“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”.
I may be dating myself as an older weeb with this reference, but Osaka from Azumanga was not what you’d consider intelligent, but she got riddles instantly because she just thought weird.
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
If 10 is average my stats are way too low.
Eh, a ten will give you about a 50/50 roll if something is “easy,” and only about a 25% chance if something is “medium” difficulty. Sounds about right for me.
Am I gonna shut my damn mouth when I should? 75% of the time, no.
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 being able to describe why rain exists and why it is raining. Wisdom is understanding that you can do the above while not standing in a rainstorm
CHA is knowing what to say to get what you want.
A paladin uses CHA because they have to know exactly what to say to their deity to get the result they need. If they can’t rizz up their gods, they get no power.
Paladin doesn’t use CHA with their god, they use it to lure the common people TO their god. So they gets more powah.
A fun campaign i played was where the DM set up the scenario where I, a high level Paladin, gave up on my Diety and basically switched religions. That one was fun.
Yeah the original description sounds more like a warlock. Which, what’s the diff between a hexblade and a pally really
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.
Charisma is framing salsa as a tomato-based fruit salad
What about fruit salad served in a tomato?
But the little cherry tomatoes rock in fruit salad!
My Constitution is 0.
I was more a 00’s kid into consoles, so this was introduced to me via Fallout 3, then Dark Souls
I have never seen Intelligence contrasted with Wisdom in a way that felt fitting. Does an intelligent person not know when not to speak?
c/AuDHD
I feel like knowing when not to speak also overlaps with CHA.
Blurry lines indeed.
I attribute it like the line, “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, that they didn’t stop to think if they should.” Just because someome is brainy and knows a lot of specialized facts doesn’t mean they’ll always make wise decisions.
High intelligence low wisdom turns you into an unskippable cutscene of deep exposition.
You have not my family I take it. Lots of book learning, no ability to shut up
Vitality: Whatever it is that makes wild hogs unkillable.
Hey baby ;)
