Dragon with 2 Intelligence

[Ceremal]

I'm working on a unique encounter. My BBEG is using Fiendish Blackscale Lizardfolk Barbarian has troops to attack various places, and I'm working on a means to move them around.
What would happen to a true dragon that had it's intelligent drained down to 2. Would it still be able to use Spell-Like Abilities? Would it still be able to use it's Breath Weapon?

[Afgncaap5]

What would happen to a true dragon that had it's intelligent drained down to 2. Would it still be able to use Spell-Like Abilities? Would it still be able to use it's Breath Weapon?

I can't think of any reason not to be able to use spell-like abilities or breath weapon. Those things tend to be related to Charisma and Constitution for true dragons.

Doing a bit of poking around, I'm having a bit of trouble finding evidence that a Sorcerer with an Int of 2 couldn't cast its spells, so unless someone finds evidence to the contrary (very likely based on the five-ish minutes I've been looking), I'd say that a Dragon with an Int of 2 could still cast their regular Spells in addition to their Spell-Like Abilities.

Now, a Dragon with an Int that low isn't likely to use spells, SLAs, or its breath weapon very *efficiently*, but the basic ability to use them should be unimpeded.

[KillianHawkeye]

I can't think of any reason not to be able to use spell-like abilities or breath weapon. Those things tend to be related to Charisma and Constitution for true dragons.

Doing a bit of poking around, I'm having a bit of trouble finding evidence that a Sorcerer with an Int of 2 couldn't cast its spells, so unless someone finds evidence to the contrary (very likely based on the five-ish minutes I've been looking), I'd say that a Dragon with an Int of 2 could still cast their regular Spells in addition to their Spell-Like Abilities.

Now, a Dragon with an Int that low isn't likely to use spells, SLAs, or its breath weapon very *efficiently*, but the basic ability to use them should be unimpeded.

I agree.

All that stuff comes as naturally to dragons as flying and biting things does. They won't be able to use their abilities tactically to best effect, but they can still breathe fire and cast spells if they want to.

[Nifft]

Spellcasting requires the ability to speak, often this seems synonymous with the ability to speak a language.

Can an Int 2 creature speak a language? Honestly not sure.


SLAs don't require speaking, so that's not a limit.

However using SLAs intelligently does require intelligence, so I'd probably waste the SLAs of an Int 2 critter in plausibly dumb ways.

Imagine a cat with forcecage 1/day. The red dot would escape anyway.

[Zaq]

I'm like 90% sure that there are INT 2 magical beasts out there with breath weapons and/or SLAs, so there's plenty of precedent for this.

That said, if the dragon was once intelligent and got drained down to INT 2 rather than being born that way, it's reasonable that they might not know the best time or place to use some of their SLAs, depending on how tricky those SLAs are to use optimally. Especially if any of those SLAs were chosen rather than baked in, though I don't think most dragons choose their SLAs (though their spells might be another matter). Blasty stuff should work fine (even if it might not aim quite as optimally), but tricky stuff would possibly be outside their ability to use well.

[Ceremal]

Thanks, guys. That was really helpful. I'll have to find another means of transporting my villains, but I'm going to hold on to this encounter for something else later on.

[TalonOfAnathrax]

Check out the Feral Dragon template in Pathfinder!

[lbuttitta]

Spellcasting requires the ability to speak, often this seems synonymous with the ability to speak a language.

Can an Int 2 creature speak a language? Honestly not sure.


SLAs don't require speaking, so that's not a limit.

However using SLAs intelligently does require intelligence, so I'd probably waste the SLAs of an Int 2 critter in plausibly dumb ways.

Imagine a cat with forcecage 1/day. The red dot would escape anyway.

No, if I recall correctly, a creature must have Intelligence 3 or greater to speak language. I'm not sure where I read that, though, so that might be incorrect.

[weckar]

Check out the Feral Dragon template in Pathfinder!

Or the straight-up Feral template in Savage Species.