[Cerek]

Charisma is not just a measure of a physical attractiveness. It is a combination of physical appearance, persuasiveness and Personal magnetism.

The 1st Edition DMG lists a few examples of historic figures that were considered very charismatic despite a lack of physical beauty. The examples listed are Julies Ceaser, Napolean Bonaparte and Adolf Hitler.

In fact, this was one of the MAIN arguments that "anti-D&D" groups used to use against the game - because they claimed the game was lauding Adolf Hitler as someone to be admired and respected. The truth is that Hitler was "admired and respected" by the people of Germany before WWII. That is how this dumpy little sawed-off tyrant became the leader of a nation - because of his persuasiveness and personal magnatism, NOT his physical beauty.

A dwarf with 25 charisma would most likely be a battle-scarred hero of epic proportions. Breunor Battlehammer (from IWD trilogy) comes fairly close. His clan follows him faithfully and without question.

As mentioned before, a half-orc could very well favor the non-orc parent and have only mild traces of their orcish ancestry visible.

So it isn't as farfetched as it sounds.

In fact, one of the members of my PnP group had a high level fighter with a 25 Charisma. I thought for a looong time that his character was a paladin because he was also Lawful Good, but the player had just concentrated on getting his Charisma as high as possible. His physical attractiveness wasn't nearly as important as his legendary battle skills and tactics - and he had a HUGE keep full of henchmen that would serve him loyally and faithfully - even in the face of certain death.