Wisdom has a Will Save
Intelligence has skill points
So what does Charisma have? Nothing. Nil. It benefits magic (occasionally) but doesn't do crap for anything else. This makes it a dump stat for everyone except the guy who uses it for casting, and optimized groups look really stupid with everyone except the party leader having 8-3 charisma.
Ideas I've got for a Charisma mechanic:
Healing Surges
- expend a Healing Surge to roll half your HD (10d12 for a level 20 barbarian)
- expend a Healing Surge to increase your HP by 1/4 max
- Heal yourself from your Healing Surge Pool
The third idea runs off your Charisma modifier and works by adding your flat value to your Charisma modifier and adding that to your current Healing Surge Value (eg. A barbarian has a flat value of 10 and a ChaMod of -2. At level 1, he has a Healing Surge Pool of 8. At level 2, he has a Healing Surge Pool of 16, etc. If he takes a level of Druid (flat value 4), his Healing Surge Pool at level 3 is 17. At any given point, as an Immediate Action, he can heal as much of his HP as he wants by subtracting those points from his Healing Surge Pool.).
Alternate Attack Bonuses
This is pretty simple. Any time you perform a bullrush, covering fire, disarm, feint, or grapple check, add your ChaMod. I dislike this idea (not that I like my first idea any better) because it only applies to combat and has limited use. Skills and Will Saves are still more prioritized.
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So what ideas would make Charisma a useful stat... or at least one that people don't want to drop?