Traits

Either in childhood or later in life, you were subject to physical abuse. This has left you flinching at the slightest aggressive movement.

Effect: Once per session the GM may have you flip a coin, if tails you gain Impaired for 1d4 rounds and a Hero Point. If Tails nothing happens.

You spend much of your times researching and learning, contributing to the larger academic community.

Effect: You gain 5 Skill ranks in any Knowledge Skill or Research, this can not exceed 20 ranks. You are also a member of a university, college, mage academy or other kind of academic circle. You gain access to their libraries and scribes. However you are expected to contribute research, 40 hours a month or pay a due of 40 Lifestyle Points a month. If you fail to contribute for three months you are put on academic probation and lose access to the facilities the academic circle provides until you contribute again. You must pay all owed time or points to be brought back in good standing.

You struggle with an addiction to a narcotic.

Effect: You select a narcotic substance you have an addiction to. You must use this substance regularly or go into withdraws. Addiction comes in two variants, Mild and Severe. Each year your character is Addicted, the GM subtracts 1 year off your total lifespan for Mild addiction, or 1d4 for severe.

Mild Addiction (-5 Points): You must spend 5 Lifestyle points a week in order to satiate your addiction or 3 SP a week. If you go one week without your addiction you are Fatigued until you resume it. After One month of being Fatigued you are no longer Addicted, however if you ever use the substance again you gain this trait back again.

Severe Addiction (-10 Points): You must spend 15 Lifestyle points a week in order to satiate your addiction or 7 SP a week. If you go one week without your addiction you are Exhausted until you resume it. After One month of being Exhausted you are now Fatigued instead… After one more month of Fatigued, you are no longer Addicted. However if you ever use the substance again you gain this trait back again.

You can barely keep track of what you’re doing, let alone important details or facts.

Effect: Whenever you try to remember something important Flip a coin, On heads you remember it fine on Tails you remember it wrong or not at all.

Whenever a spell or ability target your surface thoughts flip a coin, on heads there is nothing there to read. On tails its normal thoughts.

You have a genetic disorder that results in a partial or complete lack of pigmentation in the eyes, skin, and hair. While the lack of pigment in the hair and skin results in white coloration, lack of pigment in the eyes results in pink or crystal blue irises, with bright red pupils. Due to the lack of melanin, the compound that provides the pigmentation, characters with this quality lack ultraviolet light protection, making them very photosensitive and prone to sunburn.

Effect: Characters with Albinism suffer from Light Sensitivity, which causes them to be Impaired in natural or magical sunlight (such as from a Daylight spell). This can be mitigated by wearing dark lens in goggles or glasses (Costing 5 TU). In addition if they are not wearing heavy clothing in direct sunlight after 1 hour they are Fatigued for the reminder of the day.

You are incredibly easy to forget, appearance wise.

Effect: Any checks made to identify you on looks alone take a -10 check. Any checks made to spot you in a crowd take the same penalty. You also have a hard time building any kind of strong reputation thanks to your generic looks, you gain the same penalty on any checks to use your reputation.

You are allergic to a particular and relatively common element in the environment.

Effect: When you touch or breath in the substance, you are nauseated. What you are allergic to must be decided between the player and GM, but it must be a relatively common factor (silver is a good selection, albino beavers are not). This Trait is worth -5 Experience for an uncommon allergen, or -10 for a common allergen. Weapons made of this materiel inflict 50% more damage to you

You never seem to know what you’re doing in combat.

Effect: You always move last in combat, regardless of whether it is normal Initiative or a Surprise round.

You suffer from chronic asthma attacks, which may be onset by physical duress or airborne pollutants.

Effect: When exposed to airborne pollutants (small airborne particles), you may suffer an attack. You must make a DC 20 Fortitude save or be nauseated for 1d6 rounds (rolling a 1 on this save is an automatic failure). This may be triggered by appropriate spells, such as Glitterdust, cloud spells, or natural causes such as a sandstorm.

Secondly, your asthma inhibits your physical abilities - anytime you double move or charge more than once within a single minute, or take the run action, you become exhausted for 2d4 rounds.

You are exceptionally unlucky, and it comes through at the worst times.

Effect: When you spend a Hero Point, roll 1d6. If you roll a 1, the Hero Point is spent, and the exact opposite effect happens (the nature of this is up to the GM). Whenever something bad happens at random to party member or a monster randomly attacks someone, its you instead.

You are blind, either from birth or an accident later in life, and must deal with all the consequences. You wish you were Ichi right now.

Effect: You’re blind.

Special: This trait cannot be removed through magical means, outside of GM permission.

Your time draws near, and there's nothing you can do about it.

Effect: Your character has a limited time to live, whether due to an incurable illness, a looming threat, or similar circumstances chosen by you. At the beginning of the campaign, the Game Master rolls 1d%, and adds 30, to determine your date of death. You are aware of the rough timeframe (such as about a month, about 2 months, etc), but nothing more precise. When your time is up, you permanently die - no resurrection, no Hero Points, no reincarnation - the character is permanently and irrevocably dead. Choose this Drawback with caution.

You often trip over your own feet.

Effect: Once per session the GM can have your character fall prone at any point in their turn.

You are a known criminal in a given area relevant to the campaign, and are wanted by the appropriate governing body for a crime you previously committed.

Effect: You are constantly at risk of being found and incarcerated or killed for your crimes (whether you actually committed them or not). The GM has the final say on the severity, influence, and issues that this brings. You must be a criminal in the eyes of a major nation within the campaign (for example, this Trait cannot be taken for a nation on the opposite side of the world which will never come into play during the course of the campaign). This is often seen as a good thing for fellow criminals and they may be more accepting of you as a result.

You always fall on your feet.

Effect: Treat your falling distance as half its true value and you never become prone from falling, unless you fall unconscious or die from it. This trait is applied before other fall reduction effects such as slow fall.

Nobody downs drinks as fast as you - nobody.

Effect: You may drink a potion or a similar consumable liquid as a Swift Action. This cannot be used with your Extracts or Mutagens, but can be used with another's infusion.

Not as common as its name purports.

Effect: A number of times per session equal to your total Hero Points, you may consult with the GM about a specific course of action in a given session. The GM is then required to explain if the action would be a good or a bad idea, and why. Note that the GM is not required to answer with information that the character does not know.

You are deaf - the GM may allow you to mitigate some of the penalties through various means, but this is entirely up to them.

Effect: You’re deaf, and suffer all of the penalties thereof.

Special: You cannot take this trait if you are already deafened from another source. This trait cannot be removed through magical means, outside of GM permission.

This character is prone to dark moods and harsh introspection.

Effect: Once per session the GM can call for a coin flip. On Tails you gain fatigued, this lasts for one hour, if this happens during combat you gain a Hero Point. On tails nothing happens (nothing ever happens and its all pointless anyway).

You are pledged to a specific cause, moral code, organization, or similar entity.

Effect: You must follow the tenants of your code, organization, or other cause, even in the face of certain death. Failure to do so (but not attempting, and then failing) permanently removes one Hero Point from the character. When acting directly for your cause you get +2 on Will Saves.

You have a family, that can be the best and worst thing in the world.

Effect: You have a family. This can be a romantic partner, children, adopted family or some combination of it all. Depending on their capability this trait has different values.

5 Points: Your family is happy to take care of you and provide you a safe place to stay. You may have some obligations, but they will never ask you to pay the bills. You may build a lifestyle worth up to 110 Points, you do not need to pay for it monthly.

0 Points: You contribute to your family's household, but you are not the only one. You may build a lifestyle worth up to 200 Points, you must pay for half of it it monthly.

-5 Points: You are responsible for your families well being and are the only breadwinner. You must build a lifestyle worth at least 110 points for your family. You are responsible for all of it. You likely will have many domestic duties as well.

You are capable of contorting your body in strange ways to get where you shouldn’t be, at the cost of being more fragile

Effect: You gain the compression universal monster ability. You treat your Constitution as 1 lower for the purpose of Wounds.

You have the uncanny ability to remember all sorts of things. You have a hard time ever forgetting

Effect: Also known as photographic memory, you never have to roll to remember mundane information that your character has heard. In addition, you gain a +4 trait bonus to saves against spells and effects that are memory related, and a +4 trait bonus to remember distant or very specific information. You can not forget things easily and any saves related to past trauma take a -4. Recalling any memory of being under a negative mind effecting spell causes you to be Hindered for 1 round.

You've been through it and have the Experience to show

Effect: You gain Experience equal to points spent

Perhaps you were traumatized, perhaps you were whisked away to a Faerie court as a baby, either way you are what some would call…touched.

Effects: You frequently and habitually see things that aren't there, hear voices in your head that don't belong to you, or other such hallucinations. The player and GM should discuss the exact nature of this Drawback in respect to the character before selecting it, though its impact should be significant enough to make the character unreliable as a source of information, distractable in a stressful situation (such as combat), or both.

You are thin and weak of frame.

Effect: Your Constitution is treated as 2 lower for determining Wounds.

You're very new to all of this.

Effect: You lose experience equal to points spent

You're very brave or very foolish, or some mix of both.

Effect: You are immune to the Shaken condition and get a +4 on any saves verse Fear effects. You take a -4 on any saves to compel you into a situation that questions your bravery.

You have exceptional natural vision - 20:20 is an understatement.

Effect: You take half penalty from distance when making visual Perception checks, but you must be able to see the target of your check in question. Additionally, you increase the range increment of all ranged weapons you use by 50%, rounding down to nearest 5 ft. increment. You take -4 on saving throws verse vision based effects.

You’re a consistent patron of breweries, taverns, and inns across the land, and your “experience” has made you get the most out of your booze.

Effect: You gain a +4 on saves verse Ingested poisons, and +8 if it is alcohol. When drinking alcohol, you must imbibe twice as much to gain the same effects. You have a drinking “problem”, you must spend at least 2 productive hours a day carousing. If you don't, you are Fatigued for 1d4 hours starting the next day. This carousing must either be bought with Lifestyle and counts as eating as 2 people, or by spending 1 SP every day.

You wield the blade of your father’s, father’s, father’s, father’s…

Effect: You may ignore the standard 25% limit on a single item for starting resources for 5 trait points, or for 0 you may increase this to 50%. This is your Heirloom Item. If you lose this item or if has the Broken/Destroyed condition you take a -2 on all checks until its restored or recovered. You may select this Trait multiple times for multiple heirlooms, the drawbacks stack.

Some people are born great

Effect: You gain an extra Hero Point.

So fast.

Effect: You may spend a Hero Point to move up to double your base speed, or to charge, as an Immediate action.

You no read good.

Effect: You can’t read. You gain a +4 on saves verse any runes or reading based saves.

Due to a physical injury, deformity, or similar impairment, you have damage to your body.

Effect: You select a Permanent injury from the Injury and Death page. You may select of to three injuries, each giving another -5. Note that these injuries increase the Heal DC to remove them by 5, meaning if you start the game with three injuries, removing them (in addition to the TU cost) is a DC 40.

You are particularly unaware of your surroundings.

Effect: You double all defense penalties you take.

One of your senses is particularly effective.

Effect: Choose a single sense (Sight, Scent, Hearing, Taste, or Touch). When rolling Perception checks that use this sense, you gain a +10 trait bonus on the check. You may use this sense to pinpoint a target’s location within 30 feet, with a sufficient Perception check (DC subject to DM discretion). Any saves related to this sense take a -4.

If you select Taste or Touch, this trait costs 0.

You can’t seem to get a good night’s rest.

Effect: First, you have trouble resting, preventing you from naturally recovering in a timely manner - it takes you twice as long as normal to recuperate from drained abilities, Hit Point, or Wound Damage. Secondly, your restlessness is such a struggle that it impedes even magical aid - Rings of Sustenance do not provide their sleep-reduction benefits. However, they still allow you to forgo eating and drinking, if desired. You Gain Resistance 5 to all Sleep damage

You can eat almost anything, under almost any conditions. Someone has to down the expired milk, good thing you fried out your taste buds a long time ago.

Effect: Double your Fortitude bonus against any ingested poisons, diseases, or similar effects. You may safely digest any non-poisoned or diseased material with a Hardness equal to or less than your total Hit Dice (chewing not included). You take a -10 on any Perception regarding taste.

You can’t seem to have any sense of subtlety.

Effect: Once a session the GM may have you flip a coin, if Tails you are detected (If invisible you make a very loud noise) and gain a hero Point. If Heads nothing happens.

You possess an innate aversion to scrying magic.

Effect: Whenever a caster attempts to cast a Divination [Scrying] spell on you, they must make a Caster Level check with a DC of (10 + Your Hit Dice). If they fail, the spell is expended and nothing happens. If they succeed, you roll a Will save against the spell as normal, but your character knows they have been scryed on, and by specifically what spell, but not the identity of the caster.

You have trouble holding your drink.

Effect: You suffer a -4 penalty to Fortitude saves against all ingested poisons (alcoholic or not). You can only drink half as much alcohol as a normal person to feel the effects

Magic actively seeks to undo you at every opportunity, and poses an extreme threat to your safety.

Whenever you roll a saving throw against a magical, spell-like, or supernatural effect, you must roll twice and take the worse result. You may not avoid this Drawback through expending Hero Points, the benefits of Talents or Boons, Spells, or any other effect.

You suffer from an illness, which although luckily there is a cure, it must be constantly reapplied to avoid further complications.

Effect: You must frequently take medicine or risk falling ill. Each month you must spend an additional 30 Lifestyle points in medicine or 20 SP. This medicine is easy to transport and take. However if for some reason you can not take it, after one week you become Fatigued, after two weeks Exhausted and after a month you fall into a coma. Medicine can also be made with Alchemic parts, 20 a month.

Some people collect stamps, others collect voices. Nothing strange about that.

Effect: You can mimic almost any sort of voice, or even animal calls and sound effects, and you can throw your voice at a distance. This functions similarly to a combination of the Ghost Sound and Ventriloquism spells, though it is an Extraordinary ability, and therefore non-magical. Some people may find this unnerving and may think of you differently after hearing your unique talent.

You can’t seem to keep yourself awake and alert.

Effect: Once a session the GM may flip a coin, On a Tails your character collapses on the ground asleep and remains that way until you are shook awake or if an hour goes by. You also gain a Hero Point. On tails you become Fatigued instead.

You take 50% more Sleep Damage.

You chose the road less traveled. It's less traveled for a good reason though.

Effect: You may select one Path you gain for free, and any additional Paths cost twice as much to initially purchase and do not give you a hero point. In exchange, every 50 Experience spent in the Path gives you an additional Hero Point

Special: You may only select this Boon at Character Creation.

You where born into a privileged family which gives you access to an estate, land or funds ..

Effect: When this boon is taken you may select if you are landed or simply have access to family funds. In addition some NPCs may treat you differently if they now you are a noble. Landed nobles can not move there lifestyle normally, it is in a fixed place. In addition if you wish to change any aspects of the Lifestyle package you must pay for them yourself. In addition you may have some responsibilities that come with your land and if they are left untended to it may degrade your lifestyle.

In addition you gain a line of credit connected toy our name. Every month you have an outstanding balance the GM may determine if there is interest, repayment required or if nothing happens.

0 Points: You are a Knight or equivalent rank. If you are landed you gain the following package: Well Fed, Safe, Middle, Medium. If you choose funds you gain 50 Lifestyle Points a month. You have a line of credit of 50 SP and are expected to spend 20 hours a month managing your responsibilities.

5 Points: You are a Lord or or equivalent rank, or a close relative to a Count or Baron. If you are landed you gain the following package, Abundant Food, Safe, Middle, Large, 1 Staff, and 1 Amenity. If you choose funds you gain 100 Lifestyle points each month. You have a line of Credit of 100 SP. You are expected to spend 40 hours a month managing your responsibilities.

10 Points: You are a Baron or Count, or a close relative of a Duke or even king. If you are landed you gain the following package, Overflowing, Safe, Far Away, Huge, 2 Staff, and 2 Amenity. If you choose funds you gain 200 Lifestyle points each month. You have a line of Credit of 200 SP. You are expected to spend 60 hours a month managing your responsibilities.

You are completely inept at combat.

Effect: You can not start with any Weapon Skills, any Weapon skills acquired after character creation costs are doubled

You have the uncanny ability to keep track of the time.

Effect: You always know the time, down to the minute, and also have a perfect sense of rhythm and timing. This sense can only be disrupted through prolonged isolation, unconsciousness, or disruption through being drugged or similar effects.

Lastly, you act as a temporal anchor - you know when an event has caused a temporal distortion, such as a timeline branching, time traveling, or similar 4th dimensional effects, provided that your ability has not been disrupted by one of the above caveats. This perception may be subject to an appropriate skill check, at DM discretion.

You are exceptionally afraid of a particular thing. Common phobias include darkness, vermin, magic, crowds, goblins, and other such subjects.

Effect: Whilst within 40 feet or within sight of the phobia source, the character is stricken with fear and unable to act properly - the phobia must be a relatively common sight in the campaign world. If it is overwhelmingly common its worth -10.

When within sight and/or range of your phobia, you may be Terrified. If you are within sight of it for over an hour This downgrades to Shaken.

Under duress, you gain the abilities of a master hunter.

Effect: As a Swift Action, you may activate this ability by spending a Hero Point. Doing so grants you thermal vision against applicable living targets for a number of minutes equal to your total Hit Dice. This thermal vision negates all concealment for such targets that would normally be granted by smoke, darkness, invisibility, or similar effects.

You have a place to hide, in a pinch.

Effect: You begin the game with a Safehouse, which functions as a barebones, standalone Storage room (4-8 squares). You must specify the exact location of the safehouse within the world, and certain locations may be deemed unsuitable by the GM at their discretion. The location of the Safehouse may only be revealed through the character who owns it deliberately leading someone there - another character or NPC trailing the owner will always lose them when trying to locate the safehouse independently. If the owner is mind controlled, or otherwise not in charge of their actions, they may lead others to the safehouse unwillingly.

Additionally, the safehouse provides protection from all means of divination and scrying. Creatures and objects within the safehouse are completely immune to such effects, for as long as they remain in the safehouse. The safehouse may never be increased in size, but items and accommodations may be added within the space. If the safehouse is ever destroyed, or the character wishes to move it, they must spend one week of downtime and appropriate funds or materials to create a new one in a suitable location (this amount is determined by the GM).

You sleep in an unusual manner, but it definitely keeps you from being as vulnerable whilst asleep. Great for those night-shifts on guard duty.

Effect: You may now sleep standing up, meaning that you are not Prone whilst sleeping. Additionally, you may sleep in two hour intervals without penalties, provided that you still get enough sleep each day. Lastly, you are only treated as Surprised when asleep, rather than Unaware. This Boon allows you to sleep in Armor without issues.

You are capable of processing information at immense speed.

Effect: When researching in a library, the time unit is reduced to minutes, in place of hours. This effectively translates to mean that this character can read a full page of written text (~800 words) in 5 seconds, or an 800 page book in approximately one hour. The information is not memorized unless the character also possesses Eidetic Memory, but they gain a basic understanding of the contents, meaning that this works well for quickly finding a specific piece of information.

You gain a +5 on Research checks when calculating how long a check takes. You take a -5 on any save regarding reading text.

Special: You can’t take this Boon if you possess the Illiterate Drawback.

The average backpack has more mass than you.

Effect: Your Carrying Capacity is halved from its normal value.

You live on the streets and prefer it that way.

Effect: You gain the special, “Street Rat” lifestyle for free. This package is the following: Enough Food,Sketchy, Central, A room. As long as you are in an urban area you can sustain this lifestyle. Living this way leaves a mark on a person and as long as you are living this lifestyle people of higher class may look down on you. Any social test made with higher class people, or those who dislike “the poors”, you roll twice and take the lower result.

You stand out in a crowd.

Effect: You are incredibly distinct, either very conveniently attractive or very, very ugly. Your looks mean it is very easy to remember you, giving anyone recalling details about you a +4 on the check. Its also to build a reputation being so memorable. If you are very attractive, NPCs who find that appealing start off on a better foot. If you are incredibly ugly, they may start off worse. If you are ugly you instead are far more intimidating, getting a +4 on all intimidate checks.

It’s more about force of personality than actually being pretty—sometimes a character just has a presence about them that keeps people from shooting straight.

Effect: You may substitute your Dexterity modifier for your Charisma modifier to your Defense, but only when taking the Total Defense action. However in situations where you have been unable to groom and clean yourself for an extended period this Trait does not function, or if you are in particular disarray.

You always manage to find your way back to camp.

Effect: You always know which way is North. In addition, if you have one or more ranks in Survival, you may always retrace your path, even in locations where this would be impossible, such as within a Maze or in the Feywild. You gain a +4 trait bonus on saves versus the Maze spell.

You take a -4 on any saves related to magnets

You are skilled in a trade and have connections within the industry.

Effect: You begin play with 5 Extra skill points in a single Harvest, Profession or Craft Skill, this can not exceed 20 ranks. In addition you are a member of a guild or trade association of some kind. This gives you access to a Workshop (II) or a reliable Harvesting node. As long as you are in good standing with the guild you may use it freely. The guild requires either 40 hours a month of labor committed to guild activities or 40 Lifestyle points. Each month you fail to meet these requirements the GM rolls a D6, on a 1 you are kicked out. Each month missed the failure number increases by 1 until after Six months you are instantly removed.

Through training or pure necessity, you’ve learned to accomplish certain tasks in an unorthodox way.

Effect: Select a single Skill and a single Ability Score. The skill in question now scales off of the selected ability score, in place of its default. This does not allow the skill to scale off of two ability scores, and this Boon does categorize the skill as a Key Skill. You may only select this Boon once, and only for a specific skill (for example, you could only select “Craft: Underwater Basket Weaving”, rather than just “Craft”). This trait must be approved by the DM in order to be selected.

You likely grew up in a port town or other water-dense area, making you very comfortable with swimming.

Effect: You gain a swim speed equal to half your base land speed, and a +4 bonus to Athletics checks to swim.