I have a player who just rolled up a character with a base 6 charisma. He is wanting to play either an orc or a duergar, which would drop his charisma to 4 or 2 respectively. How do you roleplay a 2-4 charisma character? I get 6-8 pretty well. Unpleasant, rude, always speaks his mind even if it offends, violates social norms, has a grating personality or behaviors, but a 2?
First instinct is to say, thank the gods you haven't already started playing. I recommend a re-roll. But I'll say there's also the pressure on you the DM to be able to say no, just don't play that way. Don't be an orc or something that would make charisma a -3 or worse. "Cool concept" & other arguments be damned, a 2-4 charisma would be a beyond miserable creature to play. No party wants to play with a creature that's basically a crude hunchbacked troglodyte with little will to do anything. Just to keep certain features in mind, I'm gonna toss up this part of the definition too:
Charisma measures a character's personality, personal magnetism, ability to lead, and appearance... A character with a Charisma score of 0 is not able to exert himself in any way and is unconscious.
That said, it's possible if you reaallly trust the player. Reserve the right to write the character out should anything go awry. But it's tons more reasonable for the "concept" to not be done in the first place. G'luck!
With a Charisma of 4...think Gollum without any of his redeeming qualities. A foul, loathsome character that maybe has some kind of physical deformation or even terrible facial scarring of some kind. That would be my recommendation. Also, I personally would not say to reroll... if the player is happy with it... let him/her do whatever they want!
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A boar has a charisma of 4. That's your guy. If he's an Orc, he even has the tusks to match :D
Common dog
Blue whale
Badger
Fox
Skunk
Electric eel
I felt like the last one needed a highlight. This guy is going to have less force of personality than that thing.
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Drawing from the bestiary again, 2 charisma could be something like an alligator, a viper, a common lizard, a shark or a stingray. This is firmly the domain of reptile/fish charisma. (also squid)
Lots of options available.
Being angry all the time, threatening everyone around them, scratches themselves in public, kicks doors open leaving cracks and dents in them, and generally being obnoxious.
For a CHA 2, quite possibly all of the above.
Spending time studying some real-life CHA 2 people could help get you into character. This is the internet, there's plenty to choose from ;)
Perhaps he tends to smell horrible (maybe not since that would effect possible fighting gameplay and tracking), just looks gross and sticky.
Maybe he likes to jump out at people in the most inappropriate times or at times when he's already be noticed.
Could be he has a different form of dyslexia where he does the opposite of what he sees normal people doing outside of combat (where his instincts kick in). Example: Allies kneel before a king respectfully, he might jump up and down waving. Allies encircle someone they believe to be a treacherous thief, he would back away standing on his tip toes to see what's going on. Just an idea of course, most people, including DMs and allies would probably not like this behavior.
Another mental quirk that could work is smashing something fragile reactively. Handed a glass of wine? Immediately throws it to the floor, shattering it in pieces.
Maybe he has turrets. Fitting 2 or more swear words into each sentence. Can be censored for those that don't like to hear it of course.
This isn't to say that the charismatically challenged are unintelligent or have mental problems, its just a suggestion on quirks that would back those lacking in charisma through doing things that people in general might find odd or irritating at first.
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Ok... very, very first thing is to take that thought of "low charisma = ugly" and burn it from your mind with the heat and fury of a thousand suns. Charisma is a mental stat; it is entirely contained within your brain, soul, heart, and absolutely no part of it exists in your skin, hair, or eyes.
Except that a person with low charisma would be prone to things such as low self-esteem, inferiority complex, and other such things, therefor it would not be hard for a person with a low charisma to fall out of routines such as daily grooming and exercise, or to fall into bad diets comprising mainly of sweets, which leads to them being "ugly" because they don't try. It isn't a mandatory feature, but it does have a slight potential for that to happen. But this probably should be left at that, so not to derail the thread.
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First instinct is to say, thank the gods you haven't already started playing. I recommend a re-roll. But I'll say there's also the pressure on you the DM to be able to say no, just don't play that way. Don't be an orc or something that would make charisma a -3 or worse. "Cool concept" & other arguments be damned, a 2-4 charisma would be a beyond miserable creature to play. No party wants to play with a creature that's basically a crude hunchbacked troglodyte with little will to do anything. Just to keep certain features in mind, I'm gonna toss up this part of the definition too:
Charisma measures a character's personality, personal magnetism, ability to lead, and appearance... A character with a Charisma score of 0 is not able to exert himself in any way and is unconscious.That said, it's possible if you reaallly trust the player. Reserve the right to write the character out should anything go awry. But it's tons more reasonable for the "concept" to not be done in the first place. G'luck!
No! Keep that score. Do you know how rare a '2' is? Do you have any idea of the roleplaying potential. Embrace that '2', a two charisma is the invisible guy at the bus stop. The one that no one wants to sit next to or talk to. He's the guy that girls don't even pretend to lie to. They simply do not respond when he speaks. He's 'Mr Cellophane' people will walk right by without ever acknowledging he exists.
Embrace that rage against it. Force your horrible, bland, unpleasant self on others.
Or he could just be completely unassuming. Lacks ability to motivate people in any way. Unkempt and oblivious to social perspectives.
I support this option as a way to play without being disruptive to the game. A confrontational rude Orc that is pissing off every NPC gets old fast. A bland man-boar with no sense of self, you get less spotlight and the high charisma character gets more... Sounds perfect.
While the 4 charisma is barely within human range the 2 is subhuman. A score this low should not be allowed in a player character. Keep in mind that if his charisma drops 2 points he basically goes into a coma. Being that charisma is a mental stat not a physical being ugly is not going to cut it. A character with this low of a charisma is not going to be able to interact with any living thing in any meaningful way.
He will be unable to recognize that other creatures are alive. He will tend to view them as object to be used for his own purposes without regards to their needs and wants. If he is Hungry he may end up attacking other people as food. He will take anything he wants from anyone who is weaker than he is. Even most animals have more empathy and feeling than this character.
Unless you want to role-play a cannibalistic rapist who does not see other creatures as being real consider changing the concept. This character will not be able to cooperate with the party because to them they are just objects.
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HODOR
I have a friend who specializes in these kinds of characters. His lowest cha was a tengu alchemist. This was his most memorable character because he played him creepy as possible.
He'd give npcs the Stanley Kubrick stare, but he'd use one side of his face like a bird would. He'd make quick head movements like a bird. He'd talk in bad videogame quest dialog ie "tell me more about x" " I'm finished talking about x". Oh, and he'd just eat whomever he killed.
It's surprising fun moments of roleplaying like that make it all worth it.
So many ways to roleplay a 2 cha character, but that will be up to the player. Just remember Cha is not just about look and personality. Also how well you are being viewed by the deities and The Elder Ones. Mostly he will be very unlucky, make him roll for luck once in a while. With Cha this low, it's natural that no one will ever do you any favour even if you do something good for them. He will have bad days everyday in town as will be picked on all the time. In the wild, birds will poo on him very often. And he will be swamped by flies everyday no matter what he does. In cold places, animals will just run away the moment they sees him. In desert, there will be no rain wherever he goes. He will get repelled if he tries to enter any church or shrine. And not even druids would be happy to have him step foot in the forest. I think that will do.
Maybe he has turrets. Fitting 2 or more swear words into each sentence. Can be censored for those that don't like to hear it of course.
No. Tourette's is not coprolalia. Only 10% of people with Tourette's have swearing tics, and it's a shame to those 90% without coprolalia to perpetuate the myth that all people with Tourette's swear all the time. Hell, it's a shame to those 10% with coprolalia, because there is more to it than just that. Involuntary movements. Involuntary sounds. Single words. Complete sentences that are grammatically correct but makes no sense context-wise.
If we say that this character will have coprolalia, yes, he will—very forcibly and against his own will—throw around swears all the time. Not just in the middle of sentences. Also when he's sitting around, doing nothing or reading a book. Maybe one sentence is dotted with f*** and s***, and the next one is interrupted by his Tourette's thinking the entire world needs to know that the blue dog outside likes cupcakes. Meanwhile, the occasional drumming motion of his foot on the floor is something that he's not in control of... And no, there is no blue dog.If you want him to swear a lot, just have him swear a lot. Don't throw Tourette's in there without actually throwing Tourette's in there.
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I played a Dwarf Druid with a 5 charisma once. The guy had been horribly burned in a fire that killed all of his childhood friends. The other dwarves blamed the character and exiled him to the surface. He was taken in by an old druid who found him shortly after exile. 12 years later as the druid is dying of old age he tells the character that he set the fire that killed the characters friends and ruined his life because he had a vision. So my character was a self loathing paranoid who was badly scarred. The part that made it work was when we got to a level where we knew someone to cast Regenerate. About 2/3 of the way through the campaign he got his appearance restored and was made handsome again by magic. The character started freaking out because people would approach him to talk and he wasn't used to it. He didn't stop acting paranoid and he felt even guiltier than before. Charisma =/= Appearance
I think with Cha 2 would be unable to function in any society.
Absolutely correct. To put a finer point on it, there is no rational way that a 2-Charisma character could be part of an adventuring party. It doesn't make sense.
To RP correctly you would have to be so obtuse, rude, objectionable, irrational that no one could possibly stand to be around you more than was absolutely necessary.
The only thing we can definitely say about a character with a 2 charisma is that he is by default sub-humanly poor at influencing people -- he only beats golems and oozes at that, as best I can recall. Why he is so poor at it is his decision to make.
My only suggestion is to laugh hysterically if he says that he wants to be the party "face" -- along that path I can see pure comedy.
The only thing we can definitely say about a character with a 2 charisma is that he is by default sub-humanly poor at influencing people -- he only beats golems and oozes at that, as best I can recall. Why he is so poor at it is his decision to make.
My only suggestion is to laugh hysterically if he says that he wants to be the party "face" -- along that path I can see pure comedy.
Hey, Discworld had some pretty charismatic golems :)
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I definitely would not give a Discworld golem the stats of a Pathfinder Golem -- the "Int --" is even more wrong than the "Cha 1".
This reminds me of some NPCs I created who were barbarians with the pre-errata Wild Rager archetype. They all dumped charisma because the save DC to regain control when they got confused was based on charisma. Their "leader" had a charisma score of 8.
I don't trust most of my players to play a cha 2 character and I forbid it on the grounds that no cha 2 character would ever have the force of will and confidence to get recruited into a PC party.
A cha 4- character could for example be:
Debilitatingly shy.
Hopelessly rude.
Unmotivated.
Paranoid.
Annoyingly confrontational.
Unreasonable.
Stammer constantly.
Easily distracted.
Self obsessed.
Debilitatingly compassionate.
Savagely lovesick (brain in pants).
I think with Cha 2 would be unable to function in any society.Absolutely correct. To put a finer point on it, there is no rational way that a 2-Charisma character could be part of an adventuring party. It doesn't make sense.
To RP correctly you would have to be so obtuse, rude, objectionable, irrational that no one could possibly stand to be around you more than was absolutely necessary.
Not functioning in society seem like a perfectly reason to be adventuering.
I dont tell my players how to play there stats but most Roleplayers i know( my self included) will have a harder time playing a int, wis or cha 22 character than a cha 2-4 guy. Unless he invest heavyly in social skills he will be bad in those situations.Pehaps he is paired up with one of the other PCs who is doing most of the talking.
Make it a feature of the story, and get some solid roleplay out of it.