[RPG] What’s the highest possible Charisma score a character can reach

Disclaimer: The maximum theoretical answer is... as much as you want. An example being Pun-pun. Since those are not playable, this answer focuses on how getting a high Charisma without completely breaking the game.

Total: 99.

Starting from the basics:

• Base Charisma score 18
• Leveling points +5
• Inherent bonus +5
• Venerable +3

thus a minimum of 31.

A little cheese to sweeten the deal:

• Lesser Aasimar for +2; type is Humanoid (Planetouched)
• LA+0 Magic-Blooded template (Dragon Magazine #306, p. 50) for +2; type unchanged
• LA+0 Unseelie Fey template (Dragon Compendium, p. 224) for +2; type changes to Fey
• LA+1 Draconic template (Draconomicon, p. 150) for +2; type unchanged
• LA+2 Half-Fey template (Fiend Folio, p. 90) for +4; type changes to Fey or if you prefer Obah Blessed template (Dragon Magazine #136, p.60), same bonus, type unchanged
• LA+5 Suel Lich template (Dragon #339, p. 60) for +2; type changes to Undead
• Polish with a bit of bloodline, such as the Celestial Bloodline (Unearthed Arcana, p.21), granting +1 at level 9

thus a bonus of +15.

Our type is now Fey (Planetouched), unless using Suel Lich, however taking the 1st-level feat Human Heritage (Races of Destiny, p. 152) turns it back to Humanoid (Human, Planetouched). It requires us to be of a half-human or human-descended race, I expect Lesser Aasimar to qualify, otherwise, what's the non-Aasimar part?

I prefer cheese with my cheese:

• The Worm of Minauros magical location (Fiendish Codex II, p. 49), for +1 unnamed bonus; to be renewed every 30 days by committing an act of obeisance (if non-lawful) or a corrupt act (if non-evil)
• A Pact with the Devil (Fiendish Codex II, p. 23), for +1 unnamed bonus; it tends to lead one toward damnation

thus another +2.

Picking the right classes:

• A single level in the Dragon Devotee class (Races of the Dragon, p. 84), for an unnamed +2.
• A single level in the Anointed Knight class (Book of Exalted Deeds, p. 49), for the Divine Clarity oil and an unnamed +1.
• A single level in the Half-Water Elemental class for a racial +2 (Dragon #326, p. 89)
• Two levels in the Half-Air Elemental class for a racial +2 (Dragon #326, p. 87)
• Three level in the Half-Fire Elemental class for a racial +2 (Dragon #326, p. 88)
• Four levels in the Ghost savage progression (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/sp/20040117a) for an unnamed +4.
• Six levels in the Warchief class (Miniatures' Handbook, p. 24), for an unnamed +6.
• Eight levels in the Doomlord class (Planar Handbook variant, p. 47) for an unnamed +2.

thus another +21.

Picking the right feats:

• Ability Enhancer (Dragon Compendium, p. 91), enhances the ability bonus of any Transmutation spell by another +2.

Picking the right spells:

• From Zachiel's list, the Paladin's spell Righteous Aura [Abjuration] (Spell Compendium, p. 177) for +4 sacred bonus to Charisma; to be persisted.
• The Bard's spell Snowsong [Enchantment] (Frostburn, p. 105), for +4 Morale bonus to Charisma; to be persisted.
• The Cleric's spell Visage of the Deity, Greater [Transmutation] (Spell Compendium, p. 231), for +4 unnamed bonus to Charisma (if Good); to be persisted.
• The Bard's spell Nixie's Grace [Transmutation] (Spell Compendium, p. 148), for +8 enhancement bonus to Charisma; to be persisted.

thus another +20, or +24 with the Ability Enhancer feat.

For persisting Bard spells, Divine Metamagic does not work; an Incantatrix (Player's Guide to Faerûn, p. 61) can, however, persist spells either through Cooperative Metamagic (2nd-level) or Metamagic effect (3rd-level).

Buying the right items:

• The Command armor property (Defenders of the Faith, p. 23), for a +4 Competence bonus to Charisma.

thus another +4.

Knowing the wrong persons:

• A Lilitu's Gift (Fiendish Codex I, p. 43), for +2 Profane bonus to Charisma, to be renewed every 24 hours. Makes alignment drifts toward Chaotic, perfect to balance the Worm of Minauros!

thus another +2.

For now, that's a grand total of 99.

Of course, how to manage a deal to get all those is an exercise for the reader... A Cleric/Sublime Chord/Eldrich Master with the Alternative Source Spell feat could get most of it I'm told, which would most probably be foregoing a few of the suggested classes (starting with the Doomlord).

Among other things, I picked ideas from Ways to increase Charisma?, which includes some builds and The most cost effective way of boosting charisma? and I have not read them fully.

tldr: with infinite money, it's trivially possible to cast a spell every round that you're not sleeping, eating, preparing spells, or "etc."-ing

Note: there are (24*60*10=) 14400 rounds in a day, if you don't need to sleep/eat/prepare spells/etc.; 13800 if you need the hour to prepare spells, but don't need to eat/sleep/etc.

A Druid's spells bonus spells per day is based on their Wisdom (table). Therefore, step one is to crank that as high as possible. As a base, they get one 1st level spell per day.

To start, let's assume that the character will have an 18 Wis before racial modifiers (either by rolling well or ignoring all else during point buy, possibly by selling off some other stat).

Wis: 18; Bonus 1st-level spells: 1; Total 1st-level spells: 2

Next, race. There are several races that grant a bonus to Wis, but none of them give more than a +2 (which brings our Wis to 20, giving us an additional bonus spell, for 3 total 1st level spells per day). But, there are rules for creating races! Paragon grants a +4 bonus to any one stat for 1 Race Point, and Advanced Wisdom grants a (stackable) +2 bonus to Wis for 4 RP, plus one for each additional time it's taken (9 RP for a +4, etc.). Gnome Magic grants 1/day Speak with Animals (a 1st level Druid spell) for 2 RP, or Spell*-Like Ability, Lesser* grants a 1/day spell as a spell-like ability for one RP, and can be taken three times. Stoneseer (2 RP) grants Magic Stone. Spell-Like Ability, At-Will grants "a 3rd-level or lower spell that does not attack a creature or deal damage" as an at-will spell-like ability (so, our Druid could cast Speak with Animals every round).

A Drow (noble) is 41 RP, so let's assume that's the cap on Race Points (generous by nearly any definition). Let's also assume that the spell-like abilities don't count as casting a spell. So, create a Paragon (1 RP) creature with Advanced Wisdom as many times as possible with 40 RP, which is 6 times (for 39RP). This leaves one RP over for whatever you'd like to do with it. Six +2 bonuses on top of one +4 bonus works out to +16 on top of the base 18 we "rolled", so we have a total of 34 Wis.

Wis: 34; Bonus 1st-level spells: 3; Total 1st-level spells: 4

Mind, those 4 spells will be nigh impossible to save against.

Without magic items, it's "easy" to get to 4 spells per day.

But wait, there's more: with infinite money comes magic items!

The obvious first purchases are a Headband of Inspired Wisdom +6 and Tome of Understanding +5 (a +4 gets you to the "5 bonus spells" level, but why skimp?), which will grant another +11 to Wis.

Wis: 45; Bonus 1st-level spells: 5; Total 1st-level spells: 6

Tome: 137,500 gp Headband: 36,000 gp (note: the GP cost for magic item guidelines/rules theoretically allow for items which grant an enhancement bonus of greater than +6, so this could go as high as your GM will allow. However, we're at a 45 Wis, which is as high as the table goes; while it's easy enough to extrapolate, let's assume that's the limit of the GM's leniency.

Without cheesy magic items, it's "easy" to get to 6 spells per day.

The next obvious purchase is several thousand Pearls of Power (at 1,000 gp each), each of which (as a standard action) returns a cast spell to mind. Thus, aside from needing to eat, sleep, and prepare spells (which these may obviate), a Druid could cast a spell every other round, or (14400/2) 7200 spells per day, plus the 6 spells they can cast normally.

This dovetails nicely with several thousand Metamagic Rods of Quicken (lesser, at 35,000 gp each), which lets you automatically cast 3 spells per day as with Quick Spell (as a swift action). If you have the slots, you can cast another spell that round, but you'll be using those standard actions to recall spells via the Pearls.

The Pearls have a weight of "negligible", so (per RAW) you can carry them all in a handy sack or have them sewn into your clothes; the rods are 5 lbs each, though; carrying those around might become problematic, except for the Handy Haversack (2,000 gp), which will carry 24 (each of which can be removed as a move action) (or the Secure Paypack, which can hold 4 more) and possibly the Efficient Quiver, which may be able to hold 6, 18, or 60 rods, depending on your GM; they can remove from the quiver for free. Still not enough for full casting; a lenient GM may allow for a larger Haversack or using the Magic Item Creation Rules to let you bolt dozens of rods together into one "Metamagic Rod of Quicken, Ultimate". The fall-back here would be a Portable Hole with a Golem or Homunculus or even an Undead of some sort to keep handing you fresh rods and put your spent ones away for the day.

With cheesy magic items, it's straightforward to cast one spell per round all day long, plus a couple of rounds of casting two spells.

The Vibrant Purple Prism Ioun Stone (at 36,000 gp) gets you 3 spells per day every even day, at the cost of those same three spells on the odd days. Ditto for a Ring of Spell Storing, Major, except that it's 10 levels. Of course, you can have 2 such rings and as many Ioun Stones as you can afford, so you could cast 14400 spells every 1,440 days (a hair under every 4 years). Staves can do something similar, letting you cast 10 more spells today at the cost of having one fewer for the next 10 days (noting that you can only recharge one staff per day, and only one charge, so getting more than one staff just increases the time you're short a spell slot).

With cheesy magic items and no help, it's easy to cast two spells per round all day long, as long as you only need to do so once every leap year or so.

I'll note here the Silver Spindle Ioun Stone, which grants 3/day "pick a spell at creation" as a spell-like ability; again, though, I won't use it, since it isn't casting a spell (costs 24,000 gp, though).

Again in the "spell-like ability" camp is Major Spell Expertise, which lets you cast twice more per day, but as SP instead of "casting a spell" (which, if you're a Human, or burn 4 RP on your custom race to take Flexible Bonus Feat, you can take twice, at the cost of +2 Wis, which will drop your bonus spells per day by 1, but which is still a net win - and lets you buy other niceties for your custom race).

Allowing for "cast spell X as a spell-like ability" magic items, it's simple to cast one spell per round, but it doesn't stack well with the "Pearl + Rod of Quicken" cheese above.