Charisma
| General Information | |
|---|---|
| Parent Stat | Mind |
| Values | |
| Stat Min | -10 |
| Base Value | 0 |
Charisma represents a character's ability to influence others through personality, communication, confidence, presence, and social awareness. It governs feats of persuasion and personal influence, ranging from delivering a compelling speech to negotiating with a merchant, calming an angry crowd, or convincing a suspicious guard to allow the party to pass. A charismatic character may not always have the best argument, but they have an exceptional ability to make other people listen to it.
Charisma can affect the outcome of social and rhetorical goals whenever a character's interaction with other people matters. It may influence a character's ability to negotiate a better price, secure an agreement, charm someone into cooperating with the party's plans, inspire allies, deceive an opponent, or make a favorable impression upon strangers. Charisma is not necessarily beauty or friendliness. A character can be intimidating, commanding, entertaining, charming, diplomatic, or even unsettling and still possess considerable Charisma.
Charisma Checks
When performing a feat that relies upon persuasion, personal influence, communication, performance, or social interaction, the GM may ask for a Charisma Check. A basic Charisma modifier is zero, but charismatic characters such as Bards, Borgainaelfes, or a Borgainaelf Bard may have high Charisma modifiers even at low levels of Power.
A Charisma Check is performed by rolling a 20-sided die, to which the Charisma bonus is added, or the Charisma penalty subtracted. A total roll of 11 or higher indicates success. Extremely difficult tasks may require a higher roll, as determined by the GM. Critical successes occur when the required total is reached or exceeded on a natural 20. This may inspire the GM to sweeten the outcome of the check. Conversely, a natural 1 is an automatic failure, even if the addition of a bonus would otherwise exceed the required roll. This Critical Failure may inspire the GM to impose additional consequences upon the failed feat of Charisma.
Feats of Charisma are extremely varied and might include impressing a crowd with a song, negotiating lower tariffs at a city gate, convincing a merchant to accept a particular bargain, persuading a reluctant official to grant access, calming an angry person, inspiring allies before a dangerous undertaking, delivering a speech, telling a convincing lie, or intimidating someone into cooperation.
Charisma may also be useful when attempting to establish trust with a stranger, rallying a crowd behind a cause, distracting an opponent through conversation, or turning a hostile negotiation into a productive one. The GM should consider Charisma whenever the character's success depends upon getting another person to think, feel, or act differently.
Charisma Saving Throws
When something happens to a character that Charisma alone can mitigate, the GM may call for a Charisma Saving Throw. The player rolls a 20-sided die and adds their Charisma modifier to the roll. The resulting total indicates to the GM whether the character resists the effect or is subjected to the calamity requiring Charisma.
These kinds of attacks are uncommon but do occur, and often involve spells or powers that attempt to reshape the victim's personality, confidence, identity, or sense of self. Examples might include:
- Resisting being magically charmed.
- Resisting a supernatural attempt to inspire irrational devotion to another person or entity.
- Resisting magical intimidation or an overwhelming supernatural presence.
- Maintaining one's sense of identity when confronted by a powerful psychic or spiritual influence.
- Resisting an effect that attempts to make the character feel worthless, powerless, or insignificant.
- Maintaining the will to act when a supernatural effect attempts to overwhelm the character with fear or submission.
- Resisting magical compulsion that conflicts with the character's sense of self.
- Rejecting an unnatural influence attempting to turn the character against trusted companions.
- Maintaining confidence and composure when confronted by a supernatural entity attempting to dominate the character's personality.
A Charisma Saving Throw therefore represents more than simply being charming. It is a defense of the character's sense of self and their ability to assert their own personality when another force attempts to alter it. Where Memory can reveal that an experience is false and Intelligence can sometimes determine how an effect works, Charisma may be what allows the character to say, in effect, No. That is not who I am.
Loss of Charisma
A character's Charisma may be diminished by disease, curses, special creature attacks, magical effects, psychic assaults, or other conditions that interfere with personality, confidence, presence, or the ability to influence others. A reduction in Charisma results in a corresponding reduction of the character's Charisma modifier and may also cause the loss or suppression of powers that require a minimum Charisma modifier.
The effects may be temporary or permanent. A temporary reduction may disappear when the underlying condition has been overcome, while a permanent loss may alter how others respond to the character and make previously natural forms of social interaction considerably more difficult. Permanent losses of Charisma can be recovered over time by Powering Up and converting Power to Charisma in the Player's Workshop.
Related Stats
A character's Charisma may be diminished by disease, curses, special creature attacks, magical effects, psychic assaults, or other conditions that interfere with personality, confidence, presence, or the ability to influence others. A reduction in Charisma results in a corresponding reduction of the character's Charisma modifier and may also cause the loss or suppression of powers that require a minimum Charisma modifier.
The effects may be temporary or permanent. A temporary reduction may disappear when the underlying condition has been overcome, while a permanent loss may alter how others respond to the character and make previously natural forms of social interaction considerably more difficult. Permanent losses of Charisma can be recovered over time by Powering Up and converting Power to Charisma in the Player's Workshop.
| Copyright © 2021-2026 by Robyn Blaber and Will to Power Games. All rights reserved. Content on this website may not be reproduced without written permission of the copyright owner. |
