What does charisma do?

[Crexis]

I bought the pathfinder playtest and was following everything closely for about a month then got busy. I've read that resonance has been removed or redone. I know they wanted to make charisma a more useful stat.

So is resonance, in any form, still in the game? Are they doing anything to make charisma a non dump stat?

thanks!

[Deadmanwalking]

Resonance has not been removed, but probably will be (or, at least, altered profoundly). It was not popular and they've said they're gonna do things about it for the final game.

The test bed for alternatives removed the need to use any resource to make most magic items work, split Resonance into Resonance (a flat 10 points that just limited worn items as a replacement for slots) and Focus (a Charisma based pool which could be used to enhance the effect of items...and was also combined with Spell Points, meaning you needed it to use Powers). This required rewrites on every item, so it was only tested in one adventure, and the main playtest retained Resonance as-is.

That version, however, was not met with universal acclaim, so they're probably not going with it long term. What are they going with long term? We have no idea, but they clearly intend Charisma to have some relevance to it.

[Siro]

Resonance as not been removed, however Piazo did release a self-contained adventure that changed up the Resonance rules a little while ago {just for the adventure, the 'Raiders of Shrieking Peak Resonance Test', not for the playtest as a whole.}. Didn't have a chance to really go through it, but the basics changes were

1) Characters have a flat 10 Resonance points for the purposes of investing in items, 1 point per investment. Consumable items {potions, scrolls, wands ect) no longer have an activation cost

2) There is no more Spell points and

3) Instead of spell points you gain 'Focus Points'. You have Focus points equal to your Cha mod + ancestry (most ancestry gets +1, but Gnomes have +2} You use these for abilities that used to cost Spell points, or when you use an item, to activate its greater power {for example a Minor Healing Point in this system would restore 1d8 HP, but if you were to use a Focus Point while drinking it, it would double the HP restored.)

Paizo has stated they are in the works of changing the Resonance system as a whole, due to it not completely solving the problems it was intended for and causing problems {for example it being to intrusive for lower levels, but becomes non-existent at higher levels, allowing for the 'Christmas Tree' effect} feedback from the playtest, and feedback from the above adventure

[Igor Horvat]

Good solution would similar to attunement form 5e but with charisma added.

I.E. you can attune to 1+cha mod items. Min 2.

And every item that is more powerful than simple +X to something would require attunement.

Also some feats could "key" from charisma, leadership like: providing bonuses to attack, temp HPs, bonus damage, vs. fear/mind control rolls, etc...

[Voss]

Charisma is probably going to be some form of point pool for magic items and/or powers that aren't spells, that's vaguely distinct from other forms of point pools.

Plus that bonus to however many social skills.

So just be prepared to increment that bonus in the stat database for all your characters.