Character Traits (4e Variant Rule)

Character Traits
Nobody's perfect; everybody has limitations, imperfections, problems, phobias, or deficiencies that can hamper them. That's all part of being sentient. Character traits are a way of representing a character's weaknesses without having a major impact on the game, in order to add depth and aid the player in roleplaying the character.

Flaws work like character backgrounds in reverse, applying a small penalty such as a bonuses and penalties|penalty]] to a single skill. In addition, they provide a small bonuses and penalties|bonus]] in another area to offset a penalty; so, for example, if a flaw imposes a -2 penalty to bluff skill|bluff]] skill checks|checks]], it might apply a +1 bonus to diplomacy checks|diplomacy]] checks.

A character can select only a single character trait at character creation, in the same way as a character background (though the trait is in addition to the character's background bonus). A character cannot, however retraining|retrain]] a trait once it is selected&mdash;its there for life!

As with a feats|feat]], a character must fulfil the prerequisites for the flaw in order to select it, so a character cannot select the poor liar trait if they are trained in the Bluff skill|bluff skill]].