“Charisma is about sex appeal” is funny, but that’s not really entirely accurate. It’s about motivating others towards your goals whatever that may be, having a presence that commands attention and being a good communicator. That’s why charisma helps disparate skills like lying, persuading, intimidating, and performing. Sex appeal may superficially help some of those things, but so does a half-giant that makes you piss yourself with their mere presence, or an old fat guy who speaks with clarity of conviction and intelligence. Ain’t nobody want to fuck Winston Churchill, and he was an asshole as well. But he was a very charismatic figure, still.
One of the things I liked about the Chronicles of Darkness system is it cleared this up nicely. Stats were in a 3x3 grid.
One axis was physical, mental, social
The other was Power, Finesse, Resistance.
Want to shove something? Physical + Power. That’s strength.
Want to figure out a riddle? Mental + Finesse. That’s
DexterityWits. (Edit: wrote dexterity originally, meant Wits)Command attention? Social + Power. That’s the Presence stat.
Lie and misdirect? Social + Finesse. Stat was called Manipulation.
Now you can have a character that’s commanding without also being a natural liar and flirt. DND doesn’t help let you do that because the concepts are bundled together into a single stat.
(You could invest separately into like Expression for making speeches and Deception for lying, of course)
Humans are rated 1 to 5, where a 5 is the peak of human capability. Presence 5 is like AAA movie stars and great leaders.
Of course, if you add supernaturals to your game a starting chump vampire could have seven presence if they take Majesty as their power, and become a nearly irresistible magnet of attention.
Want to figure out a riddle? Mental + Finesse. That’s Dexterity.
Wait, wouldn’t it make sense to figure out a riddle with Intelligence? And for Dexterity to be Physical + Finesse?
Riddles are often lateral thinking or other cleverness, so they seem more finesse than power. But yes, I wrote “dexterity” when I meant “Wits”.
My prime example would be Donald Trump. Hideously looking and true evil while dumping strength, dexterity, constitution (unfortunately not enough), intelligence and wisdom, but he undeniably has at least an 18 in charisma.
Tbh I don’t really get why though. Clearly he’s good at getting people to listen, but… why?
Hitler was similar (except I’d say better looking) but listening to his speeches I at least get how he had crowds cheering. Trump could say things I agree with and I’d still not want to listen to him.
Charisma is essentially Social Skills.
Social Skills definitely help you get laid, but also convince a shopkeeper to give you a discount, persuade a guard to look the other way, etc.
Not really. It’s more broad and includes it’s original meaning of divine grace or presence. Why would sorcerer’s spellcasting ability be charisma? It’s broader than social charisma since sorcerer’s cast with their innate abilities.
Int is knowing what you’re talking about
Wis is knowing when to talk
Cha is when people listen to you
What was the old saying?
Intelligence is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, wisdom Is knowing not to bake it into a cake.
wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad
charisma is selling salsa
Hah! Good one!
I have never seen Intelligence contrasted with Wisdom in a way that felt fitting. Does an intelligent person not know when not to speak?
Wisdom is such a weird attribute in ttrpgs, it is often overloaded with the concept of perception. But at the same time I don’t necessarily think it should be split to it’s own thing, more attributes aren’t necessarily better.
I think fallout’s S.P.E.C.I.A.L works quite well.
Wisdom isn’t a thing by itself, it’s split between perception, charisma, and intelligence, for the most part.
Intelligence is knowing tomatoes are a fruit
Wisdom is knowing never to add it to a fruit salad
Charisma is being able to sell a tomato-based fruit salad. That’s how we got salsa.
The words in the pictures have some diabolical keming
jpegging a pdf will do that for you
I hate it when I be jpegging my pdf in hospital then her doc walks in on us
If 10 is average my stats are way too low.
10 is average for an adventuring hero. Not necessarily for most “civilians” if you want to call them that.
Edit: I stand corrected. Must have confused it with some other system or an older edition.
Incorrect. Commoner is all 10s
i like how according to this everyone just has a big stick stowed away somehere
edit: wait now that i looked again, those are the exact stats for a fist in pf2e if you were level 0 and trained in unarmed attacks
assuming dnd fists work similarly, why didn’t they just put in a fist instead of a club?
Because DnD fists do 1 + STR damage, no dice at all.
oh i did not know that. thx
I was like “do I?” And looked around my room for the first thing I could use as an improvised club and my eyes landed on a sex toy.
