The words in the pictures have some diabolical keming
this post was submitted on 10 Nov 2025
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!keming@lemmy.world
jpegging a pdf will do that for you
I hate it when I be jpegging my pdf in hospital then her doc walks in on us
"Charisma is about sex appeal" is funny, but that's not really entirely accurate. It's about motivating others towards your goals whatever that may be, having a presence that commands attention and being a good communicator. That's why charisma helps disparate skills like lying, persuading, intimidating, and performing. Sex appeal may superficially help some of those things, but so does a half-giant that makes you piss yourself with their mere presence, or an old fat guy who speaks with clarity of conviction and intelligence. Ain't nobody want to fuck Winston Churchill, and he was an asshole as well. But he was a very charismatic figure, still.
One of the things I liked about the Chronicles of Darkness system is it cleared this up nicely. Stats were in a 3x3 grid.
One axis was physical, mental, social
The other was Power, Finesse, Resistance.
Want to shove something? Physical + Power. That's strength.
Want to figure out a riddle? Mental + Finesse. That's ~~Dexterity~~ Wits. (Edit: wrote dexterity originally, meant Wits)
Command attention? Social + Power. That's the Presence stat.
Lie and misdirect? Social + Finesse. Stat was called Manipulation.
Now you can have a character that's commanding without also being a natural liar and flirt. DND doesn't help let you do that because the concepts are bundled together into a single stat.
(You could invest separately into like Expression for making speeches and Deception for lying, of course)
Humans are rated 1 to 5, where a 5 is the peak of human capability. Presence 5 is like AAA movie stars and great leaders.
Of course, if you add supernaturals to your game a starting chump vampire could have seven presence if they take Majesty as their power, and become a nearly irresistible magnet of attention.
Want to figure out a riddle? Mental + Finesse. That’s Dexterity.
Wait, wouldn't it make sense to figure out a riddle with Intelligence? And for Dexterity to be Physical + Finesse?
Riddles are often lateral thinking or other cleverness, so they seem more finesse than power. But yes, I wrote "dexterity" when I meant "Wits".
I may be dating myself as an older weeb with this reference, but Osaka from Azumanga was not what you'd consider intelligent, but she got riddles instantly because she just thought weird.
My prime example would be Donald Trump. Hideously looking and true evil while dumping strength, dexterity, constitution (unfortunately not enough), intelligence and wisdom, but he undeniably has at least an 18 in charisma.
Tbh I don't really get why though. Clearly he's good at getting people to listen, but... why?
Hitler was similar (except I'd say better looking) but listening to his speeches I at least get how he had crowds cheering. Trump could say things I agree with and I'd still not want to listen to him.
Int is knowing what you're talking about
Wis is knowing when to talk
Cha is when people listen to you
What was the old saying?
Intelligence is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, wisdom Is knowing not to bake it into a cake.
wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad
charisma is selling salsa
You went a few steps too far.
Charisma is your ability to sell a tomato based fruit salad
Wouldn't that be Salsa?
Guys, I found the bard!
Hah! Good one!
I wish I were smart enough to think of it myself, but I heard it somewhere
CHA is knowing what to say to get what you want.
A paladin uses CHA because they have to know exactly what to say to their deity to get the result they need. If they can't rizz up their gods, they get no power.
Paladin doesn't use CHA with their god, they use it to lure the common people TO their god. So they gets more powah.
Yeah the original description sounds more like a warlock. Which, what's the diff between a hexblade and a pally really
A fun campaign i played was where the DM set up the scenario where I, a high level Paladin, gave up on my Diety and basically switched religions. That one was fun.
If 10 is average my stats are way too low.
Eh, a ten will give you about a 50/50 roll if something is "easy," and only about a 25% chance if something is "medium" difficulty. Sounds about right for me.
Am I gonna shut my damn mouth when I should? 75% of the time, no.
10 is average for an adventuring hero. Not necessarily for most "civilians" if you want to call them that.
Edit: I stand corrected. Must have confused it with some other system or an older edition.
Incorrect. Commoner is all 10s
i like how according to this everyone just has a big stick stowed away somehere
edit: wait now that i looked again, those are the exact stats for a fist in pf2e if you were level 0 and trained in unarmed attacks
assuming dnd fists work similarly, why didn't they just put in a fist instead of a club?
Because DnD fists do 1 + STR damage, no dice at all.
oh i did not know that. thx
I mean, plenty of people might be walking around with something roughly stick-shaped. Be it a broom, a shovel or an umbrella, it's all a more effective weapon than bare hands
I was like "do I?" And looked around my room for the first thing I could use as an improvised club and my eyes landed on a sex toy.
well it'll work
unless it's too flexible, idk what kind of toy it is
12.5 is average for an adventuring hero using the standard array plus typical adjustments for race.
Even if you roll 3d6 across the board with no adjustments, old school, 10.5 is average.
5e commoners are 10 across the board.
Incorrect, 10 is the average for the average human.
Those are SO not in the order I remember back when I used to pay.
It was:
STR
INT
WIS
DEX
CON
CHA.
As an added bonus, I remember the coin on the character sheets as being:
Gold
Silver
Copper
Platinum
Electrum
Probably helps to know I played in the late 70’s when campaigns like Keep on the Borderlands was a new thing and came in a box.
I think it was 3e that changed it so that the stats are grouped as physical, then mental. And decimalized the coinage, for that matter.
Hey, I’m all for nostalgia, but reordering it to separate the physical stats from the mental ones was a very good idea. I’m pretty sure my first game back when I was… 10? (long time ago)… also used the Str Int Wis order. But you know… that order got changed REAL fast… 2e, iirc. And good riddance.
Wasn't it copper-silver-electrum-gold-platinum? That would be the order of value as I remember it but I haven't looked at the boxed stuff in years.
You’d think, but nope. Not as I recall.
Wisdom is such a weird attribute in ttrpgs, it is often overloaded with the concept of perception. But at the same time I don't necessarily think it should be split to it's own thing, more attributes aren't necessarily better.
I think fallout's S.P.E.C.I.A.L works quite well.
Wisdom isn't a thing by itself, it's split between perception, charisma, and intelligence, for the most part.
Intelligence is being able to describe why rain exists and why it is raining. Wisdom is understanding that you can do the above while not standing in a rainstorm
Intelligence is knowing tomatoes are a fruit
Wisdom is knowing never to add it to a fruit salad
Constitution is when you have to eat the fruit salad and there's tomatoes in it.
Charisma is being able to sell a tomato-based fruit salad. That's how we got salsa.
Charisma is framing salsa as a tomato-based fruit salad
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My Constitution is 0.
I was more a 00's kid into consoles, so this was introduced to me via Fallout 3, then Dark Souls
Vitality: Whatever it is that makes wild hogs unkillable.
How charisma works: just say "hey baby". you're all welcome
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