I fail to see why it dictates the appearance. There are many people on here that argue a halfling can have a 20 strength, yet not look like a muscle bound titan. That is because we accept the fact these attributes are many things, not a singularity. The same has been argued for intelligence and constitution and wisdom. So if it can be accepted for all of those, why not charisma?
Not at all.
Because strength doesn't necessarily equate to muscle, but you're trying to say charisma equates to beauty.
Bah!
I know... I know... We've been down this road before. But please hear me out: Charisma should include beauty. Right now it's "confidence, eloquence, leadership" and "... your ability to interact effectively with others. It includes such factors as confidence and eloquence, and it can represent a charming or commanding personality." Beauty needs to be included. Here's why.
There you go. Charisma should include beauty. It's just a beauty we have a hard time wrapping our head around.
- Deception, performance, persuasion, and yes, even intimidation deals with a character's looks. There is a reason performers look the way they do. Many, if not most that do well, are very good looking. Sting could not be Sting without his looks. The same is true for Tina Turner, Cher, or many other famous artists. And are there ones that aren't? Sure. But they are far outweighed by the ones that stand out from the crowd. One only needs to look at the recent Therenos scandal to understand that it wouldn't have worked if it was run by someone that looked like a normal person. Performance is a no brainer, as that is half the sales of a performance. Persuasion, same thing. I mean, advertising uses looks, especially sexy looks, to convince people to buy things. And looks, particularly beauty, is paramount to true intimidation. The old Greek stories, Roman stories, and pretty much every ancient culture's stories laid the groundwork for this.
- Another reason is that there is nothing on the sheet to measure beauty. Yet, beauty is one of the very first things anyone sees in a person. A tall, dark and handsome guy walks into the room and people stare. A lady with perfect features walks into the room and people stare. It seems silly to not have it listed on the character sheet somewhere since it is so (soooooo) prevalent among all societies across the world. And before anyone starts talking about beauty norms changing, please let's discuss. Because it leads to the third reason. The one that is most important. The one that is the glue to this entire claim.
- D&D, being a different universe, must have created a different norm for beauty. I mean, if you have elephant people, turtle people, cat people, dragon people, merfolk people, silver skinned people, orange skinned people, green skinned people, robot people, demon people, devil people, bearded women, etc. AND, all these people manage to live together, side by side, with nary a remark about how ugly the others are, then it stands to reason that they have a universal definition of beauty. One that translates across species. Of all the adventure paths and NPCs created by WotC, there is never a character that spouts stuff like: "Those dwarven women are hideous. Kissin' a scratchy beard - gross!" Never a disparaging remark about tails, horns, scales, or cloven feet. So they must have a universal view of beauty. Which, in my opinion, sounds kind of nice.
Strength does equate to muscle for part of its definition. I mean in the PHB, it states: "bodily power" and "raw physical force." Those are musculature characteristics. It also is "athletic training" and "natural athleticism." Those do not denote extreme musculature. It is more than one thing, which is what I am proposing charisma to be.
Maybe you didn't read anything I wrote. Your charisma 20 character can be a scarred soldier with a commanding presence, because a commanding presence is part of the definition. Your charisma 20 character can be incredibly confident or extremely eloquent. I am proposing that they can also just be drop dead good looking.
And again, this makes me think you didn't read anything I wrote. I specifically stated:
Or...we could stop adding complications to the game for the sake of making beauty part of charisma, which no one aside from you seems to think is a good idea. You have not yet identified a single way in which your proposal makes the game better, while lots of folks are pointing out ways that it makes the game worse, and doesn't fit with how they see charisma working.
No one disputes that. They can also be ugly as sin. The player can decide that.
