Only one DF race with an IQ bonus?

[Bruno]

I think I must be missing something - the only race template I can find in DF3 with an IQ bonus is Half-Spirit (Celestial).

It seems sort of a glaring design choice, much like the "All races (except Celestial) with a raw ST bonus have social penalties" choice - this one is pretty traditional in RPGs, the IQ bonus, not so much.

Did I miss something? Any ideas why?

[aesir23]

Well, you missed High-Elf (DF 3, page 7).

[aesir23]

Personally, I think that a large, strong, smart, and erudite race would be an interesting addition to DF. Perhaps something like the Frost-Giants from the Dark Horse adaptation of Howard's "Frost-Giant's Daughter".

[Kromm]

It's two races – high elves and celestials – but I get your point.

This is mostly because warrior archetypes constitute the overwhelming bulk of most adventuring parties, and I didn't want to saddle nonhuman warriors with a +1 to IQ that they could only "buy back" by using up their canonical disadvantage limit. It would be kind of mean if every elf or pixie warrior type had to make do with 20 fewer points in warrior stuff because I decided that they should cast spells instead. My reviewers pointed out – rightly, I believe – that pixie assassins and elven bowmen fit the genre. Goblin wizards, not so much.

Also, there's a long, complicated joke in there that amounts to this: "High elves are smarter than most of the other material races. Just about all the rest are at dull, human levels or even stupider. All elves like to carry on that they're immortal and hence wise, but only the high elves really are a little smarter; most elves are just full of themselves. Annoyingly, the children of the gods really are wiser, by virtue of their birth. It's yet another way in which they're insufferable."

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by aesir23

Well, you missed High-Elf (DF 3, page 7).

Nyaha! Ok, that actually makes me feel a little less befuddled.

Elves are one of the races that "traditionally" attract mental stat bonuses, and I was getting really confused that "not even" the elves got an IQ bonus.

Strong, smart and erudite also equates to "expensive" of course (frex those Celestials) but I don't really see a problem with that. Player will have to find the points, or just live without.

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by Bruno

Elves are one of the races that "traditionally" attract mental stat bonuses, and I was getting really confused that "not even" the elves got an IQ bonus.

Note that in many ways, though, my elves aren't traditional. Mostly, they're pretentious. You can get the "traditional" elf by taking all the good parts of all the terrestrial elf subspecies and almost none of the bad ones, yielding this:

Über-Elf

99 points

Attribute Modifiers: DX+1 [20]; IQ+1 [20].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: Basic Move+1 [5].
Advantages: Acute Vision 2 [4]; Appearance (Attractive) [4]; Forest Guardian 2 [10]; Magery 0 [5]; Musical Ability 1 [5]; Perfect Balance [15]; Silence 2 [10]; Telescopic Vision 1 [5]; Voice [10].
Perks: Elven Gear [1].
Disadvantages: Sense of Duty (Nature) [-15].

I just didn't want that stereotype in DF. Instead, I made celestials the Übermenschen . . . because really, if any race is going to be superior to all the others, it ought to be the bastard part-gods.

(To get an even 100 points, toss in another perk:

Pretend, Portend . . . I'm The One With The Ears: You can carry on in a pretentious way and everybody will think you're making portentious statements about the fate of the world, universe, etc. No matter how cheesy your dialog gets as a player, the GM will politely ignore it for your character and will never give penalties to social interactions or pull the old "If you said it, your character did!" trick.)

[Barghaest]

I usually go with gnomes being the smartest race... they're basically autistic in most of my games... very smart but socially inept.

[Kromm]

Lots of DF races are "smart" in the sense that they're very, very good and focused at a narrow set of tasks, as represented by an advantage. Dark Ones and Elder-Spawn are savants where creepy, arcane knowledge is concerned. Fauns are ridiculously good musicians. Gnomes are intuitive artificers. And nymphs have an effective +5 to their "social intelligence" score thanks to their racial Charisma. I find this more defining than a generic "I can has smartz?" bonus. Any of these but the nymphs could be fairly described as a tad autistic.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Kromm

It's two races – high elves and celestials – but I get your point.

Posts passing in the... night? Noon? Something.

Originally Posted by Kromm

This is mostly because warrior archetypes constitute the overwhelming bulk of most adventuring parties, and I didn't want to saddle nonhuman warriors with a +1 to IQ that they could only "buy back" by using up their canonical disadvantage limit. It would be kind of mean if every elf or pixie warrior type had to make do with 20 fewer points in warrior stuff because I decided that they should cast spells instead. My reviewers pointed out – rightly, I believe – that pixie assassins and elven bowmen fit the genre. Goblin wizards, not so much.

Good decision, and really just finding the high elves in there helped a lot with my moment of surprise.

If a GM wanted to play with the idea of clever gnomes or fae, there's always the option of giving Celestials a +2 or +3 of course to keep their superiority intact - which DOES in turn make them much more expensive. Of course I'm pretty comfortable with Über-half-spirits being expensive ;)

[Maz]

Originally Posted by Kromm

I find this more defining than a generic "I can has smartz?" bonus. Any of these but the nymphs could be fairly described as a tad autistic.

I find IQ to be one of the hardest attributes for people to understand in GURPS. Even relative experienced GURPS-players.

I think it is partly because most of the people I know all hails from D&D background where Int=book-smarts.
But I also think the "IQ" tag has a lot to do with it. When people hear IQ they think Intelligence Quotient and the traditional IQ-test that only test mathematic and logic intelligence.


It's difficult to understand, or 'remember', for people that IQ also includes social and creative smartness.


I oftne have to resist the urge to make IQ more expensive in order to get people to buy Talents instead. *mumble mumble* stupid players.