I think this is a fair counterpoint. But like I said earlier, the shortsighted DM that rules that is just as likely to rule the opposite: charisma is not beauty; therefore, I can base NPC reactions on whatever I like. The abilities are abstracts, so it muddles things.
Correct, they can describe themselves as beautiful. Incorrect, they can attach it to charisma. Show me where in the rules it says they can attach their beauty to charisma?
Incorrect. It is a part of the definition. No DM has suggested you must be "eloquent" to have a high charisma? No DM suggests you must be "confident." In fact, I bet people would fawn over a PC that was shy and introverted, yet exuded "charm." Examples exist all over the place for high charisma characters to have only one or two of the quoted abilities. So why now, if you added another dimension, would DMs suddenly flock to only focusing on one characteristic. The answer is: they wouldn't.
At which point it really doesn't matter what the PHB says on the subject.
If that is the claim, then why not do it with every ability. Why not do it with strength? For example, ask a player to describe their character: "I am muscle bound, weigh three hundred pounds of ripped lean muscle mass, and have 25" bulging biceps. But I have a 6 strength." Or, "I am lean, move like the wind, double-jointed, and walk with perfect balance and grace. But I have a 6 dexterity."
I guess the question here is, does it make a difference? I'm not trying to be flippant, this is obviously something you want to be in the game. But as it stands, appearance has no mechanical relevance whatsoever in the game. It's up to the DM to decide whether or not it applies, and in what circumstances.
That's really the problem, isn't it? Ability scores don't work that way in D&D, save for perhaps using the Options books in late 2e. You can't have great ability to lift weights without great ability to smack people around in melee combat (barring racial traits like Powerful Build). You can't be good at dodging blows and picking pockets and not have a bonus to initiative. So you can say "I'm tough but get winded easily" all you want to, but the truth is, you have the same Constitution score which applies all bonuses and penalties equally. Thus any attempt to describe your character differently is not matched by the rules for ability scores- it's game play and story dissonance.
I understand that’s what they’re asking for. My response to that is “why? It doesn’t make any practical difference.”Because its literally not the point of the OP's post. Take the quote (and I typed that straight out of the PHB, and simply do this, its all the OP is (I believe) asking for.
I see absolutely nothing wrong with a player doing either of those things.
Well there’s your problem. No, I don’t agree that abilities are about that at all. You certainly can attach them to something concrete in the fiction, but you aren’t required to do so, far from that being their primary role.
