Hello, my friends and I will be playing a game of D&D soon, they haved a mixed amount of experience as a group, I have yet to play a game. Having quickly learned some very basic rules and discussed different character traits the charisma trait particularly stood out to me, I enjoy being an important all-beit behind-the-scenes kinda guy in teams and plan on being very proficient in bartering/performing or whatever to help our team in places like towns where I imagine this skill is most useful (if that's completely wrong please correct me I'm just assuming that the ability to manipulate people is most useful in town areas and least useful in intense battles). So anyway to the main question, I'm 95% sure that I can't but is it possible through the use of very high charisma to influence the adventure preogression by the DM, so for example let's say that as we walk into a room the DM says that 10 skeletons fall from the ceiling in a surprise attack, would I be able to convinve/persuade the DM that he's wrong and in fact only 2 skeletons fall down, thus changing the progression of the adventure directly. I'm assuming you can't do this because DM is independant of game or whatever and can't be influenced by player abilities but I had to check as it could be an interesting ability to use, certainly a creative use of charisma anyway. Thanks.
So many comments I could make but let me just answer: no. The DM is not in game nor are your fellow players. The players characters are in game but the DM exists to basically act as presenter, judge, and story teller.
Maybe if you're the DM's girlfriend? 
Generally, no.
While the character's Charisma can't affect the DM/game this way; there is nothing preventing the player's charisma from affecting the DM/game in any number of ways.
Try to think of Charisma as a trait that your character has. If your character has a high Charisma, it means that he has a high force of personality, who inspires leadership/loyalty/trustworthiness. People listen to him/her, because whenever he/she speaks, it's worth listening to. A character with a high Charisma is very good in social situations. Where as someone with low Charisma has exactly the opposite. It is up to you how this plays out. It could be that the character is very ugly (although Charisma isn't directly linked to good looks), or very socially awkward, or rude. Or is very pretty, very friendly, very persuasive, very charming, or very polite. Obviously this only applies to interactions with characters that exist in the story. The DM doesn't exist in the story, because he is the narrator, he is the storyteller.
People often mistake Charisma with good looks. Is the female paladin with a Charisma score of 18 the most gorgeous woman on the planet? Not necessarily, she could be very ugly. But there is something about her that makes everyone respect her and/or listen to her. She inspires courage and leadership, and her opinion is highly valued.
You don't "use" Charisma for anything, at base. You say what your character does and the DM describes the result. ("I ask the shopkeeper for a discount." "He says no." "I complain about the heat and start disrobing." "He says sure.")
If the DM thinks your character's stats will influence the outcome, they can ask you to roll them.
So there are things Charisma will likely help with. But except for where you have a class feature that depends on Charisma directly (like your spell save DC if you're a warlock), there are no predetermined options that exercise your Charisma to do something. Your DM will tell you when it matters. You just concentrate on what your character would do.
Nope. You can only use your personal charisma to try and convince the DM, good luck on that 
House Rule info:
However I use a variant of the plot point system (kind like a hybrid insiration/plot points) where in a case like yours, the player could spend their plot points (these are finite and only get handed out at DM whimsy) and have this event occur, typically by some landing poorly or being smashed by some unforseen condition. Obviously the player would have to come up with an interesting occurance for this to happen.
Something like "As the skeletons drop down from the ceiling, one catches the rickery chandlier draging it crashing down onto it's allies".
This kind of thing I find lets players really add to the story beyond their character but in a limited fashion, and can often throw a spanner in my plans (more than players normally do) that really adds to the fun of the game.
Macv12 wrote:
Macv12 wrote:
Yunru wrote:
What you describe seems more like what other role playing games call "plot points," which are a kind of currency players use to alter the plot as the game progresses. This could be an optional house rule, but it changes the traditional D&D experience tremendously. Some DMs really like giving players this type of agency, while others don't.
The Fantasy Flight Star Wars RPGs give both players and DMs this power by establishing how many light and dark side points are available per game session. For example, the session may begin with 3 light and 1 dark. The twist is, if the players invoke a light point to change the narrative, it converts to a dark point that the GM can use it later, and when he uses it, it converts to a light point, etc. This truly changes the tone and feel of the game.