Title basically. Charisma feels very underpowered in this game. I was wondering if there were any mods that make having a high Charisma score actually make a difference (other than getting a +1 dagger in Candlekeep and some poison potions at the Friendly Arms Inn)

you only need one chacter in the group with good Charisma so its a waist of time to make mods just for that

There's a 3.5 mod
https://github.com/Holic75/Baldurs-gate-dnd-3.5

that along many other stuff rework charisma to work more in par with how it works in dnd 3.5 edition

But, from what i see in the Relases section ( https://github.com/Holic75/Baldurs-gate-dnd-3.5/releases/latest ) the latest version is from 2019 , so i have no idea if it's still working with current version of BG1 and BG2

How does that make any sense? Interesting - I'll check it out!
Thanks :)

Charisma does what its supposed to do.

Your protagonist should always have Charisma 18 for its many benefits, namely early quest rewards and shop prices (though one needs Cloak of Charisma for that, too).

Well in the second game you can get to Charisma 20 without help once you either reached the machine of Lum or did the hell tests.

There are a lot of things that are "underpowered" in AD&D.

It's not about overpowered or underpowered - it's about a game mechanic interacting in a way to make the game more interesting.

And that's why I asked about mods. Mods make the game do things that it isn't supposed to do because it's supposed to make the game more interesting.

For example- everyone would always choose to put points in Strength over Charisma no matter what (even if you're a mage), as long as it isn't a requirement.

But suppose if Charisma did something useful (such as making your summons more powerful, or making charm spells more effective). Now you might actually consider putting points into Charisma rather than Strength.

More features doesn't = overpowered. More features = more interesting

Again, Charisma does what its supposed to. Charisma is the traditional dump stat in D&D.

In AD&D you get some reaction adjustment - for Charisma 18 its +5, which is why you need that for many quests - and shop prices adjustment - between Charisma 15 (no change) and Charisma 20 you can get -5% prices for each step of Charisma, to a maximum of -25%.

Since no companion in BG1 has Charisma 18, you need it on the protagonist for best shop prices.

So this is a dump stat for almost all classes except a couple classes which need minimum stats (any Paladin not Blackguard 17, Enchanter 16, Druid 15, Bard 15, Dragon Disciple 15, Blackguard 14, Shadowdancer 12, Sorcerer 9), also any Elf needs Charisma 8.

Thats what the AD&D rules say. And in D&D3 and D&D5 its hardly better.

In BG3 for example you have Paladin, Bard, Warlock and Sorcerer all needing Charisma for spellcasting. All other classes can use Charisma as their dump stat. The only other thing Charisma does in D&D5 is giving a bonus to Charisma saves, which exist but are a minor save, i.e. they are rare and of lesser importance.

Sure, fixing rulesystem problems with mods is possible, but fundamentally its much better to have a rulesystem that already works, instead trying to fix the issues in post.

There are many other severe misdesigns in AD&D. A warrior with Str 14, Dex 14, Con 14 gets ZIP from these stats, while in D&D3 and D&D5 you would get +2 hitpoints per level, +2 attack and damage, and +2 on the respective saves (Reflex and Fortitude in D&D3, Strength, Dexterity and Constitution in D&D5).

Basically in AD&D you can set a stat to 18 or to 10; there rarely is a good reason to set it to something else. Well, and Con 16 for non-warriors, because you dont get more than 2 hitpoints per level from constitution.

for those that don't know Charisma affects shop prices and peoples reaction but as a game mechanic, only the party leader is checked i.e, who ever is in the first F1 slot is considered to be the leader even if its another character doing the talking

Charisma could have been more useful if the devs would have made more branching discussion involving some charisma check.
Usually it's what people were doing in paper version of dnd to see if a character the players were talking to would reveal something or not , answer or not etc...
unfortunately there's very few of those in BG1/2 dialogues

Yes - but it could also be used as a game mechanic in combat. This is not a new idea.
In Shadowrun Charisma affects the strength of your summons
In Arcanum Charisma makes your charm spells more potent
In Fallout Charisma affects how many companions you can have
In DOS2 (or maybe another game I can't remember) it gives bonuses to your allies when there's a leader in the vicinity

So, it's not impossible to have a mod that makes Charisma more useful in BG1/2 without breaking the game

There are quite a few Charisma checks in BG1, actually.

Though its not checked directly, but the reaction score is tested. The base value is 10 (EEs: reputation 8-13) and Charisma 18 gives +5, so the check is against 15.

You have to break reputation 14 to get a bonus from reputation, but even at maximum reputation 20 you only get +4 from reputation alone, so even at reputation 20 you need Charisma 13 for another +1 bonus on reaction score to reach a total reaction score of 15.