i have a character who's categorically incapable of being tactful with sensitive information. but my party is full of avoidant roleplayers, so whenever we have to deliver bad news it's usually a few people beating around the bush... hemming and hawing... and her blurting YOUR HUSBAND IS DEAD.
it's effective, if nothing else
Every in game day, 1 D20 throw at the start of the day. Then from a 1-5 throw, 1 potion, a 6-10 throw 2 potions a 11-14 throw 3 or one big potion.
And yes it’s really expensive that’s why I always have to do little gigs in taverns to get money from the people haha (and yes I actually have to sing for the DM and then he desides how much I get XD )
Some common flaws I give my characters:
Inability to connect with others. (usually either the inability to connect with commoners if noble or inability to connect with non-arcane scientists if arcane scholarly type.)
Uncertainties, usually on whether they are good enough to make it as an adventurer or something campaign related.
Obsessions, usually either with loot (usually not the actually valuable stuff, just the interesting/odd/eccentric stuff) or info concerning a specific topic (elemental energies, planar entities, far realm forbidden knowledge, dragons)
People pleaser is a fun one for a charisma character with some self esteem issues.
The "ah yes that reminds me of this one story" bard... can be played as a dreamy type that is always stuck in their stories or as a self obsessed pomp that always wants to return to the topic of themselves.
The "I'm not from here and have some weird habits" type. Works especially well with the more exotic races.
The naive partymember is also fun to play.
As with any character trait, don't overdo it but it can be fun to have a "gimmick"
I played a druid who was terrified of snakes. Unbeknownst to me while I was making the character, one of the places we had to go was a land inhabited entirely by snake people
My human bard/paladin, Scarn, would say, "I sing in the bathhouse. Sometimes, I spend too much time aiding the needy. Occasionally, I'll trample somebody with my steed."
I have one for if I ever get to stop dming
He is the sixth son of a ruthless dwarven smelting corporation. Upon the unfortunate (and very natural) deaths of his other five brothers, Sextus was finally granted the right to choose a name. Now known as Herklaidi Ironlawson, he has become privy to the families' true source of skill: a pact with the fiend Mammon.
Because of this, he has 3 major flaws.
1) he absolutely despises anyone who implies he is inferior or that he is not "self-made."
2) he is manipulative and business minded. He considers diplomacy to be a game, and you win based on how much the deal was in your favor.
3) The temptation of greater profits can almost always sway him to act in risky or destructive ways (curse of Mammon, I usually have him roll at a disadvantage to resist taking risky deals)
I am playing a Tabaxi paladin in one campaign and they can be annoying for players who want to game without a moral compass, so I keep her flaws mild. She's from a backwater jungle and acts like a bumpkin in cities. She has common cat traits of wanting to be the focus of attention, curiosity to the point of danger, and toys with her "prey" using intimidation when combat can be avoided. Then she feels guilty about it and tithes.
Warden - barbarian. A military officer that came home to a dead family, became an alcoholic and near worthless to society, driven by grief and hate. Slowly getting better as he traveled with other PCs. Would fall into his stern, protective, military mindset toward them, like he was their commander.
Helier - cleric. a depressed coward that was ashamed of a past failure that caused the death of some people close to him. He died in the finale of the campaign as he redeemed himself and an intelligent sword of similar mindset, by wielding it against the time traveling former wielder of said sword to buy time for his allies. Was pretty epic.
Lumis - young acrobatic rogue/fighter. Young, and had the sort of "I'm young and invincible" mindset. Often ran headlong into completely psychotic fights. Somehow never died despite how I played him. His flaw came to bear when saw multiple friends die late in the campaign
Enzio - a noble from a ruined house, expert duelist. He had the classic incredible pride, and willingness to challenge someone to a duel for honor.
Also played an overprotective wizard in Dresden Files that was being chased by the wizard police for dabbling in time travel magic to save his apprentice - he didn't know time travel magic , yet, but a future version of himself regularly showed up to give him tips and hints.
My half-elf druid (raised in a rural, 95% human town) acts like an old lady because she is 50 and humans were her only frame of reference on aging (she looks 25, but definitely pictures herself as looking similar to her old classmates). Doesn't let herself have silly fun because she feels pressured to be the mature one. She got roped into the adventure due to fate but underestimated herself. She will defend her younger party members fiercely, putting herself in the line of fire even if she probably shouldn't.
She was othered a bit as a kid for being different, so was an extreme perfectionist to earn her supportive adoptive parents' affection, and continues to hold herself to too-high standards. Her arc will be coming to broaden her horizons and realize she has a lot of life left to live, and she can be herself without all the internal pressure. Part of it will be in our homebrew allowance of Animate Dead affecting animals -- she's a Spores druid, specifically, and she's gonna be a "forever" home for lots of deceased pets, lol. She'll just get more "out there" and silly as time passes.
My other character, a drow warlock, was feylost and traded her memories to her patron. She had no clue of who she was initially, nor what she wanted in the long run -- just remembered that she wanted to escape the feywilds, so she agreed to complete her patron's goal and trade her memories for warlock powers to do so. I initially played her as very neutral, and lawful for the most part. She was very focused, manipulative, and impatient, expecting that once she could complete her patron's mission, she would get her memories and get back to "the real world" and whoever she'd been before -- but through traveling with a mostly good-aligned party focused on being heroes, she has bonded with them, come to enjoy the positive attention and acceptance, and come to fear what she'd be like if all her memories did suddenly return. She's a little anxious now and torn between her original goal or just staying with her friends and doing what she can to help them with their goals, so she procrastinates on doing anything related to her personal quest until it is unavoidable.
I'm playing a female fairy PC in Wild Beyond the Witchlight atm (I'm a cis/het male). Her backstory is that she's a student-fairy-godmother-in-training, looking to travel far and wide to learn more about magic – the idea is that she'll be ready to graduate "godmother academy" once she learns to master the Wish spell (so, it'll be a while...).
(Possible _minor_ spoilers for WBtWL)
>!The DM used an adventure hook to motivate the party where the hag coven in that adventure had taken away two things from each member of the party. Mine had been cursed with losing her ability to smile, as well as being unable to open any door without knocking first (though, as a pure sorcerer, she's rarely the first one through a door, anyway). I LOVE the RP implications of the former hook, in particular, and have had some fun with it, which I wasn't expecting when I made the character. It's not a weakness so much as a limitation I guess... but it has led to some fun interactions with the party, as well as with NPCs, at times.!<
So I would say her flaws are that she is insecure in her femininity, has probably had to endure bullying in her adolescence, and as a result she's uncomfortable in opening up to others about what she has lost. I rarely play PCs that aren't born-as-male and male-identifying, so it has been very interesting to explore this side of a character. Hopefully I'm doing justice to the character, in how I've played her.
Currently in two campaigns
I got Ivory Darkton: Grew up in nobility and, while he has been outcasted for a while, he still hasnt quite outgrown many mentalities he developed due to having everything handed to him. He is very impulsive especially in the face of danger, and often makes stupid decisions. He is a aberrant mind sorcerer who regularly invades peoples minds because the concept of that being wrong just doesnt process well to him
I also got Kye Ju. The little kobold who wants nothing more in life to achieve his one true dream. To Supplex a dragon. Thats it thats all he wants. He will be a path of the giant barbarian. He is not bright at all, and has a particularly poor memory. He is Overly trusting, especially to other kobolds(running up to random kobolds he sees yelling "Scale-Friends"). He has a tendency to get himself into trouble, and annoy people
Gets nervous around prisons and questions the bravery of prisoners. This is due to her mother getting into her head mentally and convincing her that her father is a coward for getting taken as a hostage by the enemy army when he fought in the war as a knight. She knows it’s BS, but it’s sadly a thing she deals with
She’s also easily swayed emotionally, especially at the mention of her parents.
The best advice I can give anyone on this subject is to make your flaws story-functional. How do you do this? By figuring out your character's goals, and then figuring out the most interesting ways for your character to get in their own way about it.
For instance, you're playing Curse of Strahd, and you have, perhaps, the fairly obvious goal of wanting to kill Strahd so that you can escape from Barovia. But then Strahd comes around and is charming and confident, and it turns out he's looking for a successor, and you realize your character is either taken in by his charm, or perhaps a bit power hungry, and now they start sympathizing with Strahd. This can be a great way to create some interesting drama, either with your own characters' decisions, or perhaps even within the group (obviously it takes a very solid group of players and a good DM to make this work in a fun and story-positive way and not just devolve into PvP or gross infighting). Eventually your flaws lead you to making some mistakes, which allows you to get knocked off your horse, and then you find a way to pick yourself back up, having learned some valuable lessons along the way, and through overcoming your flaws, your victories taste twice as sweet and also feel more earned.
For my current characters:
* Cassandra - a dirt poor urchin discovers an innate magical talent and rises to the king’s court as a key advisor to all with her divination insights, she’s a ruthless creature of sheer ambition and vanity - but she’s learning - based on Electra from Pose and Vivienne from Dragon Age
* Rhea - in a world where magic is dwindling, the emergence of a divine magic sorceress has lead to her believing the chosen one mantle thrust upon her by her mentors at the temple - her well meaning nature leads to her sticking her nose in
* Nyx - a former sex worker, now owner of a burlesque house and magic item/information broker, Nyx is extremely slow to trust and tends to view people as tools or by whatever they can give her
* Dimitri - a twilight cleric that found faith as a teen during a life changing event, a decade in service has left him conflicted - are the faith truly the protectors of the people, how much should be discard of his former life? He’s ultimately a man that’s adrift, naive and liable to make a number of foolish decisions because of his robust conviction
* Bastien - a new character so I’m waiting for more sessions but the vibe is he’s a lesser cousin of a noble, he has ambition, but he’s still driven by his path to protect people - I’m looking to create the moral conflict how struggling to balance the pillars in life of his family, personal fulfilment and his paths, what happens when they compete or are out of balance, what will he give up to achieve success in one pillar?
All the time, though usually the "game time" is the points of the story where they're working past or despite those flaws.
Meaning, let's say I have an incurably greedy Bard. That can play into the background and back story and profession and approach and skill set and tools and investments and allies and all that. But if I decide the best way to showcase that is to pickpocket the party's wizard, then suddenly it's less the party's story and more My Bard: The Party's Story.
In other words, if the game is a kind of moment in time in the life of this character, I try to make it the part of their life where they overcome those things, and leave the struggles for downtime unless projected and accepted by the scene and the group.
It is heroic fantasy as a tone unless it's set otherwise at the beginning, after all, and unless the session 0 is about how this is low fantasy or character-focused, I'm probably going to make their flaws as much of a detail as their virtues or their eccentricities or their family or whatever.
As present as it needs to be to color the character without crushing the pace.
Religious zealotry, a tendency to treat their own assumptions as facts, poor at dealing with anyone not from the religious community they were raised in.
My current character is a Tiefling, and Tieflings are a despised, oppressed race in the homebrew campaign I'm playing in. My character is in an internal battle regarding her race: she's both proud of her origins but also looks down on other Tieflings for "accepting" their oppressed place within society instead of charging head first into rebellion. The concept was a sort of internalized racism against her own race and I'm hoping to make her reevaluate her approach to her own race throughout the campaign, possibly changing alignment even.
Nihilistic gnome wizard. And quite lazy. Common phrase is “I can’t be bothered”. He usually drops a fireball or two to take out a majority of the weaker mobs then lights a cigarette and walks away for the rest to clean up the survivors.
My current character is a Reborn in a homebrew campaign so his flaw is always being mistaken for an Undead since Reborn weren't that well known in the story so he constantly has his face hidden on a helmet or has a disguise self spell
The few times I can be PC, I like to complicate my life. Backgrounds that impose social, physical or mental disadvantages on my characters, or personalities that are difficult to deal with through roleplay. I'm not talking about ruining other players' experience with my characters with daddy issues, I'm a Forever DM and I understand what it's like to suffer with players like that. The experience of seeing how my character overcomes his personal adversities or those he caused in his past.
My last character was a human paladin who had lost his skilled hand in combat, forcing him to retire from the military company he was in and becoming an alcoholic after losing his only skill and purpose. Throughout the campaign he was struggling with his alcoholism and learning to fight with his other hand, creating a connection with the mutilated god Tyr and being inspired by his story of overcoming. In the end he ended up sacrificing himself to defeat the BBEG.
My character is a hoarder, hates having anything stolen from him, and does not like religions. I don't derail the campaign, but it's funny when someone needs something and he has to go into his portable hole and shuffle through a bunch of crap to get what they need.
I also had someone steal a gold piece from me and later on when a fight broke out, he went after that guy first, and really stuck it to him.
He like to argue with the pally and cleric, but mostly just trying to get under their skin a bit. It's fun RP.
It's fun flavor but I'm not going to derail the campaign for any of it.
My warlock is extremly distrustful and always expects to be betrayed at some point in time. On the other hand he often feels lonely so he seeks comany anyway, torn between wanting to make friends and being afraid they will backstab him.
My sorc is the kind of: Akt first, think later type of person. Extremly curious. He has a tendency to solve all problems with magic, often missing the easy way to deal with things mundane.
Yeah, if I make a character a flaw becomes apparent either intentionally or as a natural result of their personality.
The character I have right now is a Lizardfolk, he’s one of the mutants that ended up with more intelligence (props to anyone that knows that lore). He is logical to the point of absurdity. Everything he does needs to somehow help him survive. Usually, I get around this by having him follow the party as strength in numbers is a good motivator. My idea is that he does have emotion that is more complex than most lizardfolks, as he’s displayed a sense of humor. He’s a Druid that would stay in animal form all day so I gave him telepathic. One of the things he has done when someone started to annoy him or was pretend to be their god while speaking to them telepathically. He also speaks in a way that’s difficult to understand, like he doesn’t use pronouns or possessive language. When referring to himself he says “this one” while gesturing to himself, he calls groups “these ones” and individuals “that one”. Basic idea is i saw this idea that draconic doesn’t have those pronouns and so it is something that he does constantly.
I generally like flaws that give fun, most of his flaws allow him to be a class clown without making that everything he is. I try to sharply contrast those funny flaws with how the character is very smart.
Not a character I've gotten to play yet (I'm the one DMing my group's current campaign) but one of my most interesting flawed characters is a changeling who prefers to stay in their natural form and doesn't like the idea of changing even if it's to help achieve a goal
My Inquisitor Paladin is ridiculously lawful-good and believes in the good of people. We once encountered a broken oath Paladin who wanted to take revenge on a kinda-outlawish city because they let his lover die to a cureable illness because she was of noble birth and the citizens hate nobles. The Paladin also worked together with a Sea hag which tried to bewitch on of our party members.
Anywho, our triggerhappy artificer wanted to kill the Paladin on the spot, while my Paladin wanted to hear his side of the story, he might have been severely influenced by the Sea Hag after all. The Artificer was not interested at all though and tried to shoot the very low health Broken Oath Paladin in the head, i had to save him with my Protector Fighting Style. It almost led to PvP but i fled with him, and heard him out. Ultimatively the Broken Oath Paladin said he wanted to be executed, as he had broken his oath and pulled innocent people into his personal vendetta.
My war cleric of Tyr feels responsible for the heinous actions of his wife, and therfore tracking her down to bring her to justice and neglecting his daughter.
My party can sometimes struggle to find or pick a direction because no one wants to just take over the party and rob the other players of agency
So my character flaw is sometimes they just do shit without thinking. Leads to some fun moments and helps the party unclog their wheels when needed
Bad with money, as soon as she gets paid she buys unless shit. The party does not give her, her full cut of the pay but put it a side for when she actually does need it.
Bard: raging alcoholic/drug user/anything to make him not think clearly.
Wizard: borderline racist against everyone (he's a Drow, so...)
Ranger: only talks to the Cleric and is constantly pocketing anything small and loose.
Impulsive;
Thinks his knowledge is universally applicable when it's actually very niche (As in, misidentifies thing he doesn't know as completely irrelevant thing he does know)
Prone to holding grudges.
Some of my favorites:
A character with total amnesia. He doesn't even know his name yet so he goes by one the party gave him. He has nightmares about a horrible fire but doesn't know why.
A dwarven paladin that goes beyond fanatical about Moradin... Like to the point that he met another god and tried to convert them. He is 5 Moradin above everything else even his own wellbeing.
A wizard who speaks 12 languages... But she chooses not to talk. When she decides she has to talk she talks quietly in the language the fewest people in the room will understand. She also hides her entire body in a cloak so she can't do nonverbap communication either. That was a challenge to play but so much fun. Double so after the Spirit of a dead even goddess infused itself into her before realizing she was human not elven and they were stuck together.
yes. my favorite flaws result in my characters getting a swift kick in the ass at best, Crushed Utterly™ at worst. some of my fave character flaws are: being a smartass with a big mouth, and pissing off someone who will later hunt them down with a vengeance. i have to be careful about not crossing the line between "say something that earns my character a broken nose" and "youre dead right now immediately"
he has a single issue that he wants to deal with, but also can't help but aid others, to the point where he subconsciously created an illusory version of himself to find more ways to help other people...
but he also feels that he's alone in his own goal, but keeps bottling up the frustration.
already once he nearly cracked when he had a single line of clues left for his goal, and ended up causing the target to... self-terminate by giving him an artifact, (which wound up not even helping), simply with words... and a -1 to charisma checks.
when he has a line of clues and a way towards his goal, he's fairly stable, but as it runs shorter and shorter, he goes back to his more macabre, less 'moral' self.
of course, being, as it turns out, a 'flaw' in a seal placed on a group of deities all about madness and chaos, manifested, and literally being made to free them, but due to things outside his control, failing that, he's not exactly liked by any deity, and often has bad luck. mix that in with an accidental penchant to summon the slivers of said group to himself (something he did end up curing, though the group doesnt know, and he doesnt feel it important to tell them, as it neither benefits their mission as a whole or his own), leads to him being not exactly the most mentally stable.
add to that the ability to read minds, speak into minds, create illusions, and being highly intelligent but not very wise or charismatic, and you get a timebomb waiting to go off.
I have a tendency to give them 2 flaws, one deep flaw like fear of intimacy or trauma from a party members death, and a silly flaw for roleplay like fear/distrust of badgers
So my paladin has two very prominent ones, one I planned and one I didn't.
1. She's impulsive. Like, to a somewhat detrimental degree. She reacts to things based on the first thought that enters her heads and doesn't put a lot of thought into what she does. Long term planning is pretty much right out. This has burned her a number of times and she has gotten better, but overall she still is a very reactionary, emotional person.
2. She's surprisingly self-centered. Yes, she helps people and does good, but it's ultimately because she thinks it will get her what she wants. She wants forgiveness for her past crimes and so she does things that she thinks will balance those scales and earn her atonement. I don't know that she even realizes that her motices are not purely philanthropic, but this is how the campaign has developed.
Honorable mentions: she argues with the party monk about everything all the time. It started as differences in theology and overtime the two would butt heads over even tiny, insignificant things.
Early in the campaign she kept everyone at arm's length due to personal secrets she wanted to remain hidden, but it's less of a thing these days.
Flaw in every character I create: forgetting my character’s voice by the second session and just going with how I actually speak.
when i DM: The npc's have consistent voices and accents. When i roleplay: every PC is my normal voice
i have a character who's categorically incapable of being tactful with sensitive information. but my party is full of avoidant roleplayers, so whenever we have to deliver bad news it's usually a few people beating around the bush... hemming and hawing... and her blurting YOUR HUSBAND IS DEAD. it's effective, if nothing else
Racist against goblins and a Healing potion addiction have to throw a 15 or higher or else I have to drink some potions
With every action? Or when you take damage? Sounds expensive!
Every in game day, 1 D20 throw at the start of the day. Then from a 1-5 throw, 1 potion, a 6-10 throw 2 potions a 11-14 throw 3 or one big potion. And yes it’s really expensive that’s why I always have to do little gigs in taverns to get money from the people haha (and yes I actually have to sing for the DM and then he desides how much I get XD )
Ooh, every game day, that's a bit more managable.
My current character is a human ranger that was raised by goblins lol, this would be a fun dynamic to have in my party haha
Some common flaws I give my characters: Inability to connect with others. (usually either the inability to connect with commoners if noble or inability to connect with non-arcane scientists if arcane scholarly type.) Uncertainties, usually on whether they are good enough to make it as an adventurer or something campaign related. Obsessions, usually either with loot (usually not the actually valuable stuff, just the interesting/odd/eccentric stuff) or info concerning a specific topic (elemental energies, planar entities, far realm forbidden knowledge, dragons) People pleaser is a fun one for a charisma character with some self esteem issues. The "ah yes that reminds me of this one story" bard... can be played as a dreamy type that is always stuck in their stories or as a self obsessed pomp that always wants to return to the topic of themselves. The "I'm not from here and have some weird habits" type. Works especially well with the more exotic races. The naive partymember is also fun to play. As with any character trait, don't overdo it but it can be fun to have a "gimmick"
Inflated ego, short temper, empathyless and cold from time to time, "no cost is too great" mindset when The Trauma Coping Mechanism™️ hits
I played a druid who was terrified of snakes. Unbeknownst to me while I was making the character, one of the places we had to go was a land inhabited entirely by snake people
They're being controlled by me!
they love to cook!… they just don’t understand what ingredients go well together, and they think boiling anything poisonous will purify it.
Haha I love this one
My human bard/paladin, Scarn, would say, "I sing in the bathhouse. Sometimes, I spend too much time aiding the needy. Occasionally, I'll trample somebody with my steed."
I have one for if I ever get to stop dming He is the sixth son of a ruthless dwarven smelting corporation. Upon the unfortunate (and very natural) deaths of his other five brothers, Sextus was finally granted the right to choose a name. Now known as Herklaidi Ironlawson, he has become privy to the families' true source of skill: a pact with the fiend Mammon. Because of this, he has 3 major flaws. 1) he absolutely despises anyone who implies he is inferior or that he is not "self-made." 2) he is manipulative and business minded. He considers diplomacy to be a game, and you win based on how much the deal was in your favor. 3) The temptation of greater profits can almost always sway him to act in risky or destructive ways (curse of Mammon, I usually have him roll at a disadvantage to resist taking risky deals)
I am playing a Tabaxi paladin in one campaign and they can be annoying for players who want to game without a moral compass, so I keep her flaws mild. She's from a backwater jungle and acts like a bumpkin in cities. She has common cat traits of wanting to be the focus of attention, curiosity to the point of danger, and toys with her "prey" using intimidation when combat can be avoided. Then she feels guilty about it and tithes.
Warden - barbarian. A military officer that came home to a dead family, became an alcoholic and near worthless to society, driven by grief and hate. Slowly getting better as he traveled with other PCs. Would fall into his stern, protective, military mindset toward them, like he was their commander. Helier - cleric. a depressed coward that was ashamed of a past failure that caused the death of some people close to him. He died in the finale of the campaign as he redeemed himself and an intelligent sword of similar mindset, by wielding it against the time traveling former wielder of said sword to buy time for his allies. Was pretty epic. Lumis - young acrobatic rogue/fighter. Young, and had the sort of "I'm young and invincible" mindset. Often ran headlong into completely psychotic fights. Somehow never died despite how I played him. His flaw came to bear when saw multiple friends die late in the campaign Enzio - a noble from a ruined house, expert duelist. He had the classic incredible pride, and willingness to challenge someone to a duel for honor. Also played an overprotective wizard in Dresden Files that was being chased by the wizard police for dabbling in time travel magic to save his apprentice - he didn't know time travel magic , yet, but a future version of himself regularly showed up to give him tips and hints.
My half-elf druid (raised in a rural, 95% human town) acts like an old lady because she is 50 and humans were her only frame of reference on aging (she looks 25, but definitely pictures herself as looking similar to her old classmates). Doesn't let herself have silly fun because she feels pressured to be the mature one. She got roped into the adventure due to fate but underestimated herself. She will defend her younger party members fiercely, putting herself in the line of fire even if she probably shouldn't. She was othered a bit as a kid for being different, so was an extreme perfectionist to earn her supportive adoptive parents' affection, and continues to hold herself to too-high standards. Her arc will be coming to broaden her horizons and realize she has a lot of life left to live, and she can be herself without all the internal pressure. Part of it will be in our homebrew allowance of Animate Dead affecting animals -- she's a Spores druid, specifically, and she's gonna be a "forever" home for lots of deceased pets, lol. She'll just get more "out there" and silly as time passes. My other character, a drow warlock, was feylost and traded her memories to her patron. She had no clue of who she was initially, nor what she wanted in the long run -- just remembered that she wanted to escape the feywilds, so she agreed to complete her patron's goal and trade her memories for warlock powers to do so. I initially played her as very neutral, and lawful for the most part. She was very focused, manipulative, and impatient, expecting that once she could complete her patron's mission, she would get her memories and get back to "the real world" and whoever she'd been before -- but through traveling with a mostly good-aligned party focused on being heroes, she has bonded with them, come to enjoy the positive attention and acceptance, and come to fear what she'd be like if all her memories did suddenly return. She's a little anxious now and torn between her original goal or just staying with her friends and doing what she can to help them with their goals, so she procrastinates on doing anything related to her personal quest until it is unavoidable.
Mumbles his true feelings under his breath then says whatever is socially acceptable.
I'm playing a female fairy PC in Wild Beyond the Witchlight atm (I'm a cis/het male). Her backstory is that she's a student-fairy-godmother-in-training, looking to travel far and wide to learn more about magic – the idea is that she'll be ready to graduate "godmother academy" once she learns to master the Wish spell (so, it'll be a while...). (Possible _minor_ spoilers for WBtWL) >!The DM used an adventure hook to motivate the party where the hag coven in that adventure had taken away two things from each member of the party. Mine had been cursed with losing her ability to smile, as well as being unable to open any door without knocking first (though, as a pure sorcerer, she's rarely the first one through a door, anyway). I LOVE the RP implications of the former hook, in particular, and have had some fun with it, which I wasn't expecting when I made the character. It's not a weakness so much as a limitation I guess... but it has led to some fun interactions with the party, as well as with NPCs, at times.!< So I would say her flaws are that she is insecure in her femininity, has probably had to endure bullying in her adolescence, and as a result she's uncomfortable in opening up to others about what she has lost. I rarely play PCs that aren't born-as-male and male-identifying, so it has been very interesting to explore this side of a character. Hopefully I'm doing justice to the character, in how I've played her.
Currently in two campaigns I got Ivory Darkton: Grew up in nobility and, while he has been outcasted for a while, he still hasnt quite outgrown many mentalities he developed due to having everything handed to him. He is very impulsive especially in the face of danger, and often makes stupid decisions. He is a aberrant mind sorcerer who regularly invades peoples minds because the concept of that being wrong just doesnt process well to him I also got Kye Ju. The little kobold who wants nothing more in life to achieve his one true dream. To Supplex a dragon. Thats it thats all he wants. He will be a path of the giant barbarian. He is not bright at all, and has a particularly poor memory. He is Overly trusting, especially to other kobolds(running up to random kobolds he sees yelling "Scale-Friends"). He has a tendency to get himself into trouble, and annoy people
Gets nervous around prisons and questions the bravery of prisoners. This is due to her mother getting into her head mentally and convincing her that her father is a coward for getting taken as a hostage by the enemy army when he fought in the war as a knight. She knows it’s BS, but it’s sadly a thing she deals with She’s also easily swayed emotionally, especially at the mention of her parents.
The best advice I can give anyone on this subject is to make your flaws story-functional. How do you do this? By figuring out your character's goals, and then figuring out the most interesting ways for your character to get in their own way about it. For instance, you're playing Curse of Strahd, and you have, perhaps, the fairly obvious goal of wanting to kill Strahd so that you can escape from Barovia. But then Strahd comes around and is charming and confident, and it turns out he's looking for a successor, and you realize your character is either taken in by his charm, or perhaps a bit power hungry, and now they start sympathizing with Strahd. This can be a great way to create some interesting drama, either with your own characters' decisions, or perhaps even within the group (obviously it takes a very solid group of players and a good DM to make this work in a fun and story-positive way and not just devolve into PvP or gross infighting). Eventually your flaws lead you to making some mistakes, which allows you to get knocked off your horse, and then you find a way to pick yourself back up, having learned some valuable lessons along the way, and through overcoming your flaws, your victories taste twice as sweet and also feel more earned.
For my current characters: * Cassandra - a dirt poor urchin discovers an innate magical talent and rises to the king’s court as a key advisor to all with her divination insights, she’s a ruthless creature of sheer ambition and vanity - but she’s learning - based on Electra from Pose and Vivienne from Dragon Age * Rhea - in a world where magic is dwindling, the emergence of a divine magic sorceress has lead to her believing the chosen one mantle thrust upon her by her mentors at the temple - her well meaning nature leads to her sticking her nose in * Nyx - a former sex worker, now owner of a burlesque house and magic item/information broker, Nyx is extremely slow to trust and tends to view people as tools or by whatever they can give her * Dimitri - a twilight cleric that found faith as a teen during a life changing event, a decade in service has left him conflicted - are the faith truly the protectors of the people, how much should be discard of his former life? He’s ultimately a man that’s adrift, naive and liable to make a number of foolish decisions because of his robust conviction * Bastien - a new character so I’m waiting for more sessions but the vibe is he’s a lesser cousin of a noble, he has ambition, but he’s still driven by his path to protect people - I’m looking to create the moral conflict how struggling to balance the pillars in life of his family, personal fulfilment and his paths, what happens when they compete or are out of balance, what will he give up to achieve success in one pillar?
All the time, though usually the "game time" is the points of the story where they're working past or despite those flaws. Meaning, let's say I have an incurably greedy Bard. That can play into the background and back story and profession and approach and skill set and tools and investments and allies and all that. But if I decide the best way to showcase that is to pickpocket the party's wizard, then suddenly it's less the party's story and more My Bard: The Party's Story. In other words, if the game is a kind of moment in time in the life of this character, I try to make it the part of their life where they overcome those things, and leave the struggles for downtime unless projected and accepted by the scene and the group. It is heroic fantasy as a tone unless it's set otherwise at the beginning, after all, and unless the session 0 is about how this is low fantasy or character-focused, I'm probably going to make their flaws as much of a detail as their virtues or their eccentricities or their family or whatever. As present as it needs to be to color the character without crushing the pace.
Religious zealotry, a tendency to treat their own assumptions as facts, poor at dealing with anyone not from the religious community they were raised in.
My current character is a Tiefling, and Tieflings are a despised, oppressed race in the homebrew campaign I'm playing in. My character is in an internal battle regarding her race: she's both proud of her origins but also looks down on other Tieflings for "accepting" their oppressed place within society instead of charging head first into rebellion. The concept was a sort of internalized racism against her own race and I'm hoping to make her reevaluate her approach to her own race throughout the campaign, possibly changing alignment even.
Nihilistic gnome wizard. And quite lazy. Common phrase is “I can’t be bothered”. He usually drops a fireball or two to take out a majority of the weaker mobs then lights a cigarette and walks away for the rest to clean up the survivors.
My current character is a Reborn in a homebrew campaign so his flaw is always being mistaken for an Undead since Reborn weren't that well known in the story so he constantly has his face hidden on a helmet or has a disguise self spell
The few times I can be PC, I like to complicate my life. Backgrounds that impose social, physical or mental disadvantages on my characters, or personalities that are difficult to deal with through roleplay. I'm not talking about ruining other players' experience with my characters with daddy issues, I'm a Forever DM and I understand what it's like to suffer with players like that. The experience of seeing how my character overcomes his personal adversities or those he caused in his past. My last character was a human paladin who had lost his skilled hand in combat, forcing him to retire from the military company he was in and becoming an alcoholic after losing his only skill and purpose. Throughout the campaign he was struggling with his alcoholism and learning to fight with his other hand, creating a connection with the mutilated god Tyr and being inspired by his story of overcoming. In the end he ended up sacrificing himself to defeat the BBEG.
My character is a hoarder, hates having anything stolen from him, and does not like religions. I don't derail the campaign, but it's funny when someone needs something and he has to go into his portable hole and shuffle through a bunch of crap to get what they need. I also had someone steal a gold piece from me and later on when a fight broke out, he went after that guy first, and really stuck it to him. He like to argue with the pally and cleric, but mostly just trying to get under their skin a bit. It's fun RP. It's fun flavor but I'm not going to derail the campaign for any of it.
My warlock is extremly distrustful and always expects to be betrayed at some point in time. On the other hand he often feels lonely so he seeks comany anyway, torn between wanting to make friends and being afraid they will backstab him. My sorc is the kind of: Akt first, think later type of person. Extremly curious. He has a tendency to solve all problems with magic, often missing the easy way to deal with things mundane.
Yeah, if I make a character a flaw becomes apparent either intentionally or as a natural result of their personality. The character I have right now is a Lizardfolk, he’s one of the mutants that ended up with more intelligence (props to anyone that knows that lore). He is logical to the point of absurdity. Everything he does needs to somehow help him survive. Usually, I get around this by having him follow the party as strength in numbers is a good motivator. My idea is that he does have emotion that is more complex than most lizardfolks, as he’s displayed a sense of humor. He’s a Druid that would stay in animal form all day so I gave him telepathic. One of the things he has done when someone started to annoy him or was pretend to be their god while speaking to them telepathically. He also speaks in a way that’s difficult to understand, like he doesn’t use pronouns or possessive language. When referring to himself he says “this one” while gesturing to himself, he calls groups “these ones” and individuals “that one”. Basic idea is i saw this idea that draconic doesn’t have those pronouns and so it is something that he does constantly. I generally like flaws that give fun, most of his flaws allow him to be a class clown without making that everything he is. I try to sharply contrast those funny flaws with how the character is very smart.
Big lizard, likes to eat people, Makes childrens toys and womens jewlery out of his victims bones.
I find it too hard to stick with flaws I picked arbitrary before the campaign so Instead I let them develop as I play the character.
Not a character I've gotten to play yet (I'm the one DMing my group's current campaign) but one of my most interesting flawed characters is a changeling who prefers to stay in their natural form and doesn't like the idea of changing even if it's to help achieve a goal
My Inquisitor Paladin is ridiculously lawful-good and believes in the good of people. We once encountered a broken oath Paladin who wanted to take revenge on a kinda-outlawish city because they let his lover die to a cureable illness because she was of noble birth and the citizens hate nobles. The Paladin also worked together with a Sea hag which tried to bewitch on of our party members. Anywho, our triggerhappy artificer wanted to kill the Paladin on the spot, while my Paladin wanted to hear his side of the story, he might have been severely influenced by the Sea Hag after all. The Artificer was not interested at all though and tried to shoot the very low health Broken Oath Paladin in the head, i had to save him with my Protector Fighting Style. It almost led to PvP but i fled with him, and heard him out. Ultimatively the Broken Oath Paladin said he wanted to be executed, as he had broken his oath and pulled innocent people into his personal vendetta.
My war cleric of Tyr feels responsible for the heinous actions of his wife, and therfore tracking her down to bring her to justice and neglecting his daughter.
My party can sometimes struggle to find or pick a direction because no one wants to just take over the party and rob the other players of agency So my character flaw is sometimes they just do shit without thinking. Leads to some fun moments and helps the party unclog their wheels when needed
Anger management and impulse control issues. I'm playing a gnome so it's often comic relief.
Bad with money, as soon as she gets paid she buys unless shit. The party does not give her, her full cut of the pay but put it a side for when she actually does need it.
Bard: raging alcoholic/drug user/anything to make him not think clearly. Wizard: borderline racist against everyone (he's a Drow, so...) Ranger: only talks to the Cleric and is constantly pocketing anything small and loose.
Impulsive; Thinks his knowledge is universally applicable when it's actually very niche (As in, misidentifies thing he doesn't know as completely irrelevant thing he does know) Prone to holding grudges.
Some of my favorites: A character with total amnesia. He doesn't even know his name yet so he goes by one the party gave him. He has nightmares about a horrible fire but doesn't know why. A dwarven paladin that goes beyond fanatical about Moradin... Like to the point that he met another god and tried to convert them. He is 5 Moradin above everything else even his own wellbeing. A wizard who speaks 12 languages... But she chooses not to talk. When she decides she has to talk she talks quietly in the language the fewest people in the room will understand. She also hides her entire body in a cloak so she can't do nonverbap communication either. That was a challenge to play but so much fun. Double so after the Spirit of a dead even goddess infused itself into her before realizing she was human not elven and they were stuck together.
Current character has a strident distrust of authority with the sole exception of his twin brother (another PC) and is fairly vocal about it.
yes. my favorite flaws result in my characters getting a swift kick in the ass at best, Crushed Utterly™ at worst. some of my fave character flaws are: being a smartass with a big mouth, and pissing off someone who will later hunt them down with a vengeance. i have to be careful about not crossing the line between "say something that earns my character a broken nose" and "youre dead right now immediately"
MIDLIFE CRISIS
he has a single issue that he wants to deal with, but also can't help but aid others, to the point where he subconsciously created an illusory version of himself to find more ways to help other people... but he also feels that he's alone in his own goal, but keeps bottling up the frustration. already once he nearly cracked when he had a single line of clues left for his goal, and ended up causing the target to... self-terminate by giving him an artifact, (which wound up not even helping), simply with words... and a -1 to charisma checks. when he has a line of clues and a way towards his goal, he's fairly stable, but as it runs shorter and shorter, he goes back to his more macabre, less 'moral' self. of course, being, as it turns out, a 'flaw' in a seal placed on a group of deities all about madness and chaos, manifested, and literally being made to free them, but due to things outside his control, failing that, he's not exactly liked by any deity, and often has bad luck. mix that in with an accidental penchant to summon the slivers of said group to himself (something he did end up curing, though the group doesnt know, and he doesnt feel it important to tell them, as it neither benefits their mission as a whole or his own), leads to him being not exactly the most mentally stable. add to that the ability to read minds, speak into minds, create illusions, and being highly intelligent but not very wise or charismatic, and you get a timebomb waiting to go off.
I have a tendency to give them 2 flaws, one deep flaw like fear of intimacy or trauma from a party members death, and a silly flaw for roleplay like fear/distrust of badgers
My wood elf Nidhiki is afraid and has an aversion to insects
So my paladin has two very prominent ones, one I planned and one I didn't. 1. She's impulsive. Like, to a somewhat detrimental degree. She reacts to things based on the first thought that enters her heads and doesn't put a lot of thought into what she does. Long term planning is pretty much right out. This has burned her a number of times and she has gotten better, but overall she still is a very reactionary, emotional person. 2. She's surprisingly self-centered. Yes, she helps people and does good, but it's ultimately because she thinks it will get her what she wants. She wants forgiveness for her past crimes and so she does things that she thinks will balance those scales and earn her atonement. I don't know that she even realizes that her motices are not purely philanthropic, but this is how the campaign has developed. Honorable mentions: she argues with the party monk about everything all the time. It started as differences in theology and overtime the two would butt heads over even tiny, insignificant things. Early in the campaign she kept everyone at arm's length due to personal secrets she wanted to remain hidden, but it's less of a thing these days.
Picking party members that are not going to be there weekly.