I am working on a back up character for a game I have just entered. The group is lacking in several areas, but I choose to make a face for this character. I looked under bioware for charisma increasing items and I could only find tailored pheromones. This is good, but it adds dice to the pool and I was looking for an actual stat increase. So I checked cyberware, no luck. I then thought maybe there would be something under the adepts powers. Nope, only disappointment. I looked through several books, all to no avail. The only place I have found something that increases charisma is a single spell. Increase [Attribute].

I have already lost a mage in the first two sessions of this game (one large explosion plus four glitches in a row equal one dead mage), and I was hoping not to dip back into spell slinging for this character. Is there any other way to increase charisma? If not, can I have an initiate anchor an Increase Charisma spell on me? How much would it cost for such a service?

I know that there are lots of spells that can help a face. The various Control spells, Influence, and Mind Probe are all extremely useful but still rely on magic. I was just wanting a straight up charismatic monster. The kind of character that could get caught lying to the world about having an affair in office and have my popularity in the polls rise. *Bites Lip*

Any help you guys could give me would be extremely appreciated. Thank you.

There's no great reason to accept stat increases and deny pool increases. The various 'pornomancer' builds are quite well-demonstrated, and they quite naturally rely on both. You're essentially saying, "I'd love to be good at ranged combat, but I refuse to use weapons."

Even with cyberware and things, you can only really get your stats to the augmented max anyway (for a normal 'max' character, your Increase Cha would only be worth 3 anyway). With the right options, you can get into those 9s and 10s without it (even though, again, you don't need to). For Charisma, just start with an Elf, max Cha, Exceptional Cha, Metagenic Cha, and Gen-Optimized Cha. If you need more, you have a problem and should see psychological help. If that doesn't work, play a Pixie (because you'd have to be crazy, geddit?).

Ah, I wasn't familiar with the term Pornomancer. A quick search and wow... lost of help.

I didn't mean that I wasn't going to take the tailored pheromones, only that I was looking for stat increases. The other attributes all got some love in one way or another, it just seemed like the Charisma attribute got the cold shoulder on upgrades.

Thanks for the help.

Honestly Oregwath, for every single other stat, I can see a way to improve it through augmentation, but Charisma... you can't make someone more charismatic with cyber or bioware.

EDIT: Never mind, missed something.

Oregwath, don't forget that pornomancers are not playable characters. They're numerical exercises.

Charisma is mainly increased by choosing the right metatype, then getting SURGE for a metagenetic improvement to Charima, and genetic optimization/Charisma to be able to raise it higher later (there is also the exceptional Attribute quality, but at 20 points in cost, it has a high opportunity cost if you want other positive qualities). However, social skills for a face mainly get boosted by the dice pool modifiers.

The only "augmented" Charima is one of the optional rules in Augmentation (pg. 23) - cosmetic surgery can increase your Charisma by up to +3.

It's kind of hilarious that that's even an optional rule; can you imagine a mage trying to justify his increased Charisma stat from that?

They are playable characters, or at least viable ones. They're just heavily min/maxed. Honestly, I've seen "normal" builds that will bring less joy than a Dumpshock pornomancer.

As i can't be sure what you find, i thought it would be prudent to post this
Surged dryad adept with
Charisma 15 (Metegenic Improvement (Charisma) + Genetic Optimization (Charisma) + increase charisma spell with 5 successes) If you don't have a mage that can cast that spell a speedball of Ex,Red Mescaline and Novacoke could get you up to Charisma 13, if your GM allows stacking of drug bonuses
Social skill of choice (spec) 6
Global Fame
Tailored Pheromones 3
Enhanced Phermone Receptors 3
Vocal Range Enhancer
Improved Social Ability of choice 3
Kinesics 3
Rating 6 emotitoy
Symbiosis
Mentor spirit(seductress for con or moon maiden for negotiation)

3+15+8+6+3+2+1+3+3+6+1+2= 53
or
3+13+9+6+3+2+1+3+3+6+1+2= 51

That should be the most up to date build, with the highest possible dicepool.

Edit: added mentor spirit as per Makki's comment, had to ditch aptitude to fit the mentor spirit into quality point limit, used the extra 5BP to up fame to global.

I guess it depends on the joy, Cain. They're not playable in the sense of 'will fit in any game'.

Mäx, you missed the Seductress Mentor spirit

No character will fit in every game. That's a matter of personal preference. Pornomancers will fit just as readily as gimped "roleplay" characters in many games, and in fact can be less of a spotlight hog than the gimped character.

Don't forget the rule (optional?) in 4A where it limits social skill dicepools to (Charisma + Social Skill) x 2.

Which pulls this build from 53 dice to 42.
(15+6 = 21 * 2 = 42)

It's the higher of 20, or 2*(Attribute+Natural Skill). And can apply to any pool, not just social pools.

Which doesn't actually limit high dice pool folks THAT much.




-k

That limit is only for social modifiers and as i have said multiple times, that calculation includes zero social modifiers.
The maximum cumulative social modifiers that can be added is 16 for this build(natural charisma + natural skill), meaning social modifiers can only boost that pool up to 69/67(but, good luck convincing your GM that there are enought social modifiers in play to reach that)

I think Neraph is confusing that rule with the optional dice pool capping one, where you are limited to the higher of either 20, or natural skill + Attribute.