Hey everyone,
I’m creating a human fighter with an INT stat of 9 and I wanted to come up with a way to this out in RP. The solution I came up with is that he acts normal but mentions that he believes in conspiracy theories and random dumb stuff.
The only thing I’ve come up with so far is that he thinks all cats are female and all dogs are male but I was hoping someone could provide a more DND related one.
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Dragons are lie told by the kings to justify keeping the masses from gold. "The dragon will have no interest in you if you have no gold!"
The world isn't real. It's a simulation. There's a bunch of guys in a basement somewhere rolling dice to determine our fate.
I would say conspiracy theories are more for low wisdom characters than low intelligence characters.
Low Wisdom means a (fundamental) misunderstanding of how the world works.
Low Intelligence means you don't know about the world outside of your direct life.
No such thing as dragons. You are telling me that there are giant fire breathing dragons destroying crops and eating livestock? Yeah right, clearly the government is just trying to hide all the food they buy to feed their giant armies in their ongoing war against the mindflayers.
All dark elves are vampires.
All elves are related to dark elves.
Horses can grow wings and horn if treated right.
All wizards go to the same school.
Also, my current character with same int is halfling who is adamant that he is actually cursed giant and that curse is so strong that everyone who can't notice it, is just weak in magic.
When you think of it, you rarely see nor hear of any elf-children in a lot of fantasy media. If it takes decades for an elf-child to mature into an adult, but we never see any...it begs the question of what are elf children?
What is a species that the elves look down upon and treat like they were children? Dwarves.
It makes no sense, there's a ton of evidence that is against it which makes it the perfect bat-shit conspiracy theory.
Dwarves and Elves are the same species. However, every now and then a dwarf child undergoes a magical transformation and becomes hairless, hits a growth spurt and starts losing muscle mass and becomes slender and willowy. Dwarf society hates this and so exiles the child to die in the mountains since weakness breeds weakness and weakness must be culled.
Then a covert of elves who live in secret near the dwarf holt entrances, waits for the child to start feeling like they're going to die, rescues them, and raises them in an elven community where the magics flowing freely finishes the transformation. The former dwarf child is also brainwashed to dislike dwarves for what they did to them.
Some quick ones off the top of my head:
Anyone with an accent is trying to be sarcastic (he thinks any change in how you speak is sarcasm)
There's a plane of existence above you guys, and when it rains thats just water spilling over from up there
They think half race characters/npcs are just really good at hiding their other half
Books and words arent real, theyre spells that mind control you into thinking what they want you to think
Every single world government is secretly run by lizard men using disguise magic. The required level of magic just goes up the more the party/npc's try to disprove this. (Starting at disguse self, and ending at true polymorph.)
There are no gods. There is just one insanely powerful being that shapes the world for his own amusement, and is out to give this group in particular a hard time. You don't know much about said being, but you have started to referring to them as the Game Master, because your entire existence just seems to be a game to them.
the fey are turning the bullywugs gay by putting magic chemicals in their swamps
believes that there is only one true god, not even one from the pantheon it's just their estranged stepmother
doesn't believe in dwarfs, thinks they're just buff, hairy halflings that have a really good diet so they can live longer
thinks humans are just one big hivemind
they believe that if they speak to a book, the events of aforementioned book will come true (best if evil character that wants to end the world, but they don't really have a way of doing it so they just talk to this one book constantly)
thinks all music is just a spell that makes you move around against your will and infests you with a happy sensation but it's just a big distraction from a crime scene happening behind you that you can't see
To be interested in conspiracy character must be interested in something at all, like having History or Magic or Nature int-based skill, with weak int.
So, if you have one, focus around it.
Also - do you BELIEVE to anything you listen (that looks like low wisdom, not int), or you just overthink things in wrong way because you feel exited in process?
History examples: "Our society/ruler is the best!!!!/our society is the worst!!!! (Usually both are wrong)" "It is very easy to change all in good way, we need to change just one thing..." "Other country/religion is totally evil/pure good (usually both are wrong) " "Our history is 10 times shorter/longer than it really is, some historical figures are multiple persons/or multiple historical figures are one person"
Magic: you can defend from spells with holy symbol (symbols of multiple gods are better!!!!!) or dirt on your face. Spirits wouldn't control you if you stink. If you dont burying corpses, they would rise and found you!! Mages can only be killed with cutting head off and pissing on it.
He legitimately believes aliens are real (and maybe they are) but nobody believes him, despite the wide and diverse range of creatures they live alongside, like dragons, and Dwarves
Q1
One of the two extremes:
Either magic isn't real, it's all divine power granted by different gods. Wizards are of course not invoking magic on their own, but gods of knowledge grant them a boon for their studies.
OR
Gods aren't real, divine magic is just innate spellcastin abilities without the user realizing.
All birds are familiars working for a secret cabal of wizards who run the world.
Elves have special potions that they use to sleep less, and if you get some you don't get tired either
Gnomes and dwarves are short because they don't eat vegetables. Elves are tall because they do.
9 INT isn't really that dumb, especially if you have decent WIS. If 10 is average then there'd be quite a lot of people in the 8-9 range and also quite a lot of people in the 11-12 range. 10 is just the middle point between the two, -1, 0, +1 modifiers. It's not a big difference. Someone with 8 INT and 16 WIS is probably better adjusted to society and has more practical knowledge than someone with 16 INT and 8 WIS who may know the scientific names of every land mammal but doesn't know how to tie their own shoes.
Clerics are just wizards with an ego trying to lead a cult.
Dragonborn and lizard folk and the same people.
Halflings are half sized humans. Gnomes are half sized elves. Kobalds are half sized Dragonborn/Lizardfolk. Which means Dwarfs are half sized Goliaths.
Linked to the above, all the half sized races actually come from the moon. That's why they are smaller, because the moon is smaller.
The gold value of material components is just big magic forcing you to spend money. You can totally cast identify with just regular everyday chalk. (Both pearls and chalk contain calcium carbonate.)
Big church keeps it secret, but you can totally build up a resistance to disease by exposing yourself to a small amount of a weakened or dead version of the disease. Certain types of mould are also great at curing lots of infections. Big church just wants you to come to the temple and pay for a cure disease prayer.
The regional monarchy is actually a group of lizardfolk who use magic to disguise themselves as humans / elves / whatever the local heritage is, and they're part of a shadow cabal that secretly run the world. Don't trust a politician, they never show their true scales...
Wizards, sorcerers, warlocks, and bards are the same thing, one is just better at flourishes and music than the others.
Aarakocra and Tabaxi are just furry cosplayers.
If there are owl bears, there must be bear owls. Both can fly.
The goblins run a secret hafling fighting ring underneath a tavern in the city.
Tieflings are just humans cosplaying as demons.
Or a twist for the classic "birds arent real" try owl bears arent real lol
That's too dumb for Int 9 imo. It's more of an Int 5 thing.
In 9 isn't child-level intelligence, or a moron. Just a not a book-smart person, not much of a critical thinker.
Int 9 would be "Shapeshifted lizardfolk secretly control every government", "Most clerics are just wizards pretending to be clerics", "They know the secret of cheap and easy resurrection magic but they don't want the people to know about it", "Goblins, orcs and ogres are the same thing, just different sizes", "Anyone can be a wizard, wizard schools don't want you to know about it".
ghosts aren't real, it's just a different type of monster but it's got nothing to do with dead people
My favorite was a player once played a character that all of our actions were controlled by gods and that each important task was left to a random chance. The gods were gambling with our fate and having a fun time.
There aren't really animals that are only black and white, those are just myths. Zebras, pandas, orcas, penguins, all mythical creatures. Unicorns are legit though.
Magic is real but wizards aren’t. No one can just learn to do that. All of them are sorcerers pretending they got their powers through study to stoke their egos.
Dwarves are just another subspecies of halflings.
Blood hunters aren’t actually using their own blood they have hidden pouches of fake blood to use.
If the collected taxes were used to further enrich the nobles, the increased wealth would boost the kingdom and eventually trickle down back to the villagers.
I think maybe 9 is smarter than all cats are female & all dogs are male - it's only 1 point down from average.
I would go with things that mirror real world conspiracy theories. Like x animal doesn't exist (or is spying on everything), or moon light is colder than it's shadow, or the earth is flat/young (or whatever is opposite to the story world).
If this is a character for you to play maybe you can work with the DM on what conspiracy theories would fit best for the world/storyline. Things like magic isn't real, or gods aren't real in a DnD world with known gods, or someone in a pub told them the next town was entirely made of mimics. Or a "wizard" sold them a "rare & powerful magic item" but really it's either pretty normal thing with some paint (maybe magical in a high magic world but common place and doesn't do that they were told - could be a rock that does nothing but they believe gives them luck in haggling).
Just go with the classic reptilian stuff, but everyone they bring it up to is confused cause duh, there are obviously multiple dragonborn and/or lizardfolk in the local government
This sounds more like low Wis than low Int to me. You will need to make the conspiracies actually dumb, like ignoring basic laws of magic and physics dumb. I would suggest stuff like "All reality is made of basic particles which cannot be reduced or altered called 'atoms', and so Transmutation magic isn't real. It's just the old fashioned and ignorant lumping a bunch of illusion, evocation, and conjuration effects together that appear to alter these unchanging particles."
At night, when it's dark, it's because there's an astral stingray floating through space feeding on the magical energy emissions of wizards and sorcerers. Bards don't contribute much.
He's highly suspicious of Druids because anybody can pretend to talk to plants. He thinks, unilaterally, all Druids are faking that particular skill as an inside joke.
Notable icons and locals alike who have gone missing (such as Tasha, Renwick, or the local Blacksmith) have fallen off the edge of the turtle we all live on, metaphysically. If they're found, they've managed to climb back up.
He's like 98% certain that the [spice/silk/coffee/etc.] trade industry is a money laundering thing.
The sharrans have a secret giant staff in the astral plane that casts 10th level moonbeam on people
Devils and Demons are actually good guys, we should give them all of our money and possessions because they're so repressed
Arcane fire can't melt dwarvenforged steel.
A player I know once said he doesn´t believe in dragons
He refuses to believe any form of higher being(Deity, Demon lord or anything at all) don't exist and Paladins, Clerics and Warlocks are all just schizophrenic and anyone who claims to have seen one are crazy/hallucinating. Same thing if he sees one himself.
Magic isn't real, it's just tricks and slight of hand (also look at the components of those spells).
Dinosaurs aren't real. Anyone who says they saw one clearly saw a deformed dragon. Because if they were real why are they all "hiding" in Chult.
All land based species and cities are actually rejected and failed experiments of our great Triton overlords. If we are lucky 1 day we may be allowed to return to Atlantis.
The Under dark isn't real. Have you ever heard of anyone going down there and coming back?! It's a fairy tale to stop idiots from getting lost.
Drow OR shadar kai aren't real. Have you ever seen one of each in the same room together? That's right, I didn't think so.
Elves are sub fey. They weren't good enough to graduate to full fey status. This failure sucked all the joy and whimsy.out of them.
There is no such thing as an actual dwarf. Dwarves aren't born, they are carved from the ore in the ground and given life. Somewhere along the way the blood lines got polluted and now we have this sorry excuse to co-exist with. (The carved from earth.thing js old dnd lore I believe)
All weapons start life as sentient. The more.use they get the.more likely they are.to get a tbi and lose the ability to communicate.
The squirrels.are.spying on us.
Dragonborns don’t exist, they are just two/three kobolds in a trenchcoat
This is gonna be heavily setting-dependent. And also do you want them to be real conspiracy theories?
For example, changelings actually exist in D&D, and a part of their lore is being swapped for other mortal children. Even beyond that, they take on the appearance of other people. Was that person familiar because you saw them in another city? or because they've been copied? This sounds like a conspiracy irl, but it is 100% possible in D&D.
How about believing in a secret cult that worships an ancient lich and works towards his revival and ascension to godhood? That's Vecna and his cult of secrets.
Conspiracy theories kind of stop being implausible when magic and gods are real.
This. 100%.
That the gods all died but the priests covered it up to collect money
All birds can become arracockra
All magic is divine (which can be totally true depending on the lore of the setting), any somatic component is basically a prayer but in languages he doesn't understand, also wizards are the worst spell casters because they need a spell book to know what other spell casters practically know by heart.
Healing potions stunt peoples growth, that's why halflings exist.
There is a giant tarrasque underneath the city.
Statues were people that have been petrified.
I DON'T LIKE THEM PUTTING CHEMICALS IN THE WATER THAT TURNS THE FRIGGIN GRUNGS GAY, DO YOU UNDERSTAND THAT?!
slams sword on table
I once had a player who made a conspiracy theorist character. I made a deal with them, they spout out their theories and I'll pick one to be true but I won't tell them which one.
I left them down some fun fake trails before they learned the lizard folk in the sewers actually were replacing people.
Humanoid animal species like aarakocra and tabaxi are just people in suits for some (possibly sexual?) reason. He's the only person in this universe who's ever considered the concept of furries.
All zombies have corresponding ghosts somewhere and if you reunite body and spirit, they'll be cured.
He thinks his weapon is a sentient magical weapon, it just doesn't like him so it hasn't turned on.
Keep a running tally of critical successes and critical failures corresponding to going from overly-logical, faithless, and skeptical and once he hits a certain threshold of successes, he evolves like a Pokemon into a faithful, divine paladin who thinks he's being guided and imbued by something, maybe even just for a turn, before he comes to his senses.
I play low int monsters as 'no strategy' or 'simple strategies'.
So for a fighter, I might be like, "Don't make a plan, the mind flayers will hear you. Just charge in there and bash em!"
The world is secretly run by dragons shapeshifted to look like humanoids. You could even give your DM ideas because this might be an actual conspiracy and a bunch of metallic dragons are working very hard to keep humanity safe, your character is just ignorant about that.
Another fun one for your DM: you are a lay worshipper of Tymora and you have a sneaking suspicion that the world is a game. You don't fully understand it, but it feels right. Your character can have a high wisdom low intelligence score where it's like "I don't know the odds, but it feels like there is always a chance this goes horribly wrong (nat 1) or miraculously right (nat 20)."
ghosts aren’t real. if the character ever encounters a ghost they call it a demon. but it’t definitely not a ghost.
Make him extremely gullible. He takes everything at face value.
A drunk guy recently told my party that the dragons are running everything, E.g. this run down pub down the road is run by a black dragon in disguise and he was kicked out because he knows the truth. Not because he ran up his tab and failed to pay in full one too many times...
Potions are just coloured water, so he makes his own.
Goblins are like just child orcs and trolls so he won't kill them.
The world is round and you can tell the sun's go around it and not the other way.
Elves get secret telepathic messages through their pointy ears as they act as air-,rails and secretly will take over the world.
The Netherese faked spelljamming. They never went to space
I mean… I’m reminded of this Legends of Avantris clip, in which Bitsy the mouse believes “north is whichever way you’re facing”; if you want to go west, then it’s always to your left.
Upon being told that actual west never changes, she condemns the information as “Illuminati talk”.
My favorite one from the one game I got to play with friends (we only ever got to play together once) We had a person playing a low INT Monk, and he was convinced that the moon was a second Sun, not its own type of thing in space, just a dimmer Sun that sometimes disappears (New Moon) when it’s angry
All major factions (harpers, zhents, emeralds, etc) is just a cover up for a deep state that secretly rules the Sword Coast
Alchemy is a big farma conspiracy. Look at the prices of consumables! How the hell does 2d4+2 potion cost 50gp when any drunk bard can cure wounds several times a day only having to go for a nap afterwards?
Magic draws power from your physical form. Look at all those squishy wizards and elves! Also, magic is gay and causes autism.
Clouds are cloud giants "spores".
Gods are not real, because he didnt saw 1 with his eyes and he only trusts his own eyes.
That the world isn't actually real, not even the gods are, and everyone is just a pawn in a sick game where the fate of the world is decided by arbitrary rolls of the dice.
All birds are familiars and spying on you would be an obvious one, if a little contemporary.
The world is flat.
The world is one archmage’s illusion and he’s programmed everyone to act the way they are acting.
Bugbears aren’t real.
The deep kingdom is creating the monsters you have to fight to distract the citizens and keep them fearful and reliant on the state.
Warlocks are just mentally ill.
Mimics aren’t real. They are just what experienced adventurers say to rubes to leave treasure behind. That’s why you can find treasure in places that are already explored.
Rocs don’t exist.
There is no such thing as chromatic or metallic dragons. A dragon plays both sides and that way it always comes out on top.
Gold, silver, bronze, etc. are the names of both metal and color. Coincidence? I don't think so.
In my game i have a flat planet conspiracy group that i try to have NPCs convince PCs of
None that are DnD related but repurposed real world conspiracy theories.
The good old flat earth is a classic.
The gods aren't real and religion and divine magic is just "big-wizards" way of controlling the world. Alternatively if you want to get spicy with it (and maybe consult your DM and fellow players due to themes of racism) "insert DnD race is controlling the world".
Might be hard to roleplay if your reliant on it in combat but healing magic/potions or something else being the equivalent of "they're putting chemicals in the water to make the frogs gay" or the fluoride conspiracy.
All world leaders are lizardfolk.
Aliens abduct and probe people (Githyanki exist so kinda not conspiracy).
I did have this in mind but I decided to shelve it because I figured it would make others uncomfortable. Hell, it made ME uncomfortable.
Yeah that's absolutely valid. Our DM created a very fleshed out world and decided to make racism fairly common theme because it made sense to him and he was heavily inspired by Dragon Age and Witcher. Played our first campaign as a wood elf freedom fighter ranger campaigning for non-human rights in a human dominated region. Also became a running joke in our campaign it was okay to be racist to high elves because we met two and they were both aloof and unpleasant. I'm the only person of colour in our group but find it all pretty funny but also appreciate the realism of the world my DM has made. Absolutely understandable if others aren't though.
In Critical Role’s third campaign, the automaton Cleric was convinced the world was flat. Any and all evidence to the contrary (even when provided directly by his own goddess) was either dismissed or twisted to suit this narrative.
Yep I need to go back and finish the third campaign but loved FCG's running joke 🤣
Edit: running not runny lol
He literally went to the moon and looked at the world. It was flat (because he couldn't see the back half).
I love the “all leaders are secretly lizardfolk” one… once played a character who was a politically ambitious Warlock posing as a minor noble, who was actually a lizardfolk using the 'mask of many faces' invocation. Absolute good fun!
Make your character convinced that all Gold Pieces can be used to track everyone on the realm and he therefor only does trade with Copper Pieces and Silver Pieces.
INT =/= Regular intelligence!
Seriously, bards are normally the most elloquent people (and that needs you to be smart), but many of them also have INT (and STR) as dump stat, because it doesn't give them that much and charisma and dexterity give them a lot more, still the bard can talk your ear off and he can also spin intrigues with the best of them, he's the silver tongue.
Same goes for all other classes, low INT doesn't actually turn your character into a moron! Hell, otherwise most fighters would not say much, because they are too stupid to comprehend much outside of "Bash in bad guy's head!"...hell, this would rob players of too much agency if tables handled it that way!
Small animals (cats, dogs, squirrels, rats, birds, etc) are all just magic carter's familiars, familiars who lost their masters, or decendents of familiars who lost their masters.
To be fair your character could be higher intelligence and have low wisdom to simulate the same foolish notions.
As a suggestion for what your character might firmly believe - Gnomes and Halflings are actually Dwarf children. Would add some potential funny roleplay by treating adult NPC's like they are kids, along with the trope of the clueless idiot not being able to tell Gnomes and Halflings apart.
Gods arent real, its all just feys and fiends cosplaying.
Every single god is just Artagan/The Traveler.
As an Australian I would suggest that The Underdark isn’t at real.
i heard they all walk on the ceiling in the underdark
Their aqueduct drains swirl the other direction
I hear they have huge talking spiders, and everything is poisonous.
Unfortunately that’s true for both Australia AND the Underdark.
Would go for lizard men infiltrate the cities. And everyone could be a lizard man, even your party.
clearly dragonborn pc turns around with high eyebrow at statement
If dragonborn are rare in this would it would work even better and having a dragonborn be called out as lizardfolk would be a fun encounter.
A dragonborn with a comically bushy eyebrows glued onto their scales isn't going to help the situation!
ThE FeY aRe TuRnInG tHe GnOlLs GaY!
Turn the freakin’ Gnolls Gay!
Anyone using a “see invisibility” spell is just hallucinating.
Magic isnt real. Its the big magic industry that wants you to believe that. All magic is just pyrotechnics, bribery, aroma therapy or science.
The government is secretly run by dragons shapeshifting as humans.
Lmao my high-int Goblin Alchemist/Rogue believes exactly that.
Even trough he is an magic user himself, he doesn't believe in gods or magic and tries to explain everything by misunderstood modern-ish chemistry jargon and trickery.
One of our party members is a Cleric that clearly communicates with higher power every five seconds and for months now he tried to explain this to himself, as the Cleric is clearly dumber and virtuous person that would never trick nobody.
My artificer worked through his beliefs in nonexistance of higher powers and turned paladin. That was in CoS, and our cleric of Kelemvor made enough miracles that the only reasonable way of thought for him would be to start believing in higher powers. Dude lived his life thinking he is a schizo 'cos he was seeing ghosts of his ancestors, vistani and drow. Got him a patron later, Pan, unseelie archfey, without crossclassing to warlock.
One of my players has a character who doesn't believe in magic, magical creatures, dragons, etc. He only believes in Waukeen and her economic principles; his prayerbook is a macro economics textbook
Along a similar line:
My current Sorcerer is a conspiracy theorist, she's convinced that while magic is real The Weave isn't. It's just the big Wizard schools that perpetrated the lie so people would pay them money to learn to use magic, which you can just use, if you want! (Feels fitting for a Sorcerer, they're naturals after all!)
She is also fully into "healing crystals", you know the kind you can buy IRL? Instead represented by gemstone! The world is magic, surely these rocks are the source of magic. The shinier and more expensive of rare, the more magic it is! I haven't quite decided which gemstones do what though, but likely rubies are good for your health! (My in headcanon Draconic Bloodline effect.)
I'm definitely stealing the "Government is ran by dragons", I had been thinking about who ran it, thank you!
Tasha's Cauldron of Everything introduced magical items for sorcerers called Shards (example: Far Realm Sharad), that when you use meta magic causes a magical effect from a specific plane of existence (from the above example - a tentacle appears and if it hits an opponent does psychic damage and adds the fear effect).
You should definitely talk with your DM to get one of these to feed into their "theory" lol
Mimics are just a bogeyman type to try stop folks from poking through other people’s stuff
also to alleviate trespassers.
turns out the whole house is a mimic haunted by an old man's dead wife.
Mimics are everywhere! They’re just changelings for stuff and along with their feu bosses they secretly control everything!
Big feywild is everywhere. Wake up sheeple!!!
I'd rather suggest something like "actually mimics are great pets, it's just nobody tried to tame them"
He's half a point dumber than the average person.
So yeah, maybe you're right.
Dragons are lie told by the kings to justify keeping the masses from gold. "The dragon will have no interest in you if you have no gold!"
The world isn't real. It's a simulation. There's a bunch of guys in a basement somewhere rolling dice to determine our fate.
I would say conspiracy theories are more for low wisdom characters than low intelligence characters.
Low Wisdom means a (fundamental) misunderstanding of how the world works.
Low Intelligence means you don't know about the world outside of your direct life.
No such thing as dragons. You are telling me that there are giant fire breathing dragons destroying crops and eating livestock? Yeah right, clearly the government is just trying to hide all the food they buy to feed their giant armies in their ongoing war against the mindflayers.
All dark elves are vampires.
All elves are related to dark elves.
Horses can grow wings and horn if treated right.
All wizards go to the same school.
Also, my current character with same int is halfling who is adamant that he is actually cursed giant and that curse is so strong that everyone who can't notice it, is just weak in magic.
When you think of it, you rarely see nor hear of any elf-children in a lot of fantasy media. If it takes decades for an elf-child to mature into an adult, but we never see any...it begs the question of what are elf children?
What is a species that the elves look down upon and treat like they were children? Dwarves.
It makes no sense, there's a ton of evidence that is against it which makes it the perfect bat-shit conspiracy theory.
Dwarves and Elves are the same species. However, every now and then a dwarf child undergoes a magical transformation and becomes hairless, hits a growth spurt and starts losing muscle mass and becomes slender and willowy. Dwarf society hates this and so exiles the child to die in the mountains since weakness breeds weakness and weakness must be culled.
Then a covert of elves who live in secret near the dwarf holt entrances, waits for the child to start feeling like they're going to die, rescues them, and raises them in an elven community where the magics flowing freely finishes the transformation. The former dwarf child is also brainwashed to dislike dwarves for what they did to them.
Some quick ones off the top of my head:
Anyone with an accent is trying to be sarcastic (he thinks any change in how you speak is sarcasm)
There's a plane of existence above you guys, and when it rains thats just water spilling over from up there
They think half race characters/npcs are just really good at hiding their other half
Books and words arent real, theyre spells that mind control you into thinking what they want you to think
Every single world government is secretly run by lizard men using disguise magic. The required level of magic just goes up the more the party/npc's try to disprove this. (Starting at disguse self, and ending at true polymorph.)
There are no gods. There is just one insanely powerful being that shapes the world for his own amusement, and is out to give this group in particular a hard time. You don't know much about said being, but you have started to referring to them as the Game Master, because your entire existence just seems to be a game to them.
the fey are turning the bullywugs gay by putting magic chemicals in their swamps
believes that there is only one true god, not even one from the pantheon it's just their estranged stepmother
doesn't believe in dwarfs, thinks they're just buff, hairy halflings that have a really good diet so they can live longer
thinks humans are just one big hivemind
they believe that if they speak to a book, the events of aforementioned book will come true (best if evil character that wants to end the world, but they don't really have a way of doing it so they just talk to this one book constantly)
thinks all music is just a spell that makes you move around against your will and infests you with a happy sensation but it's just a big distraction from a crime scene happening behind you that you can't see
To be interested in conspiracy character must be interested in something at all, like having History or Magic or Nature int-based skill, with weak int.
So, if you have one, focus around it.
Also - do you BELIEVE to anything you listen (that looks like low wisdom, not int), or you just overthink things in wrong way because you feel exited in process?
History examples: "Our society/ruler is the best!!!!/our society is the worst!!!! (Usually both are wrong)" "It is very easy to change all in good way, we need to change just one thing..." "Other country/religion is totally evil/pure good (usually both are wrong) " "Our history is 10 times shorter/longer than it really is, some historical figures are multiple persons/or multiple historical figures are one person"
Magic: you can defend from spells with holy symbol (symbols of multiple gods are better!!!!!) or dirt on your face. Spirits wouldn't control you if you stink. If you dont burying corpses, they would rise and found you!! Mages can only be killed with cutting head off and pissing on it.
He legitimately believes aliens are real (and maybe they are) but nobody believes him, despite the wide and diverse range of creatures they live alongside, like dragons, and Dwarves
Q1
One of the two extremes:
Either magic isn't real, it's all divine power granted by different gods. Wizards are of course not invoking magic on their own, but gods of knowledge grant them a boon for their studies.
OR
Gods aren't real, divine magic is just innate spellcastin abilities without the user realizing.
All birds are familiars working for a secret cabal of wizards who run the world.
Elves have special potions that they use to sleep less, and if you get some you don't get tired either
Gnomes and dwarves are short because they don't eat vegetables. Elves are tall because they do.
9 INT isn't really that dumb, especially if you have decent WIS. If 10 is average then there'd be quite a lot of people in the 8-9 range and also quite a lot of people in the 11-12 range. 10 is just the middle point between the two, -1, 0, +1 modifiers. It's not a big difference. Someone with 8 INT and 16 WIS is probably better adjusted to society and has more practical knowledge than someone with 16 INT and 8 WIS who may know the scientific names of every land mammal but doesn't know how to tie their own shoes.
Clerics are just wizards with an ego trying to lead a cult.
Dragonborn and lizard folk and the same people.
Halflings are half sized humans. Gnomes are half sized elves. Kobalds are half sized Dragonborn/Lizardfolk. Which means Dwarfs are half sized Goliaths.
Linked to the above, all the half sized races actually come from the moon. That's why they are smaller, because the moon is smaller.
The gold value of material components is just big magic forcing you to spend money. You can totally cast identify with just regular everyday chalk. (Both pearls and chalk contain calcium carbonate.)
Big church keeps it secret, but you can totally build up a resistance to disease by exposing yourself to a small amount of a weakened or dead version of the disease. Certain types of mould are also great at curing lots of infections. Big church just wants you to come to the temple and pay for a cure disease prayer.
The regional monarchy is actually a group of lizardfolk who use magic to disguise themselves as humans / elves / whatever the local heritage is, and they're part of a shadow cabal that secretly run the world. Don't trust a politician, they never show their true scales...
Wizards, sorcerers, warlocks, and bards are the same thing, one is just better at flourishes and music than the others.
Aarakocra and Tabaxi are just furry cosplayers.
If there are owl bears, there must be bear owls. Both can fly.
The goblins run a secret hafling fighting ring underneath a tavern in the city.
Tieflings are just humans cosplaying as demons.
Or a twist for the classic "birds arent real" try owl bears arent real lol
That's too dumb for Int 9 imo. It's more of an Int 5 thing.
In 9 isn't child-level intelligence, or a moron. Just a not a book-smart person, not much of a critical thinker.
Int 9 would be "Shapeshifted lizardfolk secretly control every government", "Most clerics are just wizards pretending to be clerics", "They know the secret of cheap and easy resurrection magic but they don't want the people to know about it", "Goblins, orcs and ogres are the same thing, just different sizes", "Anyone can be a wizard, wizard schools don't want you to know about it".
ghosts aren't real, it's just a different type of monster but it's got nothing to do with dead people
My favorite was a player once played a character that all of our actions were controlled by gods and that each important task was left to a random chance. The gods were gambling with our fate and having a fun time.
There aren't really animals that are only black and white, those are just myths. Zebras, pandas, orcas, penguins, all mythical creatures. Unicorns are legit though.
Magic is real but wizards aren’t. No one can just learn to do that. All of them are sorcerers pretending they got their powers through study to stoke their egos.
Dwarves are just another subspecies of halflings.
Blood hunters aren’t actually using their own blood they have hidden pouches of fake blood to use.
If the collected taxes were used to further enrich the nobles, the increased wealth would boost the kingdom and eventually trickle down back to the villagers.
I think maybe 9 is smarter than all cats are female & all dogs are male - it's only 1 point down from average.
I would go with things that mirror real world conspiracy theories. Like x animal doesn't exist (or is spying on everything), or moon light is colder than it's shadow, or the earth is flat/young (or whatever is opposite to the story world).
If this is a character for you to play maybe you can work with the DM on what conspiracy theories would fit best for the world/storyline. Things like magic isn't real, or gods aren't real in a DnD world with known gods, or someone in a pub told them the next town was entirely made of mimics. Or a "wizard" sold them a "rare & powerful magic item" but really it's either pretty normal thing with some paint (maybe magical in a high magic world but common place and doesn't do that they were told - could be a rock that does nothing but they believe gives them luck in haggling).
Just go with the classic reptilian stuff, but everyone they bring it up to is confused cause duh, there are obviously multiple dragonborn and/or lizardfolk in the local government
This sounds more like low Wis than low Int to me. You will need to make the conspiracies actually dumb, like ignoring basic laws of magic and physics dumb. I would suggest stuff like "All reality is made of basic particles which cannot be reduced or altered called 'atoms', and so Transmutation magic isn't real. It's just the old fashioned and ignorant lumping a bunch of illusion, evocation, and conjuration effects together that appear to alter these unchanging particles."
At night, when it's dark, it's because there's an astral stingray floating through space feeding on the magical energy emissions of wizards and sorcerers. Bards don't contribute much.
He's highly suspicious of Druids because anybody can pretend to talk to plants. He thinks, unilaterally, all Druids are faking that particular skill as an inside joke.
Notable icons and locals alike who have gone missing (such as Tasha, Renwick, or the local Blacksmith) have fallen off the edge of the turtle we all live on, metaphysically. If they're found, they've managed to climb back up.
He's like 98% certain that the [spice/silk/coffee/etc.] trade industry is a money laundering thing.
The sharrans have a secret giant staff in the astral plane that casts 10th level moonbeam on people
Devils and Demons are actually good guys, we should give them all of our money and possessions because they're so repressed
Arcane fire can't melt dwarvenforged steel.
A player I know once said he doesn´t believe in dragons
He refuses to believe any form of higher being(Deity, Demon lord or anything at all) don't exist and Paladins, Clerics and Warlocks are all just schizophrenic and anyone who claims to have seen one are crazy/hallucinating. Same thing if he sees one himself.
Magic isn't real, it's just tricks and slight of hand (also look at the components of those spells).
Dinosaurs aren't real. Anyone who says they saw one clearly saw a deformed dragon. Because if they were real why are they all "hiding" in Chult.
All land based species and cities are actually rejected and failed experiments of our great Triton overlords. If we are lucky 1 day we may be allowed to return to Atlantis.
The Under dark isn't real. Have you ever heard of anyone going down there and coming back?! It's a fairy tale to stop idiots from getting lost.
Drow OR shadar kai aren't real. Have you ever seen one of each in the same room together? That's right, I didn't think so.
Elves are sub fey. They weren't good enough to graduate to full fey status. This failure sucked all the joy and whimsy.out of them.
There is no such thing as an actual dwarf. Dwarves aren't born, they are carved from the ore in the ground and given life. Somewhere along the way the blood lines got polluted and now we have this sorry excuse to co-exist with. (The carved from earth.thing js old dnd lore I believe)
All weapons start life as sentient. The more.use they get the.more likely they are.to get a tbi and lose the ability to communicate.
The squirrels.are.spying on us.
Dragonborns don’t exist, they are just two/three kobolds in a trenchcoat
This is gonna be heavily setting-dependent. And also do you want them to be real conspiracy theories?
For example, changelings actually exist in D&D, and a part of their lore is being swapped for other mortal children. Even beyond that, they take on the appearance of other people. Was that person familiar because you saw them in another city? or because they've been copied? This sounds like a conspiracy irl, but it is 100% possible in D&D.
How about believing in a secret cult that worships an ancient lich and works towards his revival and ascension to godhood? That's Vecna and his cult of secrets.
Conspiracy theories kind of stop being implausible when magic and gods are real.
This. 100%.
That the gods all died but the priests covered it up to collect money
All birds can become arracockra
All magic is divine (which can be totally true depending on the lore of the setting), any somatic component is basically a prayer but in languages he doesn't understand, also wizards are the worst spell casters because they need a spell book to know what other spell casters practically know by heart.
Healing potions stunt peoples growth, that's why halflings exist.
There is a giant tarrasque underneath the city.
Statues were people that have been petrified.
I DON'T LIKE THEM PUTTING CHEMICALS IN THE WATER THAT TURNS THE FRIGGIN GRUNGS GAY, DO YOU UNDERSTAND THAT?!
slams sword on table
I once had a player who made a conspiracy theorist character. I made a deal with them, they spout out their theories and I'll pick one to be true but I won't tell them which one.
I left them down some fun fake trails before they learned the lizard folk in the sewers actually were replacing people.
Humanoid animal species like aarakocra and tabaxi are just people in suits for some (possibly sexual?) reason. He's the only person in this universe who's ever considered the concept of furries.
All zombies have corresponding ghosts somewhere and if you reunite body and spirit, they'll be cured.
He thinks his weapon is a sentient magical weapon, it just doesn't like him so it hasn't turned on.
Keep a running tally of critical successes and critical failures corresponding to going from overly-logical, faithless, and skeptical and once he hits a certain threshold of successes, he evolves like a Pokemon into a faithful, divine paladin who thinks he's being guided and imbued by something, maybe even just for a turn, before he comes to his senses.
I play low int monsters as 'no strategy' or 'simple strategies'.
So for a fighter, I might be like, "Don't make a plan, the mind flayers will hear you. Just charge in there and bash em!"
The world is secretly run by dragons shapeshifted to look like humanoids. You could even give your DM ideas because this might be an actual conspiracy and a bunch of metallic dragons are working very hard to keep humanity safe, your character is just ignorant about that.
Another fun one for your DM: you are a lay worshipper of Tymora and you have a sneaking suspicion that the world is a game. You don't fully understand it, but it feels right. Your character can have a high wisdom low intelligence score where it's like "I don't know the odds, but it feels like there is always a chance this goes horribly wrong (nat 1) or miraculously right (nat 20)."
ghosts aren’t real. if the character ever encounters a ghost they call it a demon. but it’t definitely not a ghost.
Make him extremely gullible. He takes everything at face value.
A drunk guy recently told my party that the dragons are running everything, E.g. this run down pub down the road is run by a black dragon in disguise and he was kicked out because he knows the truth. Not because he ran up his tab and failed to pay in full one too many times...
Potions are just coloured water, so he makes his own.
Goblins are like just child orcs and trolls so he won't kill them.
The world is round and you can tell the sun's go around it and not the other way.
Elves get secret telepathic messages through their pointy ears as they act as air-,rails and secretly will take over the world.
The Netherese faked spelljamming. They never went to space
I mean… I’m reminded of this Legends of Avantris clip, in which Bitsy the mouse believes “north is whichever way you’re facing”; if you want to go west, then it’s always to your left.
Upon being told that actual west never changes, she condemns the information as “Illuminati talk”.
My favorite one from the one game I got to play with friends (we only ever got to play together once) We had a person playing a low INT Monk, and he was convinced that the moon was a second Sun, not its own type of thing in space, just a dimmer Sun that sometimes disappears (New Moon) when it’s angry
All major factions (harpers, zhents, emeralds, etc) is just a cover up for a deep state that secretly rules the Sword Coast
Alchemy is a big farma conspiracy. Look at the prices of consumables! How the hell does 2d4+2 potion cost 50gp when any drunk bard can cure wounds several times a day only having to go for a nap afterwards?
Magic draws power from your physical form. Look at all those squishy wizards and elves! Also, magic is gay and causes autism.
Clouds are cloud giants "spores".
Gods are not real, because he didnt saw 1 with his eyes and he only trusts his own eyes.
That the world isn't actually real, not even the gods are, and everyone is just a pawn in a sick game where the fate of the world is decided by arbitrary rolls of the dice.
All birds are familiars and spying on you would be an obvious one, if a little contemporary.
The world is flat.
The world is one archmage’s illusion and he’s programmed everyone to act the way they are acting.
Bugbears aren’t real.
The deep kingdom is creating the monsters you have to fight to distract the citizens and keep them fearful and reliant on the state.
Warlocks are just mentally ill.
Mimics aren’t real. They are just what experienced adventurers say to rubes to leave treasure behind. That’s why you can find treasure in places that are already explored.
Rocs don’t exist.
There is no such thing as chromatic or metallic dragons. A dragon plays both sides and that way it always comes out on top.
Gold, silver, bronze, etc. are the names of both metal and color. Coincidence? I don't think so.
In my game i have a flat planet conspiracy group that i try to have NPCs convince PCs of
None that are DnD related but repurposed real world conspiracy theories.
The good old flat earth is a classic.
The gods aren't real and religion and divine magic is just "big-wizards" way of controlling the world. Alternatively if you want to get spicy with it (and maybe consult your DM and fellow players due to themes of racism) "insert DnD race is controlling the world".
Might be hard to roleplay if your reliant on it in combat but healing magic/potions or something else being the equivalent of "they're putting chemicals in the water to make the frogs gay" or the fluoride conspiracy.
All world leaders are lizardfolk.
Aliens abduct and probe people (Githyanki exist so kinda not conspiracy).
I did have this in mind but I decided to shelve it because I figured it would make others uncomfortable. Hell, it made ME uncomfortable.
Yeah that's absolutely valid. Our DM created a very fleshed out world and decided to make racism fairly common theme because it made sense to him and he was heavily inspired by Dragon Age and Witcher. Played our first campaign as a wood elf freedom fighter ranger campaigning for non-human rights in a human dominated region. Also became a running joke in our campaign it was okay to be racist to high elves because we met two and they were both aloof and unpleasant. I'm the only person of colour in our group but find it all pretty funny but also appreciate the realism of the world my DM has made. Absolutely understandable if others aren't though.
In Critical Role’s third campaign, the automaton Cleric was convinced the world was flat. Any and all evidence to the contrary (even when provided directly by his own goddess) was either dismissed or twisted to suit this narrative.
Yep I need to go back and finish the third campaign but loved FCG's running joke 🤣
Edit: running not runny lol
He literally went to the moon and looked at the world. It was flat (because he couldn't see the back half).
I love the “all leaders are secretly lizardfolk” one… once played a character who was a politically ambitious Warlock posing as a minor noble, who was actually a lizardfolk using the 'mask of many faces' invocation. Absolute good fun!
Make your character convinced that all Gold Pieces can be used to track everyone on the realm and he therefor only does trade with Copper Pieces and Silver Pieces.
INT =/= Regular intelligence!
Seriously, bards are normally the most elloquent people (and that needs you to be smart), but many of them also have INT (and STR) as dump stat, because it doesn't give them that much and charisma and dexterity give them a lot more, still the bard can talk your ear off and he can also spin intrigues with the best of them, he's the silver tongue.
Same goes for all other classes, low INT doesn't actually turn your character into a moron! Hell, otherwise most fighters would not say much, because they are too stupid to comprehend much outside of "Bash in bad guy's head!"...hell, this would rob players of too much agency if tables handled it that way!
Small animals (cats, dogs, squirrels, rats, birds, etc) are all just magic carter's familiars, familiars who lost their masters, or decendents of familiars who lost their masters.
To be fair your character could be higher intelligence and have low wisdom to simulate the same foolish notions.
As a suggestion for what your character might firmly believe - Gnomes and Halflings are actually Dwarf children. Would add some potential funny roleplay by treating adult NPC's like they are kids, along with the trope of the clueless idiot not being able to tell Gnomes and Halflings apart.
Gods arent real, its all just feys and fiends cosplaying.
Every single god is just Artagan/The Traveler.
As an Australian I would suggest that The Underdark isn’t at real.
i heard they all walk on the ceiling in the underdark
Their aqueduct drains swirl the other direction
I hear they have huge talking spiders, and everything is poisonous.
Unfortunately that’s true for both Australia AND the Underdark.
Would go for lizard men infiltrate the cities. And everyone could be a lizard man, even your party.
clearly dragonborn pc turns around with high eyebrow at statement
If dragonborn are rare in this would it would work even better and having a dragonborn be called out as lizardfolk would be a fun encounter.
A dragonborn with a comically bushy eyebrows glued onto their scales isn't going to help the situation!
ThE FeY aRe TuRnInG tHe GnOlLs GaY!
Turn the freakin’ Gnolls Gay!
Anyone using a “see invisibility” spell is just hallucinating.
Magic isnt real. Its the big magic industry that wants you to believe that. All magic is just pyrotechnics, bribery, aroma therapy or science.
The government is secretly run by dragons shapeshifting as humans.
Lmao my high-int Goblin Alchemist/Rogue believes exactly that.
Even trough he is an magic user himself, he doesn't believe in gods or magic and tries to explain everything by misunderstood modern-ish chemistry jargon and trickery.
One of our party members is a Cleric that clearly communicates with higher power every five seconds and for months now he tried to explain this to himself, as the Cleric is clearly dumber and virtuous person that would never trick nobody.
My artificer worked through his beliefs in nonexistance of higher powers and turned paladin. That was in CoS, and our cleric of Kelemvor made enough miracles that the only reasonable way of thought for him would be to start believing in higher powers. Dude lived his life thinking he is a schizo 'cos he was seeing ghosts of his ancestors, vistani and drow. Got him a patron later, Pan, unseelie archfey, without crossclassing to warlock.
One of my players has a character who doesn't believe in magic, magical creatures, dragons, etc. He only believes in Waukeen and her economic principles; his prayerbook is a macro economics textbook
Along a similar line:
My current Sorcerer is a conspiracy theorist, she's convinced that while magic is real The Weave isn't. It's just the big Wizard schools that perpetrated the lie so people would pay them money to learn to use magic, which you can just use, if you want! (Feels fitting for a Sorcerer, they're naturals after all!)
She is also fully into "healing crystals", you know the kind you can buy IRL? Instead represented by gemstone! The world is magic, surely these rocks are the source of magic. The shinier and more expensive of rare, the more magic it is! I haven't quite decided which gemstones do what though, but likely rubies are good for your health! (My in headcanon Draconic Bloodline effect.)
I'm definitely stealing the "Government is ran by dragons", I had been thinking about who ran it, thank you!
Tasha's Cauldron of Everything introduced magical items for sorcerers called Shards (example: Far Realm Sharad), that when you use meta magic causes a magical effect from a specific plane of existence (from the above example - a tentacle appears and if it hits an opponent does psychic damage and adds the fear effect).
You should definitely talk with your DM to get one of these to feed into their "theory" lol
Mimics are just a bogeyman type to try stop folks from poking through other people’s stuff
also to alleviate trespassers.
turns out the whole house is a mimic haunted by an old man's dead wife.
Mimics are everywhere! They’re just changelings for stuff and along with their feu bosses they secretly control everything!
Big feywild is everywhere. Wake up sheeple!!!
I'd rather suggest something like "actually mimics are great pets, it's just nobody tried to tame them"
He's half a point dumber than the average person.
So yeah, maybe you're right.