Anger Management and PTSD for your characters.

[Archangel93]

Imagine your character is a family man at the beginning of the game. His children follow him and his troop into the forest when suddenly, bandits! Your character watches in horror as his youngest, probably age 8-10, gets cut down before his eyes... Don't you think he'd have some issues after that? Maybe emotional distress every so often that he needs to make a will save to resist? Thoughts, please.

[Egregious Kelly]

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/campaigns/sanity.htm

May have some things to help you out.

I had a character who survived a traumatic situation, but became an alcoholic afterwards to cope. The GM gave me extra xp for effective roleplaying. It was a burden to the rest of the party, made for some darkly amusing moments, and added to the bleakness of the campaign overall.

what does the player want to do with it? This could be used to guide the character's future development. He could become a crusader looking to rid thwe world of bandits and criminals, possibly becoming a paladin. He could go the other way and become so focused on slaying bandits that he slides into an evil alignment and alienates the rest of his family and friends due to his extreme methods(ranger with favored enemy:humans?). Or he could try to suppress the whole thing, leading to your roll a Will save vs flashbacks.

This can also be used as a hook for future adventures. Cultists have kidnapped the village children to sacrifice them on the full moon? Quick, after them! An adventure like that could provide some closure for the character, allowing him to be rid of his flashbacks/nightmares/what-have-you.

Ultimately, do what will provide the best role-playing experience for everyone.