"Roleplaying high str doesnt mean you lift weights at the table" well, once i actually had to, i was playing a big, strong paladin, had no healing left and 2 party members were down, so i tried to move them at the same time. The dm told me it was impossible, i told him if i could do that OOC then my pc could, and proceeded to lift 2 other players at the same time (to be fair i picked the smallest ppl of our group lol)
I know a guy (DM) who told his players they can't throw a grenade into small shaft opening after briefly peeping behind the corner (without getting under the fire). His player went out of the room, told him to position wherever in the room he wanted - then he peeped in for just split of the second through the door, got back behind the wall, peeped for even shorter split of a second again and hit him almost blindly with a tennis ball in the middle of his forehead. Needless to say, grenade was then thrown into the shaft without any further problems :D
I'd've asked the DM to prove it was possible to cast whatever spells it was that downed the 2 PCs in the first place. If they couldn't, then I guess those PCs are okay, right?
@@rex4229 Actually peaking and then popping back out in the same spot is a great way to get killed and it is specifically taught to not do that. They won't be able to react the first time, but will have their weapon pointed where you were and ready to shoot if you pop up there again
what i do when rping something i'm not is i find a character in media that has the trait im looking for and channel their energy instead of my own when playing. i think a lot of times people think "what would *I* do in this situation if i was like my character" or otherwise try to look inward for answers. but, if i instead think along the lines of "what would [existing character similar to your pc] do in this situation," i usually come up with much better ideas, and then i'm able to modify those ideas to better fit my character. and eventually, you become more comfortable in your character's mindset and you're actually able to think "what would my character do" and come up with good answers!
This is confusing: A book on Method Acting as thought of by Stanislavsky that I currently read suggests to ask yourself: "If is am in these circumstances, imagined as if they ar real, what do I do intuitively, unpremeditatedly, in response to them in this moment?" (J. Gillet). Granted, we are not acting in DnD, and not studying acting, but I think this is more intuitive and directly connected to our intuition than intermitting another character ides in the picture. On the other hand, I think it is a very good source of inspiration to really perceive how different people and characters act and react to their cirumstances :)
@@kullen2042 Did you just correct someone’s helpful suggestion by quoting a book on acting? As if this is an actual science and there’s an actual right answer? What a joy you must be at a table. In the words of Stanislavsky himself: “Create your own method. Don't depend slavishly on mine. Make up something that will work for you! But keep breaking traditions, I beg you.” You can do better! You can add to the conversation without tearing down others next time. You can share your experience without belittling others’. I believe in you. You can contribute without insisting everyone with a different idea is wrong 😊
@@notcompletelynormal I did not mean to say, that OP's way of doing stuff is wrong, I explicitly said, that TTRPGs are not acting ;) And I started my reply by what my intention was: I was confused 🤷♀️
@@notcompletelynormal I feel like your comment war uncalled for. Kullen just brought up a different perspective and I don't think it came off as "belittling" at all. Though I feel like your comment: "You can do better!" comes off as very condescending. You probably didn't mean it that way, but that sentence is usually used in a rather passive aggressive manner. I appreciate both OPs and Kullens insights, they were super interesting!
I’ve got a character who I like to think of as subtly charming/intimidating. He’s generally chill, gives compliments and exudes cool but he’s also a 6”5 dogfolk with a gun. If I want to intimidate someone I’d do it with a grin and a semi chill “well, we wouldn’t wanna do that, would we?” tone. He’s generally reasonable and quite emotionally intelligent and I like playing that in a high cha character
Don't be afraid to get inspiration from other media. Role-playing is all about experimenting, so if you heard a line in a movie once, go ahead and try it out if you think it fits the character
yeah, seriously, people should really embrace this. MY last villain in a one-shot was basically just the Duke from Moulin Rouge while the current villain in my ongoing campaign is plagiarizing Richard Griffiths performance as King George in PIRATES 4 (I passionately loath that movie including the King George scene, but the template was perfect for my bumbling politician character)
I remember once I wanted to be able to tell jokes (be funny) so I went with quantity over quality it took me several years, my jokes were horrid but eventually I learned and weeded out the unfunny ones. For a bard/jester character maybe start an insult collection?
Well keep in mind that bards (well, depending on the individual) are not always showmen. The bard class can extend anywhere from the showman to a con artist to a friend who always knows just what to say. A Bard's charisma is just anything that people find endearing about them enough to care. Maybe they're earnest and genuine, maybe they're admittedly underprepared for their situation and you admire their honesty and humility (and maybe their attitude) or maybe they express such confidence in your abilities that you want to prove them right, even if their demeanor may be threatening to you (think Azula. Terrifying but inspiring.) There's really no right way to play a bard, we're just those likeable chaps that are either loved or drive people up the wall 😂
Honestly, I'm so glad you mentioned the awkward but charismatic thing. I tried that once with a character, and it was received SUPER well. One of the players in our group was a very happy and excitable type, and she was trying to play a hardened badass type character, and she kept breaking character to point out how bad she felt that she had to be so cold to my character. Super gratifying as a player to have a character received so well.
I love the awkward but endearing type of charisma! I think that's an easy way to step into a higher charisma character, because you can bumble and stutter all you need, but the other person will still probably find you cute or approachable.
omg that's my druid rn! ik a druid with a high charisma is weird but half elf changed things lmao. anyways my druid is very curious and more persuasive than intimidating. if there was no charismatic character at the table, shed be the next in line. also i gave her a high charisma cause it was at first a 14 where her intelligence and wisdom were both 15, but half elf gives plus 2 charisma so she got 16 charisma instead. she is my favourite cursed druid. it also matches her character better anyway!
this is my me with my aarakocra rogue! i totally leaned into the whole 'bird people act like birds' so he's always clicking and chattering and isnt the brightest - he isnt very good at stealing, but he is very good at sneaking around and acting shady!
People always think it’s all or nothing when you’re going to rp a conversation, especially persuasion. But the mid point you described is absolutely just as acceptable and can easily be a jumping off point for those who are more shy or timid and don’t know what to say when the DM asks you how you persuade them. Definitely something to keep in mind so I can advise folks in the future.
I haven't seen any advice content from ginny's channel that is not good advice, some stuff I already knew, and a couple things that didn't exactly fit my play style, but nothing that was bad advice.
Some other members of my party keep leaving NPC interaction to my character as she comes off as more of a people person than they are. She does in fact have the highest charisma score and is the most willing to just go up to people and start talking. I tend to get nervous about it because I'm pretty awkward and never know if I'm saying the right thing, but I remind myself that in actuality my character's social skills aren't any better than mine, she doesn't have much experience with non-hostile social interaction in her life and is really just very driven to kind of fake it 'til she makes it when it comes to this sort of thing. So honestly it works out fine. XD
The approach I take is to plan as much as possible. As a bard I have everything I want to do for inspiration planned out in advance. What comes naturally to my character takes work for me.
My current high charisma/intelligence character has been convincing orcs and goblins to help us with being cute and having baked goods on hands at all times. Did i mention she is a rouge?
For about twenty sessions now, I've been playing a bard whose previous occupation was working as an envoy or representative for her noble house (She is the daughter of a duke and duchess). How exactly this relates to her being a Bard is a long story so I won't go into detail, but essentially, her charisma may partially be a result of her being, wel... *gorgeous*... But she's not very seductive or anything. It's mostly just that she's just an all-round delight to talk to. She's well-spoken, polite (unless you REALLY make her mad, which is quite hard), honest and as reasonable as she can be (pertaining to things like accepting new ideas or even accepting that she may have been wrong). This also leads to her earning the respect of those around her, which also adds up to her general presence and force of personality. That's not entirely her own doing of course, because she's been trained at the art of intrigue, eloquence and etiquette since she was a teenager, but it's not as if she's actually unreasonable, childish and evil on the inside or something. Just trying to contribute to the whole 'how many different ways are there to roleplay charisma' thing. Thanks for reading, and have a great day.
@Michael Denison That sounds really great! The social exposure during congregations part is actually a really interesting take, might use that too if I ever want to play a divine caster. I don't think I've ever played a character who was a true soldier -- the closest I got was my Drow wizard who was a medic in a Drow raiding party before he was left for dead on the surface, but he wasn't very well versed in military matters. Might consider doing that at one point Also, your paladin being handsome and having lots of people fall for him is actually a funny coincidence -- My bard is in a way the opposite of that. She tries her best to keep a cool head all the time and be collected and calm, but one of the things that trips her up is the fact that whenever someone's attractive, she gets more than a little weak in the knees :') And my bard also tries her best to be kind to everyone, though with her it's also due to the fact that if she's being particularly harsh, it actually hurts people (Vicious Mockery) and she doesn't want that. To quickly give context, her bardic magic works through her voice instead of an instrument, so she has to be really careful with what she says. Unlike your Paladin though, my bard really isn't that good at leading. She's a diplomat, so she has no real military/combat experience. She struggles with self doubt and is very afraid to make the wrong decision and let her friends/allies down. Funnily enough though, with a 14 in both Int and Wis, which isn't that much, she is still the smartest person in the party... So she's sometimes forced to be the voice of reason and the planner anyway :') Thanks for sharing by the way! I'm always interested in learning about other people's characters :) What kind of paladin is your character, if I may ask?
@Michael Denison I did actually see the previous message, and the more detailed backstory. He sounds like a really cool character! I liked the description about the multi-stage propaganda campaign the king had planned (iirc?) that your character caught onto just in time and the whole thing you told me about where he needs to keep the fact that he used to be in the inner circle of the king a secret to his new allies. Characters with similar secrets are entirely my thing. And as a DM, propaganda/cult/brainwashing stuff is also something I've been interested in lately. So, good taste :) I also do like characters who do the right thing because it's the right thing. Like, doing good doesn't have to be complex, it can just be 'I do that because I just feel like that's the right thing to do'. Not that I dislike more morally complex characters, I really really like them, but there can be a certain elegance in simplicity. I also like the take of a paladin who's mainly a healer. It never occurred to me that you can play paladin as something else than a dps-type character. Might try that myself one day too. I also remember liking the sound of your Paladin's name, but I can't quite remember what it was... I'm sorry for not responding to the earlier message by the way. After I had read it, it just somehow slipped my mind to actually respond. Regardless, thanks for sharing :)
@Michael Denison I guess I'll return the favour. My bard Valerie is a Tiefling, and she was the only member of her family to be born one. As I mentioned in an earlier message she's the daughter of a duke and duchess, so this caused at least some medium controversy in her region. Early during her childhood, it became clear that Valerie 'wasn't like other people', so to speak, in more than just appearance. Whenever she spoke, people tended to listen. Whenever she commanded anyone, they had a hard time trying to ignore her command. Whenever she sang a lullaby, people seemed to grow tired and fall asleep around her. She was sort of a cryptid child. Though she wasn't exactly 'hidden away from the world', Valerie didn't leave her family castle very often, and didn't have many friends. The friends she did have slowly left because of sometimes unforeseen consequences of these strange powers of hers. She once got mad at a friend, and Vicious Mockery nearly killed her. This is why Valerie grew to fear her own powers. Besides learning etiquette and the art of (public) speaking, she learned to be very careful with how she expressed herself, so that she wouldn't accidentally hurt or mind-control someone. Eventually, this worked. Her powers caused less and less problems, and she could finally start to interact with the other nobility of her nation. However, as Valerie was a Tiefling in a word where devils are feared and shrouded in mystery, she and her parents had to spend more than the first two years to finally convince the majority of nobles that she wasn't some manipulative demon child who was out to get them. When that had succeeded however, Valerie quickly adapted to the new social environment. She proved an eloquent speaker and insightful thinker, and as she was the daughter (and often representative) of the duke and duchess of one of her nation's most prosperous and strategically important regions, she quickly started to gain both more respect and more responsibilities. This caused her to start to almost obsess over learning how to do anything that might become relevant. Besides her usual hobby of reading about all manner of interesting topics, she learned the basics of fencing, strategy, history, governance, and even theoretical arcana. As the eldest child and probable future heir, she really started to fear being judged for any lack of competence she might have. This is also where her general uptightness and unease with showing emotions comes from. The social rules of her nation's nobility are quite strict after all. In the campaign itself however, the party members are from different realities. They have been sucked into a hostile fire plane in a different reality, originally to serve as battle slaves for an evil fire emperor, but they escaped with the help of a rebellion. They are now trying their best to survive and find a way to get back to their home realities. Which is a situation she really struggles to deal with, because combat and stealth and this kind of hardship are the opposite of what she's used to. The campaign has been going for quite long, so she's definitely learned to adapt better by now, but it's still hard for her. Thanks for reading, I hope this huge rant isn't a problem. I tend to be a little too wordy in my descriptions. I'll try to explain her mechanics too.
@Michael Denison Valerie is mainly a support, but she can deal some AoE damage if necessary. She's a college of the Mindwhisperer bard, which is a subclass I made myself. I don't know if it's balanced, but it's definitely not brutally OP. It's mainly focused on her voice, and the psychic ability which is the secret drive behind her powers. Instead of normally using Bardic Inspiration, she can spend an inspiration die to essentially cast Bless on five people for one round without using concentration. She can also cast Command and Suggestion without somatic components using charges of her 6th level ability. Her stats are: Str 6 Dex 16 Con 11 Int 14 Wis 14 Cha 20 And yes, a six in Strength. She's definitely fast, not extraordinarily unresilient either, but basically any enemy is going to overpower her in terms of physical strength. Her main strength though is her mental stats. She has a lot of mental skill proficiencies, and expertise in Persuasion and Insight because of being a representative for her house. In any case, she focuses on buffs and healing, but she does have one or two damage spells and also uses her rapier and hand crossbow in combat. And she's relatively smart and level headed, and it's good that she is, because the rest of the party... Well, not all of them are just stupid, but they're average at best. Thanks for reading all this. And have a nice day
@Michael Denison Thank you! I agree, our characters do sound like they could be good friends or at least friendly acquaintances if they ever met. I always love crossovers :) I will say, Valerie's powers can be more than just control and a few hit points of psychic damage. One of the things that's recently been coming up about Valerie is that her powers are getting more and more unstable. As I mentioned in the previous message, her powers are sourced from an innate psychic ability. While her usual spells (think things like healing word, dissonant whispers, suggestion) are driven by her voice, her psychic power is driven by her emotions, and recently she went through a very traumatic event that has made her somewhat mentally unstable. If Valerie is particularly upset and, let's say, something terrifies her or makes her very angry, she might instinctually lash out using her psionic power, even though she normally has no way to control it. In fact, whenever she uses psionics, she becomes ever so slightly unhinged and monstrous. Thin, glowing magenta markings sprawl over her horns (she has four) and head, her irises start glowing in the same colour, and her sclera turn black. She essentially has an 'overpowered angry side', similar to the avatar state from At:la if you're familiar, and she can't really control it. She has a homebrew spell which is a powerful Psychic AoE attack, comparable in power level to Fireball, which she can (not mechanically, just in the roleplay sense) only use in this state. Actually, I have no clue why I went on this rant. Your character would never be on the receiving end of this, or at least he sounds too nice for that. So yeah, I think they could really get along :) Though Valerie does tend to blame herself for lots of stuff, so she'd probably still feel bad even if your paladin managed to shrug off what she'd (accidentally) do. And also, yeah cantrips are really useful. Valerie has four cantrips, one of which is homebrew (it's not that complicated, essentially just Minor Illusion but only one creature can see it because it's projected into their minds. That makes it weaker, so it has some minor extra functions to make up for it). She has Prestidigitation, which is one of her staples. She uses it as instant makeup (because it can create markings on any surface) and Valerie is also a neat freak so she constantly uses it to dust the ash of the fire plane off of her clothes :") Apart from that she just has Friends--which she understandably never uses, because it's a very situational cantrip, but she got it because she's a Tiefling of Fierna--and Vicious Mockery, which she also rarely uses because she's generally too polite to verbally lash out at random enemies. There are a few enemies she truly detests at this point though, so... perhaps in the future. Thanks again for sharing the story about your character by the way. In my experience it's really rare to have a nice conversation in a TH-cam comments section :')
I have a bbeg who is is a friendly villain. He threatens their life and their family but will talk with them and discuss agreements. If he's in the mood. He's a mastermind, 20 cha. 24 int. That stuff. Always fun to rp as him.
I have a character that is both more charismatic and smarter than I am, and she is quite fun. The system is Shadowrun, and the character is an Elven Social Adept. Her natural charisma is maxed and she's also got a pile of talents and traits that further enhance her ability to sway people. Another character who met her had this thought upon meeting her and getting hugged: "She moved like a dancer, spoke like an emcee, had the accent of an AT witch, but greeted her with the warmth of an old friend returned from a long absence. And she was wearing body armor." It's a ton of fun figuring out what sort of coercion is the best choice in any given situation. Our last job, the mage got himself spotted on a scout, so he gave the security lead that caught him one of her burner numbers to make contact. So, MC chatted the other woman up a bit while the tech of the team infiltrated her comm to get intel, which she then used to soft blackmail the woman into doing their job for them. Of course, the GM couldn't let things go that easy, so as we're about to make our getaway, no one the wiser, a blood mage attacks the site for another object and we step in to stop the carnage, MC using a fake ID to act like she was with the local contract police force, going so far as to call the situation in to them. She's used intel, her sex appeal, fast talking, her ability to be utterly arctic, and when necessary the threat of her team to get people to do things the way she wants so that they can complete their objective and get out with a minimum of fuss or murder. Sure, one of the team is an assassin for the local mob, but that doesn't mean people have to die during their runs.
@@nightfall89z62 My GM is legit amazing. The "AT" in the quote is just some background group I made up for my character to explain where she got her training and what she'd been up to for the last 20 years, and he totally turned them into this world-spanning group with a shadowy agenda that was slowly taking over the world via social engineering and acting like the world's most neutral group that would get involved in treaty negotiations, hostage crises, and other situations where being a social adept would be really useful. :D
@@AndaraBledin that's great, always a good idea to incorporate backstory into you campaigns. My gm didn't really, and on every single job we had he made sure we were outgunned and outnumbered. Now I know it's essentially a game about people who don't exist doing jobs for entities under the table, but to me that shouldn't mean every job is pretty much suicide level of difficulty. Idk, maybe I misunderstood the environment and world of shadow run, but I was under the impression every story should be challenging but not overpowered...
@@nightfall89z62 There's 3 levels of Shadowrun gameplay: Pink Mohawk, Mirror Shades, and Black Trenchcoat. Sounds like your GM was of a BT mindset, where nearly every game has someone at least come close to getting geeked. Ours is more Mirror Shades. He likes setting up situations where things can go really bad if we're stupid or really unlucky, but for us, it's more about the storytelling than the dice rolling. He does his best to make it exciting, but not to the point of it being stressful. It's a lot of fun.
@@AndaraBledin sounds Like it. My gm also was strict and by the book, he knew it a lot better than I do, and could essentially quote virtually every rule by memory. Idk, I have all the shadowrun books, just haven't run a game with them in quite some time, not sure where I'd fit in that difficulty level scale, I'm not completely comfortable with the d6 system. It's a bit alien to me since I've really only played d&d with any frequency. Although white wolf's d10 system is very much the same as the d6 system, just with d10s instead. Also not the most comfortable with it. Takes time and practice.
My character is a bard/rogue who gives inspiration basically by saying "it's do or die" he can be nice (even then there are intimidating undertones) but most of the time he underlines the importance of not letting him down, implying that there would be consequences for failing to meet his expectations. But he has a dual personality, to the majority of people he is incredibly charming and an excellent musician.
Love that I asked about low charisma last week and this week you drop this, and it still answers what I was asking perfectly (just....oppositely). Thanks, Ginny!😀👍
One the characters I did a POV video for use charisma as just a force of nature I based them on hyacinth bucket from the British series Keeping up appearances. its just their force of will and disconnect from reality that force people to do what they want.
I feel like wisdom might need tips for the DM, since wisdom is so much about interpretation of people and animals, not having tunnel vision. So wisdom is kind of the DM to make stuff sound likely; "yeah, you all see a big bird suddenly taking off, but You dont get distracted and notices the shadow moving past the clearing."
I'm playing a charismatic rogue at the moment and the way I play him is I force myself to vamp in conversation. I throw as much complementary and flattering talk at the NPC as possible while also peppering in bits of information and stuff we need to know about or want to gain. He's a duplicitous scamp and his positivity throws people off, but in the sort of way where you can't SPECIFICALLY say why you don't trust him, and so, you let him keep going and maybe accidentally slip up and let him know information you were maybe keeping to yourself. So far it's worked I think largely because the DM is so unprepared for these conversational sprints.
As a human being, I have a very low Charisma score, but my new D&D character for an upcoming campaign has an 18 Charisma. I'm gonna be using this a lot lol--
I’ve found having good insight is always handy for high charisma characters, or at least having a friend in the party that has that skill. Its a lot easier to have a positive outcome to a convo if you have an idea what the NPC values are or what their goals are, and you can be alot more direct and less artful in your conversation.
A current character of mine has high charisma, but I suck at talking, myself, so I do something similar. I let the DM know this character will spend time talking to NPCs, to gain information from them or heighten their opinion of her or the party, and generally does this through becoming whatever it is they want her to be (an intellectual for a smart character, a curious childlike character interested in tall tales to someone who likes to brag, etc...). Effectively, she wears many masks and will swap for whomever it is she's trying to get herself endeared to at the time. I also emphasise to other players that during downtime, she will generally spend time with one of the characters, keenly interested in whatever it is they're doing, and sharing their passion with them (be it crafting, training, stories, whatever) and seemingly never getting bored.
Thank you! One of the many mistakes that DMs and players make with a Charisma check, is to make the player roleplay the check instead of rolling for the check. This video explains how you would, "charm" or "intimidate" or otherwise manipulate the NPC into being susceptible to the player's charisma.
Thank you. Charisma is the one stat I really have a hard time finding anything out about. Charism irl isn't something easily definable, apparently, and it doesn't just mean you're the life of the party. Eastwood and the Duke both had on-screen charisma, and they were totally different in their mannerisms both irl and on-screen. Snape certainly had charisma, which is weird because he's not the outgoing type but the sinister, creepy stalker type people are afraid of. So it's really hard to figure out for me.
One of the really fun ways to play a charismatic character is Elliot from Leverage. He does the 'pick up artist' type thing, only without being a jerk...and it's awesome/hilarious. So, he flatters women, listens to them, gives them good advice, and stays in contact with them, while being JUST seductive enough you can believe it. (The scene where he basically does a James Bond pastiche in the midseason redemption finale is HILARIOUS) "I'm a CIA agent. And...I went off book because I saw how beautiful you were." (Which works when it's a princess he's talking to...)
Also shows how to play "Low Charisma" well with the character of Parker, as she does it without being annoying. (As opposed to, say, JarJar, who overplays it. C3P0 is also a good example)
I agree with you so much on finding the midpoint. Unfortunately, a lot of role-play snob DMs don't. My worst experience was playing a Cha20 bard. I gave my rationale for persuading someone, even tried my best to give an idea of how my character would say it. The DM said ok, roll to see how you do. I rolled a 20, and he said I failed because my role-playing wasn't convincing. This was a combination of two things: he had me roll when I couldn't succeed (eliminating the illusion of agency) and he expected me (the player) to somehow be supernaturally charming. So basically I wasn't allowed to pretend to be someone more charming than me. Needless to say, I never played with that DM again. But I've also never wanted to play a bard again because so many people out there defend this DM's behavior. It also really scared me away from ever trying to role-play if I'm just going to be told I'm not good enough.
One thing I'd love to see covered is how to roleplay and lean into your dump stat! I've got a barbarian with a really low wisdom, and it's been hard to figure out.. like... what that actually means. I've experimented with like, man baby who doesn't have the brain capacity to understand complexity and nuance. But that wasn't fun at all. Now im experimenting with him being kind and just a big doofus. And also, insatiably curious. Constantly asking questions to the magic users and just trying so hard to understand the world around him. We will see where I end up, but I just thought it might be a fun set of videos! How to roleplay your lowest ability scores and enjoy that being their flaw. Finding ways to expand and make it a fun part of the game :)
One of my characters (a half elf ranger) has a high charisma despite the fact she generally dislikes interacting with people and is rather quiet (I really just wanted to play a character that was different from my bards) but she's good at articulating her thoughts and opinions in a way that makes them sound appealing to others (proficiency in persuasion) and she's quite strategic (pretty high intelligence and high wisdom because I rolled extremely well) Her backstory involves living in a forest basically her whole life with her two older siblings (one of whom my brother plays in the same campaign) alternating between looking after her and taking jobs in the city to earn some money for food because their mother died when my character was 3, her older brother (half elf fighter played by my brother) was 9 and their older sister (half elf cleric maybe?) was 12ish. So obviously it started off with the sister going to do jobs whilst the younger two stay at the camp with whatever they managed to get from their house and she was eventually left at the camp while both siblings went to the city they'd sometimes bring her back books and knickknacks they'd acquired eventually she got her hands on one of her sibling's bows and she found she had a natural tallent for archery and decided to hone her skills because she'd overheard her siblings talking about what food they were going to get she also asked if they could get her a book on plants. Her older siblings came back one day to her cooking a stew with the edible plants she'd found and some meat she'd been able to hunt. She later learned to use a herbalism kit to make healing potions and other medicines and woodcarver's tools to make her own arrows her siblings eventually got her a longbow and her ability to procure sufficient food took a huge burden off of them and she sometimes goes into the city to sell some of the things she acquires while hunting to buy books on different monsters as well as equipment and supplies for herself and some things she's heard her siblings mention liking or needing
I love my 18 CHA edgelord Tiefling Noble GOOlock. First character I ever made, and I made sure to set aside an excel sheet with mannerisms, phrases and vocabulary he might use, as well as a long list of really, really bad jokes for when he uses Tasha's Hideous Laughter.
One of my favorite charisma-based characters to play was a himbo. Awkward and non-too-bright, but sincere and endearing. I also played a super-fluffy bard/rogue tabaxi with dwarfism, in which I played my charisma as being so cute I could convince people to do just about anything. (Threatening an NPC to do something, who instead of being scared found it adorable and played along anyways)
There's one thing as a DM that I'd actually suggest to make your players' roleplay easier: take a page from Disco Elysium's book. For those who don't know, Disco Elysium is a very narrative videogame that has a RPG-like skill system, with the twist that the skills all represent different aspects of your protagonist's personality, and give him suggestions and pointers on how to act. Now, I'm not saying that you need to roleplay an entire ecosystem of voices in your characters' head, but one thing you could do if they succeed a persuasion roll would be giving them some insight in the character they're talking to. Have them realize by, idk, the way they stand or some subtle clues on their face something about their personality that they can leverage to convince them to do what they want. They could realize that the bandit has some kind of sense of honor underneath it all by the way his voice wavers a little when he recounts some of his criminal adventures, or that the politician is worried underneath his confident façade (and with a good success, they could even realize WHAT he's worried about). It's not always applicable, but it's always a nice way to push yourself to characterize NPCs and add a certain dimension to roleplay that isn't very common in most groups.
Love this one! It seems to be a the reasonable follow-up to the high int video. I've never actually played a charisma based character and need to do so eventually... it's on my bucket list! One minor gripe I have with dnd is how intimidate is charisma based... I can sort of see the reasoning behind it, but strength would make more sense in my view. I think real life intimidation is some of both, but is certainly a different skill than persuasion.
I disagree!! There are so many ways to be intimidating that aren't related to physical strength. Some people even find me intimidating, and I'm a little five-foot-two bundle of toothpicks!
Intimidation doesn't necessarily need to be a physical thing. There are dozens of antagonists in media who are physically weak themselves but are intimidating because of the way they talk and the power they wield. Think of a Mafia boss saying "nice place you got here; be a shame if anything were to happen to it". The boss doesn't need to be physically intimidating themselves when they have people that can do the work for them.
Intimidation is more about having the ability and confidence to make believable -- and sometimes inventive! -- threats. Which would you find more intimidating: the big, musclebound guy who looks at you with a half-hearted growl, or the little, weaselly one who talks with great relish and detail about breaking into your home and skinning your child alive? That said, when a player is making threats based on brute force, DMs should probably lower the DC or have them roll with advantage if they have high Strength.
@@GinnyDi I see where you are coming from but just have very mixed feelings about this... It kind of goes both ways. I'd give Steven Colbert or John Oliver as examples of people who I think are INCREDIBLY charismatic and persuasive but not really intimidating at all... ...pretty ladies are intimidating in a different way! haha. That said, some actors are probably better at acting tough and intimidating than many athletes, so I see it both ways.
@@bigdream_dreambig RIGHT! I see this going both ways... If a fight is about to happen, and they are trying to intimidate me into not fighting, I'd be more scared of a huge ogre than a tiny person who I think is just a tough talker. But Charisma also matters, I won't deny that.
On the total opposite end of the spectrum, consider how you would play a LOW charisma character. It doesn't mean you're just silent all the time. Maybe your character stutters, speaks at a strange volume, doesn't speak Common particularly well, or just isn't noticeably practiced at the kind of interaction they are attempting. I played a Gnome with an accent so thick people simply couldn't understand his Common, but if he wrote it down you could see he was a very bright mind, this is what I did with my 6 Charisma.
So much this. Playing an ace Bard and, at first, it confused the Hell out of the rest of the party because I am NOT attempting to seduce anything and everything that moves (He's in it for the music and just trying to make it to the next performance - playing the war horn as a Goliath)
I do enjoy the challenge of high WIS high CHAR and actually role playing it. Manipulating the NPC's personality and desires...but it's exhausting and if someone doesn't naturally have that insight and way with words, this is wonderful advice!
Also, probably most important of all, Charisma doesn’t necessarily mean you’re good at talking to people. For example, you might not be nearly as charming as you think you are, but you are always the first in your party to approach a new NPC. I kinda feel like Charisma is willpower if that makes sense
I have the problem that I'm naturally pretty charismatic and it always bleeds through into my characters. Talking and thinking is how I solve problems in real life, and it's hard to turn that off for me
I love role-playing the more endearing and innocent type of Charisma. It makes when I do something decidedly not innocent and endearing that much more terrifying (ie: intimidating tf out of a storyline's BBEG after viciously killing their lieutenant and approaching them while soaked in blood)
I like high charisma characters a lot. Its my favorite stat, though I'm not sure why. I guess because I like having positive relationships with npcs and doing things with style
My character has high charisma through lying... Literally ended up buying a spellbook (Which he doesn't even need) and all the bells and whistles for it and spent 40 platinum on it because he lied about it being a gift for the sister of the person he was with...and said person instantly got pissed off my character mentioned his sister...so they ended up picking the highest priced objects just to get him back. xD It was great.
If I'm playing a character with an evil alignment they alternate between charming and intimidating. They are manipulative and extremely dangerous. I usually play sorcerers. I use charisma to show that even in a situation where they can't use their magic they can still worm their way into people's heads. This led to the creation of one of the most effective evil characters' I played. He had a guild merchant background and was using his connections to financially back the party on their adventures. Playing the role of hero so the party would defeat other bad guys and eliminate his competition while he used his share of the money they got from adventuring to fund his own operations behind the scenes. This allowed him to maintain a good reputation with the general public so no one would believe any claims made against him. Unfortunately that game fell apart but had it continued he would have achieved his goal and the rest of the party would have helped him do it.
im playing a tiefling sorcerer who is like hot af and obviously scary looking but hes rly awkward and bad with words so my charisma is fully from him being hot and scary
This is a great video, but off topic, I giggled when the tavern example came up, because the DM I have most played with often makes the tavern owners retired adventurers or otherwise having damn high stats. I've fought a Lich, but I would not want to go up against a tavern owner in their own bar XD
At this point because I cannot stop playing charisma-based spellcasters, I started basing the Brand of charisma on characters I like. Like, I have two sorcerers, one based on Jonathan Joestar (very polite and gentlemanly charisma) and Joseph Joestar (sly, deceptive charisma and also kind of an asshole-high WIS though). The bard I'm playing right now couldn't get the fictional charisma treatment, so she's just endearingly awkward.
My sorcerer (if I ever get to play him) was recently self-emancipated from a state of slavery, so his charisma comes not from confidence, but from being so beaten down and afraid that nobody would think he could be lying. Also he is terrified of chains.
I have a challenge, a friendly idea, could you do how to roleplay a high dexterity score, since how would you even roleplay someone with dexterity lol I think it could be cool to see
"Roleplaying high str doesnt mean you lift weights at the table" well, once i actually had to, i was playing a big, strong paladin, had no healing left and 2 party members were down, so i tried to move them at the same time. The dm told me it was impossible, i told him if i could do that OOC then my pc could, and proceeded to lift 2 other players at the same time
(to be fair i picked the smallest ppl of our group lol)
Thats why you always play with a variety of body shapes/sizes. RP gets easier if you can physically demonstrate.
I know a guy (DM) who told his players they can't throw a grenade into small shaft opening after briefly peeping behind the corner (without getting under the fire). His player went out of the room, told him to position wherever in the room he wanted - then he peeped in for just split of the second through the door, got back behind the wall, peeped for even shorter split of a second again and hit him almost blindly with a tennis ball in the middle of his forehead. Needless to say, grenade was then thrown into the shaft without any further problems :D
I'd've asked the DM to prove it was possible to cast whatever spells it was that downed the 2 PCs in the first place. If they couldn't, then I guess those PCs are okay, right?
@@sirien.neiris definitively hard but not impossible, that requires some skills, that dude was a serious marksman
@@rex4229 Actually peaking and then popping back out in the same spot is a great way to get killed and it is specifically taught to not do that. They won't be able to react the first time, but will have their weapon pointed where you were and ready to shoot if you pop up there again
what i do when rping something i'm not is i find a character in media that has the trait im looking for and channel their energy instead of my own when playing. i think a lot of times people think "what would *I* do in this situation if i was like my character" or otherwise try to look inward for answers. but, if i instead think along the lines of "what would [existing character similar to your pc] do in this situation," i usually come up with much better ideas, and then i'm able to modify those ideas to better fit my character. and eventually, you become more comfortable in your character's mindset and you're actually able to think "what would my character do" and come up with good answers!
This is confusing: A book on Method Acting as thought of by Stanislavsky that I currently read suggests to ask yourself: "If is am in these circumstances, imagined as if they ar real, what do I do intuitively, unpremeditatedly, in response to them in this moment?" (J. Gillet). Granted, we are not acting in DnD, and not studying acting, but I think this is more intuitive and directly connected to our intuition than intermitting another character ides in the picture. On the other hand, I think it is a very good source of inspiration to really perceive how different people and characters act and react to their cirumstances :)
@@kullen2042 Did you just correct someone’s helpful suggestion by quoting a book on acting? As if this is an actual science and there’s an actual right answer? What a joy you must be at a table. In the words of Stanislavsky himself: “Create your own method. Don't depend slavishly on mine. Make up something that will work for you! But keep breaking traditions, I beg you.”
You can do better! You can add to the conversation without tearing down others next time. You can share your experience without belittling others’. I believe in you. You can contribute without insisting everyone with a different idea is wrong 😊
@@notcompletelynormal I did not mean to say, that OP's way of doing stuff is wrong, I explicitly said, that TTRPGs are not acting ;) And I started my reply by what my intention was: I was confused 🤷♀️
@@notcompletelynormal I feel like your comment war uncalled for. Kullen just brought up a different perspective and I don't think it came off as "belittling" at all. Though I feel like your comment: "You can do better!" comes off as very condescending. You probably didn't mean it that way, but that sentence is usually used in a rather passive aggressive manner.
I appreciate both OPs and Kullens insights, they were super interesting!
It seems so obvious now that I think about it, but that's such a good idea. I'm totally stealing it next time I'm RPing at the table, thanks.
I’ve got a character who I like to think of as subtly charming/intimidating. He’s generally chill, gives compliments and exudes cool but he’s also a 6”5 dogfolk with a gun. If I want to intimidate someone I’d do it with a grin and a semi chill “well, we wouldn’t wanna do that, would we?” tone. He’s generally reasonable and quite emotionally intelligent and I like playing that in a high cha character
“Work with your DM” she said.
“But I am the DM” Pagliacci cried.
Don't be afraid to get inspiration from other media. Role-playing is all about experimenting, so if you heard a line in a movie once, go ahead and try it out if you think it fits the character
yeah, seriously, people should really embrace this. MY last villain in a one-shot was basically just the Duke from Moulin Rouge while the current villain in my ongoing campaign is plagiarizing Richard Griffiths performance as King George in PIRATES 4 (I passionately loath that movie including the King George scene, but the template was perfect for my bumbling politician character)
Thats good advise in general.
Shamelessly steal from other stuff you like.
Esspecially if nobody else at the table knows about it.
So useful! This is something I struggle with as someone who loves Bards, but is not a natural showman.
I remember once I wanted to be able to tell jokes (be funny) so I went with quantity over quality it took me several years, my jokes were horrid but eventually I learned and weeded out the unfunny ones.
For a bard/jester character maybe start an insult collection?
I'll just play are bard who is also a mime
@@sixoffcenter80 when asked why you don't talk you could communicate "I was taught if one can't say something nice don't say it at all."
Well keep in mind that bards (well, depending on the individual) are not always showmen. The bard class can extend anywhere from the showman to a con artist to a friend who always knows just what to say. A Bard's charisma is just anything that people find endearing about them enough to care. Maybe they're earnest and genuine, maybe they're admittedly underprepared for their situation and you admire their honesty and humility (and maybe their attitude) or maybe they express such confidence in your abilities that you want to prove them right, even if their demeanor may be threatening to you (think Azula. Terrifying but inspiring.)
There's really no right way to play a bard, we're just those likeable chaps that are either loved or drive people up the wall 😂
@@marvelousmaker I am in love with this conceptual rude mime
Honestly, I'm so glad you mentioned the awkward but charismatic thing. I tried that once with a character, and it was received SUPER well. One of the players in our group was a very happy and excitable type, and she was trying to play a hardened badass type character, and she kept breaking character to point out how bad she felt that she had to be so cold to my character. Super gratifying as a player to have a character received so well.
I love the awkward but endearing type of charisma! I think that's an easy way to step into a higher charisma character, because you can bumble and stutter all you need, but the other person will still probably find you cute or approachable.
omg that's my druid rn! ik a druid with a high charisma is weird but half elf changed things lmao. anyways my druid is very curious and more persuasive than intimidating. if there was no charismatic character at the table, shed be the next in line.
also i gave her a high charisma cause it was at first a 14 where her intelligence and wisdom were both 15, but half elf gives plus 2 charisma so she got 16 charisma instead. she is my favourite cursed druid. it also matches her character better anyway!
this is my me with my aarakocra rogue! i totally leaned into the whole 'bird people act like birds' so he's always clicking and chattering and isnt the brightest - he isnt very good at stealing, but he is very good at sneaking around and acting shady!
Funny, thats me in real life actually.
You said “threatening to burn down his tavern” way happier then any other phrase in your explanation
XD 🔥
People always think it’s all or nothing when you’re going to rp a conversation, especially persuasion. But the mid point you described is absolutely just as acceptable and can easily be a jumping off point for those who are more shy or timid and don’t know what to say when the DM asks you how you persuade them. Definitely something to keep in mind so I can advise folks in the future.
I love how half of this is ‘how to have a semblance of Charisma in real life’
Now I just need some tips on dex…
physical stats should be easier? or does your DM make you do a backflip on to the table?
@@SendohJin that would be the most baller entrance ever
imma remind them of our continuous patronage while casting produce flame, got it
Someone is channeling Nixie from 1 for All!
This is actually good advice, ty
I haven't seen any advice content from ginny's channel that is not good advice, some stuff I already knew, and a couple things that didn't exactly fit my play style, but nothing that was bad advice.
Some other members of my party keep leaving NPC interaction to my character as she comes off as more of a people person than they are. She does in fact have the highest charisma score and is the most willing to just go up to people and start talking. I tend to get nervous about it because I'm pretty awkward and never know if I'm saying the right thing, but I remind myself that in actuality my character's social skills aren't any better than mine, she doesn't have much experience with non-hostile social interaction in her life and is really just very driven to kind of fake it 'til she makes it when it comes to this sort of thing. So honestly it works out fine. XD
The approach I take is to plan as much as possible. As a bard I have everything I want to do for inspiration planned out in advance. What comes naturally to my character takes work for me.
“I intimidate the shopkeeper by casting produce flame and threatening to burn down his tavern” She says casually wielding a lit torch
My current high charisma/intelligence character has been convincing orcs and goblins to help us with being cute and having baked goods on hands at all times. Did i mention she is a rouge?
Does she also happen to worship The Traveller? lol
@@grandlancercuchulainn1509 Yes, now that I know that exists and I looked it up
This is how my wizard makes friends as well. "Bribe them with food" works really well for players and characters with social anxiety.
@@Akurokuma Oh that's really cool!
She’s like little red riding hood
For about twenty sessions now, I've been playing a bard whose previous occupation was working as an envoy or representative for her noble house (She is the daughter of a duke and duchess). How exactly this relates to her being a Bard is a long story so I won't go into detail, but essentially, her charisma may partially be a result of her being, wel... *gorgeous*... But she's not very seductive or anything. It's mostly just that she's just an all-round delight to talk to. She's well-spoken, polite (unless you REALLY make her mad, which is quite hard), honest and as reasonable as she can be (pertaining to things like accepting new ideas or even accepting that she may have been wrong). This also leads to her earning the respect of those around her, which also adds up to her general presence and force of personality.
That's not entirely her own doing of course, because she's been trained at the art of intrigue, eloquence and etiquette since she was a teenager, but it's not as if she's actually unreasonable, childish and evil on the inside or something.
Just trying to contribute to the whole 'how many different ways are there to roleplay charisma' thing. Thanks for reading, and have a great day.
@Michael Denison That sounds really great! The social exposure during congregations part is actually a really interesting take, might use that too if I ever want to play a divine caster. I don't think I've ever played a character who was a true soldier -- the closest I got was my Drow wizard who was a medic in a Drow raiding party before he was left for dead on the surface, but he wasn't very well versed in military matters. Might consider doing that at one point
Also, your paladin being handsome and having lots of people fall for him is actually a funny coincidence -- My bard is in a way the opposite of that. She tries her best to keep a cool head all the time and be collected and calm, but one of the things that trips her up is the fact that whenever someone's attractive, she gets more than a little weak in the knees :')
And my bard also tries her best to be kind to everyone, though with her it's also due to the fact that if she's being particularly harsh, it actually hurts people (Vicious Mockery) and she doesn't want that. To quickly give context, her bardic magic works through her voice instead of an instrument, so she has to be really careful with what she says.
Unlike your Paladin though, my bard really isn't that good at leading. She's a diplomat, so she has no real military/combat experience. She struggles with self doubt and is very afraid to make the wrong decision and let her friends/allies down. Funnily enough though, with a 14 in both Int and Wis, which isn't that much, she is still the smartest person in the party... So she's sometimes forced to be the voice of reason and the planner anyway :')
Thanks for sharing by the way! I'm always interested in learning about other people's characters :)
What kind of paladin is your character, if I may ask?
@Michael Denison I did actually see the previous message, and the more detailed backstory. He sounds like a really cool character! I liked the description about the multi-stage propaganda campaign the king had planned (iirc?) that your character caught onto just in time and the whole thing you told me about where he needs to keep the fact that he used to be in the inner circle of the king a secret to his new allies. Characters with similar secrets are entirely my thing. And as a DM, propaganda/cult/brainwashing stuff is also something I've been interested in lately. So, good taste :)
I also do like characters who do the right thing because it's the right thing. Like, doing good doesn't have to be complex, it can just be 'I do that because I just feel like that's the right thing to do'. Not that I dislike more morally complex characters, I really really like them, but there can be a certain elegance in simplicity. I also like the take of a paladin who's mainly a healer. It never occurred to me that you can play paladin as something else than a dps-type character. Might try that myself one day too. I also remember liking the sound of your Paladin's name, but I can't quite remember what it was...
I'm sorry for not responding to the earlier message by the way. After I had read it, it just somehow slipped my mind to actually respond.
Regardless, thanks for sharing :)
@Michael Denison I guess I'll return the favour. My bard Valerie is a Tiefling, and she was the only member of her family to be born one. As I mentioned in an earlier message she's the daughter of a duke and duchess, so this caused at least some medium controversy in her region.
Early during her childhood, it became clear that Valerie 'wasn't like other people', so to speak, in more than just appearance. Whenever she spoke, people tended to listen. Whenever she commanded anyone, they had a hard time trying to ignore her command. Whenever she sang a lullaby, people seemed to grow tired and fall asleep around her.
She was sort of a cryptid child. Though she wasn't exactly 'hidden away from the world', Valerie didn't leave her family castle very often, and didn't have many friends. The friends she did have slowly left because of sometimes unforeseen consequences of these strange powers of hers. She once got mad at a friend, and Vicious Mockery nearly killed her.
This is why Valerie grew to fear her own powers. Besides learning etiquette and the art of (public) speaking, she learned to be very careful with how she expressed herself, so that she wouldn't accidentally hurt or mind-control someone. Eventually, this worked. Her powers caused less and less problems, and she could finally start to interact with the other nobility of her nation. However, as Valerie was a Tiefling in a word where devils are feared and shrouded in mystery, she and her parents had to spend more than the first two years to finally convince the majority of nobles that she wasn't some manipulative demon child who was out to get them.
When that had succeeded however, Valerie quickly adapted to the new social environment. She proved an eloquent speaker and insightful thinker, and as she was the daughter (and often representative) of the duke and duchess of one of her nation's most prosperous and strategically important regions, she quickly started to gain both more respect and more responsibilities. This caused her to start to almost obsess over learning how to do anything that might become relevant. Besides her usual hobby of reading about all manner of interesting topics, she learned the basics of fencing, strategy, history, governance, and even theoretical arcana. As the eldest child and probable future heir, she really started to fear being judged for any lack of competence she might have. This is also where her general uptightness and unease with showing emotions comes from. The social rules of her nation's nobility are quite strict after all.
In the campaign itself however, the party members are from different realities. They have been sucked into a hostile fire plane in a different reality, originally to serve as battle slaves for an evil fire emperor, but they escaped with the help of a rebellion. They are now trying their best to survive and find a way to get back to their home realities. Which is a situation she really struggles to deal with, because combat and stealth and this kind of hardship are the opposite of what she's used to. The campaign has been going for quite long, so she's definitely learned to adapt better by now, but it's still hard for her.
Thanks for reading, I hope this huge rant isn't a problem. I tend to be a little too wordy in my descriptions. I'll try to explain her mechanics too.
@Michael Denison Valerie is mainly a support, but she can deal some AoE damage if necessary. She's a college of the Mindwhisperer bard, which is a subclass I made myself. I don't know if it's balanced, but it's definitely not brutally OP. It's mainly focused on her voice, and the psychic ability which is the secret drive behind her powers. Instead of normally using Bardic Inspiration, she can spend an inspiration die to essentially cast Bless on five people for one round without using concentration. She can also cast Command and Suggestion without somatic components using charges of her 6th level ability. Her stats are:
Str 6
Dex 16
Con 11
Int 14
Wis 14
Cha 20
And yes, a six in Strength. She's definitely fast, not extraordinarily unresilient either, but basically any enemy is going to overpower her in terms of physical strength. Her main strength though is her mental stats. She has a lot of mental skill proficiencies, and expertise in Persuasion and Insight because of being a representative for her house.
In any case, she focuses on buffs and healing, but she does have one or two damage spells and also uses her rapier and hand crossbow in combat. And she's relatively smart and level headed, and it's good that she is, because the rest of the party... Well, not all of them are just stupid, but they're average at best.
Thanks for reading all this. And have a nice day
@Michael Denison Thank you! I agree, our characters do sound like they could be good friends or at least friendly acquaintances if they ever met. I always love crossovers :)
I will say, Valerie's powers can be more than just control and a few hit points of psychic damage. One of the things that's recently been coming up about Valerie is that her powers are getting more and more unstable. As I mentioned in the previous message, her powers are sourced from an innate psychic ability. While her usual spells (think things like healing word, dissonant whispers, suggestion) are driven by her voice, her psychic power is driven by her emotions, and recently she went through a very traumatic event that has made her somewhat mentally unstable. If Valerie is particularly upset and, let's say, something terrifies her or makes her very angry, she might instinctually lash out using her psionic power, even though she normally has no way to control it. In fact, whenever she uses psionics, she becomes ever so slightly unhinged and monstrous. Thin, glowing magenta markings sprawl over her horns (she has four) and head, her irises start glowing in the same colour, and her sclera turn black. She essentially has an 'overpowered angry side', similar to the avatar state from At:la if you're familiar, and she can't really control it. She has a homebrew spell which is a powerful Psychic AoE attack, comparable in power level to Fireball, which she can (not mechanically, just in the roleplay sense) only use in this state.
Actually, I have no clue why I went on this rant. Your character would never be on the receiving end of this, or at least he sounds too nice for that. So yeah, I think they could really get along :) Though Valerie does tend to blame herself for lots of stuff, so she'd probably still feel bad even if your paladin managed to shrug off what she'd (accidentally) do.
And also, yeah cantrips are really useful. Valerie has four cantrips, one of which is homebrew (it's not that complicated, essentially just Minor Illusion but only one creature can see it because it's projected into their minds. That makes it weaker, so it has some minor extra functions to make up for it). She has Prestidigitation, which is one of her staples. She uses it as instant makeup (because it can create markings on any surface) and Valerie is also a neat freak so she constantly uses it to dust the ash of the fire plane off of her clothes :")
Apart from that she just has Friends--which she understandably never uses, because it's a very situational cantrip, but she got it because she's a Tiefling of Fierna--and Vicious Mockery, which she also rarely uses because she's generally too polite to verbally lash out at random enemies. There are a few enemies she truly detests at this point though, so... perhaps in the future.
Thanks again for sharing the story about your character by the way. In my experience it's really rare to have a nice conversation in a TH-cam comments section :')
As someone with the natural charisma of a fancy rock (and a love of paladins), Thank. You!
At least, geologists must love you! :)
Fancy rocks give advantage on what lot of people deem as one of the most important questions to ask in life so I'd say you're not that bad off!
@@sadrainy 🤔 Maybe I'm being dense, but what question would that be?
@@bigdream_dreambig Proposal with a fancy ring(rock) and it wasn't my best joke, admittedly. I will blame it being like 1am when I made it.
@@sadrainy If it makes you feel any better, in hindsight I do feel dense. 💍
I have a bbeg who is is a friendly villain. He threatens their life and their family but will talk with them and discuss agreements. If he's in the mood. He's a mastermind, 20 cha. 24 int. That stuff. Always fun to rp as him.
Oh I love that midway point. Really strikes a good balance for those who don't like to role play but as a DM I need to know how you're doing it.
As a low Wisdom Human myself, I look forward to your high Wisdom character tips
My fallback for high wisdom is to tap my chin and say, "Hmm. This requires some group input."
Now I’m imagining a Kimmy Schmidt character that is daffy and endearing, but also prone to flashes of intense anger.
I'm currently playing my very first DnD campaign, and I rolled a high *everything* so these shorts are pretty helpful.
Hopefully you're enjoying you first campaign.
Love the shirt
I love your short and sweet vids, straight to the point with great and useful info.
Awkward charisma is soooooo much fun
I have a character that is both more charismatic and smarter than I am, and she is quite fun.
The system is Shadowrun, and the character is an Elven Social Adept. Her natural charisma is maxed and she's also got a pile of talents and traits that further enhance her ability to sway people. Another character who met her had this thought upon meeting her and getting hugged: "She moved like a dancer, spoke like an emcee, had the accent of an AT witch, but greeted her with the warmth of an old friend returned from a long absence. And she was wearing body armor."
It's a ton of fun figuring out what sort of coercion is the best choice in any given situation. Our last job, the mage got himself spotted on a scout, so he gave the security lead that caught him one of her burner numbers to make contact. So, MC chatted the other woman up a bit while the tech of the team infiltrated her comm to get intel, which she then used to soft blackmail the woman into doing their job for them. Of course, the GM couldn't let things go that easy, so as we're about to make our getaway, no one the wiser, a blood mage attacks the site for another object and we step in to stop the carnage, MC using a fake ID to act like she was with the local contract police force, going so far as to call the situation in to them.
She's used intel, her sex appeal, fast talking, her ability to be utterly arctic, and when necessary the threat of her team to get people to do things the way she wants so that they can complete their objective and get out with a minimum of fuss or murder. Sure, one of the team is an assassin for the local mob, but that doesn't mean people have to die during their runs.
Sounds like a really fun character. Hopefully your gm for shadowing is better than the one I had...
@@nightfall89z62 My GM is legit amazing. The "AT" in the quote is just some background group I made up for my character to explain where she got her training and what she'd been up to for the last 20 years, and he totally turned them into this world-spanning group with a shadowy agenda that was slowly taking over the world via social engineering and acting like the world's most neutral group that would get involved in treaty negotiations, hostage crises, and other situations where being a social adept would be really useful. :D
@@AndaraBledin that's great, always a good idea to incorporate backstory into you campaigns. My gm didn't really, and on every single job we had he made sure we were outgunned and outnumbered. Now I know it's essentially a game about people who don't exist doing jobs for entities under the table, but to me that shouldn't mean every job is pretty much suicide level of difficulty. Idk, maybe I misunderstood the environment and world of shadow run, but I was under the impression every story should be challenging but not overpowered...
@@nightfall89z62 There's 3 levels of Shadowrun gameplay: Pink Mohawk, Mirror Shades, and Black Trenchcoat.
Sounds like your GM was of a BT mindset, where nearly every game has someone at least come close to getting geeked.
Ours is more Mirror Shades. He likes setting up situations where things can go really bad if we're stupid or really unlucky, but for us, it's more about the storytelling than the dice rolling. He does his best to make it exciting, but not to the point of it being stressful. It's a lot of fun.
@@AndaraBledin sounds Like it. My gm also was strict and by the book, he knew it a lot better than I do, and could essentially quote virtually every rule by memory.
Idk, I have all the shadowrun books, just haven't run a game with them in quite some time, not sure where I'd fit in that difficulty level scale, I'm not completely comfortable with the d6 system. It's a bit alien to me since I've really only played d&d with any frequency. Although white wolf's d10 system is very much the same as the d6 system, just with d10s instead. Also not the most comfortable with it. Takes time and practice.
Nice shirt, Ginny! Love the pastel pink!
Communism is not the way.
"C'mon baby, eat the rich, bite down on the son of a bitch" - Lemmy
Incredibly helpful advice! As a first time player, I really struggle with this.
Thank you, Ginny
I love how happy she is when she talks, so wholesome
My character is a bard/rogue who gives inspiration basically by saying "it's do or die" he can be nice (even then there are intimidating undertones) but most of the time he underlines the importance of not letting him down, implying that there would be consequences for failing to meet his expectations. But he has a dual personality, to the majority of people he is incredibly charming and an excellent musician.
How to roleplay a character with a higher Charisma score than you--by someone with CHA-20.
I love your shirt and videos.
Love that I asked about low charisma last week and this week you drop this, and it still answers what I was asking perfectly (just....oppositely). Thanks, Ginny!😀👍
One the characters I did a POV video for use charisma as just a force of nature I based them on hyacinth bucket from the British series Keeping up appearances. its just their force of will and disconnect from reality that force people to do what they want.
Ohhh. That is such a good model.
@@otherlaine thanks their are so many different ways to use charisma.
„Somebody has to tell them…“ - „Don‘t you dare!“
Im dumb and accidentally stopped reading at “How to RP a High” and that’d be a hilarious and totally different video
Mr. Spicoli has been kind enough to bring us a snack. Be my guest. Help yourselves. Get a good one.
everyone after the druid hands out 'special herbs'
really looking forward to see how to roleplay Wisedom
Ikr. I'm curious to see what some of the tips are for that
Wonder if she'll follow tips on roleplaying your dumpstat after.
I feel like wisdom might need tips for the DM, since wisdom is so much about interpretation of people and animals, not having tunnel vision. So wisdom is kind of the DM to make stuff sound likely; "yeah, you all see a big bird suddenly taking off, but You dont get distracted and notices the shadow moving past the clearing."
Constantly ask the DM "Is this a good/ bad idea?"
Love the shirt :)
I'm playing a charismatic rogue at the moment and the way I play him is I force myself to vamp in conversation. I throw as much complementary and flattering talk at the NPC as possible while also peppering in bits of information and stuff we need to know about or want to gain. He's a duplicitous scamp and his positivity throws people off, but in the sort of way where you can't SPECIFICALLY say why you don't trust him, and so, you let him keep going and maybe accidentally slip up and let him know information you were maybe keeping to yourself.
So far it's worked I think largely because the DM is so unprepared for these conversational sprints.
I'm getting ready to play a new bard and this is just what I needed. Thank you!
As a human being, I have a very low Charisma score, but my new D&D character for an upcoming campaign has an 18 Charisma. I'm gonna be using this a lot lol--
I’ve found having good insight is always handy for high charisma characters, or at least having a friend in the party that has that skill. Its a lot easier to have a positive outcome to a convo if you have an idea what the NPC values are or what their goals are, and you can be alot more direct and less artful in your conversation.
My new character's a bard and charisma is his highest stat! This is great timing
Intimidation is when persuasion chooses violence.
How to play high Charisma... Be Ginny.
Thank you, i have the charisma of a rock but i always play sorcerers and warlocks with high charisma so this helps
A current character of mine has high charisma, but I suck at talking, myself, so I do something similar.
I let the DM know this character will spend time talking to NPCs, to gain information from them or heighten their opinion of her or the party, and generally does this through becoming whatever it is they want her to be (an intellectual for a smart character, a curious childlike character interested in tall tales to someone who likes to brag, etc...).
Effectively, she wears many masks and will swap for whomever it is she's trying to get herself endeared to at the time.
I also emphasise to other players that during downtime, she will generally spend time with one of the characters, keenly interested in whatever it is they're doing, and sharing their passion with them (be it crafting, training, stories, whatever) and seemingly never getting bored.
Really really like these tips for soft skills! Thanks Ginny!
Thank you! One of the many mistakes that DMs and players make with a Charisma check, is to make the player roleplay the check instead of rolling for the check. This video explains how you would, "charm" or "intimidate" or otherwise manipulate the NPC into being susceptible to the player's charisma.
Shades of charisma, very cool.
I always think of charisma as “social intelligence” that way people dont think it means your a bubbly chearleader only
Ooh! I like this!
@@MonkeyJedi99 yeah i think reading social cues, and having strong empathy can be a big part of a persons likability.
I love this. I shared it with my group
Thank you. Charisma is the one stat I really have a hard time finding anything out about. Charism irl isn't something easily definable, apparently, and it doesn't just mean you're the life of the party. Eastwood and the Duke both had on-screen charisma, and they were totally different in their mannerisms both irl and on-screen. Snape certainly had charisma, which is weird because he's not the outgoing type but the sinister, creepy stalker type people are afraid of. So it's really hard to figure out for me.
Please do wisdom! I’m playing a high wisdom Druid and my campaign starts really soon!
Trying to figure out my high-charisma Rivendell elf girl for One Ring is the bane of my life XD So this is super helpful
My character who's just sass and a sorceress: hey.
Would be great to get all your thoughts on this in a full video
love the shirt! :)
One of the really fun ways to play a charismatic character is Elliot from Leverage. He does the 'pick up artist' type thing, only without being a jerk...and it's awesome/hilarious.
So, he flatters women, listens to them, gives them good advice, and stays in contact with them, while being JUST seductive enough you can believe it. (The scene where he basically does a James Bond pastiche in the midseason redemption finale is HILARIOUS)
"I'm a CIA agent. And...I went off book because I saw how beautiful you were." (Which works when it's a princess he's talking to...)
Also shows how to play "Low Charisma" well with the character of Parker, as she does it without being annoying. (As opposed to, say, JarJar, who overplays it. C3P0 is also a good example)
Love the shirt lol
"Eat the Rich" :D
I agree with you so much on finding the midpoint. Unfortunately, a lot of role-play snob DMs don't.
My worst experience was playing a Cha20 bard. I gave my rationale for persuading someone, even tried my best to give an idea of how my character would say it. The DM said ok, roll to see how you do. I rolled a 20, and he said I failed because my role-playing wasn't convincing.
This was a combination of two things: he had me roll when I couldn't succeed (eliminating the illusion of agency) and he expected me (the player) to somehow be supernaturally charming. So basically I wasn't allowed to pretend to be someone more charming than me.
Needless to say, I never played with that DM again. But I've also never wanted to play a bard again because so many people out there defend this DM's behavior. It also really scared me away from ever trying to role-play if I'm just going to be told I'm not good enough.
One thing I'd love to see covered is how to roleplay and lean into your dump stat!
I've got a barbarian with a really low wisdom, and it's been hard to figure out.. like... what that actually means.
I've experimented with like, man baby who doesn't have the brain capacity to understand complexity and nuance. But that wasn't fun at all.
Now im experimenting with him being kind and just a big doofus. And also, insatiably curious. Constantly asking questions to the magic users and just trying so hard to understand the world around him.
We will see where I end up, but I just thought it might be a fun set of videos! How to roleplay your lowest ability scores and enjoy that being their flaw. Finding ways to expand and make it a fun part of the game :)
such great advice!
I feel like threatening the barkeep will get you poisoned
One of my characters (a half elf ranger) has a high charisma despite the fact she generally dislikes interacting with people and is rather quiet (I really just wanted to play a character that was different from my bards) but she's good at articulating her thoughts and opinions in a way that makes them sound appealing to others (proficiency in persuasion) and she's quite strategic (pretty high intelligence and high wisdom because I rolled extremely well)
Her backstory involves living in a forest basically her whole life with her two older siblings (one of whom my brother plays in the same campaign) alternating between looking after her and taking jobs in the city to earn some money for food because their mother died when my character was 3, her older brother (half elf fighter played by my brother) was 9 and their older sister (half elf cleric maybe?) was 12ish. So obviously it started off with the sister going to do jobs whilst the younger two stay at the camp with whatever they managed to get from their house and she was eventually left at the camp while both siblings went to the city they'd sometimes bring her back books and knickknacks they'd acquired eventually she got her hands on one of her sibling's bows and she found she had a natural tallent for archery and decided to hone her skills because she'd overheard her siblings talking about what food they were going to get she also asked if they could get her a book on plants. Her older siblings came back one day to her cooking a stew with the edible plants she'd found and some meat she'd been able to hunt. She later learned to use a herbalism kit to make healing potions and other medicines and woodcarver's tools to make her own arrows her siblings eventually got her a longbow and her ability to procure sufficient food took a huge burden off of them and she sometimes goes into the city to sell some of the things she acquires while hunting to buy books on different monsters as well as equipment and supplies for herself and some things she's heard her siblings mention liking or needing
I love my 18 CHA edgelord Tiefling Noble GOOlock. First character I ever made, and I made sure to set aside an excel sheet with mannerisms, phrases and vocabulary he might use, as well as a long list of really, really bad jokes for when he uses Tasha's Hideous Laughter.
One of my favorite charisma-based characters to play was a himbo. Awkward and non-too-bright, but sincere and endearing.
I also played a super-fluffy bard/rogue tabaxi with dwarfism, in which I played my charisma as being so cute I could convince people to do just about anything. (Threatening an NPC to do something, who instead of being scared found it adorable and played along anyways)
There's one thing as a DM that I'd actually suggest to make your players' roleplay easier: take a page from Disco Elysium's book. For those who don't know, Disco Elysium is a very narrative videogame that has a RPG-like skill system, with the twist that the skills all represent different aspects of your protagonist's personality, and give him suggestions and pointers on how to act.
Now, I'm not saying that you need to roleplay an entire ecosystem of voices in your characters' head, but one thing you could do if they succeed a persuasion roll would be giving them some insight in the character they're talking to. Have them realize by, idk, the way they stand or some subtle clues on their face something about their personality that they can leverage to convince them to do what they want. They could realize that the bandit has some kind of sense of honor underneath it all by the way his voice wavers a little when he recounts some of his criminal adventures, or that the politician is worried underneath his confident façade (and with a good success, they could even realize WHAT he's worried about).
It's not always applicable, but it's always a nice way to push yourself to characterize NPCs and add a certain dimension to roleplay that isn't very common in most groups.
Love this one! It seems to be a the reasonable follow-up to the high int video. I've never actually played a charisma based character and need to do so eventually... it's on my bucket list! One minor gripe I have with dnd is how intimidate is charisma based... I can sort of see the reasoning behind it, but strength would make more sense in my view. I think real life intimidation is some of both, but is certainly a different skill than persuasion.
I disagree!! There are so many ways to be intimidating that aren't related to physical strength. Some people even find me intimidating, and I'm a little five-foot-two bundle of toothpicks!
Intimidation doesn't necessarily need to be a physical thing. There are dozens of antagonists in media who are physically weak themselves but are intimidating because of the way they talk and the power they wield. Think of a Mafia boss saying "nice place you got here; be a shame if anything were to happen to it". The boss doesn't need to be physically intimidating themselves when they have people that can do the work for them.
Intimidation is more about having the ability and confidence to make believable -- and sometimes inventive! -- threats. Which would you find more intimidating: the big, musclebound guy who looks at you with a half-hearted growl, or the little, weaselly one who talks with great relish and detail about breaking into your home and skinning your child alive?
That said, when a player is making threats based on brute force, DMs should probably lower the DC or have them roll with advantage if they have high Strength.
@@GinnyDi I see where you are coming from but just have very mixed feelings about this... It kind of goes both ways. I'd give Steven Colbert or John Oliver as examples of people who I think are INCREDIBLY charismatic and persuasive but not really intimidating at all... ...pretty ladies are intimidating in a different way! haha. That said, some actors are probably better at acting tough and intimidating than many athletes, so I see it both ways.
@@bigdream_dreambig RIGHT! I see this going both ways... If a fight is about to happen, and they are trying to intimidate me into not fighting, I'd be more scared of a huge ogre than a tiny person who I think is just a tough talker. But Charisma also matters, I won't deny that.
On the total opposite end of the spectrum, consider how you would play a LOW charisma character. It doesn't mean you're just silent all the time. Maybe your character stutters, speaks at a strange volume, doesn't speak Common particularly well, or just isn't noticeably practiced at the kind of interaction they are attempting. I played a Gnome with an accent so thick people simply couldn't understand his Common, but if he wrote it down you could see he was a very bright mind, this is what I did with my 6 Charisma.
*Laughs in 20 charisma*
So much this. Playing an ace Bard and, at first, it confused the Hell out of the rest of the party because I am NOT attempting to seduce anything and everything that moves (He's in it for the music and just trying to make it to the next performance - playing the war horn as a Goliath)
I do enjoy the challenge of high WIS high CHAR and actually role playing it. Manipulating the NPC's personality and desires...but it's exhausting and if someone doesn't naturally have that insight and way with words, this is wonderful advice!
Also, probably most important of all, Charisma doesn’t necessarily mean you’re good at talking to people. For example, you might not be nearly as charming as you think you are, but you are always the first in your party to approach a new NPC. I kinda feel like Charisma is willpower if that makes sense
The three types of charisma are Flynn Rider, starscream, and that kind old lady down the road that every one calls nana
Cha 8: f you
Cha 10: hello
Cha 14: heey
Cha 20: ok, so imagine a sexy voice and seductive smth
I persuade the shopkeep to give me a discount by reminding him how easily I can disembowel him with my bare hands 😃
I have the problem that I'm naturally pretty charismatic and it always bleeds through into my characters. Talking and thinking is how I solve problems in real life, and it's hard to turn that off for me
Heh. Jokes on you I’m very charismatic
These are interesting. Have you considered doing mix and match? How to roleplay a low strength, but high constitution character, and so on.
I love role-playing the more endearing and innocent type of Charisma. It makes when I do something decidedly not innocent and endearing that much more terrifying (ie: intimidating tf out of a storyline's BBEG after viciously killing their lieutenant and approaching them while soaked in blood)
😳
I like high charisma characters a lot. Its my favorite stat, though I'm not sure why. I guess because I like having positive relationships with npcs and doing things with style
Don’t play DND nor do I plan on ever playing. Still interesting to watch. Never knew people were so invested in their characters!
I definitely recommend trying a session and seeing how you like it. It can be a lot of fun
Looking forward to the High Wis one :D
i have a very charismatic rogue and to make a story short, he accidentally convinced an entire kobold village that he was a god
Great tips. I hope this is taken correctly but you have greatly improved as a content creator since I last saw your channel
My character has high charisma through lying... Literally ended up buying a spellbook (Which he doesn't even need) and all the bells and whistles for it and spent 40 platinum on it because he lied about it being a gift for the sister of the person he was with...and said person instantly got pissed off my character mentioned his sister...so they ended up picking the highest priced objects just to get him back. xD It was great.
If I'm playing a character with an evil alignment they alternate between charming and intimidating. They are manipulative and extremely dangerous. I usually play sorcerers. I use charisma to show that even in a situation where they can't use their magic they can still worm their way into people's heads. This led to the creation of one of the most effective evil characters' I played. He had a guild merchant background and was using his connections to financially back the party on their adventures. Playing the role of hero so the party would defeat other bad guys and eliminate his competition while he used his share of the money they got from adventuring to fund his own operations behind the scenes. This allowed him to maintain a good reputation with the general public so no one would believe any claims made against him. Unfortunately that game fell apart but had it continued he would have achieved his goal and the rest of the party would have helped him do it.
im playing a tiefling sorcerer who is like hot af and obviously scary looking but hes rly awkward and bad with words so my charisma is fully from him being hot and scary
So he‘s basically an anime villain 😁
@@Thirikalee no idea i do not watch anime
@@haydenwest7978 Awww, you‘re missing out on hot and scary villains galore! 😄
This is a great video, but off topic, I giggled when the tavern example came up, because the DM I have most played with often makes the tavern owners retired adventurers or otherwise having damn high stats. I've fought a Lich, but I would not want to go up against a tavern owner in their own bar XD
My halfling bard has +7 to intimidation, and he is fearless.
At this point because I cannot stop playing charisma-based spellcasters, I started basing the Brand of charisma on characters I like. Like, I have two sorcerers, one based on Jonathan Joestar (very polite and gentlemanly charisma) and Joseph Joestar (sly, deceptive charisma and also kind of an asshole-high WIS though). The bard I'm playing right now couldn't get the fictional charisma treatment, so she's just endearingly awkward.
I've done the threatening a barkeep thing with control flame as a sorcerer...
My sorcerer (if I ever get to play him) was recently self-emancipated from a state of slavery, so his charisma comes not from confidence, but from being so beaten down and afraid that nobody would think he could be lying. Also he is terrified of chains.
I have a challenge, a friendly idea, could you do how to roleplay a high dexterity score, since how would you even roleplay someone with dexterity lol I think it could be cool to see
LOVE YOUR SHIRT!!!
Love the shirt btw