Comments on: Addressing Your Weaknesses (Part 2)

By: Ameron

Ameron — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:22:14 +0000

@Sorain I've always felt that a PC's reputation is tied directly to his Charisma. If you're interested, we ran a three-part serious on reputation a while back. It covers some of the same great points you mentioned.

By: Sorain

Sorain — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 19:57:49 +0000

@ K’van Zine
Nice, a really good angle on it. I imagine a similar idea for lower wisdom could work. If you were raised to belive absolutely in a specific way for things to work, like in a cult, then even after some experience of the outside world, your instinctive thought pattern would be the one you were raised with. (‘Lieing is bad, so people useually dont’ for example) of course, by epic teir (when the teir baised +1 to all stats leaves you with 10) you have simply been through to much to think that way anymore. Even at Paragon (+1) the ingraned habits are yealding to the realitys of the world(s).

A thought on Charisma: one of the ways I thought of Charisma was as a measure of how much impact you have on people. so… Charisma 8 person does not stick out in peoples memorys as well, their ideas tend to get co opted by others as their own (if effective) for example. The upside to that is they dont make serius bad impressions either. (Though this might cause trouble for the next half elf bard to come through the town, since they asscociate your race and class rather then you with the problem.) By contrast, High Charisma people cant help but garner attention, and cause a strong impression on people werever they go. Everyone will remember you for saving them, or having that great idea to save their crops. However, good luck sneaking into and out of town without pulling out some ‘verbal gymnastics’ and since you cause a strong first impression…
Fortunately, high Charisma people have the social stregnth to turn this around, so while the city states king might initally want to burn you to death when he finds you in his doughters chambers, you at least have the ability to (with some good explanations) explain about the assassin who ducked into the room and jumped out the window. (Hope some of your friends can supply some physical evidence on this)

By: Ameron

Ameron — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 17:13:51 +0000

@Sorain
Excellent examples.

@K’van Zine
It sounds like you had a lot of fun role-playing a PC with a low attribute (in this case Int). As I mentioned in the first article, 4e pretty much eliminates scores lower than 8 for PCs. And although 8 is low it’s not low enough to cripple your PC. By creating an detailed background for your PC you’ve incorporated his low score into an interesting character quark. This is exactly the kind of creativity I’m trying to encourage when you end up with an 8 in any ability score.

By: K'van Zine

K'van Zine — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 16:58:59 +0000

While I understand how low Int and Wis can be seen in those ways leaving out a possible background reason as to why is a bit disappointing honestly. You see my original character K’van, was a Dragonborn Paladin, who would have amazing Cha, and moderate Wis had just Bahumut awful Int. How did I commenstate for such? It was a simple backstory fix, he is not stupid in any capacity, as that would take away from him as a PC Paladin, but instead simply ignorant to the world an its processes. He was raised among Paladins who sheltered themselves in secluded mountains, so his knowledge of the world was simply what he could find in the library. So when we come across things like Warforged or even cake (Though it was a lie) for that matter he was confused, such things he believed could not simpy exist. But they did, and thus his own ignorance due to his childhood and raising. Background fixes are more important then just accepting it and going along with your low scores. Becuse unles you’re a Barb roleplaying as an idiot or just ignorant person is not really that fun. Unless that is what you’re good at.

By: Sorain

Sorain — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 02:45:24 +0000

one of the fun ways of portraying low wisdom charicters (espeically with high int or knowladge skills) is that they may notice or know everything, and cant pick out whats important

“Oh, thats what the trip wire was for! I thought it odd to have a spring mounted scythe without a trigger.”

*after a not apparent villan has accidently let slip he knows the undead encampment is in a iron mine, proving he is in on the events*
“I wonder what that will do to the market on iron in the region…”

By: Ameron

Ameron — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 17:38:03 +0000

@Scott Rehm
Wow. You’ve certainly given this a lot of thought. I like the additional examples you’ve provided. I found that of the 6 ability scores, Charisma was the one I struggled with the most. Your comments have added a lot more for players to consider if they have a low Charisma. Thank you.

By: Ravenous Role Playing » Blog Archive » Friday Five: 2010-01-15

Ravenous Role Playing » Blog Archive » Friday Five: 2010-01-15 — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 00:25:54 +0000

[...] Addressing Your Weaknesses (Part 2) I must have missed Part 1 of this post somewhere along the way, but I love what Ameron has to say about playing characters with low mental stats. It’s a great post, and if you have a character with these token weaknesses, then you may find some great role playing opportunities in his words. var addthis_pub = ''; var addthis_language = 'en';var addthis_options = 'email, favorites, digg, delicious, myspace, google, facebook, reddit, live, more'; [...]

By: Addressing Your Weaknesses (Part 1) — Dungeon's Master

Addressing Your Weaknesses (Part 1) — Dungeon's Master — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 17:14:45 +0000

[...] week we’ll follow-up with Addressing Your Weaknesses (Part 2) when we’ll look at how to explain and overcome your PC’s low Intelligence, Wisdom and [...]

By: Scott Rehm

Scott Rehm — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 16:13:14 +0000

Very nice read, for the most part, but I think its a little too limited in its examination of charisma because it focussess primarily on self-confidence, which is just one aspect of charisma. At its core, charisma is about the character’s presence and ability to get others to listen to him. Lack of assertiveness is only one possible way to bring that across.

A character might lack social grace – coming across as rude, thoughtless, or cold. This works well with a low or average wisdom because they simply do not pick up on the feelings of others. Being brutally honest and overcritical are ways in which you can be very confident and still have a low charisma.

A character might not lack social grace, but might not be able to adjust his speech patterns to his audience. A high intelligence, low charisma character with an overly intellectual speech pattern works here. He is esoteric, difficult to understand, and possibly boring. People tend to tune him out or get lost listening to him.

A character might have an aura of distrust, one of those people whose every word sounds like a lie, even when it isn’t. You know, those oily people who smile a little too much and too broadly and have a sneering tone. Seems like a con-artist but really isn’t.

Similar to the character who lacks social grace, a character might have a speech impediment or other handicap that tends to put people off (unfairly). It is a shame, but people tend to make judgements on those with stammers, stutters, or the people who just can’t find the right words and struggle with communication.

One last recommendation I would make is to be careful when compensating for a low score. When compensating for a low charisma by speaking loudly and getting everyone’s attention, you may inadvertanly convey charisma to the other players because they will learn to listen to you when you speak and follow your good ideas. The key, when compensating, is to overcompensate. If you decide your character tries to be loud to compensate for no one ever listening, be louder than you have to be and be petulant about it. Demand that people listen to you even when they already are, just to put across the idea that, really, people shouldn’t be listening to you at all.
.-= Scott Rehm´s last blog ..DM_Simonides: Hey folks, please don’t give ChattyDM (or anyone else) grief over being on The Power Source on my behalf. But thanks for the support. =-.