That's a good point—the game is balanced around a full party.
What if exceptional Charisma gave you more or less leeway as far as NPC reactions to your reputation?
Normally, good NPCs break at 1-2, neutrals at 1, and evil at 19-20. So with 17 Charisma, for example, good NPCs would break at 1, neutrals never, and evil at 20. With 18 Charisma, you can keep everyone regardless of reputation. With 19+, they'll stop using their angry/unhappy lines. :P And with very low Charisma, you'd have to manage your reputation much more carefully to ensure they stick with you.
This has got to be the most brilliant idea ever. Has this been requested?
I think another route approaching the objective of making Charisma stat less abusable is to incorporate and AI penalty reflecting PCs inability to get everybody in synch while in the field..
Yep, implement the CHA rules straight out of the handbook. You don't have to be the life of the party to have 5 companions. Usually if I'm playing someone with low CHA I let Viconia lead anyway, which probably explains why everyone keeps trying to kill us. I also like the idea of linking INT to dialogue. The pc game they made of Vampire the Masquerade did a really good job of that.
I don't minmax either, but making it intentionally unappealing is a bit harsh. It's a single player game, everyone should be able to play it the way they like it. Some people do like that.
Making charisma this important would be in no relation to the advantages other classes have from prime stats. How would a bard stand out if every fighter, mage and cleric had the same charisma requirement? It's not minmaxing to have a mage with low strength, and in the same way, it should be a viable option to have a not-so-charismatic fighter. Sure, charisma should give the classes using it as prime stat benefits, just like fighter classes can get 18/xx strength and clerics/mages get extra spells from their stats. But a fighter gets nothing from high wisdom, so why should they get something from high charisma?
Off topic but characters ought to get additional saves for high wisdom scores...
And max spell level for arcane casters should be limited by Intelligence, as in PnP
This kind of discussion was raised already before the game release, the devs didn't paid attention them, but hope is the last to die, so maybe they pay attention now, i don't know.
Just observe that Henchmans aren't the same as the NPCs that join the main char, this difference is better saw in BG2 and more humble in BG, but each NPC that joins with main char doesn't do that in a hierachy way, they join the main char for personal reasons.
I'm raising this point cos in D&D charisma table, a 18 charisma allows the maximum of 18 henchmans, and i don't think 18 NPCs in the party as a good change.
I gave some suggestion for NPC maximum size in an old post (probally made between june and august's last year), i'm a bit lazy atm to search for it but was pretty alike your suggestion, exception that i suggest a raise on the party maximum players, to a maximum of 7 or 8 characters in the same party, based on a % of godly charisma status (19+).
Ps: to avoid bugs, only permanent charisma points changes should be taken in account for this.
Comments
As mentioned above, your ideas need to be made into a mod.
Edit: I made a mod request.
I also like the idea of linking INT to dialogue. The pc game they made of Vampire the Masquerade did a really good job of that.
Just observe that Henchmans aren't the same as the NPCs that join the main char, this difference is better saw in BG2 and more humble in BG, but each NPC that joins with main char doesn't do that in a hierachy way, they join the main char for personal reasons.
I'm raising this point cos in D&D charisma table, a 18 charisma allows the maximum of 18 henchmans, and i don't think 18 NPCs in the party as a good change.
I gave some suggestion for NPC maximum size in an old post (probally made between june and august's last year), i'm a bit lazy atm to search for it but was pretty alike your suggestion, exception that i suggest a raise on the party maximum players, to a maximum of 7 or 8 characters in the same party, based on a % of godly charisma status (19+).
Ps: to avoid bugs, only permanent charisma points changes should be taken in account for this.