Question about Charisma, Reputation, and anything else related to people liking me

superluccix

So im at the Gnoll Stronghold and found a tome to increase my Charisma and it got me thinking.

Is there a point to Reputation and Charisma? I mean, at least for Reputation, I dont see how my party has been affected at all, other than whenever I get a + or - to Rep points, one of my followers will make a 1 liner comment about it, but other than that, I havent had any trouble recruiting people, nor any social tension whatsoever between them.

I think I read somewhere that Charisma had something to do with store items and discount/buy prices, which I dont frankly care that much, since I have yet found a use to spend my 40k gold on (cept for that Archmage robe from that 1 dude)

So I guess my question is this, do I actually need to care about my Rep or Charisma? At least, do I need to care about it to the degree that if I dont, I miss out on content somewhere? Or a companion leaves me or something?

Pretty sure I read somewhere that these things did matter, but in my playthrough so far, I cant tell.

JuliusBorisov

Hello, @superluccix and welcome to the forum.

Whenever the party encounters an NPC, a reaction check is made. Modifiers will be applied according to the speaker’s Charisma (or the party leader’s Charisma when dealing with merchants) and the reputation of the party.

Charisma affects the store prices (lower with a higher Cha), and NPC attitudes.

If you go to this link you'll see exactly how: http://playithardcore.com/pihwiki/index.php?title=Baldur's_Gate:_Races_and_Stats#Charisma

There are some quests that will get you better rewards if you have around 18 charisma.

- Fuller in Candlekeep will give you his Dagger+1

- The Noble man in Candlekeep will put his jewelry into the locked container upstairs (so you can go and plunder it)

- The guy fleeing from a Mountain Bear in the area north of Gnoll Fortress will give you some +cold resist boots

- SIlke offers 400 gold instead of 300 if your charisma is high

With 21 charisma, Petrine's father gave me the Cloak of Protection +1 as reward for killing the cat.

Also, if you have 18 CHA, your reputation needs to be only 9+ in BG1 and 18+ in BG2 for all the best responses. When you'll find the tome +1 to CHA, yuo'll have 19 CHA so your reputation will need to be only 6+ in BG1 and 9+ in BG2. Thus, with such high CHA you shouldn't care about your reputation much.

Reputation also affects the store prices. But it also affects if Good, Neutral and Evil characters can be in your party.

Good characters will complain at low reputation AND will leave the party in the moment that 2 or less reputation points is hit.

Evil characters will complain at high reputation AND will leave the party in the moment that 19 or more reputation points is hit.

Neutral characters will strangely accept any reputation above 6 but will complain once that number is reduced. Neutral NPCs will leave the party in the moment that reputation reach 1.

Evil-doing parties are likely to become the targets of bounty hunters and guards.

Players of Paladins and Rangers must watch their reputation carefully. If at any time the party’s reputation falls below 6, Paladins lose their class abilities; if the reputation falls below 4, Rangers lose theirs. In either case, if the reputation of the party falls below the acceptable level, that character becomes “Fallen.”

Blackguards, a Paladin class kit, are not subject to this restriction and may have as high or low a reputation as they desire.

I advice you to check the game manuals:

http://cdn.baldursgate.com/files/baldurs-gate-survival-guide.pdf

http://cdn.baldursgate.com/files/baldurs-gate-mastering-melee-magic.pdf

CaeDares

It depends on if you want your character to be ugly or a total hottie.

Seriously, though.
Charisma has to do with store prices and how much people like you. You want the party member with the highest Charisma to initiate as much dialogue as possible and to sell everything you have for a better gold income.
I will say, though, that if you're an Evil party, Charisma doesn't entirely matter all that much because you're not trying to get people to like you. You're evil. They're not going to like you, anyways. But in that case you might as well kill them because they don't like you. Simple as that. You can take it for good store prices/sell prices, but that would be it's only purpose as an Evil party.

As for Reputation, it dictates how well known you are, logically. Technically speaking, it determines what party members will join you and which ones won't. If you have a Good party member in your group and you start turning evil, at a certain Negative reputation, that person will abandon you, even if you're in the middle of a cave or a castle, where ever you are, they will ditch you high and dry with the items you've given them. Same goes for an Evil party if you do too many Good things and your Rep gets too high.

Jarrakul

In practice, they're both mostly about money. Eventually you'll have plenty either way, although a good reputation and a high charisma can be helpful early-game.

I also understand that your party leader's charisma affects your party's morale, but I haven't had a morale failure in years, so I can't really comment intelligently on it.