1 charisma

[Darklone]

Hmm

You forgot to add insecure and possible affected with more mental flaws he can carry.

Consider him as a shadow. He will try to get a good friend in one of the party members, supporting him as good as possible and trying to stay out of the spotlight.

I don't think people will easily ignore him. A guy with so low charisma is not likely to be ignored if you consider him a threat in any way...

Is there some way to lower his charisma by one ? A lesser curse could incapacitate him, right?

Gnhihihihi

 

[hong]

Speaking of 1 Cha characters, does anyone else remember the old 2000AD series, "The Ballad of Halo Jones"? In Book 2, Halo, who's working on board an interstellar liner, discovers a stowaway in her cabin. The stowaway doesn't have a name, and doesn't even have a personality -- it's literally been erased after multiple sex-change operations. It doesn't even know whether it's male or female anymore.

Halo and her roommate try to talk to him/her, and "it" talks about life as a complete nobody -- a cipher. It can walk into people's houses, sit at their table and eat dinner, and they won't notice. To pass the time, it pretends to have a life, listening in on their conversations and making believe it's part of the family.

Halo doesn't care, because by the time the cipher finishes talking, she's completely forgotten that it even exists. Later, the cipher saves her life by blowing up an insane robot dog, killing itself in the process. Its sacrifice goes unnoticed, just like the rest of its existence.

According to the writers, that episode, titled "I'll never forget whatsisname", garnered the most reader feedback of any part of the story.

Life is hard if you're a 1 Cha nobody.

 

[Berandor]

He's probably not even ugly... he's just totally bland.

perhaps:
He speaks
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.
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very
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.
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haltingly
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.
.
and borish?

Or he is so shy that he asks permission to go to the toilet?

Or he shuts off the outside world, like "Rain Man" does?

I can really imagine him killing the King for five minutes, and later witnesses couldn't remember his exact appearance. And when asked, "who done it?", he can't help himself but slowly raise his trembling hand

Berandor

 

[hong]

Re: Hmm

I don't think people will easily ignore him. A guy with so low charisma is not likely to be ignored if you consider him a threat in any way...

Swinging a sword at someone grants you a +2 circumstance bonus to Cha.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

With some training he could improve some of his "social talents".
Some ranks in Diplomacy (5 would be enough) he can be as friendly and polite as an average human.
Adding 5 ranks in Bluff and Sense Motive may make him even better influencing others (synergy bonus)...
But as you see, it will be very "expensive"...

 

[EricNoah]

Majorly-delayed double post!

 

[Zappo]

An ultra-low Charisma means a low self-esteem, combined with a weak personality. That's the general description. On top of that, a 1 Charisma should have something even worse.

For example, the character could be extremely ugly. He does get noticed, but people won't talk to him, except in sentences like "Get away, you filthy freak!". This in turns leads him to being weak and convinced that he is unworthy of anything.

Or, the character tries to compensate for his weakness by being extremely rude and annoying. Depending on WIS, he may or may not realize that it's he wrong approach, but with such a low self-confidence he is simply unable to change.

Anyway, don't assume that an extra-low Charisma just means that he is a totally nondescript shy guy who can't speak. It always represents a weak personality, but that's a very general thing and can take many forms.

 

[Gargoyle]

One note: Starting charisma can be less than 3, only Intelligence needs to be a minimum of 3. (page 12 of the PHB, it makes a note for half-orcs).

I would not let players use a low Charisma to gain any kind of game advantage. In other words, he would not make a good spy and would likely be noticed by enemies, especially when he doesn't want to be.

This is backed up by the rules. He would be horrible at Intimidate and Disguise, for instance (unless he puts a lot of ranks into them). And whoever heard of skeletons and zombies making good spies or not being noticed?

 

[Umbran]

Water under the bridge - you really shouldn't allow players to wheedle you into giving high stats, no matter how "balanced" the method seems at the time.

As you can see, there are reasons why the books suggest you not allow PCs with stats under 3. However, if you don't want to follow that suggestion...

I don't think people should hate this guy - that implies that something about the character's personality impresses them. Nor does he need to have severe mental problems, or be nigh comatose. As far as the universe is concerned, he is an object, rather than a person.

People won't ignore him in combat - he is a potentially dangerous object. However, in any inter-personal situation, the guy is furniture. Particularly ugly and uncomfortable furniture - the ancient armchair with the funky smell in it from the frat party that should have been thrown out years ago, but you've never bothered.

Here's a big one - this guy is an object, and people generally don't have compassion for an object. As far as people are concerned, the guy has no value as a person. They don't treat him as if he has feelings because he has no ability to express those feelings. To heck with tavern wenches and shop owners ignoring him - you could torture this man and the local cleric wouldn't care. If he's in trouble with the law, nobody will care, or speak on his behalf. The headsman won't bother to sharpen his axe. People will care more about how well a dirty kobold is treated than about this guy.

 

[Vaxalon]

There's a guy who rides our bus who is a perfect example of someone with a VERY low charisma.

First of all, he has a terrible speech impediment. He sounds like he's talking chinese... occasionally you can pick up a word here and there.

"How are you getting home today, Bill? The bus isn't running."

"Giksa gammana meemee."

"What?"

"Gik-sa gammana meek mee."

"What??"

"GIK-SA GAMMANA MEEK MEE"

"OH! You're sister is coming to meet you."

"No, GIKSA gammana meek mee."

"Right. Whatever. I'm glad you have a way home."

"Tikta kabtaka obta massha. Telohka giksa schlappa. Pallashta giksa okatka tashassa."

He talks, and noone pays any attention to him... because noone can understand him. He sprays spittle when he talks, so noone even wants to try. He tries VERY hard to be friendly... he's not introverted at all... on a bus with twenty empty seats, he sits down next to anyone who looks at all friendly and starts chattering, thereby alienating people even more.

Generally speaking, noone is cruel to him. I've never seen anyone tell him to go away. He's not really a bad guy, he's got some kind of brain damage or something and just doesn't know how to communicate any better than he does.

The end result is, though, that people who can get away with it ignore him. He walks up and starts talking, and people assume he's talking to himself. If the player insists on playing the character, I'd brief the other players on the charisma problem, and explain that the friendliest anyone can get with the character would be to ignore him... other options include exploiting him, or hurting him. Only someone with the patience of a saint (say, wisdom 16+ and good alignment) could bring themselves to actually be nice to him.