AS MUCH AS THE GALAXY CLASS WAS A DEPARTURE from the linear, industrial-shaped Constitution Refit which dominated the Star Trek films from 1979 until 1987, the Intrepid Class was an even more radical departure.  Debuting with the fourth Star Trek television series (the often-maligned Star Trek: Voyager) the Intrepid shares little in common with its progenitor the Constitution.  The "saucer" has ceased to be a saucer altogether and the engineering hull has been greatly merged with the elliptical primary hull.  The warp engines are stubby and diminutive compared to those of the Constitution, especially when one considers the fact that the Constitution and the Intrepid are of similar size.  And the Intrepid is also the first featured ship in a Star Trek TV series to have not been larger than the ship featured in the series before it: the Intrepid is about half the length of the Galaxy, and possesses about a quarter of the apparent mass of the Galaxy.
        Even though the Intrepid does pack some state-of-the-art TNG-era weaponry, such as the rarely-mentioned Tricobalt Devices, the ship is essentially a science vessel designed for long-range missions beyond the safety of the Federation frontier.  I like to think of it as the 24th century answer to the Anton class, which was also primarily a science vessel.  For this reason I have limited the offensive stats of the Intrepid (relative, of course, to other TNG-era ships—which are already massively powerful in comparison to TMP-era vessels!) and focused more on defensive capabilities.  Superior speed, in the form of a generous movement point ratio, and superior shielding are the primary traits of this class.  I seem to recall not just a few episodes where it was the USS Voyager's ability to depart the scene quickly which saved the day, so I have tweaked the stats to reflect this.  I know some fans may disagree, but I do not believe this ship's primary goal is combat.  If you want a gunboat, take a look at the Akira class, which seems specifically design to slug it out with either Borg or Dominion.  The Intrepid on the other hand seems more like the Galaxy class in that it is primarily a ship of exploration equipped secondarily for defense.

     — BRT