Charisma

[Skunk]

Does anyone ever bother???

Since there's no combat advantage, I always reduce it as far as it will go. Some NPCs respond better to low charisma than to high - and when I want to use higher charisma, I either get another party member to do the talking or just pop on a ring of Charisma...

Wouldn't it have been better if Charisma was incorporated into fighting skills?
Say, if your level and charisma was higher than the opponent, he'd have to 'save' against morale failure with every successful hit? Right now, it's just a waste of ability points...

Anyone else got any ideas how it could have been made useful in a fight?

[Istaron]

Well, then I guess you doesn't care about intellegence or wisdom either, since none of them affect on battle.
You know, it is not only about making your character as strong as possible, it is about role-playing it too. The same reason why you shouldn't mix good and evil characters, why thieves can't be lawfull good, why you should tank with a wizard even though he is level 31 and have Absolute Immunity casted... ROLEPLAYING is the point of this game, it IS a RPG.

------------------
We call him Bobby Corwen

[Tancred]

You don't bother about charisma? No wonder ypur nickname is 'Skunk'
But seriously... it's all about image. Having a high Charisma can make a big difference in certain elements of the plot - furthering the rewards you can gain. Trust me on this.

Plus - who wants to play an ugly, smelly, insulting hero?

[JR Jansen]

Istaron, saying that intelligence and wisdom don't affect battle is wrong. They do, indirectly. If you have a spellcaster that is.

JR

Damned i lost cousin Jan's techno gloves

[Jerome]

Originally posted by Tancred: You don't bother about charisma? No wonder ypur nickname is 'Skunk' But seriously... it's all about image. Having a high Charisma can make a big difference in certain elements of the plot - furthering the rewards you can gain. Trust me on this. Plus - who wants to play an ugly, smelly, insulting hero?

Someone who takes roleplaying a half-orc barbarian very seriously.



------------------


Within the jungle of my deepest emotion,
With a coat resplendant in a golden sheen,
Swiftly hunting my tender love,
Stalks the regal, Feline Queen

[dulouz]

I bother with charisma. I didn't roll mine too high though at the beginning of the game. it was like 14 or 15, i forget. but now i have a charisma of 20. i'm a cleric, so i can't use the blade of roses although i forget if that adds to your charisma, or sets it to 18. it'd be bitchin to have a 23 in charisma :]

But anyway, you get significant discounts at stores based upon charisma. Robe of Vecna was like 9000 cheaper if my main character initiated the deal as opposed to someone with 15 or so charisma.

And aren't there combat bonuses such as who gets the first attacks or something? maybe not in BG2, but i thought thats how d&d worked.

Additionally, i don't know if it's related, but it seems like some low level mosters will not attack. their color doesn't turn yellow or anything, they just kind of wander around sometimes. again, i'm not sure this is related, or why it happens at all.

if i'm a child of a god, i think i would be charismatic.

dulouz.

[Bahamut]

I love charisma... it is abouyt enjoying yourself... for me, not only it helps on the buying stuff, but my own self-image and what I htink of myself coz I take RPGs very seriously

------------------


You guys heard Chiharumut, whattabout Ba[H]eartamut???

[Skunk]

1. Well lets face it - From the role playing point of view...
Just how much positive Charisma do you think that the son of the God of Murder is going to naturally cut with most folks? If you told me that your father had the surname Bhaal (which is about the Baldurs Gate equivilent of "Bin Laden") do you really think that my impression of you is going to be positive? So yeah, if your going to play the part - you WILL have low charisma.

2. High charisma does change charactor interaction - so either using ring of human influence or getting Keldorn or another charactor with high charisma to do the talking helps. Sometimes having a low charisma also helps - that's where my charactor steps in... And of course, if you really want high Charisma (lvl 25), then you use a spell of Friendship.

3. No significant discounts for charisma in the shops. You're confusing it with reputation (at rep=20 you get 50% discount). I bought the Robe of Vecna at an even bigger discount...

4. Charactors colour turning yellow. This is loss of morale - usually occurs when other members of his party are killed or he is seriously injured - Charisma has no effect on this...That was my point - wouldn't it be nice if it did...

[Luther]

Heh heh. Don't worry about it, it's only a game
Charisma is just how much influence you can have over other people. The child of Bhaal will probably have a very high charisma as they have the Godly aura of superiority about them. Plus, the intelligent son/daughter of murder probably wouldn't go around telling people who their father was anyway (can you say "witch-hunt"?).

JR Jansen: Wisdom and Intelligence also help budding young fighters out in that high levels of one or the other or both greatly aids your resistence to charm, hold and confusion-type spells. Minsc really annoys me sometimes in that his low wis and int make him very easy to charm or confuse (thus i give him a helm of charm protection, but he still gets stunned or confused easily).

And it's true, high charisma actually gets you different (ie:better) rewards on some quests. I can't think of any situation where low charisma is a good thing. But I play as a Paladin so I HAVE to have at least 17 charisma anyway.

When you are creating a character, make sure you get a decent roll, it might take a while, but then you'll be able to have plenty of high values in many attributes. On a completely legit (and VERY lucky) roll my Paladin got enough attribute points to deck himself out with 18/81 str, 18 dex, 18 cons, 11 int, 15 wis and 17 char. Now THAT's a solid character.

[Grojlach]

Originally posted by Skunk: Sometimes having a low charisma also helps

So if it does, could you give an example then of situations in which low charisma helps? I actually can't think of any to be quite honesy, and it wouldn't make much sense to me either if there are any... Examples, perhaps?

[This message has been edited by Grojlach (edited 09-24-2001).]