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<blockquote data-quote="Shendorion" data-source="post: 6770551" data-attributes="member: 6804078">I wouldn't let the numbers get in the way of a good character concept.&nbsp; You can be personable and have a low CHA; there's just something about you that keeps you from influencing people.&nbsp; Maybe it's ugliness or a speech impediment, or maybe nobody takes you seriously because you're self-effacing and jovial, and haven't figured out how to use that to your advantage.&nbsp; Hitler was an expert orator but a terrible conversationalist because he could talk at people, but not to them.&nbsp; Sometimes a specific deficiency is more crippling in practice than a general one. You can be smart and have a low INT; dyslexia, dysgraphia, a horrible memory or a tendency toward visual thinking paired with a vivid imagination that make your memory suspect could all stand in the way of amassing or accessing knowledge (which is the mechanical result of high INT).&nbsp; You might have wasted your time studying something so esoteric it's not applicable to any real aspect of your life, or you could be cunning but uneducated.&nbsp; You could be a genius whose brilliance is so pronounced it makes you unfit for practical pursuits, or addled by drugs or trauma.&nbsp; All that low number has to represent for the game to work is the absence of a vast store of useful knowledge and the means to reliably apply it.Let the player tell you why their character performs poorly on ability checks.&nbsp; The low score could be the result of a pervasive, evenly distributed deficiency, or it could be a very specific and narrow stumbling block.&nbsp; As long as the character is compelling and the dice aren't affected, the game still runs as it should no matter how many brilliant plans the barbarian concocts.&nbsp; Chalk it up to the mushrooms doing the talking and game on.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Shendorion, post: 6770551, member: 6804078"] I wouldn't let the numbers get in the way of a good character concept. You can be personable and have a low CHA; there's just something about you that keeps you from influencing people. Maybe it's ugliness or a speech impediment, or maybe nobody takes you seriously because you're self-effacing and jovial, and haven't figured out how to use that to your advantage. Hitler was an expert orator but a terrible conversationalist because he could talk at people, but not to them. Sometimes a specific deficiency is more crippling in practice than a general one. You can be smart and have a low INT; dyslexia, dysgraphia, a horrible memory or a tendency toward visual thinking paired with a vivid imagination that make your memory suspect could all stand in the way of amassing or accessing knowledge (which is the mechanical result of high INT). You might have wasted your time studying something so esoteric it's not applicable to any real aspect of your life, or you could be cunning but uneducated. You could be a genius whose brilliance is so pronounced it makes you unfit for practical pursuits, or addled by drugs or trauma. All that low number has to represent for the game to work is the absence of a vast store of useful knowledge and the means to reliably apply it. Let the player tell you why their character performs poorly on ability checks. The low score could be the result of a pervasive, evenly distributed deficiency, or it could be a very specific and narrow stumbling block. As long as the character is compelling and the dice aren't affected, the game still runs as it should no matter how many brilliant plans the barbarian concocts. Chalk it up to the mushrooms doing the talking and game on. [/QUOTE]

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