How useful is a character with high Charisma? Is having a 10 Charisma with Influence group 4 useful or is it overkill?

I was also thinking about First Impression, Photographic Memory and a crack shot skill in Pistols (lvl 6) to go along with the Charisma.

So is this useful , overkill or just plain silly???


Thanks in advance.

Dan.

Depends on the type of game mostly. Thatd be a powerful face.

I would suggest that its far more useful in Shadowrun than in other RPG games.

Charisma is pretty useful in Shadowrun, but nothing close to how useful social stats and skills are in Vampire.

it will be useful in most games. you probably won't get to smack someone with your full 14+ social dice very often, simply because most games don't focus on social stuff. but when you do get to roll, you'll be unstoppable.

That high Charisma would also be very useful if you were playing a Shaman or other tradition that used Charisma as the drain attribute. As you point out, it would also be useful in social situations.

How sad a game is that where Charisma is most useful, and often used, as a Drain attribute.

Really it comes down to your GM (and to a degree the other players as a personal playing a retarded troll will typically be retarded, with their troll and every game sesion will devolve until the GM kills them off enough).

Some GMs will let you do a huge amount with your social skill and it will be great fun so long as you don't hog the spotlight too long.

But some GMs just have the talking phase as a way for players to amuse themselves before the inevitable combat. Then not so much.

On the average sometimes the GM will let the skill have it's place and you'll occasionally save or make your group some extra money.

Regardless you can show some initiative and use that cha to get followers or good deals or something.

But do figure out what your GM is like. If you don't know back up your social skills with solid stealth and combat.

How would you get a Charisma of 10? An elf with Exceptional Attribute can only get it up to 9 at character creation. Are you thinking of tailored pheromes? They are very useful, but they add to social skill dice pools, not to the Charisma Attribute.

A high Charisma and social skills are useful in getting information or favors from contacts, getting high-Availability gear, negotiating payment for a run, and any time that you try to fit in somewhere or talk your way out of a situation.

if nothing else, i highly recommend Con. as a shadowrunner, it is nice to be able to negotiate, sometimes handy to be able to intimidate, and no one is quite sure what the actual effects of the leadership skill are AFAICT, but it is absolutely critical that you be able to lie effectively. because someone else can negotiate for you. people who are liable to be intimidated are not too hard to get positive modifiers on (like "i'll shoot you in the face if you don't.") and failing either of those types of checks, while bad, is nowhere near as bad as failing a con check will often be. because negotiate is used for situations where you are equals, intimidate is used when you have the stronger position... and con is used when you have the weaker position and really really don't want to get squashed like a bug when mr. AAA corpsec sends a HTR after you to recover that prototype. (con is also useful at other times, to boot )

10 Charisma seems (illegal) and a little overkill IMO, but that depends on your groups' gaming style.

Getting the Influence Group at 4 seems like a good move, Negotation, Etiquette and Con have enough in game uses to be really worthy and in my game Leadership can sometimes be used in combat to give a morale bonus to an action -Yep, I know where that came from, shame on me-

Don't forget that one of the most useful applications for high Cha and negotiation is GETTING MORE MONEY for the group. The other players will love ya.

Good luck, tell us later how it came out

Cheers,

Max

Also, remember that Intimidation is NOT in the Influence group. (It isn't, right? I have not the books handy right now)

Max again

Personally I think that Etiquette is more useful than Con for shadowrunners. Etiquette is that skill that helps you fit in with other groups and societies which is what a runner does.

It's going to be hard to fast talk that sarariman if you don't fit into Renraku's corporate culture.

Negotiation is also super cool and makes your contacts much better. I'd recommend dropping Charisma a bit to make more room for Contacts. The difference between 9 and 10 charisma is small but is possibly 10 or 25 more points of contacts which makes your 9 charisma more useful.

BTW, etiquette also makes it easier to fit in with your contacts' friends so you get synergy on the FoF interactions.

Coupled with good roleplaying ability you'll make an unstoppable face. With that pistol skill and an IP booster you'll be good at combat as well.

Feel free to post your entire character for critique.

Could someone please explain to me how a Charisma of 10 is possible at char gen? Thanks.

Elf
Cha = 8/8 [No qualities]
Tailored Pharamones[1-3](Bioware) / Enhanced Charisma(Adept)[Up to magic] / Increased Charisma(Spell)[Force 10+ /w 2+ hits]

tailored pheromones don't actually boost charisma.

there is no enhanced attribute adept power for mental attributes (only physical).

the magician spell wouldn't be at chargen, although it could potentially be a few seconds after chargen. however, getting a spell strong enough to affect your high cha to 10 requires a force 10 spell, which means you would presumably need a force 10 sustaining focus, or you would be taking a -2 penalty to all actions (including charisma based actions) while the spell is sustained.

you could also be an elf with exceptional charisma (making 9 a possibility) and then use novacoke for a temporary boost to charisma, if you don't want to either be awakened or require the assistance of an awakened person.

To the OP. To see what I'm talking about read the "running for dummies" thread that just popped up to see what I'm talking about with knowing your GM.

Basically the gist is someone complains about their characters having to high a charisma and using it to get way too much out of the Johnson. Now maybe those players expectations were off or whatever.

However what you need to note are all the people posting how to hose over high social skills. Your GM might be like that. You don't waste points on high social skills you get normal Johnsons etc. You do spend the points on social skills and every Johnson is a social adept, online, or screws you over, and so on for other NPCs. Meaning you're worse off for getting those skills. Seriously it happens, more often than not.

Guess that all depends on the GM. I build my Johnsons to reflect who they would be and what background they're from. So some are harder to deal with than others, but it's all logical. And, really, if the job is elite enough that a social adept/equivalent is sent as the Johnson, then the base pay, sans negotiation, will be pretty damn good anyway.

As an example of getting to know your GM:

My Johnsons always meet in well ventilated places so that tailored pheremones won't work. They are never social adepts because of a general social shunning of them for fear of the "magician" screwing you over. So the corps don't use social ads because they become more of a problem dealing with runners than a help. See the fluff on adept athletes and musicians to see society's general reaction to adepts.

Your face had better be a human male or else your team will get seriously screwed on money and treachery if you ever try to get work from the Yaks or the Japanacorps. Samurai don't play well with Metas...



Other GMs might play this completely differently. It's a matter of knowing their play style, and the team's play style. Sometimes the other players just want to blaze away and kill everything. I had one player who was famous for this. His motto was "No Witnesses!"

Cheops has a good point. Sometimes you'll have other players who are pretty stupid combat lovers and while they'll appreciate you getting more out of a Johnson they'll ruin any intrigue you try and set up.