Roleplaying your dump-stat

[Umbran]

How do you make an interesting character with a low charisma? Are your characters just ugly, or do they have a serious social problem? Did I pick the wrong stat? What's your typical dump-stat, and how do you roleplay it?

As others have noted, a 7 isn't really particularly bad. It's a -2 modifier. Consider that the character was probably not gong to be spending on social skills anyway (between them being cross-class and him getting few skill points each level anyway). Early on, it might seem a big deal, but as time goes on, the skill points become more important than the modifiers - relatively speaking, he'd be abysmal at those skills even if he had a positive modifier.

In such a case, I would not go out of my way to play his charisma as really particularly bad - I'd simply avoid playing him as if it were particularly good. A bit socially inept, a tendency to be rude or make social faux pas, perhaps. How you play it would depend on the rest of the character concept.

 

[freyar]

As a DMPC (I know, I know, those are supposed to be bad, but the only player can only handle 2 PCs... ), I have a halfling rogue with STR and CHA of 6. STR isn't much of an issue except for tactics and the fact that he's always asking people to carry things for him. I play him as fairly slobby and more importantly unable to impose his will in any discussion. Basically, he just tries to go with whatever everyone else wants to do unless he has a compelling argument.

 

[tzor]

I'm starting in a new campaign, playing a gestalt fighter-wizard with a high-stat of 16, and a low-stat of 7. I decided to put the 7 in charisma (duh), but now I face a quandary.

I hate questions like this. A stat of 7 is the high side of a -2 penalty. If the "average" is that of 10 (the original average on three straight 3d6 is 10.5) then we are talking about just slightly below the average. (Assuming that one goes plus or minus 2 around the average.)

The SRD states, "Charisma measures a character’s force of personality, persuasiveness, personal magnetism, ability to lead, and physical attractiveness. This ability represents actual strength of personality, not merely how one is perceived by others in a social setting."

So take your average person. Now you need to find ways to give youself a -2 on all charisma based options. Physical attractiveness is probably cliche so perhaps its a flaw in your force of personality. Perhaps you tend to say the wrong thing at the wrong time. Perhaps your manner of speaking comes off as indecisive. Perhaps you're just boring as hell.

(Most resist making Al Gore joke at this point.)

 

[buzzard]

I used to play a character in Living Jungle with a real low charisma. I ran him as someone with pretty much no self confidence when dealing with people. He would launch into conversations (only if he had to), but would generally trail off into mumbling before he was done. This was coupled with a low wisdom, so any acceptance he got, he bought into completely, and could be lead around by a bit of flattery.

I also ran an LG character with low charisma, and he generally was just plain brusque with people. He was not in any way shy, and was more than willing to speak his mind even in a bad moment( funny he also had an 8 wisdom). He was rather unkempt as well. He also didn't give a tinker's damn what anyone else thought, unless he knew them well. Again, this could be a source of trouble.

Those are pretty diametrically opposed ways of playing the same two dump stats, but they are both pretty valid.

buzzard

 

[Merkuri]

The SRD states, "Charisma measures a character’s force of personality, persuasiveness, personal magnetism, ability to lead, and physical attractiveness. This ability represents actual strength of personality, not merely how one is perceived by others in a social setting."

So take your average person. Now you need to find ways to give youself a -2 on all charisma based options.

Just remember that Charisma is the summation of all of those qualities. A character with slightly lower than average charisma may have an average ability to lead, average attractiveness, average persuasiveness, but very low personal magnetism. You don't have to be equally inept (or equally skilled) at all of those qualities.

 

[Brother MacLaren]

A bit more math to illustrate just how "average" a 7 Cha is:

Suppose you have 3 characters competing on Cha-based checks -- Bluff, Diplomacy, or let's say Perform (Dance). Their skill ranks are equal, but their Cha varies.
Rico Suave has a +2 Cha modifier (14 or 15).
Joe Average has a +0 Cha modifier (10 or 11).
Grumpy the Dwarf has a -2 cha modifier (6 or 7).

Going head-to-head in a dance-off, Joe will beat Rico 37.5% of the time and Grumpy will beat Joe 37.5% of the time. Grumpy will beat Rico 30% of the time. In a 3-way dance-off, Grumpy beats both Joe and Rico 18.5% of the time.

That's if you're actually rolling dice. If Rico just takes 10 and does his usual routine, he gets a 12. Grumpy can tell his usual routine won't cut it, so he busts out some moves and takes a risk (rolls rather than Taking 10). He has -- just as before -- a 30% chance to beat Rico (he needs to roll a 15 or better, since a tie goes to Rico).

Beating the "average" guy 3 out of 8 times, and beating the "good" guy 3 out of 10 times, is not all that bad.

 

[TarionzCousin]

"What hump?"



/hint: it's pronounced "Eye-gor."