QQ&A: Beauty and charisma
Seen in the wild oh-so often:
“Why do so many people think that the Charisma stat relates to physical attractiveness?”
That’s an easy one to answer.
Because it does.
Now, let me quickly clarify. Beauty is neither necessary nor sufficient for a high-CHA character. You can be hideous and charismatic. You can be gorgeous and unlikeable.
That’s true at the gaming table and that’s true in real life.
But if you think beauty and charisma have nothing to do with each other…?
“Hold on though. Think about Warlock pacts, which require high charisma. Why would a patron - an otherworldly entity - care how pleasant someone is to look at? They wouldn’t even have the same standards of beauty as mortals!”
Well done - you’ve dipped your toes in non-human psychology. Kudos to you for recognizing that what humans find appealing is down to our wiring, not objective reality. Dung beetles find manure delightful and we don’t because we run different programs. Manure’s grossness is in our brains, not in the dung.
Human standards of beauty relate to health, status and reproductive fitness. A clear complexion implies good nutrition and a lack of parasites. Even if you achieve that effect with makeup, it still appeals to us.
Non-humans will have different standards of beauty for different reasons.
But you’re still not thinking deeply enough though.
Why would an archfae patron care about your character’s appearance? Because the fae are famous for adoring and using beauty.
Why would an archdevil care? Come on, that’s easy - beautiful people can more easily inspire others to sin.
“Ah ha! Checkmate!” some of you declare. “What about Great Old One patrons? They’re so alien that they might not even have the concept of beauty. Even if they do, a supermodel wouldn’t qualify!”
You’re right, I doubt Shub-Niggurath would drool over a weightlifter wearing budgie smugglers.
That’s thinking about it backwards, though. Isn’t a hunk more likely think teaming up with a GOO is a good idea? Attractive people are more likely to be confident - and it sure takes confidence to think that’s a good idea.
All things being equal, people will follow an attractive leader over an ugly one.
They might have an overblown sense of their skills and destiny.
As if someone like that isn’t ripe for an ill-advised pact with an eldritch horror…
This is why it pays to think outside your head. It helps you answer questions like this.
That’s just the start.
It helps you create better characters - at the gaming table or elsewhere.
It helps you create realistic, engaging and diverse species. Species that aren’t like humans, or even like any human culture that has ever existed, but still make sense.
That’s why I wrote Call of the Gods.
It covers a few simple principles, techniques and thought experiments that’ll make thinking like other creatures easy.
Find it here: