Characters made only for combat

[hong]

I just want to know where the penatly is supposed to be for having Charisma as your dump stat if its not in social interaction.

It doesnt affect combat.

It doesnt modify any saving throws.

All it does is modify skills used in social settings. Thats it, end of story, nothing more unless you are a sorcerer or bard casting spells or a cleric turning the undead.

Well, you could let the other guys in the party have a look at these feats, and then taunt the Cha 8 guy about not being able to take them.


Hong "out-of-practice pimp" Ooi

 

[Storm Raven]

Re: Re: Re: Bad character, or bad role playing, or bad DM?

He should but buying things isn't based on charisma, I can walk into a shop pick something up take it to the counter and hand over my money without saying a word. It doesn't change the price, that's Charisma 8 for you. If I said "Thanks" when he hands me the change, and "Goodbye" on the way out thats Charisma 10, still the same price.

You are assuming a form of retail that is probably not appropriate for high ticket items in a pre-industrial society. Think about trying to buy a car in the real world: you haggle, you deal with the salesman, you dicker over price trying to get a good deal. Magic items and other big ticket things (which is what the original poster said he makes adjustments on) should probably be assumed to be purchased in a similar manner to cars in our world.

 

[kkoie]

Now here we were, having a nice discussion and you went off and got rude. Funny, I don't recall anyone whining, or being a whimp. Does your incredible sense of perception somehow exceed that of the rest of us? I guess I better bow to your omniscience. Feh.

It's obvious that you have something stuck in your craw about people who dump stat charisma. Fine. Your players get to suffer under that. Don't start insulting us because of it. With your above response it apparent you have a dump stat charisma yourself. Do you have shopkeeps screw you over most of the time?

buzzard

I was trying to be humorous when I said 'wimpsters and whiners.' Obviously I failed my humor check or set the humor DC too high, sorry.

As for your second paragraph. If people having something against anyone that uses charisma as a dump stat, its only if they happen to do it all the time. Its nice for people to experiment a little and try new things. Constantly going for the same character over and over gets redundant. And beyond that, why shouldn't someone with a negative charisma have it more difficult?!?! There has to be a balance somewhere, otherwise why even have the stat charisma if its never going to apply to hardly anything?

And my players aren't suffering, they figured it out for themselves. Those that had the really god-awful charisma figured out that others in the party are more adept at haggling, and asked them to step in and help with the major transactions. Just like in real life, my friend. Sometimes, when you want to purchase something big, if you are not completely adept at haggleing for the price (like say for a car or house) you might ask for someone else to step in and do it for you.

 

[Henry]

I want to posit a thought for you all:

Those of us in a modern day society often forget what the world was like before mass production of goods and services.

What was store markup like for purchase of items 150 years ago? 500 years ago? Markup on items for reasons ranging from supply and demand to storage problems ranged from 100 to 200%. This trend is today still carried on in middle eastern cities and towns; the ability to haggle and barter is part of a cultural heritage in a premodern society.

Life before Sears and Roebuck was quite different, and this difference should be given thought before setting prices.

In my campaigns, I always have the two hagglers compare diplomacy checks to gauge prices, and allow them to take 10 if they wish. Every point of difference between the rolls equates to about a 2% price difference, rounded off for ease of use. I don't tell what kind of a discount the palyers get, just like the fact that shopkeepers don't normally tell their customers how much of a discount they are getting from the cost. It's haggling, and it forces the players to have their characters get good on their negotiation skills, or get stiffed.

 

[Henry]

I would like to posit one last thought:

Be nice.

 

[JacktheRabbit]

I want to posit a thought for you all:

Those of us in a modern day society often forget what the world was like before mass production of goods and services.

What was store markup like for purchase of items 150 years ago? 500 years ago? Markup on items for reasons ranging from supply and demand to storage problems ranged from 100 to 200%. This trend is today still carried on in middle eastern cities and towns; the ability to haggle and barter is part of a cultural heritage in a premodern society.

Life before Sears and Roebuck was quite different, and this difference should be given thought before setting prices.

In my campaigns, I always have the two hagglers compare diplomacy checks to gauge prices, and allow them to take 10 if they wish. Every point of difference between the rolls equates to about a 2% price difference, rounded off for ease of use. I don't tell what kind of a discount the palyers get, just like the fact that shopkeepers don't normally tell their customers how much of a discount they are getting from the cost. It's haggling, and it forces the players to have their characters get good on their negotiation skills, or get stiffed.

Good point, thanks for the info.

Maybe I should go with something like this in mine and streamline things a bit.

 

[Sagan Darkside]

This trend is today still carried on in middle eastern cities and towns; the ability to haggle and barter is part of a cultural heritage in a premodern society.

Yeah, but they are not dealing with adventurers.

DocM- another suggestion comes to mind. The Quint Samurai book has social combat rules - which are used in verbal repartee in social engagements. They use the social skills as the basis of combat. I have not had a chance to give them a try, but the rules look pretty good.

SD

 

[Henry]

DocM- another suggestion comes to mind. The Quint Samurai book has social combat rules - which are used in verbal repartee in social engagements. They use the social skills as the basis of combat. I have not had a chance to give them a try, but the rules look pretty good.

Now that's a great concept - talk about bringing a knife to a gunfight!

 

[Willtell]

It's a slight penalty

>>
I just want to know where the penatly is supposed to be for having Charisma as your dump stat if its not in social interaction.
<<

The penalty is -1 for a character with a charisma score of 8. The character is only slightly worse at diplomacy, gather information, etc than an average np. The character has a slghtly lower charisma so only has a slight penalty.

 

[barsoomcore]

Sorry, but I'm trying to get a handle on just what the problem is here.

Are you looking for ways to make this character suffer for his 8 Charisma? Or are you wondering if this player is right to complain about how you make his character suffer for his 8 Charisma?

I don't get what the problem is. There's a broad array of skills that depend on Charisma. He gets a -1 on those skills whenever he tries to use them.

Negotiate a lower price? That's probably Diplomacy, maybe Bluff, depending on how the player role-plays it. Get along with the city guard? That's Diplomacy.

He can do these things, he's just not going to be very good at it unless he piles a whole bunch of skill points into them. Presumably his character sheet indicates that. Is he surprised that his Bluff rolls tend to not be very high? In that case, a quick referral to Chapter 3 of the PHB should set him straight. Otherwise, what's to complain about?

Maybe I'm dumb. I don't get it.