Comeliness has returned!

[dagger]

Yes, this is the main reason we are thinking about bringing it back.

Okay. When you were born, you were so ugly, the doctor slapped yo mama!

I don't know about bringing back "comeliness", but I've been thinking for a while now that something similar needs to be brought back in - Charisma the way it works now frequently doesn't make sense. As I've pointed out in another thread, recently, the grace, poise, and china-doll-like looks of a princess should definitely provide a bonus to Diplomacy or other charming effects, but should also work against an Intimidate check. And a brutish, obnoxious fighter should be just the opposite. But the way current Charisma works, they would both get the same bonus for both! That just doesn't make sense.

Charisma should be split up into two separate attributes. I'm thinking something like Presence, which indicates how aware of the character's presence others are without them even really trying, and Grace (I'd rather have 'Charm', but I think that would get confusing for spells), which indicates how sympathetic a character is for other characters - both in terms of appearance and endearing personality. Intimidate would be a skill of the former, Diplomacy of the latter, and both would have spells they play into, as well - like Grace would effect the outcome of casting Charm Person.

 

[VirgilCaine]

I don't like Charisma being combined like that, so I might add Comeliness to my game. I mean, hey, Hitler wasn't handsome, but he was charismatic.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

I've pointed out in another thread, recently, the grace, poise, and china-doll-like looks of a princess should definitely provide a bonus to Diplomacy or other charming effects, but should also work against an Intimidate check.

...except that said princess may not be able to make use of her natural talents. "Oh, look, she's pretty, but she's so self-centered that I'm turned off." And, of course, there's the potential of the cold inhumanness of such a character being very good for intimidation.

Same with the craggy fighter. Yeah, maybe he's butt-ugly, but his presence and bearing are such that you HAVE to listen to him.

Leave Comeliness on the dust-heap of history, where it belongs. There's no need to have a stat for how cute you look. Leave that up to the player.

Brad

 

[BiggusGeekus]

Personally, I think beauty and whatnot should be a feat, not an attribute.

Dagger, I like the way you're handling it with the roll and using point buy for the other stats. One think I noticed about Comliness is that it too often became a dump stat.

Just make sure not to treat an 18 as the equivalent of a perma-charm person. Halle Berry is the hottest thing going, but not even she could convince me to go see Catwoman.

 

[BOZ]

*rolls dice*

Sorry dagger, looks like you're a 4...

you's uuuuuuglyyyy!

 

[The Shaman]

You... Gee... El... Why... You ain't got no alibi, you ugly! *clap clap clap* You ugly!

Em...Oh...EmEm...Aay...We know how you got that way! Yo Momma...yeah...yo Momma!



Comeliness stats? No, thank you.

 

[dagger]

No, I don't think we are planning to use the fascinate rules as well, at least I hope not.

Leave Comeliness on the dust-heap of history, where it belongs. There's no need to have a stat for how cute you look. Leave that up to the player.

If you don't want to use a random roll just let the players set the comeliness at what they want. Then you have the benefit of letting the character play what he wants and it is in a game defined format (which we like, ymmv).

 

[punkorange]

I don't know about bringing back "comeliness", but I've been thinking for a while now that something similar needs to be brought back in - Charisma the way it works now frequently doesn't make sense. As I've pointed out in another thread, recently, the grace, poise, and china-doll-like looks of a princess should definitely provide a bonus to Diplomacy or other charming effects, but should also work against an Intimidate check. And a brutish, obnoxious fighter should be just the opposite. But the way current Charisma works, they would both get the same bonus for both! That just doesn't make sense.

You could solve this by saying that intimidate is a strenght base skill. I don't care how low bob the fighter's charisma is, the fact that he is seven feet tall and built like john henry is somewhat intimidating.

 

[der_kluge]

I could see this being handy, so long as you take some time to think about the effects it might have on certain spells. Otherwise, unless someone's playing a real social character, who likes to hit on members of the opposite sex, it's likely to not come up. You might also consider adding a "Divine beauty" spell which adds +4 to comeliness like the other spells. Sorry, I can't think of an appropriate animal.

 

[Darkness]

Bring out the "Yo Moma" jokes now.

Yo Momma so ugly, she looks like Edmonster.