Completely agree! However, there is an arguably equally common mistake on the flip side of this: Saying that Charisma has nothing to do with looks.Lexx wrote: ↑Thu May 20, 2021 9:43 amCharisma isn't necessarily physical looks and assuming so is a bit of a common mistake people have been making in D and D for decades.
You can have a slovenly, unfit person who just happens to have raw personality and convincing way about them that I'd totally class as high charisma. And vice versa.
It doesn’t *have* to, no, but it’s literally in the description of the stat in the player handbook. Looks are defined as one of the factors that contribute to someone’s overall charisma. You can be ugly, or even just nondescriptly normal, and be charismatic. By definition of the stat, you would be more charismatic if you were good looking, too.
I can appreciate the viewpoints that what we call charisma today doesn’t tie to personal beauty. There are countless examples of charismatic people in the world that aren’t lookers. I do not contest this at all. I also don’t contest that reality has no orcs, wizards, or dragons.
We’re playing a game with those things, though. The rules define these things, and we all use that definition to play. Therefore, in our game, “Strength measures your character’s muscle and physical power... Strength also limits the amount of equipment your character can carry.” And “Constitution represents your character’s health and stamina.”
In the exact same way, “Charisma measures a character’s force of personality, persuasiveness, personal magnetism, ability to lead, and physical attractiveness. This ability represents actual strength of personality, not merely how one is perceived by others in a social setting.”
Thats straight from the 3.5 player handbook.
It leaves plenty of room for a nuance, and for give and take in what makes the actual total score. However, saying it doesn’t mean any part of the above means that you’re not playing the same game we all agreed to play.
Granted, Arelith has a lot of custom rules. Enough so that there is a full wiki page so a person can read up on them all. Ability score changes and definitions aren’t among them. Therefore, anything below a 10 in a stat is below average, and means the sum of what makes up that stat should be below average. Anything higher than 10 is above average, and the sum of what makes up that stat needs to be above average. That’s the game. That’s what we decided to play together.
To me, redefining one of the core character attributes and insisting everyone roll with your definition is akin to rolling an elf, giving it a bowl cut, and insisting everyone call you a Vulcan. It’s an extreme example, I know, but the point is simple: That’s not the game we’re playing.
PS:
I so badly want this to be true, and can not wait to run into Fabgoblio.