D&D (2024) Change in Charisma Description

[Micah Sweet]

I don’t think it can’t have anything to do with it, in fact I think it often does. I just don’t see how the specific inclusion of language connecting Charisma to appearance adds anything to the game, since you’re already perfectly free to decide that your character’s Charisma is directly related to their appearance. But I do think it has the potential to give ammo to people who want to insist Charisma must be related to appearance.

Technically, you already are perfectly free to decide that you're character's Charisma is directly related to their ability to maintain a perfectly-kept lawn.

 

[James Gasik]

Technically, you already are perfectly free to decide that you're character's Charisma is directly related to their ability to maintain a perfectly-kept lawn.

And that explains Samwise Gamgee.

 

[Clint_L]

Not technically, as physical appearance is not included in the description, based on the OP.

You character can be as beautiful as you want. If you want to consider it part of their charisma, fill your boots.

 

[Scribe]

You character can be as beautiful as you want. If you want to consider it part of their charisma, fill your boots.

And you could make a character as ugly as sin, be as charismatic as they get on 'undefinable magnetism'.

So whats the issue? Its rhetorical, I know what believe the issue is, but I disagree it is actually one.

Therefore, we can amicably disagree.

 

[Clint_L]

I just googled "most charismatic people in history" and the first entry gave me:

1. Napoleon Bonaparte
2. Fidel Castro
3. Winston Churchill
4. Mahatma Gandhi
5. David Koresh
6. Adolf Hitler
7. Martin Luther King Jr.
8. Malcolm X
9. Nelson Mandela
10. Teddy Roosevelt
11. Eva Perón
12. Aung San Suu Kyi

I went further down the page - tons of lists, citing hundreds of different people. Few of them particularly attractive by Hollywood standards. Quite a few of them notably the opposite. It seems that for most people, charisma =/= beauty.

So the claim that beauty is a part of charisma is harmful, not well supported, and totally illogical in a universe in which most sentient beings belong to a plethora of distinct species. Yet, if you still want your character to beautiful as part of your charisma, the rules let you do that. So I'm not seeing what the issue is.

Edit: for good measure, here are various dictionary definitions:

"the magnetic and charming personal quality that draws people to someone"
"a special personal quality or power of an individual making him or her capable of influencing or inspiring large numbers of people"
"the ability to attract the attention and admiration of others, and to be seen as a leader"
"a personal magic of leadership arousing special popular loyalty or enthusiasm for a public figure"
"a special quality conferring extraordinary powers of leadership and the ability to inspire veneration"

 

[Charlaquin]

Not technically, as physical appearance is not included in the description, based on the OP.

So? Since when has D&D been limited how by what the rulebooks explicitly say you can do?

 

[Charlaquin]

Technically, you already are perfectly free to decide that your character's Charisma is directly related to their ability to maintain a perfectly-kept lawn.

I mean, sure, if you want to.

 

[Ashtagon]

tbh, I'd make exceptional beauty/ugliness into a feat/flaw pair. It would modify your effective Charisma for people who would generally find a person of your gender and species desirable. For everyone else, a really easy Wisdom check (if anything at all) would tell them that you have that feat, but it won't affect any dice rolls against them.

 

[Scribe]

So? Since when has D&D been limited how by what the rulebooks explicitly say you can do?

Why ignore the premise of the thread? Why is it seemingly so difficult a concept of wanting something mentioned as part of the description?

 

[Aldarc]

Why ignore the premise of the thread? Why is it seemingly so difficult a concept of wanting something mentioned as part of the description?

Because many want to keep it out of the description.