Building for RP vs. building to "beat the game"

[LannTheStupid]

Eh, with CHA 20 and a bunch of magic abilities that (implausibly - I've never understood how CHA is supposed to work as a Sorcerer's or whatever's casting stat or let you suddenly be able to use magical implements ) give him godly powers, sure he is.

Sorcerers are naturally born magic users. It's in the bloodline you choose when choosing the class. It is - by the rules - a natural talent that is passed from parents to children. XVIII+ century egalitarianism can do nothing to blood aristocracy, and sorcerers are exactly them.

Daeran is an Aasimar and a descendant of an Azata, so the blood plays some role here, too. But, are you going to prohibit using supernatural hybrids for role play purposes as "not RP"?

On the other hand, Daeran has quite a story about obtaining his powers. And, maybe, his inherent charisma helped him in that crucial moment. However, I think his story is so fascinating that if a common table top player would have come up with something similar then all min-maxing would be justified in my eyes.

Feeble but high INT, WIS or CHA characters who would be beaten up, have their lunch money stolen and die miserably in ditch in an otherwise "gritty" quasi-mediaeval context can become feared by all.

I don't know. Some of Russian mafia bosses of the 90's were not that strong physically. Heck, Mr. Berezovsky, who was considered the power behind the throne in the 90's was a mathematician by education and wrote 16 books about optimization and control theory before USSR died. So if it was not that simple during Russian years of freedom it surely had not been that simple in a medieval setting.

What I would agree with is that a kid with CON 8 would die in infancy unless extreme care is taken of him for some reason.

 

[gurugeorge]

Eh, with CHA 20 and a bunch of magic abilities that (implausibly - I've never understood how CHA is supposed to work as a Sorcerer's or whatever's casting stat or let you suddenly be able to use magical implements ) give him godly powers, sure he is.

Sorcerers are naturally born magic users. It's in the bloodline you choose when choosing the class. It is - by the rules - a natural talent that is passed from parents to children. XVIII+ century egalitarianism can do nothing to blood aristocracy, and sorcerers are exactly them.

Yeah but what does that have to do with Charisma? Are aristocrats supposed to be naturally charismatic or something? I dunno, Sorcerous power I can see coming from bloodline (almost like the mutant superhero concept, as opposed to the normal concept of magic, where you're petitioning entities with the power to do weird stuff to do it), but why should that be charisma? It would fit more with something like another kind of stat, like Willpower maybe, or even CON if you take the genetics idea. I suppose the designers just thought charisma was the nearest option if you squint at it, since bards already used charisma, but that doesn't really make any sense either (if anything, Bardic magic should be derived from INT, because it's the result of lore knowledge that isn't quite as deep or broad as a wizards, but might still be considerable).

Dunno why I'm arguing with you about this, but it's fun to argue

 

[rusty_shackleford]

The only caster that ever made any sort of sense with using charisma for casting was bards and similar classes.

 

[Wysardry]

I think it is possible to allow both weak and overpowered characters to play and complete a game if you design for that from the outset.

The first example of this I can think of is Might and Magic VI as I have seen articles in the past which explain how to set up and play with deliberately weak parties (such as all knights or just one character instead of four) and others which explain how to get the best weapons, skills and attribute boosts ASAP.

I haven't played it in a while, but I do remember that whenever I reached an area with enemies that were too tough to kill, I was able to find easier ones or upgrade equipment and skills without too much effort.

As long as you have plenty of content for all skill ranges and allow the player to pick their own path through it, they shouldn't be forced to play through overly easy or difficult areas. Fairly obviously, level scaling wouldn't work with this type of game unless you matched challenges based on skill and equipment levels rather than just character level.

 

[mondblut]

The only caster that ever made any sort of sense with using charisma for casting was bards and similar classes.

Postmodernist deconstructors wanted to rehabilitate CHA as default dump stat and made it a catch-all stat for anything that is not immediately and obviously retrieved from any other stat. Sorcerers casting spells innately like they do yawning and farting? That's their charisma. Variant monks driven by ruthless determination rather than zen indifference? Charisma it is.