Suggestions on playing a 6 Charisma

[MonkeyDragon]

Ohg the half orc fighter had an int of 10, wis of 11, cha of 6. I figured that he would wind up getting killed early on and would be replaced with a character with better stats. But he went through the whole campaign and turned out to be one of the best characters ever.

Ohg was not bright. But not STUPID. No, Ohg was just inarticulate. He had a standard spoke in third person speech impediment and used simple sentances. Yet every one in awhile would volunteer a startling bit of wisdom to astound the party, or a linguistic gem like "Ohg have innate distrust of incoporeal surfaces." I thought his low charisma could mean that he might have some good thoughts, but have a hard time expressing himself. He also liked to "solve problem with cold steel."

He was also kind of immature in dealing with other people emotionally. He deferred almost completely to the tacit leader of the party, who he called "Fearless Leader," and would raise his hand to speak. He relied on the party rogue for protection (an elf about half his size) and cried once or twice when things just got to be too much. He knew his place in a fight, though. Bash monster with sword. And at the conclusion of a well-resolved battle? "Ohg is pleased."

Despite his shortcomings, Ohg was regarded fondly by his party. He wasn't particularly good at anything except smashing stuff and making pies, but his foibles made him lovable, if not noteable.

I think the thing to remember is there are a lot of aspects to charisma that you could work with, especially in cojnunction with your other stats, to turn the low score into a set of nifty character traits that can be fun to play and go beyond nasty, ugly, or uncouth. It's an especially interesting challenge with another low cha person in the group.

 

[kingamy]

Try the annoying catch-phrase

My wife played a Cha 8 trip-fighter, who kept quiet all the time except in combat, where she would shout out "Have a nice trip!" everytime she made a trip attack, and "See you next fall!" every time she did the free attack afterwards.

Every time.

Always.

For 6 levels.

Thank god that campaign's over...

Mike Haakstad

 

[Fingol]

Had a low charisma dwarf once;

Dwarfs these days tend to be solid buggers. Kind of mobile cubes. He was too in a manner of speaking. He arived at the shape not through well honed or sculputered muscles. He was obese to the point that his belly stopped somewhere below his knees, which were knobbly. To hide the fact his legs were skinnier than those of a doppleganger before doppling he wore robes, with a hawian kind of pattern.

He also talked too much, mostly about stuff he had no idea about. When he talked he spit a lot. The only way to shut him up was to put him in the presence of a female. The group in the end hired a female bard to 'record their heroic deeds' they said but I knew they did it to shut him up.

He ate with his mouth open, so as to breath in a weasing kind of way around his food. Half the food went down the other half ended up in his beard and mustache or on his robes adding more colour to the nice pattern.

The palms of his hands were always sticky. Mostly due to him being always sweaty, mostly...
He broke furniture when he sat on it.
He never brushed his teeth and his breath stank something chronic.
He suffered from a kind of scalp disease. Saying he had dandruff was an understatement. Ocassionally clumps of his hair and beard would just drop 'off' after some scratching.
Dwarfs are known for digging; well he in particular was known for digging in his nose,with the anyoing habit of 'not' noticing where he shot his 'refuse'. I tried putting a case together for getting a special attack from the DM but he didn't go for it. I kept on using bits of pizza cheese and crust to simulate the attack whenever the opportunity arose though.

 

[Algolei]

If there's someone on this or another message board whose posts you really don't like, try acting like him or her.

That's what I do for my 5 Cha dwarf. Plus I make him sing like Pavarotti. Er, except I can't sing like Pavarotti, of course. But that just works to my benefit.

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

Had a low charisma dwarf once;

Dwarfs these days tend to be solid buggers. Kind of mobile cubes. He was too in a manner of speaking. He arived at the shape not through well honed or sculputered muscles. He was obese to the point that his belly stopped somewhere below his knees, which were knobbly. To hide the fact his legs were skinnier than those of a doppleganger before doppling he wore robes, with a hawian kind of pattern.

He also talked too much, mostly about stuff he had no idea about. When he talked he spit a lot. The only way to shut him up was to put him in the presence of a female. The group in the end hired a female bard to 'record their heroic deeds' they said but I knew they did it to shut him up.

He ate with his mouth open, so as to breath in a weasing kind of way around his food. Half the food went down the other half ended up in his beard and mustache or on his robes adding more colour to the nice pattern.

The palms of his hands were always sticky. Mostly due to him being always sweaty, mostly...
He broke furniture when he sat on it.
He never brushed his teeth and his breath stank something chronic.
He suffered from a kind of scalp disease. Saying he had dandruff was an understatement. Ocassionally clumps of his hair and beard would just drop 'off' after some scratching.
Dwarfs are known for digging; well he in particular was known for digging in his nose,with the anyoing habit of 'not' noticing where he shot his 'refuse'. I tried putting a case together for getting a special attack from the DM but he didn't go for it. I kept on using bits of pizza cheese and crust to simulate the attack whenever the opportunity arose though.

This, sir, is the stuff dreams are made of.

 

[Quickleaf]

Quickleaf, your suggestion is awesome - I'm not sure if I want to show it to my DM or not, though.

Por qua non? or Why not?

 

[knitnerd]

A foul mouthed, dirty, smelly, scared, open sore, lice infected, human that defecates in public.

My gnome wizard had a charisma of 7. He was an ugly old hermit who wasn't too careful about warning bystanders when he experimented with explosives. He got his familiar,a skunk,by out stinking it with stinking cloud. His charisma went up to 8 when the drow priestess charmed him into taking a bath.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Give him a few odious personal habits. Maybe he just keeps on going about a few favorite subjects, such as what people look like from the inside (all those weird-looking organs) that other people find disgusting - but he cannot understand why. Or maybe he laughs a lot, especially when he hears of tragedies or ill fortunes of other people. "The whole building just collapsed! Can you believe it? Wow!" Or maybe he gives unwanted advice: "Maybe he doesn't like you because you are ugly." Or maybe he has some rather... odd... hobbies, such as role-p^H^H^H^H^H^H pornographic drawings, which he talks about and shows around at every opportunity - especially when members of the opposite sex are around. Or maybe he is a compulsive liar and makes up stories about his background that are so preposterous that no one except the most guillible person would believe. "Yeah, I am the love-child of Lolth and Mystra!"

In short, make him a jerk or a creep. Or both.

Take a look at this thread for plenty of real-life people with low Charisma... Though you probably don't want to go that far.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Firstly, I think that many people are surprisingly harsh on so called "low" CHA - a 6 CHA is only about 10% worse off on any charisma related tasks than someone normal. It isn't as if you call someone with a 14 CHA "Mr wonderful everybodyloveshim" is it? Somehow the low scores draw out much more opprobium for some reason.

Secondly, I think the easiest way to have something which works well in role play is to give your PC a speech impediment of some kind. Not something that will offend others in your group if someone suffers, but anything that clearly makes it that little bit harder for the PC to express himself. Perhaps he stutters or has a lisp, or says "right?" at the end of *every* sentence. That is relatively easy to add to the character and gives a distinctive reason why he finds it that little bit harder to assert his personality and views.

Cheers

 

[Doctor Shaft]

a 6 CHA is only about 10% worse off on any charisma related tasks than someone normal.

True... but aren't even some of the commonly "hated" or "mistrusted" monsters in the monster manuals more well-endowed in charisma? I think you can find even completely unintelligent animals having more charisma, or equal charisma to a score of 6. That's saying something about what having such a low charisma score means.

Forget the mathematics to skills thing -- if your PC's charisma score is lower than even the typical goblin... hm. Doesn't mean you're just like a goblin, but it still suggests something about why it should be played full-tilt.