Quote Originally Posted by Talic View Post
Bottom line, charismatic players generally like the no-roll system, because it benefits them. But it's not balanced. You want a charismatic character, build it, roll it, and role it.
And that's a fine way to do it. In my group, we tend to prefer rolls to more directly map to social encounters. But not every group does. In my old group, we had 5 players, and 3 of them were there to see the cool things they could do in combat. They weren't particularly interested in roleplaying or talking beyond what ale they were drinking that day (they eventually came around and we had great party interactions). So if our party ever wanted to be diplomatic, did one of the other two of us HAVE to pick a social class? I would say no. We ended up having a sexy rogue who helped us in a few situations, but my likeable halfling did just as well because he was just plain friendly.

I think that if you have to make a roll for any social encounter, then it can bog down play. Rolls are mostly for bartering, negotiations, and the like, where it suddenly becomes your social skills versus another's. In the meantime, I say play your character as amiably or as gruffly as you would like.

My low charisma dwarf who is plenty friendly but ugly as sin (and a bit smelly) would agree! People who know him like him, people who don't would rather not. :-p