[ValkyrieSkies]

Traits can be an important mechanic in battle in many ways, though as of late we've had an increase in Traits were their purpose lies more in their roleplaying value than their mechanical value (Madness Mantra, Quiet Person, Merciful Soul, etc).

With that in mind, I'd like to propose the addition of traits were their mechanical effects are purely negative in nature to reflect flaws or weaknesses in a character.

Here's some examples of what I mean;

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Trauma (Injury)
This character has been horrifically injured in the past and reminders of that pain bring their mind back to the horror of that time. If this character is hit by an attack of a chosen damage type (Blunt, Pierce, Slash, Elements, Null, Sound, etc) they're afflicted with Fear for 1 round.

Crippled Leg
This character has suffered a grievous leg injury in the past, reducing their movement by one.

Masochist
Some sort of complex drives this character to seek pain, reducing the effectiveness of healing effects by 25% but causing them to recover 5FP everytime they take damage.

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Stuff like this really helps to reinforce IC through mechanics and leads to a better RP environment.

[Snake]

Frail Body
Due to an unfitness for combat, your body is frail and susceptible to getting injured easy. Increases the base chance for receiving injury to 10% + (Chance)%

Glass Body
(Frail Body required)
You're as tough as a thin layer of glass. This trait Increases all damage you take by 5%, and increases the base chance for Injury infliction to 15% + (Chance)%.

Wet Paper Body
(Glass Body required)
You're not even supposed to be in dangerous situations, given how fragile you are. This halves your Physical Damage Reduction and Magic Damage Reduction, increases base chance for Injury infliction to 25% + (Chance)%. But enemies who damage you will be inflicted with Hesitation LV(10 + Player Level), as even they will get worried you might be hurt.

[Akaiger]

I support this. But I believe it must have more trade-offs than pure disability or weakness, like Umbral racial trait(which gives you light weakness and dark resistance) or the Masochist one you created, for example. That would be great for traits like:

"Nerd"

Increases WIL/SKI/Tome Power(any or all of them, which ones are better for Dev) by Flat/Percent value, but decreases hit by 50% for all other weapons and STR/CEL by Flat/Percent value.

[ValkyrieSkies]

The point of a negative trait is that it's purely for IC, not that it's the downside to a better quirk. If there was to be an advantage it'd be best to have it as a tier 2 trait and/or earned after a certain condition, like Disgraced Knight -> Regained Honour or how Sentimentality (Weapon) works.

Also that 'Nerd' trait concept is just overpowered for anyone playing Hexer.

[Dimmie Dunce]

im in bed, on my iphone and about to sleep but not many would take a Negative Trait for purely roleplay purposes

(I would, its sort of my thing on a game I used to play)

I would instead suggest something that has obvious cons but also have it lead into a light perk such as Disgraced Knight does. To make it more appealing to the general playerbase rather than a niche selected few who like both the mechanical challenge and the IC repercussions.

Using the Trauma example at the start of this post as an example, it can lead into something like:

Rehabilitated: After much mental and physical therapy you have come to terms with the damage done onto you, there are still moments where it will inspire fear but you’ve come to realize that your body is now physically prepared for it.

Requires: ??? Amount of your Trauma damage taken, and the Trauma trait.

Causes: Still feared when hit by that damage, but also gain a small % damage reduction from that damage.

And for Nerd something like...

Book Worm: You’ve spent all your life indoors, an introvert hiding behind books. Studying the arts of magic alone in your abode. Where your peers went galavanting and socializing you were casting your first spell and learning the basic invocations. It’s a shame that you’ve yet to put it to the test, and being so reclusive has done nothing good for your physique...

Reqs: ??? will
Causes: - ??? pow to all weapons, -??? hit chance, - ??? crit chance. You will pick either Mage or Curator as your “Focus”, but no boon is given.

Unlocks: Artificer.

Artificer: You’ve become a master of your craft. Be it a healer of the church and one of the faithful, or a destructive force of pure magic upon the battlefield. Your mind is as sharp as a blade. A bit too sharp, some would say. You might take a while to plan things out and you tend to overthink often, but what you do, you do well.

Reqs: A ??? amount of Evoker/hexer/mage or LB/Priest/Curator spells casted during combat. As well as the book worm trait.

Causes: Your - pow, crit, and hit on all weapons are removed and made normal. FP costs of your mage or curator and their advanced classes (Dependent on if you picked mage or curator as your focus in book worm) are cut by a ???%. Your MOV is lowered by 1 and you have - Initiative.

I personally love the Disgraced Knight trait, and wish there were more traits oriented on a negative impact hat can lead into a mix of a positive and negative one.

[Chaos]

A neat concept on paper, but unless these were forced through some circumstance, there's a good chance players will avoid these like the plague and just roleplay their character's 'flaw' out.

Unless there was something to balance out the negative trait, that is; something like Disgraced Knight's line, or a positive effect within the trait.

[Raigen.Convict]

I welcome negative traits like disgraced knight where there's a pay-off in the end of it... I suggest perhaps something like...

Traumatic Encounter: You've been through some rough times and seeing the creature that caused these experiences fills you with sheer terror. Allows you to select a race (both player and monster races) and upon entering battle against these creatures all fear infliction checks are 25% more effective against you as well as granting you a permanent debuff called 'Terrified' for the duration of the fight.
'Terrified' grants you a 25% chance to hesitate v.s. the specified race.

Full Recovery: (Requires Traumatic Encounter and to have triggered 'terrified' 100 times.) Facing your fears has helped to numb you to them, and just left you that much stronger against them. You no longer gain terrified against your selected race and instead gain +25% resistance to fear infliction from that race and +5 power against them.

[Akaiger]

The point of a negative trait is that it's purely for IC, not that it's the downside to a better quirk. If there was to be an advantage it'd be best to have it as a tier 2 trait and/or earned after a certain condition, like Disgraced Knight -> Regained Honour or how Sentimentality (Weapon) works.

Also that 'Nerd' trait concept is just overpowered for anyone playing Hexer.

You are right, it was a concept just for the sake of saying we need a reason to actually invest in such trait. Like others said, people would just avoid it and RP it out. The "Nerd" Trait would be surely overpowered if one does not take into fact that other traits like that could be done and that it could've been done with adjustments, as you said and I expected, it would be too strong the way I designed it.

[PantherPrincess]

Traits can be an important mechanic in battle in many ways, though as of late we've had an increase in Traits were their purpose lies more in their roleplaying value than their mechanical value (Madness Mantra, Quiet Person, Merciful Soul, etc).

With that in mind, I'd like to propose the addition of traits were their mechanical effects are purely negative in nature to reflect flaws or weaknesses in a character.

Here's some examples of what I mean;

---

Trauma (Injury)
This character has been horrifically injured in the past and reminders of that pain bring their mind back to the horror of that time. If this character is hit by an attack of a chosen damage type (Blunt, Pierce, Slash, Elements, Null, Sound, etc) they're afflicted with Fear for 1 round.

Crippled Leg
This character has suffered a grievous leg injury in the past, reducing their movement by one.

Masochist
Some sort of complex drives this character to seek pain, reducing the effectiveness of healing effects by 25% but causing them to recover 5FP everytime they take damage.

---

Stuff like this really helps to reinforce IC through mechanics and leads to a better RP environment.

Trauma seems a bit overboard if you ask me that's a whole lotta damage types to inflict fear from. I don't even think this one is necessary as there's already a couple of ways to inflict fear without making it accessible to pretty much every single build.

Crippled Leg exists as a skill already under Archer and does the same exact thing.

Masochist is pretty cool although I'd balance out the pros and cons a little more. -25% healing effectiveness for 5 FP each time you take damage is a little underwhelming. 25% is a bit much, I would do -10% effectiveness and 10 FP back each hit. Another alternative is you could also make it so after defeating an enemy in battle you receive 10% damage reduction for a certain number of rounds (id go with 3).

[WaifuApple]

All of these go against the character, not for them, FYI. The trauma one is meant to inflict fear on YOU when a chosen damage type hits you. Not an opponent. Same with Crippled Leg. The thread is called negative traits because these traits are supposed to be negative to the player, for IC.