The Mostlin Scale

The Mostlin Scale is a way of measuring the general intellect of any given creature or object, whether sentient or not. It does not take into account emotional, religious or cultural responses, instead only considering the basic ability to think and react. The scale uses numerical values from 0 upwards, with 0 being no intelligence at all and anything above 8 being incomprehensible to most creatures.
Each whole number on the scale represents a specific stepping stone in the progression of a creature's mind. These stepping stones are listed as follows:
0: The subject has no intellectual process whatsoever, such as in inanimate objects.
1: The subject has absolute minimum intelligence, such as basic autonomy. Instinctual responses are not visible in such a subject.
2: The subject has basic instinctual responses, such as defending itself and object recognition. Such creatures include Oozes and Slimes.
3: The subject has much more advanced instinctual responses, such as claiming territory, hunting, simple communication between its own species, and habit forming. Chickens are an example of such a subject. Such creatures have enough intelligence to understand and respond with simple responses to spells such as Speak With Animals or abilities such as Telepathy.
4: The subject has progressed to a point where it understands basic societal structures. Subjects of this intelligence can form bonds such as families or attachments, even to subjects unlike themselves. They can also begin to strategize among each other, and may be capable of more advanced communication, such as body language and sounds, though they are still unable to speak or learn languages. They may also understand specific commands based on inflection and sounds, though these must be taught by training. Wolves are an example of the higher end of this scale.
5: The subject is capable of simple communication, be it language or primitive writing and drawings. The subject is also capable of forming more advanced societal structures, and can create their own ideas, though at this stage those ideas are mostly rudimentary. Basic sapience is achieved by this point. Many sentient weapons, along with Gully Dwarves and Kenku, are in this category.
6: The subject is at a level of intelligence comparable to an average Human, with all the creative and intellectual abilities of one. This includes most of the civilized races, with some exceptions.
7: The subject's average intelligence is significantly higher than that of the average human, but their thought process is still understandable to the vast majority of the other civilized races. This includes creatures such as Mind Flayers, and some more powerful sentient weapons.
8+: The subject's average intelligence has transcended what is comprehensible by most subjects' minds. It is unlikely any creatures outside of Gods can reach this state of mind.

Type

Natural