Troll bard

[Bjørn Røyrvik]

reasons:

In the current Mystara campaign two of the PCs are going for the Path of the Polymath that includes randomly determined race/class combos for three additional lives.
The other players thought this sounded like fun and decided to do the same for their supporting characters, and one ended up being a troll bard with crappy stats.

In an upcoming game one of the players will playing a troll bard with a Charisma of 1. I know all the reasons it can't/shouldn't work but I'm trying to think of possible options to make it work. An archetype that got rid of casting for something else would be perfect but I can't think of any. Alternatively something that allows spellcasting with a physical ability score.

I can always bash something out for the player but I'd appreciate knowing what I have to work with in the RAW or other ideas from people.

And just to head off some possible comments, 'do something else or just give him a good Charisma' isn't an option; this character will stay as he is with crappy Charisma and everything because everyone loves the idea and I haven't seen the player this excited for a D&D character in, well, ever.

[Cap. Darling]

Nothing. Best idea i Can come up with is evangalist cleric and spend some feats on extra performance so he actually get to perform.
Or if you are ok with home brew let him cast from Wisdom and take intimidating prowes and use str for bardic performances.

[Kobold Catgirl]

Homebrew. Consider one of the archetypes that focuses on "offensive performances" and let him use his Charisma penalty as though it's a bonus.

[Tangaroa]

The closest I can come is the "troll fury" - its a druid archetype that gets inspire courage (sort of), but only for one troll. He could always choose himself as the recipient.

Link

[kyrt-ryder]

Take perform:troll and spend a few hours reading various 4chan boards that interest you. You'll do great as a troll Bard.

[Elmar Thonsson]

1 charisma isn't bad. It's horrific—you're an oozing, hideous, shy mass of flesh barely resembling a humanoid.

That said, I've had a lot of fun building a Str 3 Inquisitor. So let's see what we can do...

1) You cannot trade away spellcasting. You will never get spells. But you can still use wands/scrolls. Have fun with that.

2) You start out with no bardic performance; you get more eventually, making it decent at higher levels. Performer of the Society and Extra Performance feats will put you over the edge if you want to perform earlier. DCs will be too low for you to ever use offensive performances effectively.

3) Dervish Dancer is decent; you trade away a bunch of your performance for bonus combat feats and perks. Not GOOD, of course.

4) Thundercaller can get a few spells off without needing charisma. They're not especially good with the terrible DC, though. Thundercaller can also give herself rage, which is decent.

5) Arcane Duelist gives some combat feats, and is also okay. Not great, though.

6) Daredevil winds up half-decent at combat maneuvers.

7) Can you get away with playing a skald?

[The Storm of Swords]

If 3.x is allowed. Lost Tradition feat to change spell casting to str or con or something and enjoy. Sure his performance will suck but it will still be there.

[VRMH]

One of the dirty little secrets of the Bard class is that they really don't need all that much Charisma - but 1 is ridiculously low of course.