What is the reason that all genasi have a charisma penalty. I can't seem to find any reason why every element would have some sort of personality or physical issue.

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Lance battle shifter of Red Knight
Lyle Underburrow...I would watch where you step when he's around, you might go boom

They are outsiders, much like Tieflings, except they descended from the elemental planes, rather than the lower planes. Also it says so in Races of Faerun 3.5 im pretty sure..

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Aoth Nathandem - Wizard of house Tholaunt and chosen of Ma'at.

Genesai and Teiflings are tainted blood-spawns, impure in any way. Sure, they have a certain "haunting beauty" about them, perhaps (as in the case of a decendant of a Succubus), but they aren't even Human. It goes beyond the "They aren't socially acceptable", and into the point of "They aren't normal".

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Life should be prolonged only when it serves the greater cause of the death of the world.

It's good to remember that Charisma isn't all about socially accepted appearance and whatnot. It's internal and force-of-self. Mindflayers and Slaadi have super-human charisma, doesn't mean general society finds them pretty enough to shack up with.

My explanation would be that the elemental factor in their person somewhat defines part of their personality for them. Fire genasi are prone to passion, water to being more laid back and fluid, air to being flighty, earth to being dour and unchanging. They can be as beautiful or as ugly as you want to make them, but each is ingrained with a elemental trope that influences them heavily. So that sense of self isn't as present, generally speaking, for genasi in comparison to other races, because a significant part of their self identity has always been governed by their genes.

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DI has the right of it here, by and large. Charisma is always a double-sided affair.

Dark Immolation hit it right on the nail. Nice one.

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Currently starring:
Vinasis D'Magi- Calishite Merchant
Pantheros Sylvanight- Lycanlord of Malar
Artorious Godstrike- Paladin of Torm

Sadly that doesn't really explain why Aasimar are super charismatic. But it's not exactly the sort of inconsistency that cant just be handwaved and ignored then on.

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@Thanatopsis#6293

I was waiting for someone to post it, because it's the obvious question that arises. Fact is, I could back-figure any number of explanations, but at the end of the day, it is what it is. Even then, just because it works that way for 5 out of 6 planetouched doesn't mean that all have to play by the same logic. A tiefling isn't the "opposite" of an aasimar no more than it is the physiological counterpart to any genasi. They're all plane-touched, but that doesn't mean their ancestral influence affects them both the same way.

Now, if you really want a reason, I'll reluctantly propose one. Reluctantly, because there really doesn't have to be one; they're different subraces ultimately.

You could say that celestial influence differs from diabolic/demonic influence in that celestials by nature aren't as oppressively subjugated in their existence. While there is definitely a defined hierarchy, they don't have to worry about being eaten and completely destroyed because they stepped out of line. Perhaps heavily reprimanded for speaking out of turn, or even harshly punished at worse, but nothing on the scale a devil or demon faces. Recalling what I remember from the Warriors of Heaven supplement, the worse you ever seen between celestials is a heated debate. They're happy enough to keep the "greater good" in mind and agree to disagree before it comes to blows. That's why you don't see huge amounts of infighting like you do in the lower planes. Also, it's encouraged to find new ways to think of aiding the Multiverse, even if those original suggestions must go through a superior and submitted in triplicate.

So to summarize, the heritage that Aasimar inherit is not one of being stifled. On the contrary, creativity was very much encouraged in their celestial progenitor. While Genasi are pre-disposed to live their lives as a pastiche of their elemental forefathers, and teiflings significantly impulsed to do evil things for their own sake, Aasimar are singularly blessed when it comes to this; their heritage coaxes them to embolden their sense of self, to think they're someone important enough change the world, and that it in fact encourages them to think outside of the box for the benefit of those that depend on them.

Again, that's just the palette cleanser I've concocted for the sake of giving an explanation. I've no real interest in defending or debating its consistency, because again, it's just ad hoc from what is already a fact in the game.

Edit: Without realizing it, I created more of an explanation for why tieflings have the CHA penalty rather than how aasimar differ from genasi. But it's along the same lines that celestial heritage innately builds a greater sense of self and creativity, while elemental heritage gives the impulse to become more like an elemental and to adopt the identity of the elemental ancestor.

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I've always understood the negative charisma modifier to be linked entirely to the fact that Genasi have more than the usual amount of a single creationary element within their make up that invokes a noticeable discordance on the Prime Material Plane. They are in short slightly out of step, emotionally, physically, mentally with relation to entirely native creatures of their prime material species.

Invariably this means that Aasimar and Tieflings shouldn't be compared at all with Genasi because if you look at the Wheel and Tree (of which Amia takes from both) they are entirely different beings.

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I play: Gage le Gris
Socially and recently politically Inept Knight of Xymor

Well I was actually also very specifically saying that it's irrelevant because I think people are making a bigger deal of these modifiers than they really are. Ultimately it's a +1/-1 on associated dice rolls (and gimped sorcery/bardic, but that's only to adventurers and, well, min-maxers). It's on the level of the "asians are good at maths" stereotype with a bit more enforcement to it - it's just a racial tendency. The existence of inconsistencies or obvious handwavemancy isn't really a big deal because the whole thing is a non-issue to begin with anyway.

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@Thanatopsis#6293

You really feel like part of the community when you start a post and people actually discuss it. Yay

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Lance battle shifter of Red Knight
Lyle Underburrow...I would watch where you step when he's around, you might go boom