How do you deal with intelligence stat in litRPG

[Reisinling]

Int stat is possibly the hardest stat to deal with in any reasonable manner in litRPG. Especially for your protag- in theory their personality should change with increase in int, shouldn't it? Also their abilities in thinking of plans. But we, as simple mortal authors would find it difficult to make our MC smarter and smarter.

So some people just don't increase it through the story, treating it as some unique stat. Others just don't include it, or pretend it only affects stuff like speed of learning/magic. How do you deal with it?

 

[ArcadiaBlade]

When dealing with INT, I usually make the MC more smarter than he needs to be since INT handles how a character gains more knowledge the more it increases. He doesn't act smarter but more on his knowledge gets bigger the more knowledge he has stored in his mind at some point in the story.

Basically he doesn't really act smart quite fast but gets more intelligence as his brain process faster than normal so you can still make him act like an idiot until he memorizes his right and wrong.

 

[Mechaphobic]

I have been thinking of treating it like an insight system, where it highlights things the player might miss. I would treat it like video games do, where the character gets flashes of insights as the parts come together or they notice key things due to the system assisting them.

I personally don't like how a lot of novels try to portray the character just getting smarter. I feel like that takes away from the fact that it is the system granting power. I feel like if you had an absurd intelligence you would be like Einstein where you would notice patterns others just couldn't see. I would use the system itself to do this.

I had this issue in D&D a lot where a dumb person would play a max intelligence character. It just doesn't make sense that they wouldn't understand something that their character would. I actually prefer it if the system is directly interfering with the player as it adds eeriness to it.

 

[Snusmumriken]

I think the only time I've seen someone address this issue decently was Ryuugi's "The games we play"

Many usually ignore it, some can pull it off if the stat gain is negligible and not exponential. You either have to start with a really stupid MC or slowly ramp up his intelligence as you write him.

Edit: Treat the thought process as a ladder. All people use the same type of ladder of reasoning, the more intelligent the character is - more steps he can jump over, and skip, compared to their contemporaries.

 

[Ununique]

When I tried my hand at LitRPG I tried the more nuanced take of splitting Wisdom and Intellect. Intellect being good for rote memorization and understanding complex ideas. Wisdom was there more for the personality of the character and to describe how they applied the knowledge that they had (which ironically made it a hard ability to increase versus stat dumping int.)

 

[Biggest-Kusa-Out-There]

Considering that in reality there exists more than one intelligence(Emotional, social, mathematical, spatial, etc), you can do without the stat affecting actual intelligence, otherwise wars would not exist in a world of magic, sciences would be far more advanced than ours, and that meme about '100% of brain usage' would instead be a reality.

Justify Int actually increasing a person's overall intellect if you intend to use it as such. If so, everybody would chase the stat, since nobody wants to be dumb. Just like cultivation increases lifespand and power and everybody chases after it in those type of stories.

If everybody has a system, people should have studied it at some point and if their intelligence works like you mention, they must have already figured out what is what.

 

[Cherry]

Int means Dex meaning that if their Int stat is higher, they have great magic damage and higher SP to chant bigger spells.

 

[DubstheDuke]

For my story at least intelligence was just related to mana and magic, had nothing to do with actual intelligence except for one particular joke that I played on a certain character

For my story at least intelligence was just related to mana and magic, had nothing to do with actual intelligence except for one particular joke that I played on a certain character

But when they did hit max intelligence they did gain some special skills

 

[CheertheDead]

Intelligence in real life is already an convoluted mess to define with the line being debatable.
I do not want to deal with it because of how much of a hassle it is. From fictional works that i read, the system that related to INT is also complex.

Knowledge
Represent one’s overall “knowing”. This differs from INT as INT is the ability to acquire and apply knowledge

Wisdom
Similar to INT up to the point of being able to apply Knowledge to solve a problem. Wisdom does not concern the ability to gain new knowledge as INT does.

Intellect
It seems to be used to describe the ability to be intelligent but about abstract aspects (dealing with ideas rather than the conventional of using tools…) Intellect also represents the ability to reason. This stretches a little into the category of mental power. Thus, an intellectual person is less susceptible to mind control or other mental attack. However, Intellect is not Mind Power, it is just something that gives Mind Power.

Insight
Is the ability to gain in-depth understanding of a subject. It is similar to Knowledge and sometimes be considered a more specialised aspect of Knowledge although it also has certain element of INT. You can gain Insight if you know about a matter exceptionally well, you do not need extreme IQ to be Insightful. However, having a good INT may help you gain insight faster and easier.

Each of these terms overlap with each other in some areas but usually represents something differently. If you have a character that is a Hive Mind, the differences will become much more visible. In parts, they have no INT but as a whole they are a complex super computer that solved problems intelligently in an instinctual way.

Considering that in reality there exists more than one intelligence(Emotional, social, mathematical, spatial, etc), you can do without the stat affecting actual intelligence, otherwise wars would not exist in a world of magic, sciences would be far more advanced than ours, and that meme about '100% of brain usage' would instead be a reality.

If you want to use it like that you will have to at least specify what kind of intelligence the stats increases and sometimes “why?” Of course, overlook it is also an option.

 

[HURGMCGURG]

Int stat is possibly the hardest stat to deal with in any reasonable manner in litRPG. Especially for your protag- in theory their personality should change with increase in int, shouldn't it? Also their abilities in thinking of plans. But we, as simple mortal authors would find it difficult to make our MC smarter and smarter.

So some people just don't increase it through the story, treating it as some unique stat. Others just don't include it, or pretend it only affects stuff like speed of learning/magic. How do you deal with it?

Easy solution: Don't have Intelligence. Make up some bullshit stats like MENT or WIL or Instinct or Acuity or Intuition or Clarity or Focus. In order to write an intelligent character, you have to be that intelligent or spend longer writing them than any of the other characters in order to make them "smart". It's hard. It can be rewarding, but sometimes it's not worth the effort.

Making intelligence not actually make the person more intelligent is kind of dumb. Stats should represent what they say they are. If it's not making the person more intelligent, then call it something else.

At the same time, giving an intelligence stat that actually improves intelligence means that in a world with that stat, almost everyone would have at least invested a few point into it, becoming a little smarter. Imagine a world where the intellect of every person on earth has risen dramatically. Suddenly, you stop having as much stupid shit to deal with and a lot more problems being solved quickly. Optimization everywhere. If monsters have stats and can put points into their status, you should be seeing a fuck ton of intelligent monsters too (not speech capable or even reasonable, but a cruel intellect is real fucking dangerous). If this hasn't happened, then you're writing what I could only consider unrealistic, which would be most stories with an INT stat that improves intelligence.

Basically, intelligence as a stat makes everything harder, unrealistic, or contradictory. Just ditch it and move on.

 

[sereminar]

I remember reading one story where in universe some mages were the ones who figured out the basics of the system (the system didn't communicate with people, it was just part of the universe so they had to figure everything out the hard way) and because the mages were so full of themselves they decided to name the stats they used pretentious b.s. like "intelligence" and "wisdom." It was pretty funny.

As far as other ways to do it you could just:
-straight up rename the stats, no need to stick to convention
-Make the system descriptive rather than prescriptive
-Make int solely measure the highly specific skills needed for your magic system ex: doing geometry quickly in your head, mentally manipulating 3d images, the ability to memorize in exacting detail various spell formulas
-keep the stats small, no stat going over 20 shin Megan tensei kind of numbers rather than FF numbers
-cut out stats entirely increasing the importance of Skills, conditioning, training

Idk, this is a really great question and deserves better answers than I have lol.

 

[Jemini]

It definitely takes some care to write a character with very different levels of intelligence than you. Most writers in general happen to already be a little above average, but it is generally the case that most MC characters are portrayed as having around a 115 IQ and college level education regardless of what their stats and education according to the author are actually supposed to be. (115 IQ is probably a few points above the IQ of the author, they come off as a little smarter than their author because they already know things in the world that would have taken a real person longer to figure out.)

The trick is, how smart the character comes off is directly proportionate to how well the author is able to lay out a thought process and come up with reasonable and logical conclusions based on evidence that is laid out. I have been able to portray some extremely smart characters by way of limiting information that the reader can see and by making the enemy act in a more logical way than most authors portray them. If the enemy who is tracking your hero uses their advantages effectively, then effectively also means predictably which means there is something for your protagonist to analyze and predict.

(And now, I have to stop talking before I start spoiling on my own series about how I implemented these principles in chapters currently only available to patrons.)

 

[NotaNuffian]

To me, the Int stat is just there to provide the user higher thinking capacity, as in, they can think faster and have better memories the more they invest to this stat.

This stat is not the wonder stat that suddenly turns the user into Einstein or Sherlock, but rather, it is the experience gained by the user that allows them to have the thought process of those two.

A retarded yet self aware MC once said, "being a genius is not about having the smartest brain, but rather having the knowledge and experience; you can be the smartest man alive, but if you have not experienced something, chances are you are probably never be able to solve the case even with your wild imagination."

He also said things like, "it is better to know that you are an idiot than to delude yourself into believing that you are a genius."

 

[Biggest-Kusa-Out-There]

If you want to use it like that you will have to at least specify what kind of intelligence the stats increases and sometimes “why?” Of course, overlook it is also an option.

True, you can absolutely overlook it. You'd have to weave the worldbuilding around it, however.

If you're going for a more realistic society and culture, take our own world as reference. In just the last century psychologists have studied the mind more deeply than previous times. And the mind already existed as a 'defined' concept since ancient Greece. Mages could have done this, Elves with their stereotypical long lifes could have done this in just one generation.

If the world you're writing is full of racism and discrimination, you can explain Elves or the Fae having a more explored subject related to the mind or magic itself, instead of it being common knowledge. This can work very well in settings where humans are the classic weak beings with nothing to show for themselves save war criminals, breeding like rabbits, and being the most racists of all.

I made my system reactive, instead of proactive. No notifications, no support, no status points to distribute, classes increase power based on their nature, all comes from the individual. It just shows what the person knows, like a resume. For example, int influences spell power and the speed of skill activation. A wizard learns a formula, for example to throw a firebal, and then acquires the skill if they understood it completely. Int would dictate how hot the fire would be, and how fast the wizard casts said fireball. This way, I killed a lot of birds with one stone. Wizards and Clerics have to face an entry wall of understanding sciences, something they would develop from childhood, to understand and manipulate magic. An individual can have a high willpower independent of stats or the system.

 

[Aetheo]

In my case, I sidestepped the issue in both stories- I split "Intelligence" in Metagame into two specifically practical and descriptive categories (calculation, aka "speed" of processing and learned shortcuts, and concentration, aka "completeness" of processing and the ability to create shortcuts on the fly), while Rune doesn't use it at all.

The issue is that intelligence as a concept is sort of "fake", in that it doesn't really mean what it's supposed to mean and tests for it don't really test for the quality, just offshoots of it. IQ in particular is especially fraught with issues that make it a wholly unreliable metric for basically anything. Experience and hard work with novel perspectives can easily imitate or move past what most people think of of intelligence.

If you're locked into the decision of having it, I would deal with it by having it be a pure speed thing- if they don't think creatively, then all they'll get is the least bad version of whatever idea they already had, or the most complete version of it- or, as would realistically apply, shrink the "thinking time" that they need to get to each stage in figuring it out, and shrink it nonlinearly (getting smaller speed increases with ever point of intelligence, for example). If they don't put in the work, they don't get the rewards.

 

[Wintertime]

INT should be personified as a modifier for his abilities. It should denote the magical combat abilities of the character, rather than their actual brainpower. Like a power system for magic. Intelligence would be an additive modifier for Magic Attack values. So the more 'INT' you have, the more Magic Attack you would deal; or the more damage your magical abilities will inflict, whether that be size, quality, potency, cast time, cooldown, global cooldown, mana cost, rotation, etc. These are some things you can play around with using intelligence as a stat.

 

[Snusmumriken]

INT should be personified as a modifier for his abilities. It should denote the magical combat abilities of the character, rather than their actual brainpower. Like a power system for magic.

In my opinion, it shouldn't be called intelligence then. Call it something else like magical power or arcane acumen, but not something so general.

 

[Wintertime]

In my opinion, it shouldn't be called intelligence then. Call it something else like magical power or arcane acumen, but not something so general.

This just goes into the traditional stats of RPG's. ATK, M.ATK,DEF, LUK, STR, DEX, INT,

Stats like STR (Strength) would be modifiers for ATK (Attack) and INT (Intelligence) would be modifiers for M.ATK (Magic Attack)
For example, LUK would be a modifier for CritRate %, and DEX would be a modifier for Attack Speed %.
Of course, you can call them whatever you want, but traditionally those are what they are referred to as.

 

[Snusmumriken]

I know where it was borrowed from. It was a shortcut in games which is much more acceptable because of the difficulty of scripting separate dialogues, Besides you want the INT written well - look at fallout 2 for example.

In books the author has a much better ability to write the precise character there is, with exact intellectual capacity.

imo relying on the game approach without modifying it for the book media is mostly a lack of effort.

 

[Wintertime]

I know where it was borrowed from. It was a shortcut in games which is much more acceptable because of the difficulty of scripting separate dialogues, Besides you want the INT written well - look at fallout 2 for example.

In books the author has a much better ability to write the precise character there is, with exact intellectual capacity.

imo relying on the game approach without modifying it for the book media is mostly a lack of effort.

I mean LitRPG's follow the same thought process as a fantasy book. The intellectual capacity or brain capacity of your character should depend on your writing ability to create the said character. Stuff like "Stats" or "Abilities" are just numerical magic systems to denote the growth of the character in tangible numbers. Emotional quandaries, like his character development, the way he thinks about certain situations, and the decisions he makes throughout the novel shouldn't be tied to a number, but rather the author's ability as a potent writer.