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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hashmalum" data-source="post: 754200" data-attributes="member: 9450">The designers of the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting would disagree with that rather strongly, I think. There are quite a few feats in that book, such as Snake Blood (character has yuan-ti ancestry) that can only be taken at 1st level.Even in core rules, the idea that feats are always something you learn doesn't hold up. Suppose I have a character who took Toughness at 1st level. Does this mean he spent part of his early life learning to be tough, or might he simply have been born hardier than the people around him, but spent a lot of time goofing off or whatnot and not learning another feat?Now, about the percentage roll for having a trait issue--I seem to recall one of the D&D core rules designers saying that they deliberately eliminated all the stuff like that in 3rd Edition. The D&D designers have in general been moving away from randomness in character generation (no % roll for psionics as in 1st/2nd Edition, max hit points at first level, rules for point-buy, rules for fixed hp per level, etc.) and I for one strongly agree with this. How fun is it that no matter how well your character does, no matter how well you role-play him, and no matter how fitting it might be to the story, that they are always inferior to someone who is otherwise equal but has the trait just because they rolled the dice poorly once? It's no fun for anyone except the lucky character.Furthermore, consider what such randomly rolled traits do to player choice. Many of the sort of traits that you think should be rolled for at 1st level reflect, in one way or another, the character's background and/or ancestry. Suppose you have a player who wants to play a rugged warrior from the northern wastes, but his percentage trait roll indicates he was raised in the city of Oberon. I guess that's just too bad for him. Sure, it's realistic, but it is realistic in a way that is bad for the game. If I wanted to be stuck with a background and traits decided for me by fate, I can get that in real life.</blockquote>

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