Listen Up all you BG Players.. I believe that charisma is entirely useless because when you get out of that irenicus place (that u start of at in the beginning) go straight to the tent that has Aeries quest, and when you finish that quest u get a ring from a body that goves you max charisma.......... if there is a flaw to my theory please tell me

<font color = lightgreen>The only flaw in your theory is that charisma is useless. True, you may find an item that will help with your charisma very early in the game, but if you search you will find some posts that show numerically how charisma helps when you are visiting merchants. :D </font>

You can save upto 25% off your goods with a charisma of 20 (max charisma for affecting prices) so I wouldn't say it was useless.

My flaw is that you are taking up a valuable ring slot. If for example you are a kensai, you'll want to use a ring of Gaxx and a ring of protection +3. No room for the ring of human influence, and fumbling around with rings everytime you want to talk to someone or buy something gets quite annoying, so set the charisma high enough to start with and you'll be able to have positive NPC reactions, cheaper goods and use both ring slots to improve your AC/give you further special abilities.

if im soloing generally i do sacrifice my charisma for other stats and just use that ring. whats nice is you only really need it early in you solo carreer if thats what you are doing cause it doesnt take long for you to end up drowning in cash solo so you dont really need it then

plus the role playing factor. I have seldom seen a human with a charisma that would equall 3 in D&D (one time I did and it wasn't that nice).
And if you are a mighty barbarian tribe-leader, or an archmage whose name strikes fear in the hearts of men, you aren't very likley to walk around in a red overall, a green hat and with unbrushed teeths.

There are also some charisma related turns and different quests.
SPOILER
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If your Charisma is too low Desharik won't send you to Spellhold (If it weren't fo Yoshimo or MInsc interfering - if you have them at hand)
for example.
The Romance Dialogs after having some fun with Phaere can be screwed easier with low Charisma and as it affects reputation some of your quests (Harper) can very much depend on it.