Talk:What'd You Say? (3.5e Flaw)

Maybe a better trait

Since you can, you know, just put ranks in Listen and other bonuses and eventually never fail, it doesn't really balance out. Maybe if you could never put ranks in Listen, or always had a fail chance if you roll like... 8 or under or something, sure. But right now, this is just a free feat. -- Eiji-kun (talk) 21:12, 22 November 2015 (UTC)

At level one you can reasonably have max ranks (+4), and the average ability score based on rolling is 12-13 (+1). That's a +5 which gives a 50/50 chance right? Wrong. It doesn't say you can't take 10, so you can. As of level 1, you just get free stuff for having ranks in a skill you were already going to have ranks in and not nerfing a decent stat. Nice job. --Undead_Knave (talk) 22:57, 22 November 2015 (UTC)

PS: The difficulty isn't the problem here, just in case you were getting that impression.

This would be better as a wisdom check than a listen check. LenKagetsu (talk) 23:34, 22 November 2015 (UTC)

Originally, this was going to impose a −4 penalty to Listen checks, as well as preventing you from making Listen checks passively (e.g. taking 10, 15, or 20). But really, this isn't meant to make it harder to hear things, but harder to understand them. You can hear people talking to you just fine, you just have a hard time figuring out what they're trying to tell you. So, yeah, is there a better way I can do that? (I kinda rushed this out 'cause I was about to watch a movie in a movie theater.) --Luigifan18 (talk) 23:59, 22 November 2015 (UTC)

Well then...

You frequently misunderstand things. Whenever you are told something, there is a 50% chance you will not understand what was said. If you roll 20% or lower, not only do you misunderstand but you actually interpret it as its opposite (if possible).

There is a hidden benefit if you're being dominated or compelled, as you may not react to commands or do the opposite. By making it a flat chance, you remove the ability for people to forever fail or forever succeed thanks to their stats. There is a possible downside of being that you might roll excessively with this. YMMV. -- Eiji-kun (talk) 00:17, 23 November 2015 (UTC)