Forum:Is Charisma of any use?

I'm thinking about starting my character with very low Charisma, because I'm under the impression that if you have high Speech skill then Charisma won't do anything useful. Is this correct?
 * I'm pretty sure you'll miss out on speech options [Charisma] if you have low Charisma. Other than that, in Fallout 3 you really don't miss out on much. The SPECIAL doesn't affect you as much as they did in the previous games. http://www.nma-fallout.com/article.php?id=47348 --Lord0din69 00:16, 19 December 2008 (UTC)


 * If I had to do it over again, I would have lowered my Charisma to the lowest number and pumped up the other stats. I didn't realize I could do that until it was too late.  MadamWolfenstein 16:29, 21 December 2008 (UTC)


 * Speech skill seems to be vastly more important. I'm sure there are the occasional [Charisma] answers that might net tiny bonuses, but, I'm not aware of any worth sacrificing points for. --AshRandom 19:58, 22 December 2008 (UTC)


 * If you are playing through for the umpteenth time and you want to skip a few little worthless parts of the main plot or just want to be able to get things done quicker or get more of a reward, make people do things for you it's pretty useful. My third playthrough I put all my points into charisma then put speech to 100 ASAP.  It worked well and pretty much every speech option was 100% for me (except for doctors, they're a bit harder).  If it is your first playthrough.  Please.  For the love of God.  Do everything don't skip anything even semi-important as it is alot funner if you do everything, discover everything etc.  I guess in the end it isn't really worth it, I would rather have pumped up luck and small guns.  Charisma is deffinitely worthless if you pump everything into speech. ( I learned the hard way) Coldwars40 19:13, 28 December 2008 (UTC)


 * Charisma is relevant if you want to use Charisma-based perks (Like Animal Friend or Impartial Mediatation). Other than that, it's just the ordinary (Charisma) checks in conversation, which might save you from some backtracking, but that's all, I think.

My charisma is 4 and I wish it was lower. I would have put the extra point into agility (8 instead of 7 before the bobble head). Luck is a great stat, but with the bobble head, lucky 8 ball, and ranger armor, I have 10 anyways :) - Ashran111 05:35, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

I think the question is this. Do you want to reload your game 100 times to beat speech challenges that you could never do with a low charisma, unless you using a save cheat, 500 caps to disable the megaton bomb instead of 100, 30 caps instead of 10 for sugar bombs? raises all over for a person with high charisma.. yes, charisma is useful. Unless you want to cheat, again and again and again. Dragonalumni 00:25, 30 January 2009 (UTC)


 * Maxed speech skill gives 100% on speech tests with only 1 cha. Are you talking *early* game or something? [[Image:Ash_Nuke.jpg]] AshRandom (Talk) 12:06, 29 January 2009 (UTC)


 * If you know you are going to need to do a speech challenge, just change into some charisma boosting gear and wash down a grape mentat with some booze and maybe an ant pheremone. It will drop your intelligence, but you can counter that with a regular mentat or berry.--JiNX Bloodfang 14:47, 29 January 2009 (UTC)


 * Personally I hate giving my character a "achilles heel" At level 18 my speech is 64 (And I have boosted this some) + (with a 6 charisma (5+bobblehead)) Perhaps it's possible to max out speech but unless you specifically hunt down each speech book it does not seem likely. I doubt that I will ever pass 75 with speech at level 20. (Even with 10 int/comp/Ed) --- so most of the game-- IE when your doing all of those quests, charisma will be very useful. Also-- you can only get 6 +charisma mentats (as far as I know) but only later in the game. I honestly disagree with just about everyone on this point-- leave your Charisma alone-- avoid reloading your game 100 times for speech challenges.. it will be more fun. The game isn't so difficult that you need to put all those points elsewhere. (Charisma also effects barter) :) Dragonalumni 00:25, 30 January 2009 (UTC)

If your int is high enough, you have comprehension and educated, it is EASY to get 100 in everything, and if you really want, use lincoln's hat for an extra 5, and don't forget the bobblehead. - Ashran111 04:34, 30 January 2009 (UTC)

Charisma has quite a few hidden things that on the overall, might not matter to everyone, but sure are interesting. For example, if you have Charron or Fawkes as a companion with a low charisma, many people may become hostile to you when they normally would not. However, if it is a perfect 10, this will never happen even with the biggest bigots. Just food for thought.

Why bother? What's the point? I always have my Charisma at an acceptable level (4-6). Since you can always, always raise your stats through other means, there's simply no point in starting with extremely low points in any SPECIAL attribute, unless you just want to be the best at everything, in which case why not just use god mode all the time? PlasmaFox 06:31, 30 January 2009 (UTC)