Enhancing the Charisma Stat: A fortune mechanic

[Stalker0]

I don't like dump stats. While charisma is very useful to some characters (sorcs, bards, paladins), a lot of what charisma is based of "vague" interpretations that are up to dms, and often get ignored.

So I created this mechanic to give a strict rules based enhancement to charisma, that has a definate (but not overbearing) effect of the game.

Charisma is fortune:

As the paladin's bonus to saves represents, charisma is not just a personal power, it also can reflect a person's good or bad luck... or even the blessings of a higher deity. Charismatic characters are not just strong of personality, they were often chosen by fate. With this in mind we have the following mechanic.

For characters with 12+ cha, when they roll one less than the needed for an event, they get a cha check (DC 21). If they succeed, fortune has blessed them and they are awarded the extra point they needed.

For characters with 8- cha, when they rolled exactly what they needed for a check, they roll a cha check (DC 1). Failure means they have had some bad luck, and fail the check by 1.

If you notice based on the DCs, every +1 or -1 to cha gives you a 5% chance to either enhance or reduce your luck.


Now on what rolls this mechanic applies to do is up to the DM, which gives it great customability. You can use it from everything from attack rolls, to saves, skill checks, to the rolls needed to hit your crit threat. You could even use it for damage rolls, where one more point of damage either kills or knocks out the target, if you wanted to expand the realm that extensively.

It will usually come up a few times a game, but not so many it becomes roll heavy, and will have a definate effect on the game, perhaps enough to make even barbs and fighters consider putting some points over there.

 

[Aaron2]

I'm not fond of extra rolling. I'd suggest giving a character a number of "luck points" equal to his Cha bonus that he can spend (one luck point = +1 to any die roll). The points refresh each adventure (or session). If he has a negative Cha mod, the DM gets "unluck points" that he can use to boost his monsters against said player.


Aaron

 

[Stalker0]

I'm not fond of extra rolling. I'd suggest giving a character a number of "luck points" equal to his Cha bonus that he can spend (one luck point = +1 to any die roll). The points refresh each adventure (or session). If he has a negative Cha mod, the DM gets "unluck points" that he can use to boost his monsters against said player.


Aaron

There's three problems with that, because this was one of my original ideas.

1) Problem with allowing a dm to regulate favor is just that, you favor some characters over others. When you use the unluck points, your players may feel your hosing them when you use them.

2) It becomes problematic for monsters. Again, it makes players feel the dm is abusing his luck points to hose them.

3) It becomes problematic with higher charisma. One or two luck points a day is fine, but when some characters get 10 or so (which is certainly possible at higher levels, then it becomes clunky.

 

[Stalker0]

Here's my own analysis on the system
Pros:

1) It give a definate system based mechanic improving charisma that is apparant to any player.

2) It allows charisma to be used more consistently, instead of by dm's whim, which I think both dms and players can appreciate.

3) It enhances the charisma based arcetypes. Paladins become even more "blessed warriors", bards become the lucky sons of that is often portrayed in fantasy, and sorcs magical nature is even more enhanced (as well as giving them a bit of a power boost vs wizards, which a lot of people thought he needed)

4) It makes some mystical monsters even more powerful. High age dragons become even stronger, not just as strong creatures, but as some of the creatures most blessed by magic itself.

5) Its customisable, its power and impact can be adjusted by the players and dm to fit their needs.

6) It can enhance suspense. A character rolls a save for death, only to miss it by 1!! Now he has a 5% chance to still make it, making for an exciting series of rolls.

7) It can invariably cause your players to act more like your charisma. A high charisma character who gets a few luck rolls may start acting more confident, important, special-- just like a high charisma character should. On the reverse, low charisma characters feel depressed, like life is biased against them, and that others are better or more special than them.

Cons:

1) There's more rolling. Perhaps not a lot, but a definate increase.

2) It can sometimes give away Dcs. While the dm can roll luck checks secretly, it takes away from letting the player feel the effects of his charisma.

3) Some low charisma characters may feel cheated by the mechanic.

4) It never allows for high charisma characters to get bad luck by the mechanic and vis versa.

5) It alters the CRs of some very high or very low charisma monsters, the effect of which depends on how widely used you make the mechanic.

 

[Aaron2]

2) It becomes problematic for monsters. Again, it makes players ...

I wouldn't give monsters luck points or rolls either way. It should be a PC only thing.


Aaron

 

[AeroDm]

I think it is slight enough that adding it to a game will not affect the game negatively, and if it aids in your appreciation of the Charisma stat it will be beneficial. That said, I doubt you are going to see many players boosting their charisma because it just isn't that noticeable. You will most likely see people dropping 10's instead of 8's (did you want 9- or did you mean 8- in your first post?).

Let me know how it works out as I'll be interested to see the results.

 

[CombatWombat51]

I also DM with Charisma representing luck. The only solid rule I created is you get a number of luck rerolls (like the Luck domain) per day equal to your Charisma bonus. Characters with a Charisma penalty give me a number of rerolls per day on that character. To clarify, I can force that character to reroll something; I don't actually reroll.

Another thing I do is have characters make Charisma checks to determine random stuff. Like if a character wants to know if there's a convinient rain barrel nearby to put out a fire. That's a Charisma check. Or if a particular merchant is available. Or if a wizard is going to lightning bolt somebody, and he two equal PC choices, that's opposed Charisma checks for the two PC's. Of course, this rule is less concrete than the above rule, and it relies entirely on me (the DM) to be of any effect.

The last thing I do, is to actually use the rules for influencing NPC's, at least when the PC's initially meet one. I find that most DM's don't bother, but this helps out a lot.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

I've been thinking about doing something similar, but it involves D20 modern style action dice. Basically the characters action die roll is modified by its' Charisma bonus. Of course I'd be giving out less action points than the average modern character gets.

 

[rootbeergnome]

Nice ideas! I was going to run my next campaign using a "Luck" stat, and have the original score be equal to your character's starting charisma. That way all the powerful charisma enhancing items would not also enhance your luck. As in, you have a character with a charisma score of 12, the character's Luck score =12, then you modify for race (halflings get +4 to luck) at least that was my original idea. I was going to use the reroll system described in previous posts in this thread by letting characters reroll a number of rolls per session equal to their luck modifier. This extra little stat, means that when charisma is raised, the character doesnt get both magical bonuses and luck bonuses, but that charisma as a starting stat is still more important.
After reading this thread though, I am thinking that maybe just using charisma in this fashion might be better in order to make it a more tempting stat to sink ability score points into
Anyone else have any more ideas?
RBGnome

 

[harmyn]

I also DM with Charisma representing luck. The only solid rule I created is you get a number of luck rerolls (like the Luck domain) per day equal to your Charisma bonus. Characters with a Charisma penalty give me a number of rerolls per day on that character. To clarify, I can force that character to reroll something; I don't actually reroll.

I've been toying around with a low-magic setting that uses a few variant classes and not much magic at all. I was looking into action points as one possibility, but this Charisma idea might just do the trick.

In my case though, I doubt I would apply a reroll penalty. I don't want to screw the players over too much. There's so much in that setting that is stacked against the players to begin with, I don't really think I need to make it harder.