in the form of Mc.Elf, Mc.Dwarf, Mc.Human, etc. Or you can try out the new soul nuggets, along with some hellfire sauce.

Why would a Balor be cooking?

doesn't trust anyone else with the special sauce?

 
Balors don't consider torture to be cooking.  Hold the "meat" with it's Whip, while ~toasting it with it's Sword.  I got to turn this, so it doesn't get grisselly.  Halfling grissel is hard even for a Marillith to get out.  Supposedly the Abyssal Viper Trees are big fans of the McWere-Boar Rib.  But you know, in spite of that intellect they have a really hard time getting the Slaads just right.

Fixed that for you.

To answer the OP, my group handles it the same way we handle not having knowledge of effective fantasy battle and war tactics/strategy. We take full advantage of the fact that we are outside viewers looking in. We have several minutes per combat round to hit all the mental checkpoints a character realistically would in six seconds. Similarly, with high-Int characters, we have the advantage of not being there in person. We can re-read a rule or ability if it makes sense for your character to remember it, we can scour sourcebooks for spells and compare the mechanical interactions between things, we can talk to other people about said mechanics, and most importantly, we can generally work without the self-imposed distractions inherent in a character, such as stress and the weird and potentially disorienting feelings of preparing/casting spells.

Basically, the higher your Int, the more you should feel free to metagame. And, realistically, powergame, but that's a part of realism you can and should ignore if adhering to it reduces fun. Not saying it necessarily will reduce fun, just that it's a rather volatile subject for some groups.

[nijineko]

wait... has no one actually just taken the leap and just admitted that they have superhuman intellect, so they don't have to figure it out? ^^

[awaken_D_M_golem]

Post #2 ... ahem.

[Eviltedzies]

Generally my DM's tend to allow players with above average Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma to auto succeed at anything the DM deems is trivial for them without requiring them to roll a check. Knowledge checks, Sense Motive Checks, and Diplomacy checks are some examples.

One of my DM's actually grants minor special perks upon reaching a natural mental stat score of 20, 30, 40, ect...

An intelligence score of 20 grants a PC perfect memory. (IE: Perfect Recall and never forget anything)

[awaken_D_M_golem]

It begs the question as to why a Demigod of Learning
would need a Library (and a really big one at that) ??

Things like the Jordan Vizier PrC and the Autohypnosis skill,
and even a Wiz Spell Book, assume that non memorization
is pretty much normal.

Immediate Gods maybe should/could have
perfect memory for things that are within it's portfolio.
Otherwise, they don't know McD's franchises either.
(though they'd never admit that to a mortal -- ego! )

[nijineko]

rolemaster actually has various perks for all the stats once you get above a certain score. the higher the score, the more perks you can choose.

[Mortadelas]

Acknowledgements:
Real life is chaotic and hard to calculate.
DMs are humans, with human inteligence.

Theory:
To emulate superhuman intelect (and have EVERYTHING make sence) you only have to outsmart your DM.

Method
Alcohol reduses one's intelectual capabilities. So force your DM do do 1 tequila shot per point of intelect above 10 that the smartest character has.

Practice
-....and ze dlagon is wearing shds...shds...shades...hic! ANd is dancing to Skrillex.
-That sounds stupid
-....ofc...ofc it doesh....you has 32 inteligenzeeehehehehhe.....everything looks stupid to you....hic!


Next char 'll make will be a int drained ogre!

[Frogman55]

Acknowledgements:
Real life is chaotic and hard to calculate.
DMs are humans, with human inteligence.

Theory:
To emulate superhuman intelect (and have EVERYTHING make sence) you only have to outsmart your DM.

Method
Alcohol reduses one's intelectual capabilities. So force your DM do do 1 tequila shot per point of intelect above 10 that the smartest character has.

Practice
-....and ze dlagon is wearing shds...shds...shades...hic! ANd is dancing to Skrillex.
-That sounds stupid
-....ofc...ofc it doesh....you has 32 inteligenzeeehehehehhe.....everything looks stupid to you....hic!


Next char 'll make will be a int drained ogre!