do you allow flaws?

[Brain]

Other.

I have not allowed flaws, but I probably would.

Interesting. I voted that I wouldn't allow flaws. It tends to lead to people taking flaws that don't really apply much to get extra feats.

 

[Ferrix]

I have allowed them in the past, although it mostly depends upon the player and the character idea. If I can trust the player to not abuse them and they fit with the character idea, I'll work with them to choose a flaw and an appropriate compensation for that flaw.

One example was a player who wanted to play a blind seer. They were blind, but received blind-fighting as a bonus feat. They played a human psion (seer), so they had some psionic powers which would grant them something similar to sight (synesthete) but it wasn't always active and made for some very interesting roleplaying.

 

[Felnar]

in 2nd Ed we used the "Players Option: Skills and Powers" flaws all the time
one of my favorite characters ever had 4 major flaws (in addition to not being able to speak Common), all RP based and every flaw came up in every game.
and for some reason i love playing elves with the deep sleeper flaw. Only sleep 4 hours a night, but impossible to wake up.

 

[IcyCool]

Why?

They should be a roleplaying aid. I thought it might be nice to reward that with a mechanical bonus (i.e., the Flaws rules).

To date, I have had one player (out of 5 (only 3 of which took flaws)) who has made a passing attempt at roleplaying his flaws. He's done it twice.

Basically, it's been a device for powergaming. If I run another game with this group (and I probably won't do that unless I'm threatened with white-hot stabby death ), I won't be allowing them again. In fact, if I ran for this group again it would be 1st-level, core only (or Iron Kingdoms, when I can get ahold of an updated 3.5 version).

 

[Scion]

It sounds more like the flaws you were useing were done improperly. If they never came up then they werent getting a feat for.

You just have to make it more of a cost. If you dont you might as well just give the feats for free instead of pretending to charge for them.

If the flaw is a real flaw then it should come up

 

[gamecat]

Negative. They water down the value of a feat.

 

[IcyCool]

It sounds more like the flaws you were useing were done improperly. If they never came up then they werent getting a feat for.

You just have to make it more of a cost. If you dont you might as well just give the feats for free instead of pretending to charge for them.

If the flaw is a real flaw then it should come up

They've come up mechanically of course. The unobservant Paladin took the initiative penalty (and regularly goes last in combat) and the spot/listen penalty. The wizard and the warlock took the -to melee attacks penalty.

 

[Scion]

They've come up mechanically of course. The unobservant Paladin took the initiative penalty (and regularly goes last in combat) and the spot/listen penalty. The wizard and the warlock took the -to melee attacks penalty.

Then I dont see why you have a complaint ::shrugs::

Going last in combat is going to hurt, especially at later levels (I am guessing that this comes with a penalty to spot and listen checks as well) and for the other it forces the characters into certain types of builds. If they ever get out of those they are in big trouble (assuming that the penalty is big enough to warrant gaining the extra feat).

 

[Felnar]

They've come up mechanically of course. The unobservant Paladin took the initiative penalty (and regularly goes last in combat) and the spot/listen penalty. The wizard and the warlock took the -to melee attacks penalty.

that paladin must be flat-footed a lot... rogues take note
and personally i'd change the melee penalties to -2 to hit and -2 AC, to show they really are inept at melee combat, and make casting defensively harder/impossible.

 

[IcyCool]

Then I dont see why you have a complaint ::shrugs::

Because if I were just playing a game, I'd rather play Risk, or Axis and allies. Maybe even Warhammer.

But see, I'm playing a Roleplaying game. Both roleplaying and gaming are necessary components of that. If that still doesn't seem clear to you, then nothing I have to say on the matter will.