D&D 5E Purposefully Hindering your Character at Creation

[halfling rogue]

Does anyone else like to give their character some type of hindrance or drawback? This is one of the reason I love the "Flaw" concept in 5e. I get that lots of 'flaws' will be personality driven but I (for some reason) like to go a little further with it.

For instance I once created a dwarf warlord who had a wooden leg, scarred face, and a blind eye (from a dragon attack). The DM and I thought through how to apply the game mechanics (ie, speed or rough terrain and other physical abilities, etc) and then I just went with it. One of the fun things was how I tried to use an obvious disadvantage to my advantage. Make my weakness into a type of strength, you know? As a warlord, my character took control of the 'battlefield' as a general using buffs and such and didn't move around too much. The rest of the party sort of accepted that from the outset. Of course he doesn't move around a lot, he has one leg! They saw him as a grizzled, but endearing leader.It was a constant source for roleplaying, not only for me, but for the rest of the party. At some point he and the rogue sought out someone who make a hollowed out leg in order to fill it with beer.

Anyway, ever since that character, I'm always looking for a way now to hinder the character in some way or another. More fun for me to play and I think if it's not overdone, it's more fun for the whole group.

What say you?

 

[Nebulous]

One of the early characters I rolled up for 5e, I did it hardcore....3d6 straight up, no swapping attributes, what you get is what you get (well, modified by race. Anyway, I ended up with a character with a 5 Dex, and I created a backstory where he'd been hobbled since birth. Now granted, I didn't actually get to use this guy because I DM, but if I'd been a player I would have.

 

[halfling rogue]

One of the early characters I rolled up for 5e, I did it hardcore....3d6 straight up, no swapping attributes, what you get is what you get (well, modified by race. Anyway, I ended up with a character with a 5 Dex, and I created a backstory where he'd been hobbled since birth. Now granted, I didn't actually get to use this guy because I DM, but if I'd been a player I would have.

yeah! that's what I'm talking about. How fun would that have been to play? I can imagine a scenario where there is a big hole or crevasse in the floor that is simple enough for the party to jump over, but now they have to try to figure out how to get Hobble Hopafoot across safely...

 

[PnPgamer]

I rolled up the flaw for my noble in 5e, it was the one that he doesn't want to make his hands dirty. It has come up from time to time but it hasn't been too much of a hindrance.

 

[Crothian]

I see a lot of people doing this when they say their character is an orphan or from a destroyed village or similar background. Having the character have no social support system or know no people in an area is a pretty big hindrance.

 

[Paraxis]

I never do any flaws that hinder the numbers on my character sheet in anyway shape or form. I don't believe an 8 in ability score is a hindrance beyond the numerical one, for instance I don't roleplay an 8 charisma as ugly/dysfunctional, don't play an 8 intelligence as Forest Gump.

Now, to make life interesting I like to build in plot hooks for the DM to build stories on. So things like compulsions to be clean, or horribly dirty, backstory of runaway slave or wanted criminal, huge families that always need help, deadbeat dad with a kid in every town, openly gay dwarf who was exiled from his clan, son of an infamous villain, cursed to always tell the truth, things like this make for good times. But don't mess with my numbers.

 

[Nebulous]

yeah! that's what I'm talking about. How fun would that have been to play? I can imagine a scenario where there is a big hole or crevasse in the floor that is simple enough for the party to jump over, but now they have to try to figure out how to get Hobble Hopafoot across safely...

It would probably be fun until he had to climb his umpteenth short wall, jump over his umpteenth shallow pit, or fire his umpteenth poorly aimed arrow into yet another ally's back

 

[The Grassy Gnoll]

It feels like a nod to superhero games, where your origin story had to be quite detailed to account for your powers, and it threw up drawbacks, weaknesses and even arch nemeses (nemesi? Nemesises?) that would be recurring villains.
In another thread I brought up a character concept of a forest gnome urchin barbarian, who was (as per racial description) relentlessly cheerful all the time. I rolled him up (straight 3d6, no swapsies) and he wound up with CHA 7, which I thought was spot on - he's so bloody perky it rubs people up the wrong way. Serendipitous.
Mind you, a good DM can turn even the most "high school quarterback, perfect student" background into something of a disadvantage - the jealous friend, the ignored love struck neighbour...all of whose Falling Down moments are just waiting to sideswipe the character as time goes on...

 

[KirayaTiDrekan]

I'm currently playing a Barbarian with the Sage background in a Play-by-Post, based on the Jekyll/Hyde and Hulk concept - she's a literal monster when she rages. Her ability scores are set up for an aspiring wizard so she's currently pretty ineffectual as a barbarian...as she gains levels, she'll grow into the monster, so to speak, as she learns to accept it.

 

[Tormyr]

Most of the hinderances at my table come from character flaws.
The halfling rogue/monk wanders off on her own. This led to an early death (1st or 2nd session) that she was brought back from.
The human monk is gruff and standoffish as a result of his sailor crew being butchered before his eyes.
The deranged elf fighter thinks cute things must die. She rolls percentile dice to see how cute things are. Sometimes she rolls 100 and runs in fear. Other times, she rolls 04 for the giant boar, yells "Piggy!", and runs right into the middle of a dozen plate armored skeletons to get at the boar.
The blue dragonborn sorcerer has a short, violent temper, and is easily distracted by shiny blue things. When attacked by doppelgangers of the party, he dropped a fireball on the newcomers, one of whom was actually the real party member.
The human cleric is greedy and has an overblown ego.
The half-gnoll paladin is young, naive, and has a crush on the elf fighter.
The Tiefling wizard loves the gaining of knowledge above all else. He has ignored the sounds of fighting in the next room as he is studying the contents of a newly discovered library. He will catch up to the party, books in left hand, 1 book he is reading in his right hand, and turning pages with his tail.

So nothing in terms of bad character stats, but the situations that these flaws put them in are regularly the most memorable at the table. The most difficult thing for me has been the ease of certain flaws to be used in game versus others. It is easy to give the elf an inspiration point as she runs into danger, but some of the other characters seldom get inspiration as their flaws are more situational/less frequently exhibited.