Disadvantages
(Shadow Only)
(Source: Hand of Shadow)
Sometimes it's more advantageous to lower the Level Modifiers (LMs) of a more powerful character than to increase the LMs of the rest of the party. To do this, a player may select disadvantages for his character. The goblinoid races automatically suffer a flaw of some sort, but to other Shadow races, these disadvantages are optional.
The disadvantages listed below eliminate the Level Modifiers a character may suffer from due to racial type by any where from -1 to -3 LM.
It may be possible to "buy off" disadvantages as indicated in the disadvantage's description. Whenever a character would gain a level, instead of advancing his statistics, he instead removes one -1 LM from his disadvantages. When all LM penalties from disadvantages are removed, the character is free to advance normally.
Flawed
Whether gained as a result of crossing an orc enforcer or simply from being on the wrong battlefield at the wrong time, characters with flaws are physically hampered by a permanent injury that did not properly heal. Alternatively, flaws may be caused by disease, malnutrition during childhood, or simply mundane birth defects. Goblin-kin characters that select this disadvantage may have multiple defects from the goblin scourge, or may "trade in" their racial -1 LM goblin scourge drawback for a -2 LM flaw.
Flaws marked with an * may be healed via the appropriate spell (remove blindness, regenerate, heal, etc.), but only after the character has completely "bought back" the LM of the flaw in levels, as described above.
LM -1
Clumsy: You are accident-prone. Take a -1 penalty to Reflex saves and a -2 penalty to all Dexterity checks and Dexterity-based skill checks.
Craven: You are a coward. Take a -4 penalty to all saving throws against fear effects.
Dim: You are not very smart, and you never will be, although you can pick up skills and learn languages anyway. Take a -8 penalty to all Intelligence checks and Intelligence-based skill checks.
Damaged Ear*: -2 penalty to Balance, Listen, and initiative checks.
Damaged Eye*: -2 penalty to Search and Spot checks and -4 penalty on ranged attacks.
Damaged Hand*: -2 penalty to Climb, Disable Device, Open Lock, Sleight of Hand, and Use Rope checks; -2 penalty to attack rolls with weapons in that hand, including weapons that require two hands to wield.
Foolish: You commonly make errors of judgement. Take a -1 penalty to Will saves and a -2 penalty to all Wisdom checks and Wisdom-based skill checks.
Frail: You lack the endurance to withstand hits. When determining your hit points for a class or racial level, reduce the Hit Die by one die type. For example, a frail channeler would gain 1d4 hit points per level instead of 1d6.
Hideous: Your face is a twisted mass of tissue. Your facial features are scattered about your head as if at random. You take a -8 penalty to all Charisma checks and Charisma-based skill checks.
Sickly: You are fragile and prone to sickness. You just barely survived whelping, the plague, or whatever it was that scarred you. Take a -1 racial penalty to all Fortitude saves and a -2 penalty to all Constitution checks and Constitution-based skill checks.
Unskilled: Regardless of natural intellect or athletic ability, damage to your brain makes it difficult to imporve your abilities. All skills are always cross-class skills for you.
Weak: You are weak, although you've learned to use leverage and momentum to swing a weapon or wrestle. Take a -4 penalty to all Strength checks and Strength-based skill checks (including opposed bull rush rolls and opposed trip rolls, but not including melee attacks, grapple checks, opposed disarm rolls, and the like).
LM -2
Cataracts*: Your eyes are covered with a milky film or scar tissue, making it hard for you to see in light and making you blind in darkness. You lose any darkvision or low-light vision you would normally have, automatically fail all Spot checks, and suffer a -8 penalty to Search checks and ranged attacks.
Deaf*: You suffer a -2 penalty to iniative checks, automatically fail all Listen checks, have a 20% chance to miscast any spells with verbal components, and obviously cannot hear what your allies are saying; on the positive side, you are immune to language-dependent effects.
Insane: Your madness manifests itself in stressful situations/ Whenever you roll for initiative, you must also make a DC 10 Wisdom check. If you succeed, you act normally. If you fail, you act randomly as if under the effect of a confusion spell, substituting a random foe in place of the caster. Your bout of madness ends when combat is over or after a number of rounds equal to the number by which you failed the check.
Lame*: A club foot or some other defect reduces your speed. You suffer a -2 penalty to Climb, Jump, Move Silently, Ride, Swim, and Tumble checks, a =2 penalty to Reflex saves and Dexterity checks, and a -10 ft. penalty to base land speed.
Light Blindness: You are sensitive to light. Whenever you enter an area of bright light (such as sunlight or a daylight spell), you must make a DC 10 Constitution check. If you succeed, you are dazzled for as long as you remian in the area. If you fail, you are blind for a number of minutes equal to the number by which you failed the check.
Mute*: You cannot speak or cast spells with verbal components. You can only communicate using a sign language or via pantomiming (in which case you may only convey simple concepts, and characters trying to understand you must still succeed on a DC 15 Sense Motive check).
One-Armed*: One of your arms is either gone or completely useless. If you still have your second arm, you are nonetheless unable to carry anything with it or even use a shield with it; you also suffer a -4 penalty to Climb, Disable Device, Open Lock, Sleight of Hand, and Use Rope checks.
Oblivious: You don't pay attention to your surroundings. Take a -6 penalty to all Listen, Spot, and initiative checks.
Runt: You are small for your breed, forcing you to function in many ways as if you were one size category smaller. Whenever you are subject to a size modifier or special size modifier for an opposed check (such as during grapple checks, bull rush attempts, and trip attempts), you are treated as one size smaller if doing so is disadvantageous to you. You are also considered one size smaller when determining whether a creature's special attacks based on size (such as improved grab or swallow whole) can affect you. Finally, you must use weapons and armor designed for a creature one size smaller.
Your space, reach, and carrying capacity remain those of a creature of your actual size.
LM -3
Blind*: You suffer a -2 penalty to Armor Class, are always considered flat-footed unless you have the uncanny dodge class ability, must move at half speed, and suffer a -4 penalty on Search checks and on most Strength-based and Dexterity-based skill checks. All checks and activities that rely on vision (such as reading and Spot checks) automatically fail. All opponents are considered to have total concealment (50% miss chance) from you.
Head Trauma*: You suffer a -4 penalty on all attack rolls, saves, and skill checks.
Cursed
Those who cross a legate's path, if not killed outright, might be cursed as shown on the table below. This both serves as a reminder of a master's or foe's displeasure, and also serves as a walking, talking example of what happens to those who cross him. A character suffers either the weakness, ineptness, or madness for his LM reduction, not all three. However, levels of curses may be "mixed and matched," such that an LM -3 curse might cause a -4 to one ability and a 10% chance to take no action each round, or a -2 to three abilities, or a -4 to all attacks, saves, and checks.
These curses are inflicted via a secret ritual, unknown magic item, or other unique method; unlike normal curses, such as those caused by the bestow curse spell, a character cannot have the curse removed until he buys off the LM penalty. Every level sacrificed reduces the curse's intensity by one step, until the LM penalty is reduced to 0.
| LM | Weakness | Ineptness | Madness |
|---|---|---|---|
| -1 | -2 to one ability | -1 to all attacks, saves, and checks | 10% chance to take no action each round in combat |
| -2 | -4 to one ability | -2 to all attacks, saves, and checks | 20% chance to take no action each round in combat |
| -3 | -6 to one ability | -4 to all attacks, saves, and checks | 50% chance to take no action each round in combat |
Enemy
Characters with the enemy disadvantage have a significant foe whose hatred may or may not be deserved. This enemy may be a rival or a superior. He would prefer not to act against the character openly, though if pushed, he will.
The DM should determine the particulars of the enemy, such as his statistics, motivations, possessions, and perhaps most importantly whether or not the PC knows his identity. The enemy becomes the character's foil, actively working to discredit the PC, lead him to harm, or even arrange to have him murdered. A character can remove the enemy by killing him (though such an act should have repercussions) or by diminishing the enemy's power through buying off the LM penalties.
| LM | Enemy Strength |
|---|---|
| -1 | Same level as character |
| -2 | Character level +2 |
| -3 | Character level +4 |
Geas
Another technique to correct undesirable behavior is to saddle a character with a geas/quest. Legates make extensive use of this spell, especially when giving orders to minions whose loyalties are uncertain. The nature of the geas depends on the penalty. In all cases, the geas/quest spell is considered to have a caster level five more than the character's effective level, or the minimum level to cast the spell, whichever is higher. The particulars of the geas are up to the DM, but the restrictions imposed by the geas should grow in difficulty with the LM reduction. Examples include obedience to another character in the party, a commitment to a particular mission, or to secretly report to the caster with regularity about the group's activities. A geas/quest spell may be removed through normal means.
Obligation
A character may be entrusted with a powerful relic, terrible knowledge, or even an individual that, if it were to fall into enemy hands, could spell disaster for the character and those with whom he is aligned. For an obligation to warrant an LM reduction, there must be some significant consequence for failing to live up to its responsibilities. Suitable consequences include being branded as an outlaw, receiving a crippling injury or curse, or even death.
Slave
In some sense, all of those who serve the dark god are slaves; slaves to their own ambitions, to a life of paranoia and distrust, and to the dark god's corrupting will. But some characters' chains are more literal.
Characters who voluntarily become a slave can reduce their LM by 2 in exchange for being owned by another character. In theory, characters owned by NPCs are likely to be leant to other PCs, while those owned by PCs are bound to obey their wishes. The owner is free to respond to any act of disobedience in any way he likes, including having the slave killed, sold, or maimed. Such characters are broken things and take a -4 penalty to all Will saves, Charisma checks, and attempts to resist intimidation. Additionally, slaves effectively have no rank.
A character can escape slavery through normal means, such as killing his master, running away, or being sold and released. However, doing so should by by no means easy, and the punishment for attempting the first two is slow torture and death. Most slaves have resigned themselves to a life of captivity, and think of it as better than living among the beasts in the wild or being hunted by their enemies. This disadvantage can obviously create intense conflict between characters, and should only be taken by players willing to roleplay their subservience and despair to the hilt. Attempts at escape or defiance should be an extremely rare event, and DMs may require a slave to make a check to resist intimidation any time he attempts to act against his master's wishes (even if his master is not present). Likewise, the player acting as the slave's master, whether permanent or temporary, should keep in mind that the slave is a valuable commodity who was difficult to acquire and is useful to have around. Realistically, he would not command the slave to risk his life at every opportunity, nor would he intentionally demean or provoke him if he ever plans to trust his life to the slave's in combat.
Even if a slave is released or escapes from his servitude, he retains the penalty to saves and checks until he buys off the LM reduction.