Personal Magnetism and Death

[Emirikol]

So...all my players like having low charisma's (for their character's too). I'm thinking that a few changes are in order...

Couldn't a DM.???.
.. place RP x.p. vaguely on charisma
.. have death occur at negative charisma instead of -1 (or neg CON) just from personal magnetism to the universe
.. base one's center of attention from monsters on cha (more is less-bad-wrong?Bdrong'?)
.. give a 'heroic' hp bonus to anyone with a cha of 11 or better
.. add to one's Action/Hero Points total by charisma
.. tell his wife that he plays an ugly character at D&D
.. absolutely have all NPC's ignore the characters with low Cha's.. force the player to wear a 'BEATEN WITH AN UGLY STICK' placard around the player's neck while gaming if he has a cha penalty
.. instead of his table tent for his character, just use a copy of the appropriate monster from the M.M.

What else can I use for an incentive/disincentive for cha?


jh
..

 

[kenobi65]

What else can I use for an incentive/disincentive for cha?

It's likely that they're using Charisma as a dump-stat because they don't see it as important.

The solution? Start making Charisma a more important part of the game.

Make NPC interactions realistic. If you've got a bunch of 6 Cha half-orc fighters, the local populace isn't gonna like them much (well, unless the local populace *are* 6 Cha half-orcs).

Place more of an emphasis on Cha-based skills. Make it harder for the party to succeed if they can't Diplomacy (or at least Intimidate) their way out of a paper bag. Make a higher percentage of the encounters social in nature, rather than other skills (or combat).

 

[Henry]

Leaving out the "ugly ones" (because low CHA does not equal 'ugly', and I know you're being a bit facetious with the list), one thing a DM CAN do is to place emphasis by NPC's on the players with higher social skills. I'd ignore CHA completely, and go with who has the higher bluff, diplomacy, and gather info scores. Those are the characters most likely to have NPCs remember them, think favorably of them, etc.

One thing I used to do was to call for a CHA check when they got in a bad situation, "to see if the gods liked them." The ones with the higher CHA check were the ones who got off lightly - in essence, when the whole party falls off of a rope bridge, they were the ones who landed on top of the pile.

 

[hexgrid]

Aren't the effects of having low charisma already built into the mechanics of the game? Why isn't that good enough?

 

[elrobey]

four words:

"divine grace" for everyone.

 

[Ambrus]

Heh. I have the opposite problem; three of the four PCs IMC have Charisma scores of 23-24. IIRC one of the PCs has a diplomacy score of 29, and another has a Gather Information of 24 or 25. Given a few moments of conversation the PCs can sway the opinions of popes and kings or discover even the most obscure rumours while speaking to a mute.

Personally, I wouldn't change the Charisma bonus or how they affect game-play, but do take into account the PCs' lack of appeal to NPCs. IMC, the fourth PC has a charisma of 7 as is regularly ignored by NPCs who always address the other three PCs. The key is to simply run a few social adventures in which NPCs actively try to ignore the PCs because they find them ugly, unappealing or even repulsive. Keep them from gaining admittance to a city by the city-guards. Ugly armed people at the gates would probably be treated like orcs or hobgoblins trying to gain admittance; undesirable brutes. Shopkeepers will remain weary of them until they see the PCs money, inns will turn them away, and aristocrats, academics and church officials will probably ignore them or have them driven off unless they can prove immediately that they are worth speaking to.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Leaving out the "ugly ones" (because low CHA does not equal 'ugly'...

What word would you use in place of 'ugly' to describe 'a low measure of physical attractiveness'?

Charisma measures a character’s force of personality, persuasiveness, personal magnetism, ability to lead, and physical attractiveness.

A low Charisma, then, represents a low measure of force of personality, persuasiveness, personal magnetism, ability to lead, and physical attractiveness, right?

-Hyp.

 

[Emirikol]

I just hate to always have to do it after the fact. I guess I should put some kind of encouraging mechanic in the house rules though. I'm thinkin that the Personal Magetism and Death rule would be cool. I guarantee you that it would become important REALLY FAST in that case.

..which leads me to..could intelligence be brought into the same sort of situation? Can you think your way out of negatives? Perhaps, "The PC's lowest statistic is the one that they use for death in negatives."

I don't know though that intelligence or wisdom could be used for some kind of negative thing. I suppose "Don't go into the light" is what we're talking about with Charisma, it's not impossible to say the same thing about outsmarting Charon or having a strong willpower (not the saving throw).

Thoughts?

jh

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

So...all my players like having low charisma's (for their character's too). I'm thinking that a few changes are in order...

Couldn't a DM.???.
.. place RP x.p. vaguely on charisma

No. That existed in 2e. Bad. Not that anything from 2e is bad, but I recall hating their "high stats = high XP" rules.

.. have death occur at negative charisma instead of -1 (or neg CON) just from personal magnetism to the universe

Sure. It isn't likely to work out, though, nor does it make sense.

.. base one's center of attention from monsters on cha (more is less-bad-wrong?)

Heh heh.

.. give a 'heroic' hp bonus to anyone with a cha of 11 or better

As with the mention of negative hp, it doesn't make sense.

.. add to one's Action/Hero Points total by charisma

Go right ahead, but don't expect a big jump. This was an Alternity rule, and nothing came of it. I never had charismatic PCs in that game.

.. tell his wife that he plays an ugly character at D&D

If his wife doesn't like DnD, it won't matter. Besides, you can be good-looking and still uncharismatic.

.. absolutely have all NPC's ignore the characters with low Cha's.. force the player to wear a 'BEATEN WITH AN UGLY STICK' placard around the player's neck while gaming if he has a cha penalty

And when the PC makes a Diplomacy check DC 30, are they still ignored? Besides, if you make social skills important, you're likely to end up with a faceman (and multiple uncharismatic characters). You can do things like only let PCs who can make a Diplomacy (DC 20) check see the crime boss the PCs need to speak to, so the charismatic PC might get slaughtered by a large number of rogues, but this just makes Diplomacy important, not Charisma.

.. instead of his table tent for his character, just use a copy of the appropriate monster from the M.M.

???

What else can I use for an incentive/disincentive for cha?

Nothing. Short of class abilities, there's nothing you can do. A rank in Diplomacy will always go further than having a decent Charisma score. It's easy to buy ranks in Diplomacy, and you can get a high modifier without a high Charisma or even the feats. Out of all the base classes in the PH, only the paladin seems to get anything out of his Charisma. (I think sorcerers are weaker than wizards, which is why I discount them.)


jh
..[/QUOTE]


Diplomacy: http://www.giantitp.com/Func0010.html The link doesn't seem to be working today, though