the real nightmare scenario with braniac is; you're sitting there, and the internet just goes out, and you look out your window and realize you and your city are inside a bottle on a shelf.
If I were to build brainiac as an enemy, I'd probably take the stat sheet of an elder brain and put it on the body of an iron golem, or something like that.
Depends, larger surface area and capillaries would allow more blood flow and nutrient delivery. There is probably an optimal size based what what physics would allow. @@graphthis2249
Man I hate the trope of a super intelligent villain getting beaten because they underestimated their foe. It's one thing if they simply don't know what they are up against, but Brainiac had to know, or at least very quickly figure out what he was up against.
The issue is, brainiac usually would know how strong superman (for example) is. He has analyzed his previous battles and is aware of Superman’s limits. He puts into action something that can easily defeat those limits he has analyzed and is usually correct. The issue is that good guys usually are able to surpass their limits in moments of great need or to save those they love or whatever trope. You shouldnt think of it as brainiac just not knowing. He knew, but Superman overcomes what is known.
If intelligence is the ability to use logic to come to a conclusion, wisdom would be to use your past experience to predict one. Wisdom would be your gut instinct and I feel Brainiac's intelligence horrendously over shadows his wisdom in such a way that an obviously solution to us might blind side him.
I didn't think about Brainiac, but in hindsight he does make the most sense. If I was gonna build him as an enemy, Brainiac would be a level 40 character: Level 20 Wizard, level 20 Artificer. Along with a whole bunch of spells and magic items to replicate whatever you wanted from Sorcerer or Monk or whatever else.
I've always liked Dr. Doom because even though he has no powers (unless you count magic) he is consistently able to fight a team of superheroes. However, even though he has a super genius level IQ, he's such a flawed man that it's never really that hard to poke holes in plans. That's why, my favorite super smart villain has to be not only smart but also terrifyingly practical. In that case, I'd give the nod to Ozymandias from Watchmen. He not only had to outthink he former teammates but he had to out-plan a virtual god. When they finally cornered him and he told them what he was doing and why they said, "We're not going to let you do it." And he told them, "I already did it." He refused to fall into typical villain tropes. That is someone you need to be really, really careful of.
Um yeah man Magic is a power and lets doom do broken stuff like Magical Shields, spells, rituals etc. Yes he's a genius but that only boosts him because he uses super intelligence to also boost his magical abilities.
Doctor Doom has powers AND plot armor. Magic rivaling the sorcerer supreme? Check. Psionics he developed himself by training? Check. Is strong enough to beat a lion while tired and hungry without his weapons his magic his psionics or any tools while stranded in the past in a single hit like one punch man? Check.
but how do you not count magic? That’s literally the way he can hold his own against the Avengers. Throwing out his magic is like throwing out Batman’s utility belt or taking away Flash’s speed.
Ozymandias - The man who outsmarted a god Elrond - Outsmarted Sauron for two ages, Gandalf sought out the Council of Elrond Magnus Carlsen - Real life genius The Joker - Breaks the 4th wall. He's well aware that he's in a comic, would spec heavily into entertainment
Watching this reminded me of my assessment of the Chiss. Among the Chiss, Thrawn is considered above average intelligence, but among any other race he is a super-genius. Whereas an above average human is considered average among the Chiss.
Chiss aren't that much smarter. its just that their culture emphasizes big brain flexing much more, which of course leads to a much smarter population on average.
There's times where Reed has shown that he can't understand the illogical like magic so he would have advantage on all intelligence roles but disadvantage on Arcana and straight roles on religion. A good compromise for someone who built a time machine to see how the future looks then goes back in time to watch the game and have a beer with Ben
I think the threshold is 3 Int, that’s usually the minimum requirement to be effected by charms and the ability to do complex requests. I believe 1 and 2 are considered animalistic or operating only on instinct.
In my opinion Batman is a good example of a high intellegence character that doesn't have a low wisdom. In a lot of different stories Batman is shown to be both empathetic and have a deep understanding of the wants and modivations of others.
I agree with this. I heard someone say that "if you can't picture your Batman comforting a scared child, you haven't written Batman." Or something to that effect. It's such a fundamental part of his character, that without that empathy and compassion, he's a different character completely.
@@PanicRollingThis comment makes we think about the Justice League animated show where Batman was supposed to KILL Ace, but instead sat with her until she died and comforted her in the fact she was going to die.
This reminds me of a main character from one of my favorite light novels "Ainz Ooal Gown" he basically transported to another world in his lich necromancer character, and because necromancers have high int, he's soo smart that his human part cannot comprehends, so he thinks he’s stupid but he's just too smart to know and understand the crazy complicated plans and strategies that his new lich samrt body is doing lol, highly suggest reading it, its called overlord and it has an anime too
@@PanicRolling if you love dnd the story is highly inspired by it (dnd 3.5e to be exact) , and the anime is not very accurate and it takes only about 40% of the novel and lacks alot of interesting details.. highly recommend 👍
Justice League Unlimited - Lex Luther goes past the Source Wall, requiring a minimum of a 12th level intellect, saying "I'm Overqualified" Also, I hope Larian is listening.... :)
I have always said that it is very difficult to roleplay someone with a lower Int than you have, but it's impossible to roleplay someone with a higher Int than you have. That is where the GM and ability checks come in. Never be shy to ask full on questions about context or motivation or possible strategies regarding the situation in which you find yourself. The GM should have you roll (to test your character's understanding in the moment) and then relate to you what your character wuld know about that issue. In this way we work together to tell a story regarding this character. ^_^
Yeh I think that's probably one of the best ways to handle the situation. Your INT giving you meta information that the other characters might not know or understand sounds about right.
This is exactly the way to do it and I’ve been using it for years. To show the comparison completely and how well it really works I’ll list each increase below Int.= 0 / IQ= 0 Int.= 1 / IQ= 10 Int.= 2 / IQ= 20 Int.= 3 / IQ= 30 Int.= 4 / IQ= 40 Int.= 5 / IQ= 50 Int.= 6 / IQ= 60 Int.= 7 / IQ= 70 (intellectually disabled by psychiatric standards) Int.= 8 / IQ= 80 (Below Average) Int.= 9 / IQ= 90 (Low-Average) Int.= 10 / IQ= 100 (Mid-Average) Int.= 11 / IQ= 110 (High-Average) Int.= 12 / IQ= 120 (Above-Average) Int.= 13 / IQ= 130 (Genius by psychiatric standards) Int.= 14 / IQ= 140 Int.= 15 / IQ= 150 Int.= 16 / IQ= 160 (low approximation of Einstein’s IQ) Int.= 17 / IQ= 170 Int.= 18 / IQ= 180 Int.= 19 / IQ= 190 (high approximation of Einstein’s IQ) Int.= 20 / IQ= 200 Int.= 21 / IQ= 210 Int.= 22 / IQ= 220 Int.= 23 / IQ= 230 Int.= 24 / IQ= 240 Int.= 25 / IQ= 250 Int.= 26 / IQ= 260 Int.= 27 / IQ= 270 (highest official recorded IQ) Int.= 28 / IQ= 280 Int.= 29 / IQ= 290 Int.= 30 / IQ= 300 Having put all that into perspective its worth noting no living person has shown to be able to do the things characters in comics can do with their intelligence. For example Iron-Man improvising a nearly invincible relatively safe reactor powered mech suit that also acts as his own life support only using junk scraps with improper low tech equipment is already something far beyond a reasonable intelligence feat for even the highest IQ individuals in real life. By this standard we might place Iron-Man closer to 30 Int. / 300 IQ and Brainiac closer to 60 Int. / 600 IQ or higher which is just insane.
@@someoneonyoutube8622 yeah that's exactly how my scale works as well. When it comes to comic book characters their realistic stats are stupidly high lol
@@absolutleynotanalien8096 even so there’s nothing saying the Dnd stat increase itself is linear Rp wise Only the bonus progresses in a linear fashion but is that because dnd intelligence itself progresses linearly or does the benefit gained from increasing intelligence have a decreasing return on investment thus making the stat increase linear only by comparison? The latter explanation still allows for this IQ based conversion to be a possibility to quantify how intelligent a character is.
My favorite low intelligence character in all of fiction is Transformer’s Grimlocke. A brilliant strategist, charismatic leader, and once in a generation warrior: Grimlocke suffered brain damage after his time as a prisoner of war. Grimlocke’s “brain damage” comes compounded with the somberness of knowing what he used to have. A loss of verbosity, tact, and finesse. He’s a lumbering berserker not because he enjoys it, but because it’s simply what he’s most effective at now. I’m planning on playing a warforged moon Druid with the 2024 rules inspired by him! 8 or lower intelligence, probably just sticking to speaking slowly with never more than 2 syllables & making the most simple or direct choices in combat (protect x, charge and kill y, etc).
I'm now contemplating the implications for all the barbarians that dump Int, Wis, and Charisma in character creation, only putting 8 points those 3 in order to hit that 17 Str with 16 and 15 in either Dex or Con... For roleplay purposes, it would not be an exaggeration to equate them to ogre-like muscle-heads... Pure physical power, great front-line tanks. Terrible for social interaction. No wonder they get such a bad rap.
I'm not sure how much stock you would put into Reed's stretching powers actively effecting his intelligence. I've heard people say he can use his stretching to effect his brain chemistry, making him more capable of abstract thought and problem solving.
@daverhoden445 I'm sure to an extent it would come naturally to him. He seems to have an instinctual control over his stretching. But, yes, it does take genius for him to use his power that way
Wouldn't work like they are claiming stretching a brain isn't gonna make one smarter. It is the density that would matter more neurons and sinaps are what would increase brain function not its overall size.
He is! Superman and the Flash can both speed read to learn things extremely quickly, but Superman is much better at retaining those learned facts permanently. Superman would legitimately get a 30 in every stat (CHA is debatable, but I'd personally argue that it's one of his main character traits.) He's pretty OP lol.
I think that scale works very well up to a certain point (18-20 ish?) And then I think from that point, it would have to become more exponential. A God of INT can't have 300 IQ. Not with the century-spanning plans and limitless well of knowledge. I think 30 INT would have to be outrageously high IQ, possibly in the thousands. Immeasurable by anyone with less than 30 INT themselves.
Reed can be hurt quite easily by a normal person actually. Just get a weapon that does not rely on physical force. Flamethrowers, plasma guns, lasers. He can stretch, but what is it gonna do?
A normal person would not have access to those weapons...lol You're right though, he can easily be injured with the right tools or abilities. Those things just aren't normal everyday items. Wolverine can't cut him with his claws, because Reed just stretches to accommodate for the claws, and remains unharmed. So firearms, blades, blunt objects, and pretty much any weapon that a normal person has normal access to...would be worthless.
@@kompatybilijny9348 True, but odds are that Reed Fantastic Four suit would likely have been made to resist intense heat. Not only has he gone to space and other dimensions multiple times, it is important to notice that his Brother-In-Law is a literally Hot-Heated Pyrokinetic, so it is not like Reed wouldn't know the risks fire poses and thus take that into account.
I'm playing a 6 int fighter that may as well be a barbarian, and half the time I feel like I should coin flip to make a roll to see if he knows what breathing is.
OK SO... I loved the first vid much more than the subsequent vids. While I think you recived some valid constructive critzisim. What I feel is most important is a consistent enough structure to the vids. My favorite part that hooked me in on the strenght vid was you quantifying what 10 and 20 STR looks like IRL. and then proceeding to show how in other media even that is not that impressive by comparison. Like a 3 looks aproach. 20 STR vs top human athletes. Then 20 STR vs superheros. Then how much STR or any given stat put on a sheet would encapsulate that character and their feats. You could go a step beyond and create homebrew character sheets for them with spells nd legendary actions like you kinda did with spidey. Would love to see you polish this vid idea more in that sense and see you tackle WIS next
I'd say Brainiac is mainly an artificer but his brain power is giving Aberrant mind sorcerer and i guess the learning ability goes with the wizard class. Spot on.
I'd say Braniac is a lvl 20 Wizard reflavored for technology, Order of Scribes because they're the nerdiest of the wizards and get really appropriate powers for him. A sentient spellbook that can manifest it's AI to act as a near unstoppable set of eyes and a spot he can cast spells from. He would be able to rewrite damage types the spells can be thanks to his subclass. Adding new spells is very fast and cheap. He can also create spellscrolls faster and cheaper, reflavor that into back up programs. Flavor his spells as programs and gadgets he can execute. One noteworthy spell I'd recommend is Create Magen, for a tiny price of a few hp, he can create a human shaped golem that obeys him. Combo this with Wish and Simulacrom, and his 2nd self can pay the price and help him assemble his robot army. The Necromancer subclass can nullify the hp loss, but Brainiac isn't a Necromancer. And of course, Clone, because he always comes back. Probably make him fight similar to the Netherbrain but allow him to cast his spells at the party from anywhere, through his robots to really Amp up how powerful he is.
I would argue that Batman is beyond 20 Intelligence. He is lying when he says he has no powers. Look up how long it takes to learn different languages, and consider how rare a polyglot truly is. Now consider that canonically, Batman speaks almost all languages. Look up how long it takes to master a martial art. Now consider that Batman in most versions is a "Master of all fighting styles". Consider all the sciences Batman has learned, along with detective work, along with memorizing great works of literature and learning how to sing "Something Blue". While also learning how to wrestle his girlfriend when she becomes a pig. Now consider that Batman, in most versions, is 30 years old. Crime Alley happened when he was 7. So between then and 30, he's been learning all this. (While also developing an 18 strength and constitution.)
I feel the need to point that that none of this is particularly hard to do in DnD. Human for 2 language proficiencies, background for 2 language proficincies, linguist for 3 more. Alternatively use Xanathar's guide for learing tool and language proficiencies, where it takes a number of work weeks (5 days) equal to 10-INT mod. There are 16 languages in DnD (Common being used to represent every human language), so it would take a character with 18 INT 480 *days* and costing 750 gp to go from having 0 language proficiencies to having all of them. That's around a year in the Forgotten Realms (10 days in a week, ~4 weeks in a month, 12 months in a year). As for becoming the master of all martial arts, you get that by going 2 levels in monk and 1 level in fighter. The rest of his kit can be expressed using rogue and artificer. A ton of skill proficiencies and expertises, expertise in all tools, the batcycle (battlesmith's steel defender), master of stealth. You can get an accurate early career batman as soon as level 4 (2 monk, 1 fighter, 1 rogue for before he made his gadgets), level 7 for a lot of his gadgets (jump from artificer for his grappling hook, fog cloud for smoke bombs, feather fall for gliding, steel defender for batcycle/batmobile), and then when he joins the justice league and really pushes himself we get up to level 14 (2 monk, 1 fighter, 6 rogue and 6 artificer) before he peaks at level 18 (same as before but with 5 monk). As for needing 18 Strength, he would get by with 10 Strength and Expertise in Athletics. Monk means his unarmed strikes deal 1d6/8+4 magical bludgeoning damage (the same as a warhammer), and an inch of stone has an AC of 17 and 5 hitpoints and a damage threshold of 5. Those mimic his most impressive strength based feats. And he'd only need 14 Con with the tough feat (tough giving him the same HP as if he had 18 Con). Finally, memorising all those great works of literature just requires proficiency in History and the Keen Mind Feat. I would argue Batman and Sherlock Homles have 16/18 Int with expertise in Investigation and History.
I don't think Batman is necessarily intended to be an "everyman." He's similarly brilliant to Lex Luthor, except while Lex used his intellect to make himself rich, and eventually to create things to fight Superman, Batman elected to use his super genius to speedrun martial arts and detective skills. Unlike Lex he grew up rich and doesn't really need to devote time to running his business, since Bruce Wayne is supposedly a playboy who probably just attends the bare minimum number of meetings not to be kicked out of his parent's company.
I've always just interpreted it as INT: Ability score x 10 = IQ. So a person with a 10 INT would have a 100 I.Q. (which is average). A person with a 20 INT would have a 200 I.Q.
Wonder if you’ll do a “how much Wisdom does Dr Fate have” or another character that represents high Wisdom, maybe Xavier, wisdoms a hard one to nail down.
I'm a pharma ceo, mensa member and a prodigy in my field. Someone once said I would likely have 19 int. I said that was an overstatement, I thought Einstein would be around 19, and me at 16-17.
I've only ever seen an 18 intelligence played correctly in a live D&D game by someone who himself had a 165 IQ and kept insane notes. He wrote everything down in immaculate detail and was able to integrate everything we experienced.
@@PanicRolling Emperor Leto II from Dune, the big worm guy. He has the combined wisdom of all his ancestors in a single mind, going back the many thousands of years in the future back to some ancient era, the Bene Gesserit alone would be worth it but he had both male and female lineages. Also, his rule of 3,500 years and eventual downfall were all a part of his intent and design for the wider aspect of humanity, though ethics and morality are naturally intentionally components one can argue about here. From such a long lineage he’d have the perspective of good and evil, the rich and poor, of kings and slaves- that’s _Wisdom_ there.
Brainiac would easily be an artificer, as artificers use their knowledge to create magical tools and devices using primitive technology from the D&D world. Some subclasses can literally create a magic cannon or armor similar to Iron Man.
20:28 If I were to build Brainiac, I would probably go with something like 15 Wizard 5 Armorer Artificer. Armorer represents his enhanced body, where he can use that 30 INT to contest supes' 30 Strength if he chooses Guardian for thunder gauntlets. It also lets him wear Heavy Armor as tho it were his skin, so with +3 plate that's a natural AC of 21, and he can use the bonus action temp HP to make up for his kinda low HP. I wouldn't say Brainiac has 9th level spells even tho he certainly has 9th level slots, because the most impressive thing he does technologically that I'm aware of is transport cities into bottles which can be replicated with Plane Shift and Demiplane (enhanced with magical items). And tbh you could even argue that any spell he casts using technology could just be him reading from spell scrolls that he made, and he just has expertise in Arcana from say Skill Expert. That would let you do Artificer 20 where at level 14 you ignore a scroll's requirement for the spell to be on your spell list, then expertise in arcana for +22 to never fail the roll to cast spell scrolls (because normally that's a thing you need to do, DC 10 + the spell's level if you don't have slots of the same level). Artificer 10 would let you scribe scrolls of 3rd level or lower in a quarter of the time it usually takes. If you go 20 levels in Artificer, he can attune to twice the number of magic items most people can, use Enhanced Defense to make his plate +2 without even needing any kind of help, he can make his Thunder Gauntlet's +2 weapons using Enhanced Weapon. Helm of Awareness to never be surprised and have advantage on initiative. Mind Sharpener to never fail concentration checks. He gains a +1 bonus to saving throws for each magic item he's attuned to, so if that's 6 (which it should be) he gets a +22 to Int saves. Some of those gems in his head could be Ioun Stones, filling the rest of his attunement slots with 5 of them. 3 Ioun stones of Mastery will get him a +9 proficiency bonus, removing the need for expertise in Arcana but if you keep it he'll now have a +28 to it, a Stone of Regeneration will help make up for not having the greatest HP in the world and mimics his ability to self repair, and the final stone could either be a stone of Protection (+1 to AC), Sustenance (doesn't need to eat or drink) or Reserve (can store up to 3 spell levels into the stone, for free castings of things like Shield for the force field around him). All told, this gives him a +25 to Intelligence saves. The highest possible save DC someone can have, and this is with a +9 PB, 30 casting stat, Robes of the Arch Magi and a +3 to save DC magic item- is 32. Brainiac rolls a 26 as a minimum. Without magic items, the highest a save DC can be is 27. Then you use Epic Boons to get his Int to 30, making him either level 25 using the current Epic Boon rules or level 30 using the soon to come PHB in September. Characters who use tech to reach ridiculous levels of power are actually insanely easy to port over into DnD because of all the insane magic items available in the game. It's when it's a natural ability that you have to start bending the system to your will 🤣 As a side note: I don't know if you were talking about me when you mention people arguing that 10 doesn't represent the average ability score, because I remember making a similar argument. But I was talking about the DCs, not the ability scores. Like DC 10 isn't a medium DC for the average person, it's a medium DC for someone with a +2/3. A DC 25 isn't very hard for the average person, it is *impossible* - someone with a +0 and no proficiencies cannot roll above a 20. You can basically -5 from each of the categories and they'd be accurate for a commoner.
I love these, you do such a good job. With your recognition of a difference between "normal person" and "adventurer" (specifically the barrier that exists between 18 and 20), I would be interested to know how you would stat out and build (because level and feats would be factors) both Captain America and Batman. There are other characters who fit a "peak human" description in some ways, but I feel like those two have simultaneously the most consistent displays and yet they are also very different from one another. I don't know if that is enough for a whole video but I feel like it could be. Anyway, great stuff!
Yes! I knew it would be braniac! He literally has the best ability to learn and recall things since he wants to become a repository for all information!
Heheh this is a hotly debated one. There are plenty of people who would argue that Holmes is a better detective than Batman, and they're only made equivalent by Bruce's enhanced tech. I personally think they're equals and then Batman's tech gives him the edge. But unprepared with no gadgets? I'd give either of them a good chance at solving the same crimes.
For Baldur's Gate 3 I think Brainiac would be 11 levels of Abjuration Wizard (since he then would be able to learn/use level 6th spells which are the max for that game) and perhaps one level of Knowledge Cleric. The focus on Abjuration fits him well since it A) Provides forcefields that he could extend to himself others, and B) It is a school of magic that thrives on adaptation/understanding what your enemy is doing (i.e. Counterspell).
In terms of strength I can explain this scale rather easily. For a person of average strength and durability. It doesn't matter to your spinal cord whether your opponent can juggle refrigerators or freight train cars you're going to die.
19:50 small tangent, but it's impossible for a character to simultaneously "simulate your defeat a thousand times over before it happens" and also to underestimate you. Also, you kinda need to understand human nature to predict your human opponents anyway. There comes a point where enough intelligence really *is* a valid substitute for wisdom. That point is beyond human levels of genius, so we actually do need wisdom to succeed, but as far as characters like Brainiac are concerned, some of his failures are unrealistic IMHO.
Have you ever seen the comic book version of Thanos and the Infinity Stones? The way that he loses in that one is almost insultingly stupid. You're not wrong though. "I underestimated a creature that I know literally everything about" feels like a cop-out, and it's basically the low INT way to write a high INT character being defeated.
@@PanicRolling I pretty much think of it as power creep, but for IQ. Comic book writers create increasingly smarter villains to outpace the increasingly smarter heroes, up to the point where you kinda need a deus ex to avoid the lose condition. (or Flash resets the universe I guess)
If braniac was a player not a NPC or boss he would have 20 intelligence but he would eventually figure out how to break the rules of the game and give himself more than 20 intelligence
So a god who can bench press the planet,take a nuke to the face without damage,and moce faster than light is a good counter!!? No way that's crazy talk 😂😂
having 1 int is basically a vegetative state. wild animals have at least 2, which i think is the minimum you need for sentience. you cannot even speak unless your int is 6 or higher, which is when you hit sapience
In the case of Braniac I’d say he has whatever the max intelligence would be but his wisdom is Average at best since he main weakness is that he’s a robot and he thinks too practically. It’s why he actually considered Lex Luthor’s offer in JLU when all he would really offer him was imagination.
I've always seen that it's assumed that creatures with a minimum of 3 Intelligence aren't outright feral or animalistic. At most, I believe they can understand language if nothing else. But I can't recall how far it goes.
So intelligence is. " how complex does a problem have to be before you can no longer solve it? " Similar to "how heavy does something have to be before you can no longer lift it?"
So, following your pattern, the next video is Wisdom. Which is REALLY tricky. Wisdom is perception, emotional intelligence, and your ability to connect to the Divine. So, on one hand, anyone able to spot 30 ninjas hiding in the garden would have a high wisdom... but so would any character who acts as a sage and advisor to the other heroes. Also, anyone with a divine power source could be considered. The perception route is easy, anyone from the bat family, any of the archers, Daredevil. If you just look towards having the ability to read people, Daredevil might be the best route. But I'm curious what you decide to do.
Each point above 10 would be the equivalent of one standard deviation away from the mean, by 20 int you’re beyond any mortal human level of intelligence.
I actually think int is the worst defined stat put of all of them, intelligence is such a broad term that covers everything from creativity to recall and covering everything in between from maths to languages.
Those with lower intellect need hundreds or thousands of interactions to determine the intelligence of those smarter than them. The opposite is true for those with high intellect. Those with higher intelligence do not need hundreds of interactions to determine the intelligence of those with lower intellect. They need only have a a single or even few conversations with them. This is true in real life as well. Additionally, those with high intellect can, at will, speak at intelligence levels to match with whom they are speaking with only hints of intelligence coming out from time to time. One should also consider the Dunning-Kreuger effect where someone with lower intelligence thinks that they know it all and someone with high intellect thinks that they don't know enough.
I can provide some context as to why some commenters whete assuming 10 was too high to be the average - its a change in DnD 5e. In previous editions, 8 (-1) was the standard stat for both PC's and NPC's. In the case of intelligence 6 (-2) was required for sentience and anything lower was an animal. 1 (-5) intelligence was more common amongst creatutes of pure instinct, and 0 was a non-living being. Stat reductions were much more common as attacks etc. so there was a much clearer definition of what the low end of stats actually meant. But i guess WotC were uncomfortable suggesting that an average commoner was only two point above barely being sentient, so they changed the numbers and made them have less clear boundries.
Hey, thanks for the info! It's hilarious to me that average people were only 3 points above an animal. Probably true for some people (me). Also I have heard horror stories about how Undead would drain your stats or something? That sounds horrible as a game mechanic.
@@PanicRolling Yup, quite a few of them had stuff like that, I believe Mummies could drain strength (wisdom too maybe? Can't be sure) and several mind flayer adjacent creatures (most notable being intellect devourers) could drain intelligence. Then there were poisons that drained Con etc etc. it was a lot, and it made the games maths even more complicated - it already had much more scaling for abilities/skills etc. especially once you started digging into the absurd number of books that were around for the likes of 3/3.5e And the 3 points above animal is very amusing, especially when you consider that 6-7 in a stat are both (-2) so the mechanical difference between 8 (-1) Int and 6 (-2) Int is virtually nothing (~+/-5%). The average commoner is apparently ~10% smarter than an animal. Ouch.
People need to stop thinking Intelligence = knowledge. That's the first place where everyone trips up. Intelligence does not equal knowledge; the two work alongside each other, but are unrelated in terms of causing each other. One can be incredibly knowledgeable while lacking any notable amount of intelligence, and vice-verse (a creature may be crazy intelligent but have little actual knowledge). Intelligence, put bluntly, is just your brain's horsepower. It is how quickly your brain learns/recalls information & how quickly it can (mentally) react to that information (in other words, how fast/efficiently they can think). That's all. This also means that a 20 intelligence character isn't necessarily going to come up with plans that a 5 intelligence character isn't able to plan. The 20 intelligence character is just going to make those plans faster, and they'll be more likely to notice the flaws faster.
I don't think the two can be separated at all. Because if 20 INT doesnt let you form a better plan than 5 INT...wtf are we putting points into INT for? We go to school in real life to learn. Learning increases the amount of information you have memory of, and also teaches you new ways to find and apply new information. But without expanding your actual stores of knowledge...you have no references to draw from. If we are working under the assumption that INT can just produce information with 0 prior knowledge and experience, then it is ITSELF a magical stat, and easily the strongest in the game. By simply attaching the prerequisite of prior knowledge to it in the lore, it fixes this issue immediately.
@@PanicRolling Case in point though - a 20 in INT DOESN'T let you form a better plan than someone with 5 INT. Not per the mechanics of the game at least. At best (using the Arcana / History / Nature / Religion / Investigation skills as the reference), high INT just lets you identify connections & information that you already know (or are available to study) more easily than someone with low INT. I can tell you from experience that simply learning information does not make you more intelligent. I am someone who aced school (from elementary to college) despite being both brain damaged and mentally deficient (I would say retarded, but unfortunately other people will get upset & insult me for such honesty if I do); medical testing in my adult life confirmed it. Throughout my life I've experienced the drawbacks of the real-life equivalent of a "low intelligence" build. All it amounts to is having a brain that's slower to learn new information, and slower to adapt when information on a topic is lacking or a new/unexpected situation arises. It is also something compensated for through study & memorization (which someone with low intelligence can do and HAS to do even; it just takes longer and is a bit harder), which in D&D terms is what gaining proficiency/expertise in skills/weapons/tools is. When you lack the brain to improvise, you instead drill the knowledge into your head until said knowledge becomes almost instinct to you (even if you don't even remember how/why you are right sometimes, which is the case for me more often than I'd like to admit). It is likewise wrong to assume that INT can just "produce" information with 0 prior knowledge/experience. However, do not underestimate the things that people do not realize they already know. It is why the primary INT skills are Arcana / History / Nature / Religion / Investigation (with Animal Handling / Medicine / Survival being good contenders for frequent alternative checks) as well as nearly all Tool checks; these are skills/tools where, even if you lack any proficiency in them (thus lacking any prior knowledge/experience with them), simply having a high INT score will let you improvise and figure out things with better, more reliable results than someone with a low INT score. All attaching the prerequisite of prior knowledge does is add problems & issues; it doesn't fix anything.
Brainiac would absolutely have the ability to concentrate on multiple things at once. I’d say 12 different things because twelfth level intellect, I’d say also he can put more than one of his concentrations on one thing so if he loses one concentration he still has another one on it (and that he would only be able to lose one concentration at a time)
Make a "the honorable mentions" video where ypu brief over characters for each stat like doom for intelligence, let's say homelander for strength, etc. Would be interesting
I consider the typical engineer to be 14. 16 is a good engineer or a typical researcher. 18 is an unbelievable engineer that for example reverse engineers a whole video game console just looking at the circuit. Or a prolific researcher that everybody knows in his field. 20 would be famous researchers like Einstein who disrupted entire fields or Euler that has invented so much math it cannot be named after him anymore. Just my 2 cents based on what I do in life. I hope I am 17 INT :)
the real nightmare scenario with braniac is; you're sitting there, and the internet just goes out, and you look out your window and realize you and your city are inside a bottle on a shelf.
And is fun because the only brainiac weakness is chaos and overlord of information... Which is internet.
20 int flavor: "You are a literal supergenius on the level of Einstein."
20 int mechanics: "25% better chance to do smart stuff than the average joe."
Yep this exactly lol
Knowing quantum physics doesn't help me find the best materials for a cabinet
That's why Pathfinder's math helps tell a better story
@@chaddixon9764 can you provide an example?
@@Rikhardt99 The fact that an uneducated and dumb peasant won't ever beat the ancient gold dragon in chess. For example.
If I were to build brainiac as an enemy, I'd probably take the stat sheet of an elder brain and put it on the body of an iron golem, or something like that.
A simple solution, and it fits the theme pretty much perfectly. I like it.
Tony Stark suggested Reed Richards 'cheats' by literally expanding his brain when necessary 😄
Beast Boy literally did that once, turning into a whale with a bigger, faster acting brain. He was able to brainstorm a 2 hour plan in a few minutes
Gives "neuroplasticity" a whole new meaning.
@@Paradox-es3bl 😂🤣
wouldn't squishing his brain be more effective since it would compress/shorten the neuropathways?
Depends, larger surface area and capillaries would allow more blood flow and nutrient delivery. There is probably an optimal size based what what physics would allow. @@graphthis2249
This was at least a 14 INT explanation of Brainiac's intelligence, which means you clearly had help from a sentient Internet.
Man I hate the trope of a super intelligent villain getting beaten because they underestimated their foe. It's one thing if they simply don't know what they are up against, but Brainiac had to know, or at least very quickly figure out what he was up against.
The real Intelligence is the friends we made along the way, it seems.
The issue is, brainiac usually would know how strong superman (for example) is. He has analyzed his previous battles and is aware of Superman’s limits. He puts into action something that can easily defeat those limits he has analyzed and is usually correct.
The issue is that good guys usually are able to surpass their limits in moments of great need or to save those they love or whatever trope.
You shouldnt think of it as brainiac just not knowing. He knew, but Superman overcomes what is known.
If intelligence is the ability to use logic to come to a conclusion, wisdom would be to use your past experience to predict one. Wisdom would be your gut instinct and I feel Brainiac's intelligence horrendously over shadows his wisdom in such a way that an obviously solution to us might blind side him.
Smash cut to Volo popping Braniac's eye out with an icepick.
9:40 Pandas. They'd be extinct without human intervention, they can only eat one thing, and a group of them is literally called an "embarrassment".
Lol!
I didn't think about Brainiac, but in hindsight he does make the most sense.
If I was gonna build him as an enemy, Brainiac would be a level 40 character: Level 20 Wizard, level 20 Artificer. Along with a whole bunch of spells and magic items to replicate whatever you wanted from Sorcerer or Monk or whatever else.
I've always liked Dr. Doom because even though he has no powers (unless you count magic) he is consistently able to fight a team of superheroes. However, even though he has a super genius level IQ, he's such a flawed man that it's never really that hard to poke holes in plans. That's why, my favorite super smart villain has to be not only smart but also terrifyingly practical. In that case, I'd give the nod to Ozymandias from Watchmen. He not only had to outthink he former teammates but he had to out-plan a virtual god. When they finally cornered him and he told them what he was doing and why they said, "We're not going to let you do it." And he told them, "I already did it." He refused to fall into typical villain tropes. That is someone you need to be really, really careful of.
Um yeah man Magic is a power and lets doom do broken stuff like Magical Shields, spells, rituals etc. Yes he's a genius but that only boosts him because he uses super intelligence to also boost his magical abilities.
Didn’t Doctor Doom go back centuries and got back to the present by waiting?
@@PlayMeFretless95nobody expects the FOOT DIVE inquisition!
Doctor Doom has powers AND plot armor. Magic rivaling the sorcerer supreme? Check. Psionics he developed himself by training? Check. Is strong enough to beat a lion while tired and hungry without his weapons his magic his psionics or any tools while stranded in the past in a single hit like one punch man? Check.
but how do you not count magic? That’s literally the way he can hold his own against the Avengers. Throwing out his magic is like throwing out Batman’s utility belt or taking away Flash’s speed.
Ozymandias - The man who outsmarted a god
Elrond - Outsmarted Sauron for two ages, Gandalf sought out the Council of Elrond
Magnus Carlsen - Real life genius
The Joker - Breaks the 4th wall. He's well aware that he's in a comic, would spec heavily into entertainment
DO A VIDEO ON HOW WISE IS 20 WISDOM & A VIDEO ON HOW CHARMING IS 20 CHARISMA
Finishing up the WIS video as we speak!
Watching this reminded me of my assessment of the Chiss. Among the Chiss, Thrawn is considered above average intelligence, but among any other race he is a super-genius. Whereas an above average human is considered average among the Chiss.
Chiss aren't that much smarter. its just that their culture emphasizes big brain flexing much more, which of course leads to a much smarter population on average.
How much INT would Brainiac have?
Yes
There's times where Reed has shown that he can't understand the illogical like magic so he would have advantage on all intelligence roles but disadvantage on Arcana and straight roles on religion.
A good compromise for someone who built a time machine to see how the future looks then goes back in time to watch the game and have a beer with Ben
in dnd, a creature is considered sentient if it has an intelligence of 6. Thats how i view it anyways, not sure if thats an actual dnd thing
It apears to be the case based on creature statistics.
The ability to understand language is gated to at the lowest a Int of 3. So 3 for Sentience/Consciousness 6 for Sapience would make sense.
@@TemporalandReaty But one can Speak with Nature, so that would throw trees, rocks, etc I to the mix.
I think you mean sapient
Most life is sentient, sapience I'd human level intelligence
I think the threshold is 3 Int, that’s usually the minimum requirement to be effected by charms and the ability to do complex requests. I believe 1 and 2 are considered animalistic or operating only on instinct.
In my opinion Batman is a good example of a high intellegence character that doesn't have a low wisdom. In a lot of different stories Batman is shown to be both empathetic and have a deep understanding of the wants and modivations of others.
I agree with this. I heard someone say that "if you can't picture your Batman comforting a scared child, you haven't written Batman." Or something to that effect.
It's such a fundamental part of his character, that without that empathy and compassion, he's a different character completely.
A lot of detective work would need a high wis for perception.
those things are more governed by charisma
@@PanicRollingThis comment makes we think about the Justice League animated show where Batman was supposed to KILL Ace, but instead sat with her until she died and comforted her in the fact she was going to die.
This reminds me of a main character from one of my favorite light novels "Ainz Ooal Gown" he basically transported to another world in his lich necromancer character, and because necromancers have high int, he's soo smart that his human part cannot comprehends, so he thinks he’s stupid but he's just too smart to know and understand the crazy complicated plans and strategies that his new lich samrt body is doing lol, highly suggest reading it, its called overlord and it has an anime too
I've seen a few key clips from Overlord, and it was always badass to watch Ainz work. I need to read it one day.
@@PanicRolling if you love dnd the story is highly inspired by it (dnd 3.5e to be exact) , and the anime is not very accurate and it takes only about 40% of the novel and lacks alot of interesting details.. highly recommend 👍
Justice League Unlimited - Lex Luther goes past the Source Wall, requiring a minimum of a 12th level intellect, saying "I'm Overqualified"
Also, I hope Larian is listening.... :)
I have always said that it is very difficult to roleplay someone with a lower Int than you have, but it's impossible to roleplay someone with a higher Int than you have.
That is where the GM and ability checks come in. Never be shy to ask full on questions about context or motivation or possible strategies regarding the situation in which you find yourself. The GM should have you roll (to test your character's understanding in the moment) and then relate to you what your character wuld know about that issue. In this way we work together to tell a story regarding this character. ^_^
Yeh I think that's probably one of the best ways to handle the situation.
Your INT giving you meta information that the other characters might not know or understand sounds about right.
I do your int stat times 10. So someone with INT 10 has an IQ of 100, average. Someone with 20 has 200 IQ. It works out pretty well for me
This is exactly the way to do it and I’ve been using it for years. To show the comparison completely and how well it really works I’ll list each increase below
Int.= 0 / IQ= 0
Int.= 1 / IQ= 10
Int.= 2 / IQ= 20
Int.= 3 / IQ= 30
Int.= 4 / IQ= 40
Int.= 5 / IQ= 50
Int.= 6 / IQ= 60
Int.= 7 / IQ= 70 (intellectually disabled by psychiatric standards)
Int.= 8 / IQ= 80 (Below Average)
Int.= 9 / IQ= 90 (Low-Average)
Int.= 10 / IQ= 100 (Mid-Average)
Int.= 11 / IQ= 110 (High-Average)
Int.= 12 / IQ= 120 (Above-Average)
Int.= 13 / IQ= 130 (Genius by psychiatric standards)
Int.= 14 / IQ= 140
Int.= 15 / IQ= 150
Int.= 16 / IQ= 160 (low approximation of Einstein’s IQ)
Int.= 17 / IQ= 170
Int.= 18 / IQ= 180
Int.= 19 / IQ= 190 (high approximation of Einstein’s IQ)
Int.= 20 / IQ= 200
Int.= 21 / IQ= 210
Int.= 22 / IQ= 220
Int.= 23 / IQ= 230
Int.= 24 / IQ= 240
Int.= 25 / IQ= 250
Int.= 26 / IQ= 260
Int.= 27 / IQ= 270 (highest official recorded IQ)
Int.= 28 / IQ= 280
Int.= 29 / IQ= 290
Int.= 30 / IQ= 300
Having put all that into perspective its worth noting no living person has shown to be able to do the things characters in comics can do with their intelligence.
For example Iron-Man improvising a nearly invincible relatively safe reactor powered mech suit that also acts as his own life support only using junk scraps with improper low tech equipment is already something far beyond a reasonable intelligence feat for even the highest IQ individuals in real life.
By this standard we might place Iron-Man closer to 30 Int. / 300 IQ and Brainiac closer to 60 Int. / 600 IQ or higher which is just insane.
@@someoneonyoutube8622 yeah that's exactly how my scale works as well. When it comes to comic book characters their realistic stats are stupidly high lol
If only the iq system was perfect. I'm not sure it's even a linear increase.
@@absolutleynotanalien8096 even so there’s nothing saying the Dnd stat increase itself is linear Rp wise
Only the bonus progresses in a linear fashion but is that because dnd intelligence itself progresses linearly or does the benefit gained from increasing intelligence have a decreasing return on investment thus making the stat increase linear only by comparison?
The latter explanation still allows for this IQ based conversion to be a possibility to quantify how intelligent a character is.
This is how I've thought of it for years as well
My favorite low intelligence character in all of fiction is Transformer’s Grimlocke. A brilliant strategist, charismatic leader, and once in a generation warrior: Grimlocke suffered brain damage after his time as a prisoner of war.
Grimlocke’s “brain damage” comes compounded with the somberness of knowing what he used to have. A loss of verbosity, tact, and finesse. He’s a lumbering berserker not because he enjoys it, but because it’s simply what he’s most effective at now.
I’m planning on playing a warforged moon Druid with the 2024 rules inspired by him! 8 or lower intelligence, probably just sticking to speaking slowly with never more than 2 syllables & making the most simple or direct choices in combat (protect x, charge and kill y, etc).
I'm now contemplating the implications for all the barbarians that dump Int, Wis, and Charisma in character creation, only putting 8 points those 3 in order to hit that 17 Str with 16 and 15 in either Dex or Con...
For roleplay purposes, it would not be an exaggeration to equate them to ogre-like muscle-heads... Pure physical power, great front-line tanks. Terrible for social interaction. No wonder they get such a bad rap.
You can outsmart the DM, but you cant be smarter than the DM.
I Cant wait for you to Do Charisma next, Id love to see that next 😂
Probably Paul Atreides
Going by the list in order, Wisdom would be next and then Charisma.
20 Cha jeremy meeks
08 Cha patrick crusius
08 Wis Marquês de Sade
20 wis St thomas aquinas
I'm not sure how much stock you would put into Reed's stretching powers actively effecting his intelligence. I've heard people say he can use his stretching to effect his brain chemistry, making him more capable of abstract thought and problem solving.
But doesn't it take a genius to think of doing that? LOL
@daverhoden445 I'm sure to an extent it would come naturally to him. He seems to have an instinctual control over his stretching. But, yes, it does take genius for him to use his power that way
Wouldn't work like they are claiming stretching a brain isn't gonna make one smarter. It is the density that would matter more neurons and sinaps are what would increase brain function not its overall size.
Can't wait for the Wisdom video.
Uncle Iroh! Front and Center! 😂
What would Brainiac's Wisdom be?
💩💩💩
Ahhh My favorite series is back, thank you Its been a really long week but this makes my day to see you upload my favorite kind of stuff to watch
7:17 No need to get personal like that
Superman is super intelligent too right?he outsmarts brainiac and super smart beings.
He is! Superman and the Flash can both speed read to learn things extremely quickly, but Superman is much better at retaining those learned facts permanently.
Superman would legitimately get a 30 in every stat (CHA is debatable, but I'd personally argue that it's one of his main character traits.) He's pretty OP lol.
Rule of thumb INT score time 10 is real world IQ
I think that scale works very well up to a certain point (18-20 ish?) And then I think from that point, it would have to become more exponential.
A God of INT can't have 300 IQ. Not with the century-spanning plans and limitless well of knowledge. I think 30 INT would have to be outrageously high IQ, possibly in the thousands. Immeasurable by anyone with less than 30 INT themselves.
Braniac is basically an dnd elder brain lol
I was picking my nose at the exact moment you called it stupid... thanks
Just when you think it's a booger, it's not.
11:15 that drawing of Professor X in that lightning mcqueen car nearly ended me LMFAO
😁
Reed can be hurt quite easily by a normal person actually. Just get a weapon that does not rely on physical force. Flamethrowers, plasma guns, lasers. He can stretch, but what is it gonna do?
A normal person would not have access to those weapons...lol
You're right though, he can easily be injured with the right tools or abilities. Those things just aren't normal everyday items.
Wolverine can't cut him with his claws, because Reed just stretches to accommodate for the claws, and remains unharmed. So firearms, blades, blunt objects, and pretty much any weapon that a normal person has normal access to...would be worthless.
@@PanicRolling I mean, flamethrowers are easy to build. You can do it in a garage.
@@kompatybilijny9348 True, but odds are that Reed Fantastic Four suit would likely have been made to resist intense heat. Not only has he gone to space and other dimensions multiple times, it is important to notice that his Brother-In-Law is a literally Hot-Heated Pyrokinetic, so it is not like Reed wouldn't know the risks fire poses and thus take that into account.
@@LoboGuara5bruxaria His head does not look like it is protected by his suit
I'm playing a 6 int fighter that may as well be a barbarian, and half the time I feel like I should coin flip to make a roll to see if he knows what breathing is.
He would definitely have the Keen Mind feat
MR.TERRIFIC …. YOU FORGOT HIMMMMM
OK SO... I loved the first vid much more than the subsequent vids. While I think you recived some valid constructive critzisim. What I feel is most important is a consistent enough structure to the vids. My favorite part that hooked me in on the strenght vid was you quantifying what 10 and 20 STR looks like IRL. and then proceeding to show how in other media even that is not that impressive by comparison. Like a 3 looks aproach. 20 STR vs top human athletes. Then 20 STR vs superheros. Then how much STR or any given stat put on a sheet would encapsulate that character and their feats. You could go a step beyond and create homebrew character sheets for them with spells nd legendary actions like you kinda did with spidey. Would love to see you polish this vid idea more in that sense and see you tackle WIS next
18:40 not quite but close, I've got a few bargaining chips that can't be found on the internet.
Because of this comment, Brainiac knows about them now. He's coming.
Unless he's been retconned, Braniac isn't Culoan. He's a Kryptonian computer. Braniac V is the Culoan.
You are thinking about animated series. In comics Brainiac never was a computer or Kryptonian. You can check any wiki for it.
You saying the internet has come alive and is after you is the real nightmare scenario. Makes me think of the robot woman at the end of superman 3....
I thought for a brief moment you were about to mention the Disney Channel original movie: Smart House.
A true horror movie.
@@PanicRolling Can't say I've seen it. I need new nightmare material. I might come to regret this :P
I'd say Brainiac is mainly an artificer but his brain power is giving Aberrant mind sorcerer and i guess the learning ability goes with the wizard class. Spot on.
I'd say Braniac is a lvl 20 Wizard reflavored for technology, Order of Scribes because they're the nerdiest of the wizards and get really appropriate powers for him.
A sentient spellbook that can manifest it's AI to act as a near unstoppable set of eyes and a spot he can cast spells from.
He would be able to rewrite damage types the spells can be thanks to his subclass.
Adding new spells is very fast and cheap. He can also create spellscrolls faster and cheaper, reflavor that into back up programs.
Flavor his spells as programs and gadgets he can execute. One noteworthy spell I'd recommend is Create Magen, for a tiny price of a few hp, he can create a human shaped golem that obeys him. Combo this with Wish and Simulacrom, and his 2nd self can pay the price and help him assemble his robot army. The Necromancer subclass can nullify the hp loss, but Brainiac isn't a Necromancer.
And of course, Clone, because he always comes back.
Probably make him fight similar to the Netherbrain but allow him to cast his spells at the party from anywhere, through his robots to really Amp up how powerful he is.
Whats hilarious is in pathfinder, a daemon blood teifling with rolling on the alt traits table you can start with 22 int.
I would argue that Batman is beyond 20 Intelligence. He is lying when he says he has no powers.
Look up how long it takes to learn different languages, and consider how rare a polyglot truly is. Now consider that canonically, Batman speaks almost all languages.
Look up how long it takes to master a martial art. Now consider that Batman in most versions is a "Master of all fighting styles".
Consider all the sciences Batman has learned, along with detective work, along with memorizing great works of literature and learning how to sing "Something Blue". While also learning how to wrestle his girlfriend when she becomes a pig.
Now consider that Batman, in most versions, is 30 years old. Crime Alley happened when he was 7. So between then and 30, he's been learning all this.
(While also developing an 18 strength and constitution.)
I feel the need to point that that none of this is particularly hard to do in DnD. Human for 2 language proficiencies, background for 2 language proficincies, linguist for 3 more. Alternatively use Xanathar's guide for learing tool and language proficiencies, where it takes a number of work weeks (5 days) equal to 10-INT mod. There are 16 languages in DnD (Common being used to represent every human language), so it would take a character with 18 INT 480 *days* and costing 750 gp to go from having 0 language proficiencies to having all of them. That's around a year in the Forgotten Realms (10 days in a week, ~4 weeks in a month, 12 months in a year).
As for becoming the master of all martial arts, you get that by going 2 levels in monk and 1 level in fighter. The rest of his kit can be expressed using rogue and artificer. A ton of skill proficiencies and expertises, expertise in all tools, the batcycle (battlesmith's steel defender), master of stealth. You can get an accurate early career batman as soon as level 4 (2 monk, 1 fighter, 1 rogue for before he made his gadgets), level 7 for a lot of his gadgets (jump from artificer for his grappling hook, fog cloud for smoke bombs, feather fall for gliding, steel defender for batcycle/batmobile), and then when he joins the justice league and really pushes himself we get up to level 14 (2 monk, 1 fighter, 6 rogue and 6 artificer) before he peaks at level 18 (same as before but with 5 monk).
As for needing 18 Strength, he would get by with 10 Strength and Expertise in Athletics. Monk means his unarmed strikes deal 1d6/8+4 magical bludgeoning damage (the same as a warhammer), and an inch of stone has an AC of 17 and 5 hitpoints and a damage threshold of 5. Those mimic his most impressive strength based feats. And he'd only need 14 Con with the tough feat (tough giving him the same HP as if he had 18 Con).
Finally, memorising all those great works of literature just requires proficiency in History and the Keen Mind Feat.
I would argue Batman and Sherlock Homles have 16/18 Int with expertise in Investigation and History.
I don't think Batman is necessarily intended to be an "everyman." He's similarly brilliant to Lex Luthor, except while Lex used his intellect to make himself rich, and eventually to create things to fight Superman, Batman elected to use his super genius to speedrun martial arts and detective skills. Unlike Lex he grew up rich and doesn't really need to devote time to running his business, since Bruce Wayne is supposedly a playboy who probably just attends the bare minimum number of meetings not to be kicked out of his parent's company.
Elminster has 27 intelligence... let that sink in lol
Batman is such a dumb character LOL
This is an amazing channel. Thank you for the content!!!
I've always just interpreted it as INT: Ability score x 10 = IQ. So a person with a 10 INT would have a 100 I.Q. (which is average). A person with a 20 INT would have a 200 I.Q.
Information learned = knowledge
Knowledge is not the same as intelligence
Intelligence = being able to understand and remember things (memory)
7:35
The way he slowly says "Brain damaged or degenerative disease" and then roasts the cyclops at 10:00 😂
Wonder if you’ll do a “how much Wisdom does Dr Fate have” or another character that represents high Wisdom, maybe Xavier, wisdoms a hard one to nail down.
I'm a pharma ceo, mensa member and a prodigy in my field. Someone once said I would likely have 19 int. I said that was an overstatement, I thought Einstein would be around 19, and me at 16-17.
I'm a guy that talks about games and comic books on the internet. So I reckon mine's about a 6 or 7.
I like your narrative style. This is the first video of yours I listen to. You got a new subscriber. Cheers !
I've only ever seen an 18 intelligence played correctly in a live D&D game by someone who himself had a 165 IQ and kept insane notes. He wrote everything down in immaculate detail and was able to integrate everything we experienced.
That dope, there are only 150 people that smart based in distribution models.
What live show was it?
@@randomonlineuser6401 Might not have been a live show, might've been a game that they were in.
_Really_ looking forward to whoever is picked as the 20 Wisdom character example.
Got a guess?
@@PanicRolling Emperor Leto II from Dune, the big worm guy.
He has the combined wisdom of all his ancestors in a single mind, going back the many thousands of years in the future back to some ancient era, the Bene Gesserit alone would be worth it but he had both male and female lineages. Also, his rule of 3,500 years and eventual downfall were all a part of his intent and design for the wider aspect of humanity, though ethics and morality are naturally intentionally components one can argue about here.
From such a long lineage he’d have the perspective of good and evil, the rich and poor, of kings and slaves- that’s _Wisdom_ there.
Brainiac would easily be an artificer, as artificers use their knowledge to create magical tools and devices using primitive technology from the D&D world. Some subclasses can literally create a magic cannon or armor similar to Iron Man.
Yeh absolutely! He would basically be the god of artificers if he were in their universe. Any technology that anyone made, he'd have control over.
20:28 If I were to build Brainiac, I would probably go with something like 15 Wizard 5 Armorer Artificer. Armorer represents his enhanced body, where he can use that 30 INT to contest supes' 30 Strength if he chooses Guardian for thunder gauntlets. It also lets him wear Heavy Armor as tho it were his skin, so with +3 plate that's a natural AC of 21, and he can use the bonus action temp HP to make up for his kinda low HP. I wouldn't say Brainiac has 9th level spells even tho he certainly has 9th level slots, because the most impressive thing he does technologically that I'm aware of is transport cities into bottles which can be replicated with Plane Shift and Demiplane (enhanced with magical items). And tbh you could even argue that any spell he casts using technology could just be him reading from spell scrolls that he made, and he just has expertise in Arcana from say Skill Expert. That would let you do Artificer 20 where at level 14 you ignore a scroll's requirement for the spell to be on your spell list, then expertise in arcana for +22 to never fail the roll to cast spell scrolls (because normally that's a thing you need to do, DC 10 + the spell's level if you don't have slots of the same level).
Artificer 10 would let you scribe scrolls of 3rd level or lower in a quarter of the time it usually takes. If you go 20 levels in Artificer, he can attune to twice the number of magic items most people can, use Enhanced Defense to make his plate +2 without even needing any kind of help, he can make his Thunder Gauntlet's +2 weapons using Enhanced Weapon. Helm of Awareness to never be surprised and have advantage on initiative. Mind Sharpener to never fail concentration checks. He gains a +1 bonus to saving throws for each magic item he's attuned to, so if that's 6 (which it should be) he gets a +22 to Int saves.
Some of those gems in his head could be Ioun Stones, filling the rest of his attunement slots with 5 of them. 3 Ioun stones of Mastery will get him a +9 proficiency bonus, removing the need for expertise in Arcana but if you keep it he'll now have a +28 to it, a Stone of Regeneration will help make up for not having the greatest HP in the world and mimics his ability to self repair, and the final stone could either be a stone of Protection (+1 to AC), Sustenance (doesn't need to eat or drink) or Reserve (can store up to 3 spell levels into the stone, for free castings of things like Shield for the force field around him).
All told, this gives him a +25 to Intelligence saves. The highest possible save DC someone can have, and this is with a +9 PB, 30 casting stat, Robes of the Arch Magi and a +3 to save DC magic item- is 32. Brainiac rolls a 26 as a minimum. Without magic items, the highest a save DC can be is 27.
Then you use Epic Boons to get his Int to 30, making him either level 25 using the current Epic Boon rules or level 30 using the soon to come PHB in September.
Characters who use tech to reach ridiculous levels of power are actually insanely easy to port over into DnD because of all the insane magic items available in the game. It's when it's a natural ability that you have to start bending the system to your will 🤣
As a side note: I don't know if you were talking about me when you mention people arguing that 10 doesn't represent the average ability score, because I remember making a similar argument. But I was talking about the DCs, not the ability scores. Like DC 10 isn't a medium DC for the average person, it's a medium DC for someone with a +2/3. A DC 25 isn't very hard for the average person, it is *impossible* - someone with a +0 and no proficiencies cannot roll above a 20. You can basically -5 from each of the categories and they'd be accurate for a commoner.
I finally got it! This guy sounds exactly like the impression Jim Halpert did of Dwight. Bears. Beat. Battlestar Galactica.(The Office)
I love these, you do such a good job. With your recognition of a difference between "normal person" and "adventurer" (specifically the barrier that exists between 18 and 20), I would be interested to know how you would stat out and build (because level and feats would be factors) both Captain America and Batman. There are other characters who fit a "peak human" description in some ways, but I feel like those two have simultaneously the most consistent displays and yet they are also very different from one another. I don't know if that is enough for a whole video but I feel like it could be. Anyway, great stuff!
Mechanically speaking, extremely smart unit should be able to have multiple concentration slots.
the Nether brain should only have 24 to 26 intelligence though.
Yeh don't be mistaken...Brainiac would solo the entirety of BG3 so easily, he wouldn't even get xp for doing it.
Yes! I knew it would be braniac! He literally has the best ability to learn and recall things since he wants to become a repository for all information!
One thing we do at my table is for Druid’s and Clercis they can use their WIS for Nature and Religion checks.
15:56 man if only you waited four days
Lol excellent timing, huh?
I feel like batman & holmes int is 20 but batman has Expertise in investigation with Holmes to have proficiency
Heheh this is a hotly debated one. There are plenty of people who would argue that Holmes is a better detective than Batman, and they're only made equivalent by Bruce's enhanced tech.
I personally think they're equals and then Batman's tech gives him the edge. But unprepared with no gadgets? I'd give either of them a good chance at solving the same crimes.
The Limitless movie is a good starting point
If I remember in older editions int was easy to calculate. Your IQ score was equal to your int times 10. So if you have int 20 your IQ is 200
30 can't possibly be the max if that's the case, though...some of these characters' IQ would be way higher than 300.
@@PanicRolling older editions didn't necessarily have that cap
Ahh I see. That makes sense.
For Baldur's Gate 3 I think Brainiac would be 11 levels of Abjuration Wizard (since he then would be able to learn/use level 6th spells which are the max for that game) and perhaps one level of Knowledge Cleric. The focus on Abjuration fits him well since it A) Provides forcefields that he could extend to himself others, and B) It is a school of magic that thrives on adaptation/understanding what your enemy is doing (i.e. Counterspell).
In terms of strength I can explain this scale rather easily. For a person of average strength and durability. It doesn't matter to your spinal cord whether your opponent can juggle refrigerators or freight train cars you're going to die.
Joke's on you. My spinal cord is Resistant to train cars.
You activated my trap card.
19:50 small tangent, but it's impossible for a character to simultaneously "simulate your defeat a thousand times over before it happens" and also to underestimate you. Also, you kinda need to understand human nature to predict your human opponents anyway.
There comes a point where enough intelligence really *is* a valid substitute for wisdom. That point is beyond human levels of genius, so we actually do need wisdom to succeed, but as far as characters like Brainiac are concerned, some of his failures are unrealistic IMHO.
Have you ever seen the comic book version of Thanos and the Infinity Stones?
The way that he loses in that one is almost insultingly stupid.
You're not wrong though. "I underestimated a creature that I know literally everything about" feels like a cop-out, and it's basically the low INT way to write a high INT character being defeated.
@@PanicRolling I pretty much think of it as power creep, but for IQ.
Comic book writers create increasingly smarter villains to outpace the increasingly smarter heroes, up to the point where you kinda need a deus ex to avoid the lose condition.
(or Flash resets the universe I guess)
Lmao yeh exactly. Another Flashpoint should cover it. No worries!
Green Lantern as Charisma (representing force of will).
If braniac was a player not a NPC or boss he would have 20 intelligence but he would eventually figure out how to break the rules of the game and give himself more than 20 intelligence
Would love a video on Doom.
He's as smart as Reed, as good with magic as Strange and a better engineer than Tony.
I'm definitely planning to cover him! Doom shares a video with no one!
So a god who can bench press the planet,take a nuke to the face without damage,and moce faster than light is a good counter!!? No way that's crazy talk 😂😂
He's not bad to have on your team, that's for sure.
having 1 int is basically a vegetative state. wild animals have at least 2, which i think is the minimum you need for sentience. you cannot even speak unless your int is 6 or higher, which is when you hit sapience
I feel base game, he'd be pure Wizard. I think divination makes the most sense to fit with his planning and contingency plans
In the case of Braniac I’d say he has whatever the max intelligence would be but his wisdom is Average at best since he main weakness is that he’s a robot and he thinks too practically. It’s why he actually considered Lex Luthor’s offer in JLU when all he would really offer him was imagination.
I've always seen that it's assumed that creatures with a minimum of 3 Intelligence aren't outright feral or animalistic. At most, I believe they can understand language if nothing else. But I can't recall how far it goes.
So intelligence is. " how complex does a problem have to be before you can no longer solve it? "
Similar to "how heavy does something have to be before you can no longer lift it?"
I think INT is probably best compared to the brain's version of STR, so pretty much exactly this.
So, following your pattern, the next video is Wisdom. Which is REALLY tricky.
Wisdom is perception, emotional intelligence, and your ability to connect to the Divine. So, on one hand, anyone able to spot 30 ninjas hiding in the garden would have a high wisdom... but so would any character who acts as a sage and advisor to the other heroes. Also, anyone with a divine power source could be considered.
The perception route is easy, anyone from the bat family, any of the archers, Daredevil. If you just look towards having the ability to read people, Daredevil might be the best route.
But I'm curious what you decide to do.
Each point above 10 would be the equivalent of one standard deviation away from the mean, by 20 int you’re beyond any mortal human level of intelligence.
So brainiac is a netherbrain? Not bad.
Netherbrainiac!
I actually think int is the worst defined stat put of all of them, intelligence is such a broad term that covers everything from creativity to recall and covering everything in between from maths to languages.
You might be right, but I also think CHA gives it a run for its money, when it comes to being obscure and confusing.
@@PanicRolling yeah but to be fair that could be just because we don't have any 😂
Your drawings never fail to tickle me.
Those with lower intellect need hundreds or thousands of interactions to determine the intelligence of those smarter than them. The opposite is true for those with high intellect. Those with higher intelligence do not need hundreds of interactions to determine the intelligence of those with lower intellect. They need only have a a single or even few conversations with them. This is true in real life as well. Additionally, those with high intellect can, at will, speak at intelligence levels to match with whom they are speaking with only hints of intelligence coming out from time to time.
One should also consider the Dunning-Kreuger effect where someone with lower intelligence thinks that they know it all and someone with high intellect thinks that they don't know enough.
This is why I sound so dumb all the time. It's really because I'm so smart.
😎😎😎
I can provide some context as to why some commenters whete assuming 10 was too high to be the average - its a change in DnD 5e.
In previous editions, 8 (-1) was the standard stat for both PC's and NPC's. In the case of intelligence 6 (-2) was required for sentience and anything lower was an animal. 1 (-5) intelligence was more common amongst creatutes of pure instinct, and 0 was a non-living being.
Stat reductions were much more common as attacks etc. so there was a much clearer definition of what the low end of stats actually meant.
But i guess WotC were uncomfortable suggesting that an average commoner was only two point above barely being sentient, so they changed the numbers and made them have less clear boundries.
Hey, thanks for the info! It's hilarious to me that average people were only 3 points above an animal. Probably true for some people (me).
Also I have heard horror stories about how Undead would drain your stats or something? That sounds horrible as a game mechanic.
@@PanicRolling Yup, quite a few of them had stuff like that, I believe Mummies could drain strength (wisdom too maybe? Can't be sure) and several mind flayer adjacent creatures (most notable being intellect devourers) could drain intelligence.
Then there were poisons that drained Con etc etc. it was a lot, and it made the games maths even more complicated - it already had much more scaling for abilities/skills etc. especially once you started digging into the absurd number of books that were around for the likes of 3/3.5e
And the 3 points above animal is very amusing, especially when you consider that 6-7 in a stat are both (-2) so the mechanical difference between 8 (-1) Int and 6 (-2) Int is virtually nothing (~+/-5%). The average commoner is apparently ~10% smarter than an animal. Ouch.
I think it would make sense for int modifiers to be equivalent to standard deviations on the iq scale.
Inorder to accurately portray a superintelligent character you need multiple people and time.
"He has like 0 wisdom" lol😂
People need to stop thinking Intelligence = knowledge. That's the first place where everyone trips up.
Intelligence does not equal knowledge; the two work alongside each other, but are unrelated in terms of causing each other. One can be incredibly knowledgeable while lacking any notable amount of intelligence, and vice-verse (a creature may be crazy intelligent but have little actual knowledge).
Intelligence, put bluntly, is just your brain's horsepower. It is how quickly your brain learns/recalls information & how quickly it can (mentally) react to that information (in other words, how fast/efficiently they can think). That's all.
This also means that a 20 intelligence character isn't necessarily going to come up with plans that a 5 intelligence character isn't able to plan. The 20 intelligence character is just going to make those plans faster, and they'll be more likely to notice the flaws faster.
I don't think the two can be separated at all. Because if 20 INT doesnt let you form a better plan than 5 INT...wtf are we putting points into INT for?
We go to school in real life to learn. Learning increases the amount of information you have memory of, and also teaches you new ways to find and apply new information. But without expanding your actual stores of knowledge...you have no references to draw from.
If we are working under the assumption that INT can just produce information with 0 prior knowledge and experience, then it is ITSELF a magical stat, and easily the strongest in the game. By simply attaching the prerequisite of prior knowledge to it in the lore, it fixes this issue immediately.
@@PanicRolling
Case in point though - a 20 in INT DOESN'T let you form a better plan than someone with 5 INT. Not per the mechanics of the game at least. At best (using the Arcana / History / Nature / Religion / Investigation skills as the reference), high INT just lets you identify connections & information that you already know (or are available to study) more easily than someone with low INT.
I can tell you from experience that simply learning information does not make you more intelligent. I am someone who aced school (from elementary to college) despite being both brain damaged and mentally deficient (I would say retarded, but unfortunately other people will get upset & insult me for such honesty if I do); medical testing in my adult life confirmed it. Throughout my life I've experienced the drawbacks of the real-life equivalent of a "low intelligence" build. All it amounts to is having a brain that's slower to learn new information, and slower to adapt when information on a topic is lacking or a new/unexpected situation arises.
It is also something compensated for through study & memorization (which someone with low intelligence can do and HAS to do even; it just takes longer and is a bit harder), which in D&D terms is what gaining proficiency/expertise in skills/weapons/tools is. When you lack the brain to improvise, you instead drill the knowledge into your head until said knowledge becomes almost instinct to you (even if you don't even remember how/why you are right sometimes, which is the case for me more often than I'd like to admit).
It is likewise wrong to assume that INT can just "produce" information with 0 prior knowledge/experience. However, do not underestimate the things that people do not realize they already know. It is why the primary INT skills are Arcana / History / Nature / Religion / Investigation (with Animal Handling / Medicine / Survival being good contenders for frequent alternative checks) as well as nearly all Tool checks; these are skills/tools where, even if you lack any proficiency in them (thus lacking any prior knowledge/experience with them), simply having a high INT score will let you improvise and figure out things with better, more reliable results than someone with a low INT score.
All attaching the prerequisite of prior knowledge does is add problems & issues; it doesn't fix anything.
Intelligence can go up to 30 with monsters and special features in 5e
All of my characters usually end up being total dumb asses with 20+ str and 8 int. I don't think charisma counts.
i really want to see you talk about some of the x-men since their powers are really interesting for this series
Oh trust me, there will be X-Men content coming! As well as Justice League stuff and Avengers...there's all kinds of teams I plan to talk about. 😁
Brainiac would absolutely have the ability to concentrate on multiple things at once. I’d say 12 different things because twelfth level intellect, I’d say also he can put more than one of his concentrations on one thing so if he loses one concentration he still has another one on it (and that he would only be able to lose one concentration at a time)
I was expecting characters like Dr. Fate, John Constantine and Dr. Manhattan be in this video
Make a "the honorable mentions" video where ypu brief over characters for each stat like doom for intelligence, let's say homelander for strength, etc. Would be interesting
You could've just referenced the Commoner stat block to justify 10 is the average instead of going on that tangent about beasts
My intent was to scale from 1-20. Thanks for the feedback, though!
I consider the typical engineer to be 14. 16 is a good engineer or a typical researcher. 18 is an unbelievable engineer that for example reverse engineers a whole video game console just looking at the circuit. Or a prolific researcher that everybody knows in his field. 20 would be famous researchers like Einstein who disrupted entire fields or Euler that has invented so much math it cannot be named after him anymore. Just my 2 cents based on what I do in life. I hope I am 17 INT :)
Makes sense to me! I'm sure inventors with billion-dollar biotech companies like Oscorp, Lexcorp, and Parker Industries are comfortably up there!
This is helpful for me because I have a 20 intelligence character I want to get better at RPing
Look at the big ol brain on this one! 🥸🤓🥸🤓