These negative traits inflict penalties on the character who gains them.
Albinism
You lack pigmentation in your skin, giving you a distinctively pale appearance. Your skin is very sensitive to sunlight.
Detriment: You must make a Fortitude saving throw for every hour that your skin is exposed to direct sunlight. The DC is 15 +1 for every hour that you’ve been exposed. A failure causes 1d4 hit points of sunburn damage.
Anathema
Your very existence is abhorred by the natural world, causing animals to shy away from you.
Detriment: Animals and beasts do not willingly approach within 30 feet of you, becoming hostile to you if forced within that range. An animal or beast’s master may attempt a DC 20 Handle Animal or wild empathy check to keep the animal calm. Animal companions, familiars, and mounts granted by your class abilities are not immune to this effect.
Annoying
You have a way of rubbing people the wrong way when you speak. This could be due to your natural belligerence, boastfulness, uncouthness, or other personality flaw.
Detriment: When using Persuasion to change attitudes, you must add an extra 5 to the DC.
Anxious
After suffering terribly for not being tight-lipped enough as a child, such as when you accidentally exposed your family to enemy inquisitors, you developed a habit of being overly cautious with your words.
Detriment: You take a –2 trait penalty on Persuasion checks and must speak slowly due to the concentration required. Unless stated otherwise, you are assumed to not be speaking at a volume above a whisper.
Attached
You have a strong emotional attachment to a person or object that you’re terrified of losing.
Detriment: The GM chooses the object of your attachment. Whenever the object of your attachment is either threatened, in danger, or in someone else’s possession, you take a –1 penalty on Will saves and a –2 penalty on saves against fear effects. If the person or object to which you’re attached is ever lost, killed, or destroyed, exchange this drawback for the Doubt drawback.
Avarice
Deep, compulsive greed gnaws at you.
Detriment: Whenever monetary treasure is divided, you must end up with a greater share of that treasure than your companions or you’re wracked with feelings of jealousy and ill will. When treasure is divided, if you do not end up with at least 10% more treasure than any other individual companion does, you have a hard time being helpful to your allies. You become irritable, and can’t take the aid another action for the next week.
Awkward Gestures
Maybe you have stiff joints. Maybe your arms are just a little too long. Whatever the reason, you have trouble making the elegant gestures necessary to cast arcane spells.
Prerequisite: You must be an arcane spellcaster to select this drawback.
Detriment: You have a natural 5% arcane spell failure chance. This stacks with armor penalties.
Bad Luck
Whenever you need luck most, you can count on it not being there.
Detriment: Once per session, the GM can negate any success, even if it was a critical hit. This will usually be when you desperately need to succeed.
Bad Shot
You are unpracticed or inept at making ranged attacks.
Detriment: You take a –2 trait penalty on all ranged attacks.
Bitter
You have been hurt repeatedly by those you trusted, and it has become difficult for you to accept help.
Detriment: When you receive healing from an ally’s class feature, esoteric ability, or other ability, reduce the amount of that healing by 1 hit point. This does not apply when healing yourself.
Bleeder
Your body has trouble stabilizing. When dying, you continue to bleed until you are dead.
Detriment: You automatically fail stabilization while dying. Unless you are treated or healed, you will continue to lose one hit point every round until you are dead.
Clumsy
You are exceptionally uncoordinated and tend to slip at the most inopportune times.
Detriment: You take a –2 trait penalty on all Acrobatics checks. You can gain no benefit from the Acrobatic feat.
Condescending
Raised with the assurance that only those like you are truly worthy of respect, you have an off-putting way of demonstrating that you look down on those not of your race and ethnicity or nationality.
Detriment: You take a –5 trait penalty on skill checks to improve other creatures’ attitudes toward you.
Cowardly
You might face dangerous situations with bravado, but you are constantly afraid.
Detriment: Your base speed when frightened and fleeing increases by 5 feet, and the penalties you take from having any level of the frightened condition increase by 1. If you would normally be immune to fear, you do not take these penalties but instead lose your immunity to fear (regardless of its source).
Cruelty
You were rewarded as a child for flaunting your victory over others as completely as possible, and you discovered you enjoyed the feeling of rubbing your foes’ faces in the dirt.
Detriment: Whenever you are engaged in combat and there are dying or helpless foes within 30 feet, you take a –2 trait penalty on attack rolls against foes who are neither dying nor helpless.
Deity’s Wrath
You have angered a particular god or goddess.
Detriment: You add 1 to the DC of any save you must make against any spells invoked in the name of a particular deity. Healing spells and other aid from that deity will not work on you. The GM should restrict this drawback to common deities in his campaign.
Dependent
You are dependent upon the acceptance of others.
Detriment: Whenever you fail a Persuasion check, you become shaken for 1 hour.
Doubt
You lack confidence in your abilities or confidence in the universe at large.
Detriment: Whenever you fail a skill or ability check, you take a –4 trait penalty on that type of skill or ability check for the next hour.
Easily Read
You wear your heart on your sleeve. Others can almost read your thoughts.
Detriment: Your opponents get a +4 trait bonus to their Insight checks when using that skill against you.
Entomophobe
A harrowing experience with insects when you were young instilled in you a deep-seated fear of vermin of all description, especially when they swarm together.
Detriment: You take a –2 trait penalty on attacks against vermin, and you take a –2 trait penalty on saving throws against the nauseated condition of a swarm’s distraction ability.
Family Ties
Your family is extremely important to you, and you feel disheartened when you can’t do what they ask.
Detriment: When a family member makes a request of you, you must fulfill that request or take a –2 trait penalty on all Wisdom- and Charisma-based ability checks and skill checks until you either do what was requested or succeed at a DC 20 Will saving throw, which you can attempt once per day at the start of each day. You can’t take this drawback if you have no family. If you ever lose your family or lose contact with your family, exchange this drawback for the Doubt drawback.
Fanatic
You are so committed to one philosophy or religion that it blinds you to others.
Detriment: You take a –2 trait penalty to any skill checks when recalling knowledge or researching histories, religions, or lore at odds with your own faith. In addition, you will refuse personal aid from any cleric or divine spellcaster that is contrary to your faith.
Special: If you are a cleric, paladin, or other divine class, you will refuse aid to anyone who doesn’t adhere to your faith.
Fey-Taken
As a child, you were whisked away by mischievous fey for a time. When you returned, you were ever after considered odd and distant. You long to return there, and find the mortal world dull and at times revolting, so you do not eat as you should and do not question strange visions.
Detriment: You take a –2 trait penalty on saving throws against disease, illusions, and poison of all kinds, as well as against the esoteric abilities of fey.
Forgetful
You are easily distracted and prone to forgetting important things.
Detriment: Whenever you leave a location you have been at for longer than 1 hour, you must attempt a DC 10 Wisdom check. If you fail, you leave behind one random mundane item (a purse of money counts as an item).
Foul Brand
You have the symbol of an evil deity burned into your flesh.
Detriment: You take a –1 trait penalty on Deception, Engineering, and Persuasion checks. (This does not count as a holy symbol for the purposes of a divine focus for spellcasting.)
Frail
You are weaker than normal, either due to illness or genetics.
Detriment: Your maximum hit points are reduced by 1 per Hit Die.
Gullible
You are easily deceived and manipulated by others.
Detriment: You take a –2 penalty on Insight and Persuasion checks.
Headstrong
You feel compelled to correct every action and argument that contradicts your worldview.
Detriment: Whenever you witness an action or hear an argument that contradicts your alignment, you must attempt to stop or correct that action or argument. If you either don’t try to stop it or fail in your attempt to stop it (as adjudicated by the GM), you are shaken for 1 hour.
Hedonistic
You are a creature of pleasure and comfort.
Detriment: Whenever you spend a day without gaining reward or treasure (at least 10 or more gold pieces) or spending an hour on entertainment or pleasure, attempt a DC 20 Fortitude save at the end of that day. If you fail, you begin the next day fatigued. This fatigue lasts 4 hours, or until you receive a reward or sufficient entertainment or pleasure.
Helpless
You once stood helpless as great harm befell a loved one, and that paralysis sometimes returns when an ally is in a dire position.
Detriment: The first time per combat encounter that an ally within 30 feet falls unconscious or dies as the result of an attack, you are dazed until the end of your next turn.
Impatient
You love leaping into battle at the earliest opportunity, and it frustrates you to wait for others to act.
Detriment: You can’t delay or ready actions, and if you are the last of your allies to act in a round of combat, you take a –1 trait penalty on ability checks, attack rolls, saving throws, and skill checks.
Insatiable
You have become so accustomed to binging on the finer things in life that you find going without such excess particularly strenuous.
Detriment: Goods and services cost you 10% more (and can’t be paid for by allies), and you need twice as much food and liquid as normal for the purposes of preventing starvation and thirst.
Loner
Raised by pirates, bandits, or other troublemakers unwilling to stick out their necks for you, you are accustomed to operating on your own. The presence of allies can easily become a distraction to you, and you do your best to keep them out of your space.
Detriment: You take a –1 trait penalty to AC and on attack rolls while adjacent to allies or when taking the aid another action.
Lovesick
Your love for another occupies your every thought, and you become despondent when you are away from that person.
Detriment: The person is chosen by your GM. At the start of each day, if you are away from this person you take a –2 trait penalty on initiative checks and Perception checks. If you ever lose or fall out of love with this person, exchange this drawback for the Doubt drawback.
Misbegotten
Whether due to the influence of malign magic, disease, or the scorn of the gods, you were born with a troublesome deformity that interferes with your movement.
Detriment: You take a –2 trait penalty on all Dexterity-based skill checks.
Mute
You cannot speak.
Detriment: You take a –4 trait penalty on any skill checks that would normally require you to speak and cannot use any esoteric ability with a verbal component. While you may continue to learn new languages, you may only understand them, not speak them.
Naive
Your perception that everyone is innately good does not bode well in the heat of battle, when less scrupulous foes might take advantage of your misguided optimism.
Detriment: You take a –2 trait penalty to AC against attacks with improvised weapons and a –2 trait penalty on the Insight skill.
Nervous
Living under constant threat of death or worse from your oppressive government, your nerves have frayed terribly.
Detriment: Whenever you take 10 on an ability check or skill check that imparts any penalty for failure (aside from wasted time), you treat your check as if you had rolled an 8 instead of a 10, even if you are able to take your time.
Oblivious
Whether because you are an avid daydreamer or you are accustomed to everything being handed to you and spelled out for your benefit, you pay little attention to your surroundings and other people.
Detriment: You take a –2 trait penalty on Insight and Perception checks.
Oppressive Expectations
You were raised with the belief that your family was special, and that those of your status always succeed at whatever they do. Due to your concern about upholding the family name and your memories of the consequences for disappointing them (such as violence or unsettling disapproval), you are easily frustrated.
Detriment: When you fail at a skill check, you take a –2 trait penalty on checks with that skill until you succeed or until you fail at a different skill check, whichever comes first.
Overprotective
In your youth, you saw a younger friend or loved one suffer a grievous injury or die, and you blamed yourself for not having been there to help, even if there was nothing you could have done.
Detriment: If one of your allies should fall unconscious from hit point damage, you take a –2 trait penalty on attack rolls and skill checks as long as you are farther than 10 feet away from your fallen ally.
Overzealous
You are fanatical in your beliefs, ruled by emotion over reason.
Detriment: When you attack a creature that you know worships a different religion than you do, you take a –5 trait penalty on the attack roll but a +2 trait bonus on the damage roll with your first attack.
Paranoid
You believe that someone or something is always out to get you, so you have a hard time truly trusting anyone.
Detriment: Anyone who attempts an aid another action of any type to assist you must succeed at a DC 15 check instead of the normal DC 10 check.
Power-Hungry
You’re addicted to power.
Detriment: You take a –2 trait penalty on Will saving throws against charm and compulsion effects if the creature creating the effect promises wealth or power.
Pride
You can’t abide challenges to your dignity, authority, or honor.
Detriment: When someone threatens, accuses, or challenges you, you take a –2 trait penalty on Insight and Persuasion checks involving that creature until the creature apologizes to you.
Provincial
You have only one way of looking at things: the right way.
Detriment: You take a –2 trait penalty on Insight and Persuasion checks made against all creatures whose religion or alignment differs from your own.
Quick Spell Discharge
You are unable to hold the charge of touch spells.
Prerequisite: This drawback is only available to spellcasting classes.
Detriment: Any touch spell cast must immediately manifest or you lose it.
Scarred
An injury left you horribly, visibly scarred, making it more difficult for you to hide your true face, and also making most people distrustful of you merely due to your appearance.
Detriment: You take a –5 trait penalty on skill checks to create or maintain a disguise for yourself.
Self-Doubting
Your ever-present fear of failure causes a downward spiral.
Detriment: The first time each day that you fail a Will saving throw or skill check, you take a –2 trait penalty on the next Will saving throw or skill check of that kind.
Sentimental
You are sentimental, and your thoughts often stray to the past at inappropriate times.
Detriment: You take a –2 trait penalty on Perception checks to avoid being surprised and on Reflex saving throws to avoid traps or hazards.
Sheltered
Brought up in courtly environments and knowing little of violence, you have trouble getting accustomed to it.
Detriment: Whenever you have less than half your maximum hit points, you are shaken. This condition applies even if you are immune to fear.
Superstitious
Raised around those who regarded most magic as innately dangerous, no matter the source, you cannot bring yourself to submit to magic willingly even for your own good.
Detriment: Whenever you are affected with a harmless spell, there is a 50% chance that you must roll a saving throw to prevent that effect, even if it would benefit you. This does not apply to harmless spells cast by you upon yourself.
Tainted Spirit
When you were a child, a parent or other person with authority over you made a minor pact with a fiend on your behalf, stealing some of your vitality in exchange for a minor boon.
Detriment: At the end of any combat, you must attempt a Fortitude saving throw. The DC is 10 + the number of rounds you acted in combat. If you fail this save, you become fatigued for 10 minutes per round you acted during that encounter.
Vain
You are sensitive about the way others perceive you.
Detriment: Whenever you fail an opposed Charisma-based check, you take a –2 trait penalty on all Charisma-based checks for the next 24 hours.
Xenophobic
You have a hard time understanding and trusting those with unfamiliar ways and appearances.
Detriment: You take a –2 trait penalty on Insight and Persuasion checks made against creatures of a different race or from a different culture.