Drawbacks

After suffering terribly for not being tight-lipped enough as a child, such as when you accidentally exposed your family to enemy inquisitors, you developed a habit of being overly cautious with your words.

Effect: You take a –2 penalty on Diplomacy checks and must speak slowly due to the concentration required. Unless stated otherwise, you are assumed to not be speaking at a volume above a whisper.

### Asthmatic

Prerequisites: Any armor proficiency

You have severe allergies and asthma and are prone to difficulties in breathing

Effect: You suffer a -2 penalty against any effect that will cause you to be fatigued or exhausted. You hold your breath for only half the normal duration. Additionally, sleeping in light or heavier armor fatigues you. You cannot take Endurance.

### Attached

Prerequisites: None

You have a strong emotional attachment to a person or object that you’re terrified of losing.

Effect: The GM chooses the object of your attachment. Whenever the object of your attachment is either threatened, in danger, or in someone else’s possession, you take a –1 penalty on Will saves and a –2 penalty on saves against fear effects. If the person or object to which you’re attached is ever lost, killed, or destroyed, exchange this drawback for the Doubt drawback.

### Avarice

Prerequisites: None

Deep, compulsive greed gnaws at you.

Effect: Whenever you use your own possessions on someone else- such as by giving a potion or using a wand, you become irritable, and can’t take the aid another action for the next week.

### Betrayed

Prerequisites: Wisdom score of 16 or higher

You were reported to a dangerous authority and narrowly escaped death. You second-guess your instincts constantly, leaving you never sure whether or not to trust someone and endangered if you encounter that group’s agents again.

Effect: You must roll twice and take the lower result on Sense Motive checks. You cannot reroll this result, even if you have another ability that would normally allow you to do so.

### Breastfed

Prerequisites: None

As an infant, you were abducted by a druid or a hag for the sole purpose of forcing you to suckle on their teat.  Instead of bolstering your immunities like normal breast milk, this tainted milk increased your vulnerabilities.

Effect: You suffer a -1 penalty on saves vs any effect that causes a permanent but dispellable status- such as curses, blindness/deafness or petrification.  The DC to dispel such effects on you increases by 2.

### Burned

Prerequisites: None

You were badly burned once by volcanic ash, torch-wielding mobs, or some fiery accident, and the scars pain you terribly whenever you are too near to fire.

Effect: You take a –1 penalty on saving throws against fire effects. In addition, whenever you are adjacent to open flames or are on fire, you take a –1 penalty on all attack rolls, saving throws, and skill checks until you spend an entire round away from fire. These penalties are not cumulative. (An instantaneous fire effect adjacent to you or affecting you causes this penalty to apply until 1 round after it is gone.) You may not have any traits or class features that reduce fire damage.

### Choke Under Pressure

Prerequisites: None

Despite all you have accomplished in life, you still get nervous when others are counting on you to succeed.

Effect: Once per day, the GM may select one skill for which you suffer a -4 penalty to all checks. The GM need not make this decision at the beginning of the day, and can wait until you have declared you are making a specific skill check. The penalty remains until you receive 8 hours of sleep.

### Clumsy

Prerequisites: None

Despite all you have accomplished in life, you still get nervous when others are counting on you to succeed.

Effect: When in difficult terrain if you roll a natural 1 on any attack roll you make or a natural 1 or 2 on any saving throw, you fall prone. You may not take Nimble Moves or Acrobatic Step.

### Condescending

Prerequisites: Charisma score 16 or higher

Raised with the assurance that only those like you are truly worthy of respect, you have an off-putting way of demonstrating that you look down on those not of your race and ethnicity or nationality.

Effect: You take a –5 penalty on Diplomacy and Intimidate checks to improve other creatures’ attitudes toward you.

### Cruelty

Prerequisites: Strength or Dexterity score 16 or higher

You were rewarded as a child for flaunting your victory over others as completely as possible, and you discovered you enjoyed the feeling of rubbing your foes’ faces in the dirt.

Effect: Whenever you are engaged in combat and there are dying or helpless foes within 30 feet, you take a –2 penalty on attack rolls against foes who are neither dying nor helpless.

### Dependent

Prerequisites: Charisma score 14 or higher, 1 rank in Diplomacy

You are dependent upon the acceptance of others.

Effect: Whenever you fail a Diplomacy check, you become shaken for 3 days. This occurs whether or not you have a class feature that grants immunity to fear effects.

### Doubt

Prerequisites: None

You lack confidence in your abilities or confidence in the universe at large.

Effect: Whenever you fail a skill or ability check, you take a –4 penalty on that type of skill or ability check for 24 hours.

### Dyslexia

Prerequisites: Intelligence score of 16 or higher

You have always had difficulty learning and retaining information and find it hard to study.

Effect: You take a -2 penalty to spellcraft checks

### Easily Distracted

Prerequisites: Caster level 1st

You prefer magical theory in controlled settings rather than practical or applied magic and are unused to its rigors.

Effect: You suffer a -2 penalty on concentration checks made to cast a spell or use a spell-like ability when casting on the defensive or when grappled.

### Empty Mask

Prerequisites: None

You have spent so long hiding your true identity to escape political enemies that you have lost much of your sense of self.

Effect: You take a –1 penalty on Will saving throws against compulsions. This penalty increases to –2 against foes who know your true identity.

### Entomophobia

Prerequisites: None
You have a deadly fear of insects

Effect: You take a –2 penalty on all saving throws against effects created by insects. (including dragonflies)

### Envy

Prerequisites: None

You grew up in or near an opulent, decadent culture that valued nothing more than showing up the material wealth or accomplishments of others, causing the seed of envy to be planted in your heart.

Effect: Whenever any of your other party members loots an item or is given a looted item, attempt a DC 20 Will save. If you fail, you take a cumulative –1 penalty on Will and Reflex saving throws and concentration checks (up to a –5 penalty). If you succeed, the penalty is reduced by 2.

### Family Ties

Prerequisites: None
Your family is extremely important to you, and you feel disheartened when you can’t do what they ask.

Effect: When a family member makes a request of you, you must fulfill that request or take a –2 penalty on all Wisdom– and Charisma-based ability checks and skill checks until you either do what was requested or succeed at a DC 20 Will saving throw, which you can attempt once per week at the start of each week. You can’t take this drawback if you have no family. If you ever lose your family or lose contact with your family, exchange this drawback for the Doubt drawback.

### Fey-Taken

Prerequisites: None
As a child, you were whisked away by mischievous fey for a time. When you returned, you were ever after considered odd and distant. You long to return there, and find the mortal world dull and at times revolting, so you do not eat as you should and do not question strange visions.

Effect: You take a –2 penalty on saving throws against disease, illusions, and poison of all kinds, as well as against the spells, spell-like abilities, and supernatural abilities of fey.

### Forgetful

Prerequisites: None
You are easily distracted and prone to forgetting important things.

Effect: Whenever you leave a location you have been at for longer than 1 hour, you must attempt a DC 10 Wisdom check. If you fail, you leave behind one random mundane item (a purse of money counts as an item).

### Foul Brand

Prerequisites: Dexterity and Charisma scores of 14 or higher
You have the symbol of an evil deity burned into your flesh.

Effect: If the symbol is on your hand, you take a –2 penalty on Disable Device, Disguise, and Sleight of Hand checks. If the symbol is on your face, you take a –2 penalty on Bluff, Diplomacy, and Disguise checks. This does not count as a holy symbol for the purposes of a divine focus for spellcasting.

### Frail

Prerequisites: None

You were the victim of a serious illness when you were young, and it has permanently sapped your vitality.

Effect: You subtract 1 hit point per every Hit Die you possess.

### Glory Hog

Prerequisites: Strength or Dexterity score of 16 or higher
You are the best, and don't need anyone else’s help to prove it, nor will you help someone else gain the glory for a victory that rightfully belongs to you

Effect: You only take a +1 bonus to attack while flanking, and anyone flanking with you only receives a +1 bonus to attack as well.

### Guilty Fraud

Prerequisites: Charisma score of 16 or higher
You received something through trickery that you did not deserve, and your guilt for the misdeed distracts you from dangers around you.

Effect: You take a –4 penalty on Bluff checks against creatures with an attitude toward you of indifferent or better.

### Haunting Regret

Prerequisites: None
When you were young, a relative with whom you had frequently quarreled passed away where his or her soul could not rest. Now, the unquiet spirit appears around you at inconvenient times, distracting you with regret for being unable to help.

Effect: You take a –2 penalty on saving throws against the distraction ability of swarms, mind-affecting effects and concentration checks.

### Headstrong

Prerequisites: Aura class feature
You feel compelled to correct every action and argument that contradicts your worldview.

Effect: Whenever you witness an action or hear an argument that contradicts your alignment, you must attempt to stop or correct that action or argument. (purposefully turning a blind eye to such an action counts as failing to stop it) If you either don’t try to stop it or fail in your attempt to stop it (as adjudicated by the GM), you are shaken for 1 day. (Even characters normally immune to fear effects are shaken)

### Hedonistic

Prerequisites: None
You are a creature of pleasure and comfort.

Effect: Whenever you spend a day without gaining reward, treasure or loot (at least 10 or more gold pieces worth) or spending an hour on entertainment or pleasure in a city, attempt a DC 20 Fortitude save at the end of that day. If you fail, you begin the next day fatigued. This fatigue lasts until the next day, or until you receive a reward or sufficient entertainment or pleasure.

### Indecisive

Prerequisites: None

You have trouble making any decision until you see what everyone else is doing.

Effect: You take a -2 penalty to initiative rolls. You cannot take Improved Initiative.

### Infamous

Prerequisites: None
You were publicly linked, truthfully or not, to a crime of significant infamy. You draw attention wherever you go and risk imprisonment or worse in the jurisdiction where the crime was committed.

Effect: You and your apparent allies take a –4 penalty on Diplomacy checks.

### Information Overload

Prerequisites: Intelligence score of 13 or higher
You have had access to thousands of spy reports, many of which turned out to be based on faulty deductions or even intentionally false stories spread by opposed spy groups. At this point, you have been exposed to false knowledge as much as accurate information, and you can’t always remember which is which.

Effect: You take a –2 penalty on all Knowledge checks, and if you fail a Knowledge check by 5 or more, you can recall information that is diametrically opposed to the truth.

### Lonely

Prerequisites: Charisma score of 13 or higher
You are far too easily convinced of the friendly intentions of others.

Effect: You take a –2 penalty on Sense Motive checks and on Perception checks to see through disguises, and on saving throws against charm spells and spell-like abilities.

### Loner

Prerequisites: Strength score of 14 or higher
Raised by pirates, bandits, or other troublemakers unwilling to stick out their necks for you, you are accustomed to operating on your own. The presence of allies can easily become a distraction to you, and you do your best to keep them out of your space.

Effect: You take a –1 penalty to AC and on attack rolls while adjacent to allies or when taking the aid another action.

### Lovesick

Prerequisites: None
Your love for another occupies your every thought, and you become despondent when you are away from that person.

Effect: The person is chosen by your GM. At the start of each day, if you are away from this person you take a –2 penalty on initiative checks and Perception checks. If you ever lose or fall out of love with this person, exchange this drawback for the Doubt drawback.

### Magical Klutz

Prerequisites: Dexterity and Charisma scores of 14 or higher
You were born in a place with a plethora of strangely interacting magic and magic is dangerously eager to surge into action around you.

Effect: You roll twice and take the lower result on Use Magic Device checks and on Reflex saving throws against effects produced by magic items and magical traps.

### Mark of Slavery

Prerequisites: Dexterity and Strength score of 13 or higher
You were enslaved for part or all of your youth, and marked as such with a brand or tattoo that still reminds you of how you were punished whenever you failed to do what you should..

Effect: Whenever you fail a dexterity or strength based skill check, you take a –2 penalty on skill checks and -1 on all attack rolls you attempt for 24 hours unless you retry and succeed on the failed skill check on your next turn. (This can only occur on the first retry)

### Meticulous

Prerequisites: None
You plan and prepare everything in detail, and aren’t good at improvising when things don’t go as planned.

Effect: Whenever you fail a saving throw, You take a –2 penalty on all skill checks for 24 hours.

### Misbegotten

Prerequisites: Dexterity score of 16 or higher
Whether due to the influence of malign magic, disease, or the scorn of the gods, you were born with a troublesome deformity that interferes with your movement.

Effect: You take a –2 penalty on all Dexterity-based skill checks.

### Naive

Prerequisites: None
Your perception that everyone is innately good does not bode well in the heat of battle, when less scrupulous foes might take advantage of your misguided optimism.

Effect: You take a –1 penalty to AC against attacks of opportunity and a –2 penalty to CMD against dirty trick combat maneuvers.

### Nervous

Prerequisites: None
Living under constant threat of death or worse from your oppressive government, your nerves have frayed terribly.

Effect: You take a -1 penalty to all will saves

### Oblivious

Prerequisites: None
Whether because you are an avid daydreamer or you are accustomed to everything being handed to you and spelled out for your benefit, you pay little attention to your surroundings and other people.

Effect: You take a –2 penalty on Perception checks.

### Obnoxious

Prerequisites: None

You are unnecessarily loud and incautious and frequently do things to draw attention to yourself, like shouting at the walls of a canyon to hear the echo or tearing off limbs from trees just because you can.

Effect: Whenever you roll an encounter check, subtract 1 from the total rolled.

### Occult Bargain

Prerequisites: Ability to cast 0-level and 1st-level spells as a class feature

You draw magical power from a source who insists that its identity remains secret.

Effect: You take a –1 penalty on concentration checks, and you must succeed on a concentration check DC 15 + your caster level or be unable to cast 0 level spells that day.

### Overconfident

Prerequisites: Armor Proficiency

You take unnecessary risks, trusting in your armor to protect you

Effect: You suffer a -1 penalty to AC at all times.

### Overprotective

Prerequisites: None
In your youth, you saw a younger friend or loved one suffer a grievous injury or die, and you blamed yourself for not having been there to help, even if there was nothing you could have done.

Effect: If one of your allies should fall unconscious from hit point damage, you take a –2 penalty on attack rolls, and suffer a 10% spell failure chance as long as you are further than 10 feet away from your fallen ally.

### Paranoid

Prerequisites: None
You believe that someone or something is always out to get you, so you have a hard time truly trusting anyone.

Effect: Anyone who attempts an aid another action of any type to assist you must succeed at a DC 15 check instead of the normal DC 10 check. Anyone who attempts a heal check on you has that DC increased by 5.

### Pampered

Prerequisites: None
You are privileged in life and rely on others to take care of you.

Effect: You suffer a -2 penalty on all environmental saves.  You take 1½ times any environmental damage you take, and any environmental damage you take is considered lethal damage. You may not cast endure elements.

### Power-Hungry

Prerequisites: None
You’re addicted to power.

Effect: You take a –2 penalty on Will saving throws against charm and compulsion effects and a -4 penalty on sense motive checks and opposed charisma checks  if the creature creating the effect promises wealth or power.

### Pride

Prerequisites: Strength or Dexterity score of 16 or higher
You can’t abide challenges to your honor, and you will not be ignored.

Effect: Whenever you are the target of a smite, challenge, taunt, or demoralize attempt, you take a -2 penalty to attack unless you are attacking the originator of that effect. Whenever a creature you’re attacking does not attack you back, you take a -2 penalty to AC until after it does.

### Provincial

Prerequisites: Charisma score of 14 or higher
You have only one way of looking at things: the right way.

Effect: You take a –2 penalty on Diplomacy checks and Sense Motive checks made against all creatures whose religion or alignment differs from your own.

### Righteous Indignation

Prerequisites: Strength score of 16 or higher
You have difficulty controlling your temper after living in inhuman conditions.

Effect: Whenever a foe provokes an attack of opportunity from you, you must take it unless you succeed at a Will save against a DC equal to 10 + your level. You take a –1 penalty on Will saving throws against spells with the emotion descriptor.

### Rebellious

Prerequisites: None

You have always had a problem with authority, and you can't stand having responsibilities thrust on you.

Effect: You start with -5 in all faction reputations, and when you lose faction rep, you lose double the normal amount.

### Secret Shame

Prerequisites: None
You have a terrible fear of the public at large, a group, or an important person (such as your order of knights, your liege lord, your family, or your lover) learning a shameful truth about you.

Effect: You take a –2 penalty on saving throws against fear effects, and the DC of any Intimidate check to demoralize you is reduced by 2. If you would normally be immune to fear, you do not take these penalties, but instead lose your immunity to fear (regardless of its source).

### Sentimental

Prerequisites: None
You are sentimental, and your thoughts often stray to the past at inappropriate times.

Effect: You take a –2 penalty on Perception checks to avoid being surprised and on Reflex saving throws to avoid traps or hazards.

### Shadow-Scarred

Prerequisites: None
You were touched by terrible horrors that live in the darkness just outside the human sphere and feel your life-force ebb away ever so slightly whenever you return to the shadows.

Effect: Whenever you are in an area of dim light or darkness, you take a –1 penalty on saving throws.

### Sheltered

Prerequisites: None
Brought up in courtly environments and knowing little of violence, you have trouble getting accustomed to it.

Effect: Whenever you have less than half your maximum hit points, you are shaken. This effect occurs even if you have a class feature that grants immunity to fear.

### Sleepy

Prerequisites: Any race except elf or half-elf
You must sleep or rest uninterrupted each night to get the benefits of a full night’s rest.

Effect: You take a –2 penalty on saving throws against sleep effects. You must succeed on a perception check DC 20 in order to awaken from sleep unless someone spends a standard action to shake you awake.

### Spell Vulnerability

Prerequisites: None
You foolishly dabbled with magic or a magical device at a young age.  It left you with lasting mental scars

Effect: Choose one of the following schools of magic: evocation, enchantment, or necromancy.  You suffer a -1 penalty on all saves and AC vs spells from the selected school.

### Spooked

Prerequisites: None
You had a traumatic experience with a spirit at a young age that colors your reactions to such creatures even to this day.

Effect: Whenever you are within 60 feet of an undead, you must make a DC of 10 + the creature’s HD or become shaken for 1 round. Immunity to fear effects does not allow you to forgo this saving throw; even if you are immune to fear, you must roll the Will saving throw for this drawback when applicable, albeit with a +2 bonus.

### Superstitious

Prerequisites: None
Raised around those who regarded most magic as innately dangerous, no matter the source, you cannot bring yourself to submit to magic willingly even for your own good.

Effect: Whenever you are affected with a harmless spell, there is a 50% chance that you must roll a saving throw to prevent that effect, even if it would benefit you. This does not apply to harmless spells cast by you upon yourself.

### Tainted Spirit

Prerequisites: None
When you were a child, a parent or other person with authority over you made a minor pact with a fiend on your behalf, stealing some of your vitality in exchange for a minor boon.

Effect: At the end of any combat, you must attempt a Fortitude saving throw. The DC is 10 + the number of rounds you acted in combat. If you fail this save, you become fatigued for 24 hours, or until you rest for 8 hours.

### Too Many Secrets

Prerequisites: Charisma score of 12 or higher
You’ve told too many lies, and made up too many cover stories, and now even you can’t keep it all straight. The lies have become reality to you, which makes it difficult to think of a new convincing lie. You hesitate at crucial moments when trying to fool those around you, and likely shouldn’t be in the field at all anymore.

Effect: You take a –2 penalty on Bluff checks and saving throws against illusions.

### Umbral Unmasking

Prerequisites: Charisma score of 16 or higher, Evil alignment.
You cast no shadow whatsoever, or the shadow you do have is monstrous. This telltale sign of wickedness cannot be concealed by misdirection, nondetection, or illusions, except those that also affect shadows (such as invisibility).

Effect: You take a –2 penalty on charisma based skill checks against anyone or anything of non-evil alignment. You are not welcome in most businesses in towns.

### Unlucky

Prerequisites: None

The universe hates you.. Its bullshit, and you KNOW it.

Effect: Once per session, the GM can negate the results of any one successful die roll.  You cannot reroll.

### Vain

Prerequisites: Charisma score of 16 or higher
You are sensitive about the way others perceive you.

Effect: Whenever you fail a Charisma-based check, you take a –2 penalty on all Charisma-based checks for 24 hours.

### Vainglory

Prerequisites: Charisma and Dexterity score of 14 or higher. Ability to cast illusion effects.

You compulsively seek recognition for your deeds, making it hard to act with subtlety.

Effect: You take a –1 penalty on Bluff, Disguise, and Stealth checks, and the save DC of any illusion you create is 1 lower than normal.

### Vulnerable

Prerequisites: None

You have a habit of taking unnecessary risks in combat without taking proper precautions for safety which makes you a more inviting target.

Effect: Non-intelligent enemies select you as a target in preference of other targets (as long as doing so does not put them in some obvious additional risk), and such creatures gain a +2 circumstantial bonus to attack rolls made against you.

### Warded Against Nature

Prerequisites: Animal companion, familiar or mount from a class feature.

You were cruel to animals as a child, and although this was a long time ago, animals can still sense that something is wrong.

Effect: Treat your effective class level as 1 lower for the purposes of determining the abilities and features of your animal companions, familiars and mounts from a class feature. (minimum of lvl 1)

### Zealous

Prerequisites: Aura or Domain class feature

You are fanatical in your beliefs, ruled by emotion over reason.

Effect: When you attack a creature that you know worships a different religion than you do, you take a –5 penalty on the attack roll and a +2 trait bonus on the damage roll with your first attack.