Wasteland 2 Charisma Changes Outlined

Over at the official Wasteland 2 forums, project lead Chris “DarkTwinkie” Keenan outlined the changes that will be applied to the charisma attribute, which the team and beta players alike considered fairly underpowered. Without further ado, here’s how charisma is tentatively meant to work in the final title:

Party Based Application
Charisma of party is summed up for a single total value

Requirements for CNPCs to Join
Currently, there is no gates (hard or soft) outside of conversation/missions on whether a CNPC will decide to join you on your journey. Each CNPC will have their own Party Charisma requirement that must be met to recruit them. These are tied into their personality type. We are also adding a CNPC UI element that will give you a preview of the attributes and skills that CNPC has. If you currently have 7 party members, the CNPC UI will show the stats of your current CNPCs and the prospective CNPC so you can make a more informed decision on which one to dismiss.

Additional World Gains
We’ve have added (and will continue to add) additional side missions that wouldn’t be available otherwise. You might be passing a Wastelander and due to a high party charisma, they will flag you down and ask for help.

Individual Charisma Application
Charisma is based on that specific rangers Charisma value

Bonus at Vendors
A great idea that I read (sorry for lack of credit…thread is LONG!) was that vendors can have a private or reserve stash. Based on your charisma level, they might offer up the ability to purchase items from this stash. It could be a commonly available item at a deep discount or even a brand new unique weapon, only available from her. Lots of great possibilities.

Additional XP gain for non-combat outcomes
If you peacefully solve a mission or handle a situation without combat, you’ll be rewarded with a bonus to the XP earned from that mission. This came from the discussion on modifying amount of XP to next level. As stated above, I really wanted to make sure that this attribute didn’t have combat focused gains and I believe this is a good way to solve it.

Skill Caps and Additional Benefits
On our list is to tie in attributes to skills. Some skills will be hard gated by attribute levels while others might get bonuses from the values of attributes. Charisma will tie into skills like Barter, the Ass Trio, Leadership and a few others.

Affects size of Leadership “Distance”
The new leadership skill will be in the next update. Among other things, the level of your Leadership skill will give other rangers a bonus to CtH if they’re within range. Level of Leadership Skill = more bonus / Level of Charisma = more range for that bonus. Another great backer suggestion!