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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mengu" data-source="post: 5495440" data-attributes="member: 65726">Story based weaknesses are fun to mitigate/overcome. Mechanical weaknesses that you have to overcome, when you had options that didn't give you a weakness, are, I would say, annoying.Designwise, mechanics that support/enhance flavor are a good thing for the game. It's just poor implementation in this case. Like suggested earlier, make it a bonus while not bloodied, instead of a penalty while bloodied, and it emphasizes a strength. Still supports the fluff, while obeying solid design goals.A penalty on a race also gets wild looks from the players. If I'm the leader, I'm going to take one look at the Vryloka, and hope he drops dead in the first encounter. I don't want to mess with that handicap. It's not even my handicap to mess with. And yet as leader, I'll be expected to deal with it. He's always going to be begging for freebie hit points from my spirit companion while he's bloodied, or he's going to beg me to switch to Bard so he can get some extra hit points during a short rest, or wrinkle his nose at me for playing a Runepriest that doesn't provide bonus healing. It's just unnecessary limitations, and poor design.And reading the fluff, there isn't anything that says the Vryloka need to suffer some penalty while bloodied. Their pact gives them vitality, so the temp hit points when you bloody or kill a foe makes perfect sense (almost like a warlock pact), but the race that was given vitality suffers a -2 to healing surge value? Not even sure if it ties in right with the fluff.If you must give them a penalty because they are a shadow race, give them something like "Hold of the Red Witch: During an extended rest your dreams are occupied by the Red Witch, you suffer a -5 additional penalty to perception checks while taking an extended rest." There, you have a penalty, it's fluffy, and it might even come into play once in a while. You could build a story off of it. And your healer won't be frustrated with your handicap. You just might suffer through a surprise round without actions once in a blue moon.</blockquote>

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