So with the advent of Esteem, I wanted to do a little testing. Just how much do clothes affect influencing? More specifically, how much to tawdry clothes affect influencing? When wearing a set of tawdry socks, boots, robes, cloak, and hat, I looked nondescript. Wearing only non-tawdry sandals, I was also nondescript.

So here's an Elryn-style report:

Subject: Vix
Charisma: 16
Influencing type: Charity (alternating begging and supplication starting with supplication)
Influence skill: Adept

Test 1 - Tosha Monk while wearing tawdry set
5 supplication
4 begging

Test 2 - Tosha Monk while non-tawdry sandals
5 supplication
4 begging

Test 3 - Tosha Monk while wearing non-tawdry cloak and sandals (looking common)
5 supplication
4 begging

Test 4 - Brother of Enlightenment while wearing nondescriptive outfit
6 suppcliation
5 begging

Test 5 - Brother of Enlightenment while wearing common outfit
6 supplication
6 begging


Conclusion:
Tawdry clothing has no visible differing effect from wearing regular nondescriptive clothing. Going one step up on the "opulence meter" will not affect influencing difficulty by much. I also discovered that whenever the mobile moves to another room while being influenced, it becomes harder to influence it.

So basically, I saved up my tawdry outfit for nothing.

Hmm, you need to look poor for it to have an affect.. make sure you tak off your jewlery.

I was wearing nothing but that tawdry outfit (and my pack which I don't think has any effect on influencing). How much more poor do I have to be?

Maybe if you were starving it'd help a bit.

I'd have to borrow a Geomancer since I'm above level 80.

Um.. you said it has no effect..

But..

Looking common with tawdry clothing on, it took you 9 attacks.
Looking common without tawdry clothing on, it took you 12.

Isn't that an effect?

Tosha Monks and Brothers of Enlightenment are two different mobs. Brothers are stronger (and therefore harder to influence) than regular old monks.

Nihilist or Ur'Guard would do as well, actually.

Whoops. My fault. Didn't notice the Brothers of Enlightenment.

What all do you have that's tawdry? It'll probably take shoes, pants, shirt, gloves, cape, and hat to get to poor.

Listed it above. Wore socks, boots, robes, cloak, and hat. Don't think the socks were visible, but the robes and cloak must be worth something.

Gah, sorry, my reading is way off today.

Try losing the robes and going for pants, tunic, and cloak (unless cloaks hide your torso? If so, go cape), gloves, and maybe a belt. Just need to get as many pieces of tawdry as you can.

If it makes you feel any better.. Trueheart facepaint isn't doing much either.

I'll try to do some tests and see if anything helps.

Edit: Tosha would be SO awesome if I wasn't lazy.

Just did a tiny bit of testing myself

Charisma: 19
Influence: Virtuoso

Brother of Enlightenment while looking Nondescript
3 Begging
3 Supplication
2 Wheedling

Brother of Enlightenment while looking Prosperous
3 Begging
3 Supplication
2 Wheedling

So, it seems that charisma and skill-level have a far greater effect than clothing.

Seems like the extra 3 charisma, aside from speed and extra ego, didn't help your influence strength either. I'm getting the same results with 16 Charisma and the same amount of attacks (with the same skill-level).

Of course it may help more on stronger creatures, but that'd require more testing.

Hm. So..
Skill-level is like 85% of strength
Clothing is about 10% of strength
Charisma is about 5% of strength and 100% of speed.

And clothes are basically .1%

The good about this discovery is that I no longer am going to bother changing out of my nice pretty clothing to influence

Though, I did find out that lingerie stockings give more to appearance than boots. With my boots on, I look Well-to-do. When I take them off and my stockings are visible, I go up to Prosperous.

It seems that it's best to take jewelry off first. One thing I noticed is that with jewelry on, I take about 70% more ego DAMAGE on attacking. Speed isn't the issue - damage back is. Against Miakoda, I lose if I'm wearing my jewelry, and win easily if I am not. It isn't a question of how many hits it takes to win - I can't tank the ego damage with jewelry on, as it reaches like, 1.2k per hit

hmm, i don't know, I swear when i was looking nondescript(or maybe it was a naked fool, I forget) the last time Estelbar was up I was having a really hard time influencing the villagers to join Serenwilde(all my clothes had decayed on me while i was logged off ), Vs when I useally influence in villages and look like royalty.

Edit:it was a sizable differance, it took about double the attacks to get even the little villagers swayed

That's because we're talking about begging versus "impressing."