Post/Author/DateTime	Post
PortapottyPunk 01-15-07, 10:45 PM	I must say, RPing is fun. The voices make it more enjoyable for some, while acting like a person with good, in-depth story lines also add enjoyment to it. My friend thought it would be funny if we had some flaws in our characters, like phobias and sorts. He chose to be a fighter with a phobia of blades, so that he would use maces and other bludgening weapons to suit his needs, along with odd reactions when it comes to him fighting people with blades. So I was wondering, anyone have any good things for a player to be bad at in order to have some unusual effects in-game? Kind of like de-powergaming, I guess. Any ideas? Thanks
CaptainPicard 01-15-07, 11:23 PM	This might not be what you are talking about, but the Swordsage I'm playing as right now cannot help but **** off everyone who has ever lived ever. His is the most tragic case of foot-in-mouth disease in history. Not only that, he's a huge poser. He thinks he's the biggest badass since Jack Bauer, but he has currently rolled 1 on a hide check twice in a row (the party announced that they could see him from where they were standing), and throw his katana a dozen feet in a failed attempt to intimidate someone. It's not a mechanical disadvantage, but it is quite a literal disadvantage when he doesn't catch himself and makes a chauvanistic comment in the presence of a Drow Cleric. Closest thing to this other than that was a Fighter in a game I ran who was extremely imperceptive. Not stupid, she just had a tendency to completely miss the point and screw up horribly.
Rillek_Denar 01-16-07, 02:05 AM	I'm playing a human Beguiler in a party of 10 that has 5 human members. He's also an egotistical bigot. As a result, most of the party hates him (but on the plus side, the orc he treats like his slave acts like his slave). There's a lot of fun to be had in playing a character who is going against his nature to work in a team.
Shan_TheBabau_Burke 01-18-07, 12:23 AM	I had a paladin with a fainting problem. Have you ever seen a fainting goat? Clap your hands and they fall right over! hehehe yeah anyway.... This guy wasn't really scared of anything, but if he got startled or whatever, bammo! he was out! That made for some interesting battles at first, but soon my will save got very high and the DM didn't feel right making me roll a 35 or whatever on a save for getting spooked. I also rolled a set of stats for a rogue, three dice and I took the scores straight down. I did better than I thought, but I came up with a seven for wisdom. There's a certain kind of pleasure in playing a guy who is smart enough to disarm a CR28 trap, but doesn't have the common sense to keep his hands and feet out of the way in case it goes off accidentally. It certainly makes for a much more interesting time, especially if you do your best to stay in character.
Mister_Sinister 01-18-07, 01:52 AM	Despite my endless arguments for mechanical efficiency, I believe roleplayed flaws are very cool and characterful. My current character (formerly 'Skull', now going by his real name Asher) is an albino, and thus was left to die as a child by his parents in the woods. He was found and raised by a very harsh teacher, who helped him hone his fighting skills and his psionic talent. In the end, when he couldn't teach him anymore, he told him to destroy the entire village that cast him out, and to hide his face forever from anyone who would see it. As a result of these actions, 'Skull' believed that his mask (made from the skull of a dead arcanist) was the source of his power and that he had to kill anyone who ever saw his face. Suffice it to say, this led to some VERY interesting situations...
Ace_of_Diamonds 01-18-07, 03:09 AM	I say roleplay however you want, and use your character's personality to make decisions in character. In my personal opinion, the minute you start imposing a mechanic for RP purposes is the minute you've gone wrong.
Jandrem Von Zarovich 01-18-07, 11:56 AM	One of my old gaming parties did a lot of RPing stuff like this, and it really fleshed out the game and made it memorable (unlike the dice-fest constant combat/no story games we do now). We had a half-orc fighter in the party who was deathly afraid of trees. Sounded silly at first, but then we found out why. In the Scarred Lands setting there was a forest full of evil treants and a lot of sentient carniverous plantlife. Literally, the trees would chase you and try to eat you. The half orc was left in this forest as a child and norrowly escaped back to civilization. I played a human ranger, and when the orc player and I decided to step our characters out for a bit we decided my ranger was going to help the orc get over his fear of trees..... ...Then I got killed by a "Stick Giant" (gargantuan evil treant). Seems his fears were well placed after all...
Cromag 01-18-07, 01:42 PM	I know I'm having fun with my wisdom 6 bard with +19 diplomacy, He's extremely friendly, but constantly having to talk himself out of situations where he says or does the wrong thing. Last time we played my character has fallen for a necromancer who's about to destroy a city with her undead army,however he refuses to believe that she's anything more than a poor orphaned girl who's being horribly manipulated. So far this has resulted in a few rescue attempts :P
Nytmare 01-18-07, 01:44 PM	In my campaign, we do a stat array that has a 17 at one end and a 7 at the other, and the players incorporate a heroic "quality" and "flaw" into their character descriptions that tie into the stats. So the wise but uncharismatic Theurge, as an example, doesn't just have a 17 and 7 in the appropriate stats; above everything else the numbers dictate he's extremly calculating and insensitive. It's not quite the same thing as what you were talking about, but it's what we do.
obrysii 01-18-07, 02:34 PM	I'm currently playing an evil Gold Dragon cleric with a huge phobia towards blood (although we've toned down the phobia save DC's). He won't even get close to a corpse. Good thing the only other PC is a warforged and doesn't bleed blood. In a future campaign, I want to play a paranoid one-armed mage with an eyeball beholderkin as his familiar (multiple eyes to help him keep watch). Being one-armed would likely mean -2 to balance, climb, and swim as well as being unable to have a shield and sword equipped at the same time, but it wouldn't impair spellcasting.
Leo 01-18-07, 05:23 PM	A lazy wizard whitout component pouch because he didn't like to have to look for the components (Oh, I'll just shoot magic missile at it). A grunt cleric whitout holy symbol and more strenght than wisdom, plus dex 6(I shall prove my faith by smiting you in close combat whitout requesting my patron's intervention! DIE).
Basil_Bottletop 01-18-07, 05:25 PM	In a Ravenloft Commoner game I played a grave-digger and actually rolled the phobia (from some website) that he was afraid of washing/bathing. Although it was quite ironic, it became quite an ingenious character hook when the DM began giving us class levels due to our actions in the past sessions. My grave-digger with an incredible stench and very nice intimidate check became something of a Paladin for our party. I also have a gnomish mage that decided it was a good idea to Vampiric Touch an incarnum node (as stated in my signature) and it led to the shriveling of my right hand and arm. All of my spells that took motion or focus of the hands basically became useless to me. Until I spent a feat in Still Spell... and then one game later found someone willing to fix my hand for me (It seems not everyone readily wants to help the crazy evil gnomes anymore....) I agree with others on this board, flaws make the character just as much as anyone's strengths. Hopefully the DM will recognize this too, because I had the most fun when the DM used my flaw to my disadvantage. It gives the RP, or the battle, or puzzle, or whatever that much more complicating and interesting.
Argon_Asimov 01-18-07, 07:42 PM	My current character (formerly 'Skull', now going by his real name Asher) is an albino, and thus was left to die as a child by his parents in the woods. He was found and raised by a very harsh teacher, who helped him hone his fighting skills and his psionic talent. In the end, when he couldn't teach him anymore, he told him to destroy the entire village that cast him out, and to hide his face forever from anyone who would see it. As a result of these actions, 'Skull' believed that his mask (made from the skull of a dead arcanist) was the source of his power and that he had to kill anyone who ever saw his face. Suffice it to say, this led to some VERY interesting situations... Wow. Now that's a character. Actually... that's an even better villian... Copy+pasted into my campaign, thanks Mr. Sinister. To OP, so my post actually has a point: Yes, a character is often defined best by thier flaws. These don't always have to be glaring, game-breaking deficiencies, but little quirks, played consistantly, which have a small but potent effect on your playing style go a long way to establishing a unique character.