Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="steenan" data-source="post: 5337192" data-attributes="member: 23240">IMO the "charisma as a dump stat" is an endemic D&D issue. Most games I played had no such problem or had much less of it. It was, generally, achieved in one of several ways, sometimes combined.1. Social interactions as important or more important than combat. This also requires the social mechanics to be reasonably deep and interesting in play, so that it is not ignored in favor of pure storytelling. Games, that use mechanical descriptions of personality traits and make it possible to address them in a discussion with a measurable effect, shine here, but that part is not strictly necessary.2. Basing some aspects of a character on player skill only, without any stats to describe them. Without social stats, they can't be dumped.3. Choosing stats in such a way that each of them encompasses something each character works better with. When, for example, character stats correspond to four elements, charisma probably falls under Fire, along with physical power - and nearly every character needs one of these two.4. Aiming for simulation (of genre or setting), not efficiency. When a game is not focused on challenges and makes failure as interesting as success, the question moves from "Is charisma or dexterity more useful?" to "Is playing a charismatic or dexterous character more interesting?".</blockquote>