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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Elder-Basilisk" data-source="post: 1388363" data-attributes="member: 3146">My own take on this is that I dislike flaws in general for several reasons.The first is that I don't want to see parties that are full of disfunctional or maimed characters just so they can get bonusses ("I'm a one-legged, deaf, mute ranger who can only communicate in sign language but I have all the archery feats at first level"). After a while (actually, it doesn't take a while), parties full of chain smoking, drug-addicted, nearsighted, absentminded psychopaths get old.My second reason for dislike is probably part of what Psion is talking about. In the d20 system, a lot of skill checks fall into the category of "Unless it's a maxed out class skill enhanced by magical items, you'll fail every time" by mid level. For example, at first level, even an 8 wis fighter could hear the rogue sneaking up on the party if he rolled well and the rogue rolled poorly. By eighth level, only a character with maxed spot and listen skills has a chance of detecting the rogue sneaking up on the party no matter how poorly the rogue rolls. Consequently, unless you are trying to max out spot and listen, the -1 penalty on spot and listen checks is meaningless past level four or so since you'll fail those checks with or without the penalty.Similarly, a lot of non-melee oriented characters simply have to live with the fact that, by eighth level, unless they're facing someone who's not a threat to begin with, their foes will reliably hit them on anything but a roll of 1. So the -1 penalty to armor class is meaningless for such characters. -2 to dexterity based skills is similarly negatable.-6 to initiative and -3 to will saves are in a different category since I can't think of any character who wouldn't actually suffer from them but, even there, -6 to initiative might not be a big deal to some characters for whom it would make the difference between occasionally going in the middle of the initiative order and always going at the end (such as a lot of clerics and paladins).</blockquote>

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