I rolled up a character last night with my group for our new campaign (we're going to be doing the Heroes of Baldur's Gate book... so excited!) and while some of my stats were brilliant, one was godawful. The characters are supposed to be overpowered so the way we did it was to roll 3d6 then add 3; we could assign the stats wherever we wanted and for the most part this went well. With my high elven racial and a very lucky roll I have started with 22 dex... but I got 3 1's for one stat too so even with my plus 3, that leaves me with 6 in something. I'm looking at playing a Bladesinger so Charisma isn't really a focal stat so I thought, fine that's where I'll put it.
Now i'm kinda stuck as we're supposed to be a group of good heroic characters so being a dick (my usual fallback for low charisma characters) simply won't work... plus it'll annoy the other players too much. I've had a few ideas but I could really do with some pointers from someone who has played a character like this before. I kinda considered playing him as autistic (based on my actual autistic sister so i'd be tasteful and not insulting, don't worry) but I'm not sure I could pull it off without it seeming condescending. I ruled out the hideous or smelly kind of low charisma because he's a High Elf; as a half orc that could work but the most ordinary high elf is supposed to be beautiful compared to other races so that wouldn't fly. I'm kinda toying with the idea of being perfectly normal... except for a voice like Gilbert Gottfried or Nappa from DBZA but could see that getting very old very quickly too.
Any help you guys may be able to offer would be really appreciated!
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Geek and Sundry wrote an article about this a while back.
Low charisma characters may be extremely intelligent and extremely aware of the world around them, but the challenge in playing a charmless character in a roleplaying game is that the temptation to have them simply withdraw from social interactions is high. That said, there are so many ways to play a character who lacks charisma because any element of their personality may be unlikable.
Take, for example, the extremely unlikable characters from Star Trek (of which there are many). They are intelligent and perceptive, but their social niceties need work. Seven of 9 is challenged to join the crew both because she is suspicious, a turned agent of the enemy, but more because she barks commands and doesn’t say please and thank you. Thinking back to the franchise as a whole, most characters who don’t observe humanity’s social niceties are colored pretty unlikable. As annoying as Neelix was, it could be argued he was more persuasive and more liked by the crew than Seven because he wasn’t rude.
Another example is The Spleen from Mystery Men: his weaponized flatulence makes him awkward in social situations.
The manifestation of a low charisma doesn’t just mean a character is unbelievable when deceiving or persuading, but is generally unlikable for a particular reason. If you manifest that low characteristic on a single trait, whether that’s being extremely vulgar and crude, or having a stench that follows wherever you go; it doesn’t mean you can’t still engage in social interaction, and your involvement might lead to more interesting opportunities.
but depending on the race you choose you easily play off being the "comedic Straight man" like Teller from "Penn & Teller" or Stephen Fry (RDJ's Sherlock Homes movies, He's Sherlock's brother. He was also on the show Bones as Booth's Psychiatrist. He's also in the Movie V for Vendetta. In the 80's he and Hugh Laurie starred in a British comedy series. )
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Here's what the Forgotten Realms fandom site says about the High Elves general mental state as viewed from outsiders.
Psychology Due to their longevity and strong ties to the otherworldly magic of the Feywild, high elves had a detached view of the world outside of their sphere. High elves as a whole had difficulty believing that the events occurring over mere "years" affected them in any major way, with the exception of major tragedies such as the Time of Troubles or the Spellplague. High elves instead looked at things from a much longer perspective, unconcerned with anything that had consequences that stretched over anything less than decades. However, while some high elves were content to seclude themselves, others stalked the lands as champions battling the evil just outside of a high elven city's magical wards.
This detached view of the world could make high elves seem distant and intimidating, not to mention haughty and arrogant. Furthermore, the powerful fey nature of high elves might frighten less magically talented races. High elves, however, took friendships quickly to heart and could react with rage when their compatriots are threatened. Combined with their general intelligence, bravery, and arcane power, this loyalty to friends made them formidable allies and dangerous enemies.
Though perhaps haughty in their view of it, many felt a need to explore the world around them and were curious, particularly in their youth. However, the tragedies of the Time of Troubles and Spellplague checked this adventurism to an extent and many high elves retreated into their strongholds where magical wards held off the evils around them. Overall, moon elves had a stronger impulse for exploration and discovery than sun elves or star elves, both of whom were more cautious in their dealings with the outside world.
" The Shadow Monarch is the ultimate expression of a "One Man Army" even in a team Setting his minions would act as meat shields for the allies while going on the Offensive, maybe in future version I will develop tactics and formations for the minions so the minions and party won't easily be decimated by random monsters or even the character's current enemies."
Think about an air head, or someone who comes across as one. Flighty and having trouble concentrating. Or a person who doesn't take things seriously. Think about the people you know that you wouldn't follow down the hall, let alone into danger. Low Charisma des to necessarily mean "unpleasant". From the SRD "Charisma measures your ability to interact effectively with others. It includes such factors as confidence and eloquence, and it can represent a charming or commanding personality." Lots of possibilities there for low Charisma. Maybe your character just lacks confidence.
I have played a lot of characters that probably should have had a 6 in Charisma due to personality traits.
The flat affect (doesn't show any/much emotion ever) character. No matter the situation he's got a straight face, doesn't seem to quite fit the mood of the situation, and makes most interactions uncomfortable. He's the kind of guy that always makes you wonder if you've done something to make them mad, wonder if they care at all, or simply wonder if there's a real person behind those flat and emotionless eyes.
The awkward hero who make a joke whenever he's stressed. This guy cracked jokes and fired off one liners at Strahd while he was level 3...almost TPK'd the entire group. He responds to stressful situations and dire circumstances by making light of the situation. Not in the "look at the bright side" way, more in the "did he really just say that!? We're all going to die now..." kind of way.
Then there was the "I'm smarter than the rest of the world", pompus, know-it-all, socially inept wizard. This guy would talk, and talk, and talk, and talk, and...you get the idea. Historical facts about locations, anatomy of creatures, theorems about spells, theological monologues about the Pantheons, and so on. Then, to top it all off, I gave him an effeminate voice, so it felt like a teenager was doing all this talking. (The DM wanted to allow me to use all the knowledge I had from my experience as a DM to describe things in game, she thought it would be great as a character flaw.)
Option 1: As a high elf wizard with 22 Dexterity, you are vastly superior to practically everyone and consider yourself even more so.
Option 2: As a high elf wizard, you have no patience for anything you consider irrelevant or useless, like politeness.
Continuing with this theme, the wizard can be aware that he is condescending and doesn't possess the social skills to excel in social situations and therefore avoids lenghty ones by being as brief as possible. The way that he wins friendships is by being absolutely loyal to those he considers his friends and he worries more about shared experiences for someone earning his respect and becoming friends with them. While often being very uncouth, he is very genuine and does give honest praise when it has been earned in his eyes.
Lastly, he tries to use gestures that others who are more familiar with each other use that are inappropriate for him to use yet. A perfect example would be the "good job" butt slap (see Friends "The one with the ultimate fighting champion" season 3 episode 24). He's smart enough to eventually stop but goes on long enough to be awkward for many people.
Try really really really REALLY hard to be the most charming hero of all. Be absolutely desperately thirsty for admiration and constantly make dad joke James Bond witticisms. Talk over everyone, come up with a catchphrase and run that sucker into the ground. Start with Ricky Gervais on the British version of the Office and don't stop until they threaten to kick you out of the gaming group.
I really like the suggestions so far that lean toward having a character who thinks they're incredibly respected and well-liked, but is mostly just tolerated by the other people around him. Maybe try to play the character as a "That Guy"... always trying to correct others, forcing their incredibly bad ideas into situations, and rejecting any plan that doesn't include them as the central star. I mean... don't go too far into it and actually become a nuisance to the other players, but just do things like insist on being the first person to speak in social situations, rather than letting your low Charisma keep you silent during anything other than combat.
Alternatively... just act like Link from the old Legend of Zelda cartoon. It will really pay off if you manage to actually meet a Princess and piss her off.
I have a character in a stars without numbers game that rolled bad ass soldier stats but abyssmal charisma. He's kind of a doofy looking guy that is kinda monotone and tends to overexplain things even going into detail with obvious stuff. He'll drone on and on and is kind of boring to talk to and is constantly interrupted by the other pcs. All in good humor. Is hilarious as he also has absurd notice and shoot skill and is awkwardly doing rediculously badass shit. All which lead to a great saying by another player to define the character.
He's been described as being simultaneously, both the most and least cool person in the room.
Not sure if that helps any. But being low in charisma doesn't need to mean being a jerk. He's most certainly not. Tries to help others and connect to them, he just doesn't know how, and instead just comes off as sort of awkward and a bit weird.
I guess this could be necro-ing a bit... Anyway, as a high elf, this PC could be allergic to the non-Fey world. So he always breathes through a mask covering the lower part of his face when away from the Feywild. He won't touch food or drink prepared by others, won't shake hands or accept physical contact of any kind with non-Fey creatures. Play this character as considering all non-Fey as being dirty.
My next character is going to be a human monk with very high wisdom but total dump in intelligence and charisma. I was thinking of making him unlikable by constantly quoting made-up, corny proverbs.
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Hey guys,
I rolled up a character last night with my group for our new campaign (we're going to be doing the Heroes of Baldur's Gate book... so excited!) and while some of my stats were brilliant, one was godawful. The characters are supposed to be overpowered so the way we did it was to roll 3d6 then add 3; we could assign the stats wherever we wanted and for the most part this went well. With my high elven racial and a very lucky roll I have started with 22 dex... but I got 3 1's for one stat too so even with my plus 3, that leaves me with 6 in something. I'm looking at playing a Bladesinger so Charisma isn't really a focal stat so I thought, fine that's where I'll put it.
Now i'm kinda stuck as we're supposed to be a group of good heroic characters so being a dick (my usual fallback for low charisma characters) simply won't work... plus it'll annoy the other players too much. I've had a few ideas but I could really do with some pointers from someone who has played a character like this before. I kinda considered playing him as autistic (based on my actual autistic sister so i'd be tasteful and not insulting, don't worry) but I'm not sure I could pull it off without it seeming condescending. I ruled out the hideous or smelly kind of low charisma because he's a High Elf; as a half orc that could work but the most ordinary high elf is supposed to be beautiful compared to other races so that wouldn't fly. I'm kinda toying with the idea of being perfectly normal... except for a voice like Gilbert Gottfried or Nappa from DBZA but could see that getting very old very quickly too.
Any help you guys may be able to offer would be really appreciated!
Plays Leo weekly on Chaotic Fabulous. Watch us weekly on twitch chaoticfabulous.com
You can be awkward. “Forget” everything that you know about etiquette.
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Geek and Sundry wrote an article about this a while back.
but depending on the race you choose you easily play off being the "comedic Straight man" like Teller from "Penn & Teller" or Stephen Fry (RDJ's Sherlock Homes movies, He's Sherlock's brother. He was also on the show Bones as Booth's Psychiatrist. He's also in the Movie V for Vendetta. In the 80's he and Hugh Laurie starred in a British comedy series. )
----
Here's what the Forgotten Realms fandom site says about the High Elves general mental state as viewed from outsiders.
Think about an air head, or someone who comes across as one. Flighty and having trouble concentrating. Or a person who doesn't take things seriously. Think about the people you know that you wouldn't follow down the hall, let alone into danger. Low Charisma des to necessarily mean "unpleasant". From the SRD "Charisma measures your ability to interact effectively with others. It includes such factors as confidence and eloquence, and it can represent a charming or commanding personality." Lots of possibilities there for low Charisma. Maybe your character just lacks confidence.
Option 1: As a high elf wizard with 22 Dexterity, you are vastly superior to practically everyone and consider yourself even more so.
Option 2: As a high elf wizard, you have no patience for anything you consider irrelevant or useless, like politeness.
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
Tooltips (Help/aid)
I have played a lot of characters that probably should have had a 6 in Charisma due to personality traits.
The flat affect (doesn't show any/much emotion ever) character. No matter the situation he's got a straight face, doesn't seem to quite fit the mood of the situation, and makes most interactions uncomfortable. He's the kind of guy that always makes you wonder if you've done something to make them mad, wonder if they care at all, or simply wonder if there's a real person behind those flat and emotionless eyes.
The awkward hero who make a joke whenever he's stressed. This guy cracked jokes and fired off one liners at Strahd while he was level 3...almost TPK'd the entire group. He responds to stressful situations and dire circumstances by making light of the situation. Not in the "look at the bright side" way, more in the "did he really just say that!? We're all going to die now..." kind of way.
Then there was the "I'm smarter than the rest of the world", pompus, know-it-all, socially inept wizard. This guy would talk, and talk, and talk, and talk, and...you get the idea. Historical facts about locations, anatomy of creatures, theorems about spells, theological monologues about the Pantheons, and so on. Then, to top it all off, I gave him an effeminate voice, so it felt like a teenager was doing all this talking. (The DM wanted to allow me to use all the knowledge I had from my experience as a DM to describe things in game, she thought it would be great as a character flaw.)
Continuing with this theme, the wizard can be aware that he is condescending and doesn't possess the social skills to excel in social situations and therefore avoids lenghty ones by being as brief as possible. The way that he wins friendships is by being absolutely loyal to those he considers his friends and he worries more about shared experiences for someone earning his respect and becoming friends with them. While often being very uncouth, he is very genuine and does give honest praise when it has been earned in his eyes.
Lastly, he tries to use gestures that others who are more familiar with each other use that are inappropriate for him to use yet. A perfect example would be the "good job" butt slap (see Friends "The one with the ultimate fighting champion" season 3 episode 24). He's smart enough to eventually stop but goes on long enough to be awkward for many people.
Charisma also covers centredness and self-confidence. A low Charisma character might always be looking at others for validation and confirmation.
Did I do good? Was that the right thing? Do you think <character> would approve?
I played mine with a family curse of irritable bowel syndrome. Add a fart app on a phone and there ya go.
Try really really really REALLY hard to be the most charming hero of all. Be absolutely desperately thirsty for admiration and constantly make dad joke James Bond witticisms. Talk over everyone, come up with a catchphrase and run that sucker into the ground. Start with Ricky Gervais on the British version of the Office and don't stop until they threaten to kick you out of the gaming group.
I really like the suggestions so far that lean toward having a character who thinks they're incredibly respected and well-liked, but is mostly just tolerated by the other people around him. Maybe try to play the character as a "That Guy"... always trying to correct others, forcing their incredibly bad ideas into situations, and rejecting any plan that doesn't include them as the central star. I mean... don't go too far into it and actually become a nuisance to the other players, but just do things like insist on being the first person to speak in social situations, rather than letting your low Charisma keep you silent during anything other than combat.
Alternatively... just act like Link from the old Legend of Zelda cartoon. It will really pay off if you manage to actually meet a Princess and piss her off.
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I have a character in a stars without numbers game that rolled bad ass soldier stats but abyssmal charisma. He's kind of a doofy looking guy that is kinda monotone and tends to overexplain things even going into detail with obvious stuff. He'll drone on and on and is kind of boring to talk to and is constantly interrupted by the other pcs. All in good humor. Is hilarious as he also has absurd notice and shoot skill and is awkwardly doing rediculously badass shit. All which lead to a great saying by another player to define the character.
He's been described as being simultaneously, both the most and least cool person in the room.
Not sure if that helps any. But being low in charisma doesn't need to mean being a jerk. He's most certainly not. Tries to help others and connect to them, he just doesn't know how, and instead just comes off as sort of awkward and a bit weird.
Have fun with it.
I guess this could be necro-ing a bit... Anyway, as a high elf, this PC could be allergic to the non-Fey world. So he always breathes through a mask covering the lower part of his face when away from the Feywild. He won't touch food or drink prepared by others, won't shake hands or accept physical contact of any kind with non-Fey creatures. Play this character as considering all non-Fey as being dirty.
@Welsh_Grifter , have you ever seen “The Other Guys” with Will Farrell and Mark Wahlberg?
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Quorian - half-elf watcher
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My next character is going to be a human monk with very high wisdom but total dump in intelligence and charisma. I was thinking of making him unlikable by constantly quoting made-up, corny proverbs.