How do you place within the SPECIAL system the concept of a character that draws others to him/her. Charisma seems to only reflect the idea of those that win people over through finesse, manipulation, or charm, yet how is that a measure of a character's potential as a leader? It only works for the politician rather than the stalwart persona who sweats blood and draws people to his/her cause through a presence. One example would be Captain Mal from Firefly, for instance. How do you stat that? Can you?

Captain "Mal"

Strength: 4, Mal's fairly average in the strength department.
Perception: 6, Mal's a little sharper than most. It comes with being a criminal.
Endurance: 3, Mal can barely take a punch.
Charisma: 8, Charming? Maybe not. Will people follow him? Definitely.
Intelligence: 6, Mal isn't the brightest guy in the world but he's not moron.
Agility: 5, He has a few tricks up his sleeve
Luck: 8, Let's face it. Mal survives on dumb luck and his crew.

Tag Skills:
Barter, Guns, Survival

Good role-playing traits:
Kamikaze, Fast Shot

Assuming that you'd role-play the character, good choices of perks would be:
Lady Killer, Rapid Reload, Run N' Gun, Travel Light, Ferocious Loyalty, Gunslinger, Shotgun Surgeon, Cowboy, Quick Draw, Strong Back, Finesse, Center of Mass

Good?

What I was saying is that Charisma seems to be more focused on working people over than on reflecting leadership or any redeeming qualities of character.

Since Charisma gives your followers pretty significant bonuses in F:NV, I'd say that Charisma isn't only just about self indulgent manipulation anymore.

What's missing is the ability of high Charisma to let you have more than one follower. I look forward to "Fallout New Vegas: Wanderer's Edition" where this is remedied.

How do you figure? Charisma is basically "force of personality," which is neither good nor bad- what you use it for determines whether it's a "redeeming quality of character." The general whose troops will willingly and happily charge the very gates of Hell for him is working from charisma, while the same applies to the greasy-haired used car salesman who can get granny to cough up her life savings for a worn-out rustbucket. It's not the charisma itself that's screwing people over or showing the sterling character of the person using it.

That's just like trying to pigeonhole guns as "good" or "bad" when it's the choice of the wielder that adds that distinction and the inanimate firearm has nothing to do with it. The gun has no say in whether it's used by a policeman to save a hostage from a thug, or by a thug to take a hostage.

Charisma effects Nerve. Nerve is what you're looking for.

High Charisma is all that is needed (feral cunning can't really be assigned to a Special Stat)
*But for an effective leader, you would want high Charisma and high Wisdom (unfortunately that too doesn't map to a Special Stat)
So in the end... Its just High Charisma, and a high stat in whatever attribute defines their leadership foundation to you.
(IE. A gang leader would also be very strong; a thief group would have an agile leader; and a tech based group would be lead by someone of high intelligence. ~Not counting the BOS... which qualifies as a cult, and is lead by a bureaucracy.)

I dunno, he seems pretty nifty with his aim, I'd say steady aim over fast shot, otherwise this works pretty well.

Okay Machiavelli. :wink_smile:

High Charisma grants bonuses to Nerve.

Nerve = Ingame natural leadership.

Atleast I think it does.

You might want the ferocious loyalty perk.

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1232/1232-h/1232-h.htm

I did always find Special lacking the aspect of Wisdom, and Appearance... but the game did generalize a lot of things, so it never really seemed wrong to omit them. :shrug: ~Planescape did it better IMO (but it uses D&D stats).

Yeah I guess you're right. My bad!