Charisma

>>50490850
if you havent GM'd before, you should NOT BE MESSING WITH BALORS
>that being said, use fewer dice rolls and look up inspirational speeches and shit. D&D is an RPG, lose the dice and RP. i let my players do that instead of rolling. if they come up with a great argument and have shitty CHA, i consider it a nat 20 because even an autist can make a valid point.

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>It just seems weird to me, in a roleplaying game, I should be using dicerolls to do something where I and the players could just be roleplaying characters.

If it seems weird to you, that's fine. You can just roleplay as much as you want, and ignore needing to roll charisma checks if that seems natural to you.

I would suggest that you might want to consider fast-forwarding through some roleplaying on occasion. A minor scene of convincing the stubborn inn keeper to let you stay for half price if the bard plays for an hour might be fun, but those five minutes of roleplaying could be better spent in a more plot centric fashion, and a simple charisma check and a short description is more than sufficient to slip through that small scene.

And, it's good to ask for deception checks whenever the players are going for a big lie. You don't need to ask for one after every small fib, but if the players are trying to convince a character of something, it's good practice to call for that charisma check.

Finally, charisma is force of personality, which is why a Balor, who can easily convince just about anyone to do their bidding, has a high charisma. An attractive appearance, after all, might only be a component of charisma, one that could be superseded by other facets such as personality or even a horrific appearance.

>>50490850
First off, its used for all sovial interactions, so it isnt just looks or charm, it is also how effectively you can communicate and be understood, amd it is used for intimidation as well as persuasion, which is why the monster in your picture would have it.

As for how and when to roll, you use it in conjunvtion with what players say. It determines more how they phrase and present themselves, and how the other person responds, than what they say. I will usually give bonuses or penalties based how what the player actually says, but ultimately it is the character, not the player, who is being judged, so the roll is mlre important, and the modifiers you give for ooc should be limited, say as plus or minus a number equal to proficiency.

>>50490850
Consider charisma a measure of how far you can push your luck socially.

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>>50490850
>>50490890
>even an autist can make a valid point
I go back and forth on this, because while an autist can make valid points, he can also deliver them in such a way as to still make strangers disagree with them.

If it's plot relevant, I'll usually let them go diceless if they can come up with something decent. The same goes for dealing with characters that like them or have come to rely on them, as well as characters that are in the right mindset.

>>50491290
See in this case I'd rather roll just for the overall mood of the location but i'm still stuck trying to decide if it should be modifiers to the rolls or just what shit they should have to roll for.

>>50490850

Charisma is presence. There's many factors involved, just like in any case, but just like you roll Str/Dexterity to cover all the complexities of trying to hit a moving target in combat, or Int to represent a lifetime of education, personal experience, pattern recognition, deduction, intuition, and abstract thinking- you roll Cha to determine mere force of personality.

A high Cha modifier is your ability to give people "the look" and get results. It's your sense of self confidence and its greater effect.

That thing has 22 Cha because it's not just a demon, it's a mighty demon that commands its lesser peers not just by strength bu by being able to cow them (and others) into submission through sheer force of will.

These are not meant to be seen as real world values but rather traits as they would apply to a character in a fantasy tale. In a fantasy tale, a person can do stuff with force of personality/will that a person in real life cannot do and for some people, having charm/presence/confidence/hutzpah makes them very very effective.

>>50491797
>See in this case I'd rather roll just for the overall mood of the location but i'm still stuck trying to decide if it should be modifiers to the rolls or just what shit they should have to roll for.

Charisma is a modifier. You take the basis of the interaction and modify it according to Charisma roll. Remember that people are social.

Imagine two people made the exact same logical argument.

One person is hot. They're confident. They seem extremely trust worthy in general. They have a voice like melted butter. You want to be in their good graces.

The next person is ugly. They seem meek and unsure of themselves. They seem shifty. Their voice is annoying or hard to take seriously. They repulse you.

Their arguments will not be given equal weight. The more charismatic person will have an advantage. They could probably deliver a less logically sound argument and still come out ahead of the other guy. They can make and survive social mistakes that would make the other guy an outcast. They can garner forgiveness where the other can't. They have "quirks" while the other guy has "flaws".

Charisma is the lens through which your character's actions, appearance, and general reputation are perceived. There's still something there, but the Charisma modifies it.

>>50490850
>Pic because why the fuck does this thing have 22 cha?
because it's sexy as fuck

>>50490850
Yo OP, welcome go the DM club. Biggest thing that helped me with DMing in the beginning was watching (and listening to) Chris Perkins moderate the game for the penny arcade guys. I was interested in D&D before but Chris Perkins is the man who made me want to DM. The older stuff is better learning, I think.

https://dnd.wizards.com/articles/podcasts/acquisitions-inc#submenu-page

>>50490850
>because why the fuck does this thing have 22 cha?
Charisma is the power of personality of a creature
All demons and devils can be really decieving, that's why they have a natural on fucking with people

While i do agree what >>50490890 most of the time, it's also true that a character with 8 charisma doesnt matter what he says, his 8 means that he doubts himsef alot and that is really clear for the rest of NPC's and PC's
if they make a really good speech i let them roll with advantage (and probably low CD). that said, there's still a chance for a low cha PC to fuck up, just because they have that much autismo

>>50490850
welp, anytime a pc is talking, or dancing, or being social, and they're not awesome, funny, or lame enough that they would instantly fail, make em roll.