Mark said:
...physical attractiveness...
It doesn't just say attractiveness, which might lend itself to the point you are trying to make, but clearly it says physical attractiveness. The other parts of the direct quote from the Players Handbook have to do with presence.
Ah, yeah, Mark, but you're ignoring the next sentence:
"It represents actual personal strength, not merely how one is percieved by others in a social seting."
So, you're trying to tell me that the shape of a nose somehow alters one's actual personal strength? That even skin tone should affect how many spells one gets per day?
Time to break out the Hammer of Reason...
<*Umbran takes out a slegdehammer, apparently of silver or mithril, with the word "Maxwell" engraved on the side of the head. He steps up to a rail-bed, and sets a spike in place by the rail*>
The phrase, "Physical attractiveness" has a couple of possible meanings:
A) Attractiveness of the physical body. Physical beauty, especially in a sexual context.
B) Attractiveness of other sorts that makes the viewer wish to get physical with the viewed.
(The difference, btw, explains phenomena like Callista Flockheart. Major sex symbol for years, despite being emaciated and unhealthy, with a body like toothpicks stuck into a tootsie roll and a face like a horse. Unless you wanna claim it was her
hair that had guys drooling, she has physical attractiveness without a lot of beauty.)
<*tap, tap*>
"Physical beauty" is relative. Opinions on it vary from person to person, from culture to culture. What I think is beautiful is not the same as what Mark, or a randomly chosen woman in Japan thinks is beautiful. "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder."
<*ping*>
The D&D stat of Charisma is not relative. Take a person with a 16 Charisma, and bring them in contact with a dwarf, and elf, an illithid, a githyanki, and a blink dog, and they'd all measure the same Charisma.
Beauty is not in the eye of the beholder. In fact, it's not in any part of the beholder. Look at that illustration! That thing's ugly, eyes included! But it still has a charisma of 15. Heck, in order to become a Sorcerer, the thing really has to take out that central eye, an act that pretty certainly will make it less beautiful, but won't change it's game-stat in the slightest.
<*pok*>
Beauty can be simply altered by makeup, mode of dress, and the like. But somehow there are no rules for that. Our sorcerers and bards don't need to call over hairdressers or makeup artists, or change clothes to appear just so between violent, bloody encounters to maintain effectiveness.
<*tang*>
As noted above, the idea that the shape of your nose or the curve of your hip should impact the number of spells you can cast is downright ludicrous, especially when you don't even need a nose or hips to be a sorcerer!
<*thwack*>
Thus, at best the authors intend definition B. More likely, given that charisma crosses species lines, the words are actually nonsense, left behind as a sop to all those folks who wanted to know if they should have a comliness stat.
<*thunk*>
I hereby declare the "Charisma Ain't Beauty" railway open. You are now free to travel the possibilites of pug-ugly sorcerers and your game world's Helen of Troy, most beautiful woman in the world, but with all the ability to influence people of a wet dishrag.
<*Umbran puts the hammer away in a briefcase. Snapping the case shut, the legend, "QED Railroad" becomes visible on the side.*>
Yes, yes, I know. Overly dramatic and florid in presentation. But the logic is sound. It stands, I think, as a lesson that short (in this case, three words) pieces of flavor text are at best a weak and unreliable basis for an argument about actual game function. It simply is not reasonable that beauty impacts the game stat, despite the three words. Sorry, Mark.
