LogFAQs > #965788654

Bligh_with_no_T posted...

Can an ugly PC have high charisma

Yes. Charisma is more force of personality than appearance. The idea that Charisma relates to what you look like is more of a 1e D&D idea - it hasn't been true for a very long time.

Charisma as a stat is generally more a question of making people like you, fear you, believe you, or otherwise react to you in whatever way you want them to. It's the ability to control a conversation and get people to do what you want by words alone.

Sure, you can always say you're drop-dead gorgeous and that's part of why you're so charismatic, but you could also be a butt-ugly dude who's just really compelling in like a Charles Manson or Hitler kind of way.



Bligh_with_no_T posted...

I want to play an orc but not if I can't seduce any elven princesses

You could always "seduce" them the way most orcs do.



VampireCoyote posted...

ugh get that Tolkien shit outta here

our orcs have blue mohawks and fucking mini-bikes

Ehh, like five people in the entire world would even know what the fuck "orcs" are without Tolkien.

Almost every orc you've ever seen in any setting or work of fantasy is either a direct copy of Tolkien, a copy of one of the people copying him, a copy of a copy of a copy (etc), or is someone deliberately trying to make them different specifically to seem like they weren't copying Tolkien ("Hey, what if we made our orcs punk-rock morons who think painting something red makes it go faster?" "Hey, what if we made our orcs a metaphor for tribal cultures in conflict with more 'civilized' cultures?").

If you're playing D&D, which stole about 95% of its original ideas from Tolkien (and the other 5% from Jack Vance and Michael Moorcock), it's not necessarily a ridiculous point of view to have that the best version of most things is the one that is closest to Tolkien's original. Dragons should be greedy and hoard gold. Dwarves are grumpy, have beards, fight with axes, and write in runes. Hobbi- err, halflings are fat little gluttons who smoke and steal things. Orcs are straight up monsters. And so on.

It's also not a terrible thing to assume that certain races should be "Always Chaotic Evil", and mainly be there so that players have something to kill without feeling bad (sort of like how zombies and aliens have become the main FPS enemies of choice because shooting people is more morally questionable). So if someone thinks orcs should be tribal savages and borderline cannibals that have no redeeming qualities whatsoever and exist solely to be mook minions of the Big Bad, then that's fine.

Especially when so many people today everything needs to be a metaphor for real-world racism, so it's horrible that races in D&D have advantages and disadvantages at all - so nobody's allowed to be different while every PC is simultaneously a magical unique snowflake.

The entire point of having races at all is having different groups of people that fit different tropes. Elves are magical and lithe. Dwarves are squad and tough. Halflings are small and clever. And so on. A Dwarf Wizard probably should have a harder time using magic than an Elf. A Dwarf Rogue probably should have a harder time hiding and running than a Halfling.

If all you really want is for everyone to be exactly the same and just look different, why play races at all? Just play a game where the setting only has one race and everyone's a shapeshifter who can look like whatever the hell they want.