Optimizing Your Backstory, a Guide to Traits and Flaws.

[TheOneHawk]

Legacy of Fire, Mummy's Mask and Reign of Winter done.

I'm really irritated that you can't add separate sheets in a google doc like you can in a spreadsheet. This guide is starting to lag, probably from being 111 pages long, and I have to split it all into separate docs all linked together to fix it, I think. Why the hell isn't this a thing? They obviously have the tech for it, since it's already implemented on sheets.

[CGNefarious]

You could create a separate doc for each section and link between them if it's really an issue.

[TheOneHawk]

I'll probably end up doing that, yeah. Just annoying that a couple of the features I expected just aren't available. Namely, no sheet function and chat is useless because I have to give people edit access for them to be able to chat.

RotRL is done, I'm assuming they did new traits when they re-released it since I don't recognize some of them, but I just put them all in one place.

[TheOneHawk]

Campaign traits are finished! Whoo!

I've also reformatted into 14 separate documents, one for each type of trait plus the homepage which is where the whole guide used to be. If you see any broken links, please let me know. Also, if someone could leave a couple comments of random stuff on various pages just so I can test something that would be appreciated.

[TheOneHawk]

Cosmic Traits are done.

[Kurald Galain]

I've also reformatted into 14 separate documents, one for each type of trait plus the homepage which is where the whole guide used to be. If you see any broken links, please let me know. Also, if someone could leave a couple comments of random stuff on various pages just so I can test something that would be appreciated.

While it makes sense to split the document, I'm afraid that this split makes it harder to find traits. I would really recommend splitting it by function instead, e.g. moving all "<skill> becomes a class skill" traits into one document (sorted by skill), all traits that boost your saving throws into a second document, everything that increases attack rolls or damage rolls into a third, and everything else into a forth. For example.

In such a way, your guide would be much more useful to people with questions like "I'm building a character but my fortitude is bad, how do I fix that", or "I want the trait with the best bonus to <skill>".

$.02

[TheOneHawk]

I agree 100% and fully intend to do just that. The issue is that I haven't gotten through every trait yet, so I don't want to spend a significant amount of time organizing them into what they each do only to have to do it again once I finish the other trait types. I only have four trait types left to do, one of which is very small, so the current format is very much temporary.

The current plan is that once I've gone through all the traits I'm going to set up additional documents based around function. Every green+ trait will be sorted into a document based on what it does (attack bonuses, save bonuses, utility, magic stuff, skills etc.) and listed in order from best to worst with a tag next to it stating what type of trait it is so people don't grab illegal combinations by accident.

[Kurald Galain]

I agree 100% and fully intend to do just that. The issue is that I haven't gotten through every trait yet, so I don't want to spend a significant amount of time organizing them into what they each do only to have to do it again once I finish the other trait types. I only have four trait types left to do, one of which is very small, so the current format is very much temporary.

The current plan is that once I've gone through all the traits I'm going to set up additional documents based around function. Every green+ trait will be sorted into a document based on what it does (attack bonuses, save bonuses, utility, magic stuff, skills etc.) and listed in order from best to worst with a tag next to it stating what type of trait it is so people don't grab illegal combinations by accident.

Awesome :D

[TheOneHawk]

Awesome :D

Easy to say when you don't have to do it. I have grown to hate formatting.

[stack]

The reason for the tiefling trait, as I recall hearing it, was that at the time there was concern that they were too strong of a race, so that trait could be forced on players as a nerf. Which is obviously not how traits are supposed to work.

[TheOneHawk]

The reason for the tiefling trait, as I recall hearing it, was that at the time there was concern that they were too strong of a race, so that trait could be forced on players as a nerf. Which is obviously not how traits are supposed to work.

I'm not sure whether to laugh or facepalm. Both are appropriate, I think.

Faction traits and Mount traits are done. Just Region and Religion left! They're both massive though so they'll take some time to work through. I think I'm going to organize them by region and religion and redo race traits the same way, similar to how I have campaign and faction traits sorted.

[Ninjaxenomorph]

And flaws, or have you decided not to do those?

[TheOneHawk]

Damnit, right. Drawbacks still to be done as well.

[Kurald Galain]

May I suggest that the Burst of Speed trait is actually not so good? This is because a regular horse already has 50' movement speed, 100' on a charge, and that's one of the slower mounts in the game (for example, a pegasus clocks in at 120'). While it's true that a mounted character wants to make as many charges as possible, it is extremely rare for his ability to charge to be limited by movement rate; it's usually limited by terrain or positioning. Frankly I'd rate this orange, as it's an ability you'll almost never need.

Actually, all mount traits are pretty bad considering that a moderate-level mounted character won't be riding a horse. He'll want to ride a roc, gryphon, nightmare, or perhaps a blink dog, but surely not an ordinary horse.

Aside from that, please note that there are more faction traits, e.g. here. I believe that each year of PFS has its own faction traits, although there is overlap between them. While it may not make sense to make a new character from older documents, if there's any gems in there (or you switch to a new faction) they could be picked up via the Extra Traits feat.

[TheOneHawk]

May I suggest that the Burst of Speed trait is actually not so good? This is because a regular horse already has 50' movement speed, 100' on a charge, and that's one of the slower mounts in the game (for example, a pegasus clocks in at 120'). While it's true that a mounted character wants to make as many charges as possible, it is extremely rare for his ability to charge to be limited by movement rate; it's usually limited by terrain or positioning. Frankly I'd rate this orange, as it's an ability you'll almost never need.

Point.

Actually, all mount traits are pretty bad considering that a moderate-level mounted character won't be riding a horse. He'll want to ride a roc, gryphon, nightmare, or perhaps a blink dog, but surely not an ordinary horse.

Better point. That completely didn't occur to me but is very true.

Aside from that, please note that there are more faction traits, e.g. here. I believe that each year of PFS has its own faction traits, although there is overlap between them. While it may not make sense to make a new character from older documents, if there's any gems in there (or you switch to a new faction) they could be picked up via the Extra Traits feat.

You are the worst.

Comments in bold.

[TheOneHawk]

Ok, couple updates on the guide. I apologize for the slowed pace, I'm right towards the end of a stretch at work with 341 hours in 32 days, so getting off work and then working on this guide has been getting less and less appealing. 2 days left then I probably have a month off, so I think I can safely say this guide should be done before the new year.

Racial traits have been reformatted so that every trait for a specific race is together with a table of contents. Religion traits have been formatted (thank you FarmerBink for the help with that) and I've started rating them, though there's still some distance to go in that regard. Additionally, comments were accidentally disabled on almost all of the sheets, thank you Keledrath for pointing that out, they have been enabled.

Additionally, I can't find a solid source for every out of date faction trait and since they're, well, out of date, unless someone knows where I can find them all I'm just going to ignore all of them that aren't current.

[Kurald Galain]

Additionally, I can't find a solid source for every out of date faction trait and since they're, well, out of date, unless someone knows where I can find them all I'm just going to ignore all of them that aren't current.

Here you go. It's all a freely available document from Paizo, so some people have made backups.

7 - http://paizo.com/products/btpy84k4
6 - http://www.4shared.com/web/preview/pdf/LY7Na1xcce
5 - http://kschnee.xepher.net/rpg/resources/PZOPSS0000E.pdf
4 - http://louisville-pfs.com/index.php?...r_4_-_Factions
3 - http://cporter.net/rpgs/books/Dungeo...y%20(v3.0).pdf
2 - http://cporter.net/rpgs/books/Dungeo...%20(v2.01).pdf
1 - Doesn't have faction traits yet

[TheOneHawk]

DAMMIT KURALD! LET ME SLACK OFF IN PEACE!

All right, thanks, I'll get those added in.

[Kurald Galain]

DAMMIT KURALD! LET ME SLACK OFF IN PEACE!

All right, thanks, I'll get those added in.

Sorry

Most of them are duplicates anyway.

[Slithery D]

I went looking for your rating of Unabashed Gall in Social Traits and discovered that it looks like some of the Champions of Balance traits (you do have Amiable Blunder) made it in.

How are you doing quality control to make sure you included all of the traits published in the smaller supplements?

[TheOneHawk]

Unabashed Gall is there, right between Truth's Agent and Unintentional Linguist. I don't like it, personally. Here's my rating and reasoning.

Unabashed Gall: Whenever you commit an unexpected and outrageously unlawful act (such as knowingly destroying or stealing something) that would elicit a hostile response from another creature, you may attempt a Bluff check opposed by the opponent’s Sense Motive check. If you’re successful, you and any allies who were willfully expecting your unlawful deed may act in a surprise round. For each ally willfully expecting your unlawful deed, you take a cumulative –2 penalty on your Bluff check. If your Bluff check fails, there is no surprise round. Regardless of whether your Bluff check succeeds, you and any allies willfully taking advantage of your unlawful deed treat your initiative checks for the duration of combat as though you had each rolled a 1. This was looking somewhat decent until the last sentence. Really, if you’re being observed by someone you want surprise on could you not simply attack them rather than depend on a bluff check and then be forced into a very bad Initiative roll? Meh.

As far as quality control, I go through every trait on Archives of Nethys, then cross reference it against D20PFSRD. If it's not on either of those sites, I'll miss it.

[Mehangel]

Unabashed Gall is there, right between Truth's Agent and Unintentional Linguist. I don't like it, personally. Here's my rating and reasoning.

Unabashed Gall: Whenever you commit an unexpected and outrageously unlawful act (such as knowingly destroying or stealing something) that would elicit a hostile response from another creature, you may attempt a Bluff check opposed by the opponent’s Sense Motive check. If you’re successful, you and any allies who were willfully expecting your unlawful deed may act in a surprise round. For each ally willfully expecting your unlawful deed, you take a cumulative –2 penalty on your Bluff check. If your Bluff check fails, there is no surprise round. Regardless of whether your Bluff check succeeds, you and any allies willfully taking advantage of your unlawful deed treat your initiative checks for the duration of combat as though you had each rolled a 1. This was looking somewhat decent until the last sentence. Really, if you’re being observed by someone you want surprise on could you not simply attack them rather than depend on a bluff check and then be forced into a very bad Initiative roll? Meh.

I agree with your assessment of the trait. In fact when I read it for the first time, I felt that it would actually fit better as a drawback instead of a trait. That just goes to show how horrible it is.

[Slithery D]

Unabashed Gall is there, right between Truth's Agent and Unintentional Linguist.

For some reason control-f was finding any of these until I manually scrolled down looking to see which one of us was crazy. Thanks.

Really, if you’re being observed by someone you want surprise on could you not simply attack them rather than depend on a bluff check and then be forced into a very bad Initiative roll? Meh.

There's at least one 100+ post argument (see here) on the Paizo forums on how to interpret the surprise rules when everyone is looking at everyone else in a social situation and someone pulls a weapon.

When combat begins, all combatants roll initiative.
Determine which characters are aware of their opponents. These characters can act during a surprise round. If all the characters are aware of their opponents, proceed with normal rounds. See the surprise section for more information.
After the surprise round (if any), all combatants are ready to begin the first normal round of combat.
Combatants act in initiative order (highest to lowest).

* * *

Determining Awareness

Sometimes all the combatants on a side are aware of their opponents, sometimes none are, and sometimes only some of them are. Sometimes a few combatants on each side are aware and the other combatants on each side are unaware.

Determining awareness may call for Perception checks or other checks.

To me and a lot of other people this means there is no opportunity for a surprise if you're aware of the presence of your potential opponents when someone takes an aggressive action. You just roll basic initiative.

So under this interpretation Unabashed Gall does have a role - if your Bluff is considerably better than the opposing Sense Motive, and this is a bigger advantage than your regular initiative numbers, you can have a very good chance of going first by using this feat if you're in a social situation or a tense negotiation. Everyone's staring at each other with hands on hilts, they have better/equal initiative bonuses, but your Bluff is amazing. So you slap one in the face and use Unabashed Gall to try for a surprise round rather than take a 50/50 (or whatever) shot on winning regular initiative.

I could see a Mesmerist who wants to get off the first spell in combat (and gets half level as a bonus on Bluff) using this in social situations to land a mass charm person, mass hold person, or mass suggestion before anyone can react. It's just a matter of do you want better odds (properly built) for a standard action first or worse odds for going first with a full set of actions. And if you're a caster with a great bluff and a not great initiative this might be good for you.

Edit: Since this is an opposed check, it's also a way for high level casters to use Moment of Prescience in order to go first.

[TheOneHawk]

I can see where you're coming from with that. You're definitely right that it's more useful than I originally thought since it isn't technically inferior to just straight up attacking them. That said, I still have some pretty significant problems with it.

1. On average it's giving you a -9.5 to your initiative score for that fight just to get a surprise round. Surprise rounds are great, don't get me wrong, but are they worth that big of a penalty to your standard initiative?

2. Slapping someone in the face isn't going to trigger it. Unexpected and outrageously unlawful. That's **** like, I don't know, stealing the king's crown off his head in the middle of a parade. Slapping people is generally not actually illegal at all, never mind outrageously so.

3. That -2 penalty can add up pretty darn fast, and if you fail that bluff roll your ENTIRE PARTY can be stuck with a 1 on their initiative roll, meaning that most of the time every single one of you will be going last. That will happen sometimes, and I think eating a full round from the entire enemy group is a bigger negative than getting a surprise round on them

4. Moment of Prescience is an eighth level spell. Dropping an eighth level spell slot in order to get a surprise round and lose initiative afterwards is pretty... underwhelming considering the amount of power you can get from spells of that level.

[Slithery D]

2. Slapping someone in the face isn't going to trigger it. Unexpected and outrageously unlawful. That's **** like, I don't know, stealing the king's crown off his head in the middle of a parade. Slapping people is generally not actually illegal at all, never mind outrageously so.

Um...what country are you in? Somalia? It's absolutely illegal in any civilized nation. I've, uh, graduated law school and let me assure you this is the case in every US state. Maybe you won't get prosecuted, depending on the circumstances, but that's not the same thing at all.

3. That -2 penalty can add up pretty darn fast, and if you fail that bluff roll your ENTIRE PARTY can be stuck with a 1 on their initiative roll, meaning that most of the time every single one of you will be going last. That will happen sometimes, and I think eating a full round from the entire enemy group is a bigger negative than getting a surprise round on them.

The party doesn't have to participate. You can roll solo if they don't want to "willfully" participate.

4. Moment of Prescience is an eighth level spell. Dropping an eighth level spell slot in order to get a surprise round and lose initiative afterwards is pretty... underwhelming considering the amount of power you can get from spells of that level.

For a spell caster who doesn't want to move there is no difference in combat order between getting a surprise round (cast spell) and winning initiative (cast spell and move). But this way you can increase your odds of going first if a standard action is all you need. For a high level spell caster it often is.

[TheOneHawk]

Um...what country are you in? Somalia? It's absolutely illegal in any civilized nation. I've, uh, graduated law school and let me assure you this is the case in every US state. Maybe you won't get prosecuted, depending on the circumstances, but that's not the same thing at all.

I don't know what game you're playing, but I've never played a game of pathfinder set in any of the modern day United States.

The party doesn't have to participate. You can roll solo if they don't want to "willfully" participate.

This is true, but in the event that you do want your party to participate my point stands. It's an option.

For a spell caster who doesn't want to move there is no difference in combat order between getting a surprise round (cast spell) and winning initiative (cast spell and move). But this way you can increase your odds of going first if a standard action is all you need. For a high level spell caster it often is.

Yeah, in that specific circumstance it does increase your odds of going first. So does a +2 to initiative, which applies in every situation, instead of only the very specific types of situations that this trait covers. I'm not denying that there are fringe cases where this trait is absolutely useful, and potentially fight winning. I do not like that it has the potential to punish you (unlike 99% of traits which are pure bonuses) and is exceedingly narrow. There's a theme throughout the guide that I dislike narrow traits, this trait only functions when you're in a situation where you have an enemy in front of you that is aware of you and you want to fight but you are not currently fighting. Can you honestly tell me that's going to come up enough that it's really worth more than +2 to initiative in every fight?

[Slithery D]

Can you honestly tell me that's going to come up enough that it's really worth more than +2 to initiative in every fight?

Nope! I think it's orange and for niche builds in specific campaigns. But I also think it's the Chaotic Neutral social trait and it has awesome flavor.

[TheOneHawk]

It really depresses me that almost every single interesting, flavourful trait is just inferior to the boring, simple ones. I'll add some of your points to the assessment of this trait though, thanks for discussing it with me

[Vhaidara]

It really depresses me that almost every single interesting, flavourful trait is just inferior to the boring, simple ones.

Of course they are. Flavor is the most OP thing in the game, as far as Paizo is concerned, so everything flavorful has to be garbage. Otherwise powergaming munchkins could make decent characters and the real roleplayers couldn't whine about them.

I kind of wish I could make that blue, but I can't.

[Ninjaxenomorph]

On the topic of traits, since you're going through Regional at the moment, I'd say that Highlander is pretty good. Stealth as class skill with +1 bonus, which increases to +2 in rocky or hilly areas. I have in on my Tiefling witch in PFS, and it's part of the reason she is ludicrously good at stealth (the familiar bonus and racial bonus also help).