Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Should Charisma affect which facial models you have available?

Short answer: No.

Long answer. Of course not.

Charisma is not looks. If you think a low charisma character can't be physically attractive you are simply wrong. Check the rulebook again.

If you want to homebrew this then explain why good looks affect intimidation? Or spellcasting?

The 5e PHB makes it rather clear that charisma is not physical appearance. Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution can affect appearance. Whereas Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma do not.

Charisma is the "Je ne sais quois" It's an element of grace, presence, power gifted from the divine, etc.

Charisma defined, the PHB treats Charisma in a similar way.

This Is a big no from me. Also because of Charisma Is not about how someone looks either even tho It can be. But someone less attractive can still be charismatic as a person. Well thats how I see things atleast.

Well. I belive the previous poster said It well

The confusion maybe comes from the choice of an ancient Greek term for the attribute. In the Classical period charis connoted piety, grace and reciprocity, but that was also a bit of a platonic reformulation. In his notebooks and in Twilight of the Idols Nietzsche notes that Socrates was considered bug-eyed and ugly by his contemporaries, and that that represented a kind of moral refutation in and of itself for the Greeks, who considered physical beauty to be among their highest ideals. Typically a hero described as godlike or having grace, was also beautiful, like Hector in the Iliad. Or also for figures like Arachne or Medusa before they were transformed, or after to be made ugly as a punishment. I think there is room to play with the idea in D&D like with curses, but not in a 1:1 sort of way suggested by the OP. Charisma in D&D also dances between the idea of personal magnetism and intimidation depending on character type. Probably they should have chosen a better word for the attribute, maybe the English term Will or Willpower, or Charm would have conveyed it better.

In any case, I don't want my appearance restricted by attributes at character creation, even by the 3 physical ones STR, DEX, CON which might ostensibly influence appearance. In my mind all the attributes like Strength or Dexterity or Con take on magical properties especially at the extremes, such that a player might be much stronger or more dexterous than they appear.

I would like for a wide variety of body phenotypes and facial looks, and to be able to change those at any time outside of character creation. We should have an appearance tab on the character sheet that allows us to change anything cosmetic... Heads, Hair, Makeup, Scars etc. That shouldn't have anything to do with our selected attributes

@black elk: Thats a very good post

I also think that charisma should not influence your look.
Lets take this example to the extreme:
- High str means you have more muscles. Now imagine an elf fighter who looks like Arnold Schwarzenegger with pointy ears.
- High dex means you do more complex yoga poses as idle animation. Low dex means you move like in the ministry of silly walking sketch.
- Low con means you look sick.
- High int means you look like a nerd.
- High wisdom means you look older. (sorry, I had no better idea)
- low cha is ugly and high cha is beautiful.
Seriously, this is a terrible idea. Stats are an abstraction of your char in a world full of magic.
Select whatever stats you want and select whatever look you want.
Now I make a barbarian who throws enemies around as if they were handballs and she looks like an elf super model (very thin and quite small).

BTW:
Arcanum had different stats and beauty and charisma were different stats.
Charisma defines how good you can convince others.
Beauty defines how much others like you when you first meet them ( its almost useless in the game unless you are so ugly that some people attack you on sight, playing a dumb and ugly orc was very funny though)

Personally I think characters that have low Strength and still look buff are annoying. I know some players think it's hilarious in the Elder Scrolls to build the most unique player character ever, but it immersion breaking for me.

I'm all for player choice and options, but the player should at least have a minimum threshold of Strength to look like Arnie, Dexterity could open up body types that look like Olympic Gymnasts or Pro Soccer players, low con could let you play as a character that looks sickly or always looks tired like Vince Vaughn (gain some bags under their eyes).

The player would always have the default average Tav build to use, while unlocking other physiques.

This was the issue with Fable 1, where the player character became a beefcake old-man very easily.

IRL there are athletes that are stronger or more dexterous than they look. But they usually all have a baseline of physique one way or another. Athletes who are stronger than they look usually still look strong, athletes who are more dexterous than they look can be seen in the Premier League all the time.

On the topic of the Body-builder look, you'd have to eat & lift like Schwarzenegger to look like him. It's very normal that if an athlete doesn't overeat they become stronger without gaining excess mass.