Charisma is a dump stat?

I recently came across a Marshal class rewrite on the Wizards boards that has ensorcelled me (hah, I used ensorcell in a sentence). It combines the core marshal mechanic of auras (which I previously and unwittingly found quite suited to breaking the Diplomacy skill) with maneuvers from the Tome of Battle: Book of Nine Swords.

I have yet to put together even a first level Sublime Marshal, as it is called, but I have been assembling a mercenary band in my mind. It started when I got the Red Hand of Doom adventure and then found the Warmage and Healer classes from the same Miniature's Handbook as the original marshal. The marshal, warmage, and healer all utilize Charisma, though the healer has it as a secondary, rather than primary, stat. If you add a Bard and a Paladin, you have a five-member party that covers all four primary roles and adds a fifth, support character in the marshal (in a party with the typical Big Four (fighter, rogue, cleric, and wizard), the usual support character in my mind is a Bard because his abilities add to each of the other four and he can step-in for one in a pinch; in this case, the marshal is not a particularly good support character in that respect but his abilities nonetheless complement this team).

None of this being set in stone, a primary idea is for the marshal to have leadership. I want the followers especially and have no idea what to get for a cohort (perhaps a monstrous cohort like a dragon mount).

Anyway, I have only put thought into the marshal and warmage, with a little healer action so far. The bard and paladin were afterthoughts when I discovered the charisma-based cleric substitute. Warmage helped out the plan for a mercenary party because, truth be told, the name suggests a paramilitary group better than does sorcerer.

I will probably post more as I get to it. However, if I follow the stricture of creating a party for Red Hand of Doom, I will have a ranger in the party. I do not want to create a party optimized for Red Hand of Doom but ever since I heard about the adventure I have had the idea for a Ranger with goblinoids and dragons as his favored enemies.