What is the INT stat?

GreenHexagon

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In RPGs and LitRPGS, the most unknown stat is the INT stat, most times its used for magic capacity but that doesn't feel right. So, I made this thread to ask the community what they think the int stat should represent, or if its completely useless, what it should be replaced by.
 

_oinkchan

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In RPGs and LitRPGS, the most unknown stat is the INT stat, most times its used for magic capacity but that doesn't feel right. So, I made this thread to ask the community what they think the int stat should represent, or if its completely useless, what it should be replaced by.
I think int is control on mana while wis stat is intelligence.
 

Snusmumriken

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there was an INT thread a month or two ago - a bunch of responses there. But you can really make it whatever you want really.
 

GreenHexagon

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I think int is control on mana while wis stat is intelligence.
That makes more sense but, how do you increase intelligence? Because in most RPGs and by association LitRPGs stats are manually assigned. Of course there are a minority that use actions to increase stats but those are rare.
there was an INT thread a month or two ago - a bunch of responses there. But you can really make it whatever you want really.
Huh, Thats intresting.
 

RepresentingWrath

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But INT still gonna be there. It makes the stat page more convuluted as well.
Like a person above said, you can use INT as a pure combat stat and add wisdom for intelligence\smartness. It's the most obvious and easy answer. You can look into this even further and come up with something that suits you and your convuluted stat page.
 

zasso

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In RPGs and LitRPGS, the most unknown stat is the INT stat, most times its used for magic capacity but that doesn't feel right. So, I made this thread to ask the community what they think the int stat should represent, or if its completely useless, what it should be replaced by.
I like to think of the INT stat or intelligence as how quickly someone learns or retains knowledge of all stripes; it goes hand-in-hand with wisdom because wisdom is how well someone applies what they've learned and uses it to perform or complete something. For example you can learn how to thread a needle and sew but until you stitch a patch onto pants or make a shirt with them then you aren't applying what you learn. I think people have a hard time showing what they mean with the INT or WIS stats because they don't understand how to help other people see the way they thought that led them to how they arrived at their destination. As for using it in games and books, magic capacity isn't wrong but it isn't right either, probably it would be closer to say that it's how many spells or magic someone can learn in a short period of time without hurting their brain; or maybe it would be how fast new spells are learned.
 

GreenHexagon

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Like a person above said, you can use INT as a pure combat stat and add wisdom for intelligence\smartness. It's the most obvious and easy answer. You can look into this even further and come up with something that suits you and your convuluted stat page.
Im talking about INT by itself, without the addition or split of Wisdom and Intellect (which is really the same thing as INT). Im not looking for 'easy' answers either, I'm looking for something that makes reasonable sense, like @zasso 's page above this. While making sure that if you have something like a status page, it would take less than 5 minutes to partially understand every stat.
 

RepresentingWrath

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Im talking about INT by itself, without the addition or split of Wisdom and Intellect (which is really the same thing as INT). Im not looking for 'easy' answers either, I'm looking for something that makes reasonable sense, like @zasso 's page above this. While making sure that if you have something like a status page, it would take less than 5 minutes to partially understand every stat.
The thing is, if you use INT as something other than a pure combat stat, then your characters should change their way of thinking according to the growth of the said stat. So, if you ask with the intention to use it later on, I advise you not to. But you do you. Hope you will find a suitable answer.
 

Mr.Grey-Cat

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just make INT stat represent the speed of thinking.

like that with high INT, you have higher computing power, can use magic better, can find solutions better, and can understand and analyze what's happening better.
 

Biggest-Kusa-Out-There

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Give the people of your worlds the most basic of cleverness, please.

If INT indeed increases soft intelligence outside of combat/magic, then everybody would increase that regardless of whatever. Think of it as earning money without doing a thing. Everyone on Earth would pick that, because the world runs on money.
The outlier would instead be the one or two percent of people that don't increase their intelligence.
Also, in the long run, characters WILL become smarter than the author if that stat does that.
This would literally mean anyone not increasing INT would become mouth-breathers... lol.

Don't interfere with the mind, and especially intellect, in a LitRPG. Maybe treat it as processing power like on computers, that makes people think faster... NOT better. That would excuse your characters from making stupid ass shit decisions while having thousands of INT.

Like... respect your work a little. Don't make everyone a retard so your mc can shine.

Easy = look at games and see INT being cast speed or magic potency, and spirit/wisdom/soul/whatever increase the mana pool and mana cost of spells.
 

whitesculptor

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In my novel(Villainess and Grimoire), I use it for a few different things, some self-explanatory others like increment of magic damage, understanding of the world like some people mentioned, but also of skills, for non-human races, I also use it(especially) for beasts with low int to not being able to talk, whereas those with high int can talk without issues.
Int also goes towards the perception of the world such as mana, how it influences, how it can be controlled, and of course, the skills that require that energy, whereas wisdom, is mana max capacity plus the wisdom to not do things stupidly.
In what comes to mana, higher int would also condition the number of magic spells/skills one could use at the same time, as well as how much mana one would be able to control in one go.
I hope that helped a little~!
 

Biggest-Kusa-Out-There

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For non-human races, I also use it(especially) for beasts with low int to not being able to talk, whereas those with high int can talk without issues.
So INT gives working vocal cords? Speech areas of the brain are developed? A bird would be able to talk if it has high int despite not even having the adequate lung shape to push enough air at the proper pace and make more than a cuack?
Or is everything born with vocal cords they just can't use unless they have high INT?

This does me a concern.
 

Akivien

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The thing is, increasing int results in a better thinking ability, multi task, multiple trains of thought at the same time, better memory and so this is a quantitative improvment, such as 1+1=2 okay now lets speak about creativity and things like that, for me personally this aspect isn't fixed one, it moves and changes somthing that can't be improved from nothing, so here wisdom comes into play, knowing more things can help you make a better argument, a better painting, because you may ve took inspiration from somebody else or their technique etc just like learning language as a baby you see people pointing at a cup and saying it's a cup, so you ve learnt that thing is a cup.

Oh that was a bad example, so here is a better one, more wisdom grants you more reccources to work with judt like you cannot makebread from nothing, unless younare a shady magic god reading forum discussion for fun
 

whitesculptor

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So INT gives working vocal cords? Speech areas of the brain are developed? A bird would be able to talk if it has high int despite not even having the adequate lung shape to push enough air at the proper pace and make more than a cuack?
Or is everything born with vocal cords they just can't use unless they have high INT?

This does me a concern.
There's a reason different toddlers learn to speak faster than others... "INT" can be used that way which is interesting. o-o
 

Cipiteca396

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INT shouldn't be used as a stat. If it's the usual LitRPG or RPG way, it would be better as MAG or something.

INT represents Intelligence. And even if you say it's just processing speed or whatever, improving it will eventually make the character smarter than the author. Which is impossible. You will never be able to fully represent a character's actions if you don't understand how they think. Something that seems genius to you will make your readers cringe from how dumb it is, and that will make them doubt your character.

So, better not to use INT as a stat. Even if you can handwave it by saying it doesn't really~ make them smarter, that just means you should name the stat something less misleading.

(Ignore this comment if you the author happen to have a system and have more INT than your characters. Do what you want.)
 

Biggest-Kusa-Out-There

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There's a reason different toddlers learn to speak faster than others... "INT" can be used that way which is interesting. o-o
Yeah, environmental differences most of the time.
This does me a consistency concern.
It's never good to turn an evolutionary gain into something attainable with stats...
Does jimmy, who never increased his intelligence, not know how to talk?
 

whitesculptor

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Yeah, environmental differences most of the time.
This does me a consistency concern.
It's never good to turn an evolutionary gain into something attainable with stats...
Does jimmy, who never increased his intelligence, not know how to talk?
If you declare that races can learn and in this case [int] would be a matter of how fast, there're some nice ways to go around it like getting 1/2 int per birthday, so he'd have 2 int age 1 minimum 4 int age 2 minimum, it would show that he learns faster as a 2-year-old than when he was younger.
Can also make titles that help their growth like learning how to crawl/walk giving them a little int bonus, just a matter of originality, systems are really fun to make due to how free they are, kind of like programming, just easier. hehe
 
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