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Basic Trope: Skimping on a stat so you can use the points elsewhere.

  • Straight: While playing a Tabletop RPG, Bob gives his warrior a low charisma score so he can afford more points in strength and constitution.
  • Exaggerated: Bob's fighter has the absolute maximum strength and minimum charisma, making him The Grotesque with Super-Strength.
  • Downplayed: Bob takes a small penalty to charisma to give his fighter another point of strength.
  • Justified:
    • Alice is playing a Quirky Bard so her character can take care of social skills while Bob protects her from physical dangers.
    • Bob is playing a one-shot game devoted entirely to combat. His character wouldn't have a chance to use charisma-based skills even if he wanted to.
  • Inverted: One Stat to Rule Them All
  • Subverted: Bob gives his character an average charisma score. While he won't be able to sway angry mobs with a winning smile, he can haggle down prices from time to time...
  • Double Subverted: ...But he lowers his fighter's intelligence to below average because he doesn't have knowledge or spellcasting abilities.
  • Parodied: The show switches between the players at the table and the characters in action. While Bob's actor is handsome, "Robert the Bold" is played by the same actor with buck teeth and a horrible skin condition.
  • Zig Zagged: The Charisma stat is useless to Bob's character-build but there's a number of Charisma checks that'll give him extra rewards if he pursues them regardless of his disadvantage.
  • Averted: Bob's character is well-rounded and does not particularly suffer in any one stat.
  • Enforced: The game uses a give-and-take system that forces Bob to make Charisma his useless stat - the leftover points will deduct from his Strength if he doesn't account for them.
  • Lampshaded: "So Robert the bold has 18 Strength, 16 Constitution, and 6 Charisma? I'm really glad tabletop role playing isn't a visual medium."
  • Invoked: Bob builds the biggest, baddest fighter he can and doesn't care what shortcomings he has to suffer to get there.
  • Exploited: Bob's Fighter has low Charisma because he has advance knowledge that an important check at the end of the campaign is reversed and requires a low Charisma score.
  • Defied: All stats are relevant to Bob's chosen campaign, even if they're low.
  • Discussed: "Bob, your Fighter hits things. Don't worry too much about that talking-stat."
  • Deconstructed: Robert's rough manners and appearance leave him judged a brigand. His rescue of the unconscious princess gets him mistaken for her kidnapper, and his inability to convincingly explain causes him to wind up a Hero with Bad Publicity who accidentally makes things far worse even while doing heroic deeds.
  • Conversed: ???
  • Played For Drama: At the climax of the campaign Bob's playing in, the Big Bad's sentient book needs to be read so it can be sealed away and prevent a cataclysm, but his Fighter's Charisma is so low (it being irrelevant to his build) the book won't let him read - and his other allies are incapacitated!

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