A very high Charisma party [Archive] - Wizards Community

A very high Charisma party [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
realbombchu
09-26-05, 06:15 PM I'm new to DMing, and I currently have only one player (my old DM and ex-girlfriend, who has been playing much longer than I have). She has put together a 5 character party and I allow the automatic 18 rule (one automatic 18 for each player, regardless of their other ability scores) because she and I agree that if our characters weren't special somehow, they wouldn't have become adventurers (or at least would not have lasted long in the field). Anyway, I know that makes me generous, but I guess I'm just a nice guy. Even with as little as I've played, I haven't found it to unbalance stuff at all. Now, to the point, this 5 character party consists of 1st level characters starting the Age of Worms adventure path, and she has put each character's 18 in Charisma. It's almost evenly split between men and women and run in the Forgotten Realms setting, and they are all classes that greatly benefit from high Charisma (bard, cleric, paladin, swashbuckler, and warlock). She's going to multi-class the paladin with the ranger class (with Devoted Tracker feat), and the swashbuckler or bard with the rogue class. Anyway, my question is, how do I treat a group of characters who all have Charisma that high? Do I make officials go easier on them? Do I have people adore them as heroes even at low-levels. I don't know what I should do. I know this is a very newbie question, but please be patient with me. I hope this is where this post belongs.
20goingon1232
09-26-05, 06:21 PM In a word, "No".

Imagine you are Jessica Alba or whoever your favourite celebrity is but without the fame. You are walking down the street. That is your Cha 18 party.

People might come up to you and want to chat you up or something similar, but they won't worship you. Not yet anyways. But when your fame starts to grow, man, will it start to grow!
imperialjunkie
09-26-05, 06:29 PM Definitely belongs here :)

I would definitely gear the campaign more towards drama and story, with a very healthy use of situations that require social skills. This seems to be what your ex-girlfriend wants, so let her have it. The mechanic of these skills can dictate how they are treated. Sure they won't be worshipped, but they will definitely have influence over people they interact with and make heads turn when they enter a room. Gather Information, Diplomacy, and even Intimidate can all reflect this. Just play the male NPCs as overly nice yet a little insecure with the lady PCs and have the female NPCs fawn over the males or even get catty with one another or with the female PCs. Stuff like that can add some fun flavor.

But... you should also throw some challenges in here and there. Play to the party's strengths a lot, but also hit their weaknesses too. A party of clerics would want to be fighting undead a lot, but if all they fought was undead then they'd be underchallenged. So mix it up a little here and there.
realbombchu
09-27-05, 11:12 AM I see what you're saying. This party is very strong against undead and fear and features a lot of healing power, so most of the time I should let her play with those strengths, as well as the strength of her charisma, but sometimes, I should throw something at her that isn't undead and doesn't have a fear aura so she has to think about what to do. The Age of Worms path is shaping up to be very undead heavy, I think, but the latest one doesn't have undead at all, so I think that'll help shake things up. Once we get there that is. She wants to make the female cleric a divine disciple of Sharess someday, so I think her Charisma will become only more important as time goes on. I wish there were more official chosen templates in FR. That would make a good monthly article in Dragon or something for a while, I think. Chosen status is a cool thing to offer a high-level character. Of course, all that is a long way off. So, back to the Charisma, this means I shouldn't summarize conversations for her, that we should act it all out?
deLengua
09-27-05, 12:03 PM Wow. So essentially you're playing a 1 on 1 campaign against/with your ex-girlfriend. My eyes can't stop blinking because I'd be totally overwhelmed just in the real-life complexities of this, let alone the in-game ones. To me it sounds like you've now got 5 ex-girlfriends to work with! Thumbs up and good luck. (80% earnest, 20% sarcastic/glad I'm not you)

I've got a similar problem in that my most munchkin-esque gamer goes for the charisma route every time....he's always "charm this and charm that" and finds ways around all my NPC's intentions...

I really do like it, though, as it gives me and the other players lots of social role-play opportunities. Yes - role play the conversations! And yes, I'm in agreeance - include lots more social and political intrigue than combat ones. But, as you go into situations give your baddies some allies that are immune to charisma effects to force her hand in other ways...I was thinking golems and constructs... Or, strong NPC's with 18 charisma as well (are there opposed charisma rolls in the game? I'm new to this too) Whatever - NPCs with 18 in whatever would help counteract her "advances" in the social realm

My advice would be to play it out a bit and see what trends in her play start to develop...what skills does she rely too heavily on, and how could you make adventures that play with and against those reliances...

I'd be interested what might happen if you could cause rifts to develop in the motivations of the PC's. Seems like a five person squad of lovelies would be pretty cohesive, but maybe not...jealosy, back-stabbing...It's like Dallas meets D&D! (side question - what are the character alignments?)

Keep us updated as to how it works out, too. Cool thread.
realbombchu
09-27-05, 12:52 PM They are all Chaotic Good except for the paladin, who is obviously Lawful Good. She changed her party a little bit before we got started. The Swashbuckler is now a rogue and she's going to play the paladin as a ranger first for the increased skill points. It reduces the combat effectiveness of the party, but she needed someone to search out traps, I suggested, and she agreed. Oh, and the rogue is now neutral.

It works out like this
LG ranger/paladin of Nobanion (she knows I like Nobanion, so she chose him as a present to me) This one is actually very similar to a character I'm making right now, so she must think he's a cool idea or something. I just hope she finds ways to improve him, so I can steal those ideas. As far as I can tell, she intends for him to be the leader.
CG cleric/divine disciple of Sharess (domains Good, Travel, and Trickery) This is the character that is most like her in real life, I think. The divine disciple part is in the future, but she has already stated her intentions to follow that path. Interesting note, this priestess is a virgin, despite worshipping Sharess.
N rogue of Mask (She's a big fan of the Treasure of the Black Veils online adventure and admires Mollie McTynker, so this is like her granddaughter or something, she wears an expensive veil over her face while adventuring)
CG bard of Lliira (interesting note, he suffers from deppression and performance anxiety)
CG warlock of Mystra (he is a Mulan human, but left Thay after no one could train him to use his inherited powers)

Of course, they're her characters, so that's all subject to change. We're starting soon, so I won't let her change them after that, except for multiclassing of course. If you're interested, of course I'll keep you updated.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
realbombchu 09-26-05, 06:15 PM	I'm new to DMing, and I currently have only one player (my old DM and ex-girlfriend, who has been playing much longer than I have). She has put together a 5 character party and I allow the automatic 18 rule (one automatic 18 for each player, regardless of their other ability scores) because she and I agree that if our characters weren't special somehow, they wouldn't have become adventurers (or at least would not have lasted long in the field). Anyway, I know that makes me generous, but I guess I'm just a nice guy. Even with as little as I've played, I haven't found it to unbalance stuff at all. Now, to the point, this 5 character party consists of 1st level characters starting the Age of Worms adventure path, and she has put each character's 18 in Charisma. It's almost evenly split between men and women and run in the Forgotten Realms setting, and they are all classes that greatly benefit from high Charisma (bard, cleric, paladin, swashbuckler, and warlock). She's going to multi-class the paladin with the ranger class (with Devoted Tracker feat), and the swashbuckler or bard with the rogue class. Anyway, my question is, how do I treat a group of characters who all have Charisma that high? Do I make officials go easier on them? Do I have people adore them as heroes even at low-levels. I don't know what I should do. I know this is a very newbie question, but please be patient with me. I hope this is where this post belongs.
20goingon1232 09-26-05, 06:21 PM	In a word, "No". Imagine you are Jessica Alba or whoever your favourite celebrity is but without the fame. You are walking down the street. That is your Cha 18 party. People might come up to you and want to chat you up or something similar, but they won't worship you. Not yet anyways. But when your fame starts to grow, man, will it start to grow!
imperialjunkie 09-26-05, 06:29 PM	Definitely belongs here :) I would definitely gear the campaign more towards drama and story, with a very healthy use of situations that require social skills. This seems to be what your ex-girlfriend wants, so let her have it. The mechanic of these skills can dictate how they are treated. Sure they won't be worshipped, but they will definitely have influence over people they interact with and make heads turn when they enter a room. Gather Information, Diplomacy, and even Intimidate can all reflect this. Just play the male NPCs as overly nice yet a little insecure with the lady PCs and have the female NPCs fawn over the males or even get catty with one another or with the female PCs. Stuff like that can add some fun flavor. But... you should also throw some challenges in here and there. Play to the party's strengths a lot, but also hit their weaknesses too. A party of clerics would want to be fighting undead a lot, but if all they fought was undead then they'd be underchallenged. So mix it up a little here and there.
realbombchu 09-27-05, 11:12 AM	I see what you're saying. This party is very strong against undead and fear and features a lot of healing power, so most of the time I should let her play with those strengths, as well as the strength of her charisma, but sometimes, I should throw something at her that isn't undead and doesn't have a fear aura so she has to think about what to do. The Age of Worms path is shaping up to be very undead heavy, I think, but the latest one doesn't have undead at all, so I think that'll help shake things up. Once we get there that is. She wants to make the female cleric a divine disciple of Sharess someday, so I think her Charisma will become only more important as time goes on. I wish there were more official chosen templates in FR. That would make a good monthly article in Dragon or something for a while, I think. Chosen status is a cool thing to offer a high-level character. Of course, all that is a long way off. So, back to the Charisma, this means I shouldn't summarize conversations for her, that we should act it all out?
deLengua 09-27-05, 12:03 PM	Wow. So essentially you're playing a 1 on 1 campaign against/with your ex-girlfriend. My eyes can't stop blinking because I'd be totally overwhelmed just in the real-life complexities of this, let alone the in-game ones. To me it sounds like you've now got 5 ex-girlfriends to work with! Thumbs up and good luck. (80% earnest, 20% sarcastic/glad I'm not you) I've got a similar problem in that my most munchkin-esque gamer goes for the charisma route every time....he's always "charm this and charm that" and finds ways around all my NPC's intentions... I really do like it, though, as it gives me and the other players lots of social role-play opportunities. Yes - role play the conversations! And yes, I'm in agreeance - include lots more social and political intrigue than combat ones. But, as you go into situations give your baddies some allies that are immune to charisma effects to force her hand in other ways...I was thinking golems and constructs... Or, strong NPC's with 18 charisma as well (are there opposed charisma rolls in the game? I'm new to this too) Whatever - NPCs with 18 in whatever would help counteract her "advances" in the social realm My advice would be to play it out a bit and see what trends in her play start to develop...what skills does she rely too heavily on, and how could you make adventures that play with and against those reliances... I'd be interested what might happen if you could cause rifts to develop in the motivations of the PC's. Seems like a five person squad of lovelies would be pretty cohesive, but maybe not...jealosy, back-stabbing...It's like Dallas meets D&D! (side question - what are the character alignments?) Keep us updated as to how it works out, too. Cool thread.
realbombchu 09-27-05, 12:52 PM	They are all Chaotic Good except for the paladin, who is obviously Lawful Good. She changed her party a little bit before we got started. The Swashbuckler is now a rogue and she's going to play the paladin as a ranger first for the increased skill points. It reduces the combat effectiveness of the party, but she needed someone to search out traps, I suggested, and she agreed. Oh, and the rogue is now neutral. It works out like this LG ranger/paladin of Nobanion (she knows I like Nobanion, so she chose him as a present to me) This one is actually very similar to a character I'm making right now, so she must think he's a cool idea or something. I just hope she finds ways to improve him, so I can steal those ideas. As far as I can tell, she intends for him to be the leader. CG cleric/divine disciple of Sharess (domains Good, Travel, and Trickery) This is the character that is most like her in real life, I think. The divine disciple part is in the future, but she has already stated her intentions to follow that path. Interesting note, this priestess is a virgin, despite worshipping Sharess. N rogue of Mask (She's a big fan of the Treasure of the Black Veils online adventure and admires Mollie McTynker, so this is like her granddaughter or something, she wears an expensive veil over her face while adventuring) CG bard of Lliira (interesting note, he suffers from deppression and performance anxiety) CG warlock of Mystra (he is a Mulan human, but left Thay after no one could train him to use his inherited powers) Of course, they're her characters, so that's all subject to change. We're starting soon, so I won't let her change them after that, except for multiclassing of course. If you're interested, of course I'll keep you updated.