Is It a Good Idea to Impose Mechanical Negatives Onto a Character?

[@MajorHickE]

One example I really liked was when Caleb from CR2 made wisdom saves after burning someone to death to represent his PTSD. It didn't constantly come up or make his blaster mage role ineffective, but it still added an element of risk to his play style that isn't there otherwise. Penalties like this are something I think are important to discuss with the group, though. I'm not saying I think they're bad in generally or can't make for good RP, but if your goal is to bring that kind of penalty into a role your table is expecting you to fill consistently, I think it's fair that they know you might not be as effective as they're expecting.

[@risperdude]

There is always a good discussion to be had when situations might trigger disadvantages. I'm a big proponent of story driving mechanics. But make sure everyone is on board. If you have someone at the table who is focused on mechanics and optimization it can be frustrating for them when a story driven player wants to head down this path.

[@PlayYourRole]

Exactly! A discussion in session 0 about mechanics versus story is incredibly valuable.

[@risperdude]

@@PlayYourRole session 0 is utterly invaluable. Way underutilized and used to often kick off campaign as opposed to a discussion of everybody's goals an styles.

[@eaglescott17]

I wrote my druid character to have massive scarring from an explosion on his back, which is my explanation for why he has 8's in his strength and dexterity scores.

[@Disapproving_Welsh_Corgi]

I appreciate what you said at the beginning about negatives for disability. I’m autistic and I played an autistic character who straight up could not pass an insight check. It’s what I imposed on my character, that’s what’s important. It was not imposed on me by others

[@PlayYourRole]

Of course! DND is about being able to experience the things that are important to you, it shouldn't be removed by some arbitrary decision you knoq?

[@srvfan17]

I'm the same way, idk if my boy is necessarily autistic but I as the player can't help but give my characters pieces of me, and his is that he doesn't question people very often. He either believes them or he doesn't, trusts or doesn't, likes or dislikes, based on his gut instinct. If I need him to roll, which isn't often, it's because I as the player can't gauge what his reaction would be in a situation

[@quendi5557]

I get that as someone who is also autistic, reading people is genuinely hard. I haven't done that but haven't really wanted to explore something like that with a character before. I have recently come up with an idea for a character missing an eye though and so my interest has actually kinda started.

[@crapphone7744]

That is an awesome add to gameplay. Having a guy who "doesn't get it" when interacting with NPCs and other party members must make for a great game. Nice choice!

[@ronben-ezer8373]

Nice, that’s really cool! I’m also autistic and always give my characters insight proficiency because I want to be able to do the stuff I can’t do in real life in my fantasy escapism game, so we’re kinda opposites in that aspect lol, but it sounds like a really cool character concept!

[@esbeng.s.a9761]

One of my favored character from fiction is Guts, who is missing an arm and an eye. Instead of an arm he has a metal one which is equiped with a crossbow and a canon. Both the missing eye and arm has come up as a weakness like how an enemie tryed to sneak attack him from the side where he cant see as well. And in one instand he almost drown because his metalic arm weight him down, but all this doesn't stop him from moving on

[@clayxros576]

Certainly doesnt hurt that his sword us as big as 2 men and he can level a building with it though.

[@peterd.7022]

Great video as always! I have a character who was splashed in the face with acid and lost the use of his left eye (in his backstory). He is a fairly experienced warrior and has learned to fight with it, but in RP moments, he sometimes won't see things if they are happening on his left side and in combat he prefers to keep his enemies on the side with his good eye. Not a mechanical disadvantage necessarily, but very much a narrative device for me. I'm glad you made this video at the time you did because it is very fitting to my current character!

[@PlayYourRole]

I love it! A lot of the times those disadvantages can really help push the story forward to, and I love to see that tbh.

[@magenstaffarts]

I think you hit the nail on the head here while allowing for player agency. You don't necessarily have to impose those negatives stat-wise or mechanics-wise. It's much more interesting to roleplay it out; a character going through trauma might go for a lower-damage, less-sure-thing option rather than the weapon or spell that traumatized them, or a bard with a bum leg (or even missing leg) might still perform even if he can't do his old performance style and find a way to replace that foot stomp he used while strumming out. Those may or may not both be related to characters I've played or are planning to play; I had a Tabaxi Way of Sun Soul Monk who constantly chose Sun Bolt over Burning Hands after a traumatic incident, and I have a half-elf bard who I'm going to play in the next campaign under that DM who comes in already having lost his leg.

[@PlayYourRole]

It's true! Even if you're capable of something, if you know how much harm it can do often times you just... won't. And that's okay!

[@n.h.5033]

2:06 - 2:25 is some mad wicked wisdom. i encourage everybody to think on that section for a minute or two.

[@raytimorason9691]

Having weakness in pc is a great way to roleplay i found out. At the moment I'm playing a paladin that have a protection oath and would lose one of his power if one of his teammate gets unconscious. His patron will take one of his abilities for the day if that happens (role d4 to determine: can't smite, can't lay on hands, can't use level spells, take d6 psychic damage)

[@fox0205]

This was really interesting and fun to watch, I'll definitely be considering this advice :)

[@PlayYourRole]

So glad I could help!

[@zachfarrellEL]

The entire time I was watching this, I was thinking of the many locations in FF7R where Cloud, a character who constantly does anime-ass parkour in cutscenes, is completely and utterly incapable of stepping over an obstacle that's maybe a few inches high. This jarring "gameplay only exists until the story says otherwise" dynamic exists solely due to the limitations of video games as a medium. I don't understand why you'd want to artificially force that limitation on TTRPGs, a medium which is absolutely stellar at having crunch and fluff support each other. At risk of sounding hyperbolic: If you're going to deliberately ignore the mechanics when it counts, why even bother with a role-playing *game?*

[@JonathanMandrake]

I think it can also be a good idea to explain some extremely low stat (from rolling, like a 6 for example) with some illness or physical injury.

[@plaidpvcpipe3792]

2:08 100% I have ADD, and I hate it when people act like it's just a difference. I wouldn't ever do something to get rid of a part of my brain, but ADD causes big issues and stress in my life, and so does the anxiety that comes with it. It probably can't be represented in the DnD stats, though.

[@darkagate6895]

I had something like this with my aforementioned Bard character, though it was a fairly steep penalty in hindsight by the DM, with my character having a bum leg. The penalty was a -3 to my Dex score and a -10 to my movement speed, but a +3 to my Strength score, so i was made into the slowest member of the party at 20ft movement. *That being said,* I was playing a back-line Bard (At this time, Glamour Bard) as the healer and support character, therefore my penalty was never a huge issue in combat. Outside combat, we never needed to rush anywhere in any dangerous pace either, or had means of covering large distances swiftly. As of writing this comment, the flaw has been negated with a Regenerate spell (so normalized movement, and the stat scores are reversed), but it made playing the Bard (now a Spirits Bard, for reasons) very interesting to play. I also picked up Medium Armour proficiency and Mastery, so he could be safer before his leg for fixed in the melee. Would I do it again? I don't see why not, but I'd need to give it some careful thought.

[@pauldisaster9117]

Have you ever done a character type episode on how to play the "mother" / carer of the party without being patronising? Like a mumma weesily sort of deal?

[@srvfan17]

That's actually part of the material covered in the Mentor video, I would highly suggest checking it out!

[@fox0205]

That's a really neat idea, how to be a protector without smothering... My thought is to have them be somewhat passive - not getting in the way, of the party. Say if they're a healer, have them focus on looking after everyone? Or just being a moral centre for the party? Maybe meeting a certain need like hunting or healing or even defending in combat?

[@PlayYourRole]

What SRV said! It was covered in the mentor video!

[@pauldisaster9117]

@@PlayYourRole great I'll go check 8t out!

[@danielstellmon5330]

Toph from Avatar the Last Air Bender is likely one of the best examples you can get of disabilities done right. She told the best blind jokes, but did so with out demeaning herself. Her blindness was an important part of her character, but not the only defining part of her character.

[@theflyingtoaster7414]

My main opposition to this is that, there's especially now, a ton of items, spells and things your players use to mitigate their disabilities and give the campaign more depth and make money more valuable. if you lose an arm, you can find someone to regenerate it back, or you can buy and equip a mechanical one. You can hire NPCs to help you deal with it, and while that means alot of money, it simply means gold is more valuable and it encourages players to get gold, and encourages GMs to provide better treasure opportunities. There's alot of talk about how good EXP for gold was for DM's and players in older editions (See Matt Coville's "Towards Better Rewards" video as a recent example) and these brutal rules allow for that sort of playstyle again, albeit with more stick than carrot. I'm a fan of the rules and they have quite a bit of options for anyone willing to take the risk of playing a disabled character, or playing in a game where gaining a disability is one of the dangers. This is a "Talk to your players about what game they want" conversation, but I feel like finding ways to compensate a negative outside your party can lead to alot of interesting oppertunities that lead players and GMs to engage with eachother in a more cooprative fashion. Thank you for reading my comment, I hope it was helpful.

[@dannybeane2069]

I mean that in a way is realistic. More often then not, players will become some of the richest, most powerful people in the game world. Today if you got the cash for it, you could get a mechanic prosthetic, replacement organs, or if you're super rich some kind of experimental procedure. Same for hired help; very rarely will people who can afford mansions actually clean and maintain it with their own hands.

[@theflyingtoaster7414]

@@dannybeane2069 being rich isn't garrentied. That's why there are classes, skills, spells, and an entire system for running a business designed arround extracting or acquiring money. Having no cash for sonething important and as a player trying to search for a way to make cash can lead to them taking alot more risks and thinking more ideas if they're savvy about what they want.

[@Xhalph]

I rather like the idea of the party having a run-in with their current Big Bad; they're defeated but survive, and one of them is left with a lasting injury that becomes a constant reminder of that defeat. Bonus points if the loot haul from finally vanquishing the Big Bad is enough so that they can finally afford a Regenerate spell.

[@DustdeviIs]

You're going off the assumption the players want to lift their own self imposed limiters

[@dannybeane2069]

@@theflyingtoaster7414 Exactly, that might turn into a sub-quest either the player/party raising funds to repair the injury, taking out a debt that requires a "favor", or hell maybe some kinda pact with a god/demon.

[@CJ-hh3gx]

If you want to see this in action, High Rollers DND has an ongoing campaign called Aerois. One of the characters, Qillik ad Khollar the Aarakocra, starts the campaign without a wing, effectively grounding him. Qillik sustains multiple injuries throughout the beginning of the game because Mark uses an injury table for really bad damage.

[@mellindART]

I'm playing a Warlock and at one point I really wanted the Aspect of the Moon Invocation (which gives her the ability to never sleep). Innitially my DM adviced me to get something mechanically stronger instead, but when I insisted on the Invocation (for roleplay reasons) he suggested a solution that was as interesting narratively as it was mechanically. Since my character was having nightmares for a while (bad things happened to her in the campaign) she started trying to not let herself fall asleep. She kept on getting exhaustion level after exhaustion level and on top of the mechanical disadvantages this caused, I also played her as more distracted and irritable. The plan was that, if she ever got to level 6 (which it supposed to be death) her Patron would swoop in and save her, giving her the Invocation that would get rid of her nightmares for good. But we didn't get that far :) The other characters got worried because they could see that something was wrong. They talked to my character and with their support and understanding she felt safe enough to fall asleep at exhaustion level 4. (btw, she got the Invocation after all. Her Patron was worried that he was going to lose his asset if she did this kind of stunt again, so he gave her the power anyway)

[@benhamilton3009]

I think an example of mechanical negatives is Nott from Critical role in season 2. Sam had to role disadvantage but also advantage on a few things do to her alcoholism

[@terrychant4365]

Thanks for the thoughts. I think it can be a very mixed bag. I had an orc barbarian that I would roll for "control" when encountering goblins. It led to some fun encounters but the dm pretty much let me decide how out of control I was and what it meant. As a dm, I dont like taking player agency too much. permanent debuffs(or ones players can't solve) with large consequences can really nerf a character and suck the fun out for them. Basically, either the player should impose it on themselves, or the dm should only use temporary problems, with a relatively clear path to solving it.

[@girlwithamic8021]

I personally like it, because sometimes I’ll forget to implement my own disadvantages, or I’m scared to do it myself due to potentially messing up the party. Having it established that my character, for instance, has disadvantage on insight checks, makes it so that I don’t feel bad about it. Like, I have a wild magic sorcerer who grew up in the feywilde. She has disadvantage on insight checks to know if someone is lying or not due to that not really being a thing in the feywilde. We also originally had it where strong emotions or my own choice would cause a surge, but we’re low level, so I’m scared to surge(a fireball could probably kill some of us). We’ve instead moved it to the thing where, on a nat 1 w/ a spell or by rolling a 1 on a d20 after casting a spell, you surge. Helps make it so that it actually happens, and makes it so that it feels uncontrollable. I can still choose to surge, if I want, but this just helps

[@torunsmok5890]

Suggestion to maybe run by your dm for surges that I've used a couple times for wild magic: have a "unstable magic" counter on your sheet that starts at 1. Every time you cast a sorcerer spell, roll a d20, and if you roll equal to or lower than the Unstable Magic counter, you surge. If you roll higher than the counter, it goes up by 1. The counter resets to 1 when you surge. This makes wild magic an eventuality, and really creates this feeling of the character trying to hold back and slowly getting tired and losing control of the magic

[@girlwithamic8021]

@@torunsmok5890 oh, I like that!

[@durff1232]

I have a character set up that I’m going to be using the next campaign that I’m joining. The idea is a spellcaster who is mute. This means I do not allow myself to use any spells with Verbal components. The general idea of the character’s internal arc was that he was born within a community of spellcaster’s but he himself had a huge disadvantage and was trying to overcome it and still be a part of his culture. I went with Wizard because they have the most spells available to them that do not require Verbal components, and chose Bladesinger so I am not entirely reliant on my spells. While I have not played the character yet, I am excited to. I want to explore that character who has an inherent disadvantage and try to come up with creative ways to subvert that disadvantage.

[@jordanertz3034]

I think there's a bit of irony in having your mute character be a subclass called bladeSINGER. Still a cool idea though.

[@durff1232]

@@jordanertz3034 Well it's the blade doing the singing, not him. That's how Bladesingers got their name afterall. His blade speaks for him, in a way.

[@torunsmok5890]

Did you set up your stats to allow, say, a sorcerer multiclass? Abberant sorc especially gives a great way to work around the limitation for a few spells

[@nicolaezenoaga9756]

*reads title* :YES!!!!! Now I personally and generally don't like this sort of things but that still dosen't change the fact it is an amazing or good story telling tool.

[@somerton4383]

Awesome video as always! A lot of food for thought there! Honestly, there are other things that could go along with this idea too. In my current campaign, my previous character (who died 😭) started the campaign as a warlock/rogue with a fiendish patron and an imp familiar. My DM really leaned into the roleplay with that pact. Upon his first death his soul was to be claimed by his patron, however his imp made a deal with Levistus of Stygia to void my characters pact and resurrect my character, in return for the imps own soul (whether that should have worked, no idea, but it was interesting!). Levistus tricked my imp, binding me to his service instead and held the imp as a hostage to motivate my character to do his bidding. Anyway, for a while, my character did as commanded, coerced in downtime by a savage Ice Devil handler, sacrificing souls lest crushing punishments would be brought down upon him. Anyway, eventually I wanted him to change class to a Horizon Walker ranger, for him to prepare to stand and fight back regardless of the consequences, but even then, my pact still stood, thus I had to keep at least one level of warlock, which was a real hindrance in progression, and made him more frustratingly multi-stat dependant. It really showed the agonizing weight of a devil pact that hung over him, blotting out hope and hindering him at every turn. The sheer difficulty in trying to resist a malevolent entity that holds all the cards. Even if it made him easily the weakest member of the party, and I felt frustrated, in hindsight I wouldn't change a moment of it. The story was fantastic, his friendship with the party wizard and a few NPC's was really strong, and the feeling of trying your best to be a good, empathetic and honorable person despite all the evil you cannot help but inflict was an incredible roleplay experience I'll probably never get to experience again. I just wish I hadn't asked to try out another character for a session... just before we became trapped on the elemental plane of ice for 10 years 😭. Alas by the time we got back, dragons of Tiamat we resultantly failed to stop had overrun the world, and my character had become a hardened NPC warrior ally for a few session before being killed off behind the scenes. Fun times 😭😭😭 (Edit: Wow that was a long post, so sorry, haha)

[@Randina42]

About the sound quality in this video: Between 3:58 and 4:01 there is a scraping sound that is very clear and only on the left ear. If this was an accident and there was not supposed to be a sound: I would recommend adding a little warning about it (either at the top of the description or in an annotation in the vid), because it is very sudden and was physically painful (for me at least) to hear, and at first I was worried there was something wrong with my headphones If this as on purpose and was supposed to be there, as the sound of your artificer trying to fix his arm, then it is way too out of the blue. In this series you haven't used any sound effects like that so far iirc, so like I said it made me worried something was wrong with my headset instead of hearing it as a sound effect. If you want to use sound effects like that, they either need to be more frequent so people would expect them as part of the video, or you also need to include visual cues (in this case, a lil picture of someone tinkering or screwing on a bolt would've worked) to show that this sound is supposed to be there. And in either case it needs to be more toned down so it won't distract from what you're saying. That sound was very ASMR-like and sounds should only be like that if it's the main focus.

[@GramGramAnimations]

I play a one armed half-drow who’ve I’ve given sunlight sensitivity to. The sunlight sensitivity is more flavor in that it’s circumvented by red tinted glasses she wears, and she just gets headaches/nausea if she doesn’t wear them. She has a bow, and we’ve ruled if she wants to use it she can’t move that turn due to the setup required with a mouth pull tab, which pairs nicely with the Steady Aim feature. Plus she can always toss a dagger at range if she also needs to move. Since she has the mage hand spell as an arcane trickster, she can still do most basic tasks, and the DM only gives a situational disadvantage for certain situational checks like climbing that I often wanna be bad at for roleplay, and find alternative solutions for.

[@Curathol]

I'm pretty much in favour of mechanical negatives, both as player- as was as GM-handled. I'm from Germany and pretty much started my Pen&Paper-experiences with a system called "The Dark Eye", which is basically a more narrative-driven, low-fantasy German version of D&D. In that system there is a huge customization-system of unique advantages and disadvantages for a hero to choose via a point-buy-system. The more unique disadvantages you put on that character, the more unique advantages you can affort. Those disadvantages range from "You are really arrogant" over "You owe someone a huge sum of money" to "You only have one leg", the advantages from "You move really gracefull" over "You have a knack for this kind of magic" to "You are the heir of a powerful noble and will enherit a chunk of land from him". It is (as is everything in The Dark Eye) a bit messy and a bit tricky to get right. But when you commit to it you get really, really unique heroes out of it when you create a backstory and a personality that really fits those advantages/disadvantages that you chose. And it sets the rest of your party of, that it is a given that everyone has some weird character querks, you just need to find them.

[@silentwatchman9908]

In our last campaign my character lost an eye at some point. it was a pretty big thing as he was relying on his eyes a lot and with this he had disadvantage on perception checks that relied on sight BUT only for two levels. after that he "was getting used to it" and found ways to work with it. so it was a mechanical disadvantage but only for a time instead of forever. i liked this take on an important part in my characters life and how it influenced him.

[@FindUnfamiliar]

I have been playing a rogue Kobold who is the soul knife subclass, and I had the idea and have been playing out that my character cannot tap into any of his psychic abilities unless he is intoxicated. Now while I thought this would be hilarious initially, I've been using it to feed my roleplay, making my character have issues dealing with things that are going on and retreating to his booze, however he knows it's a problem, but he doesn't think he will be able to be powerful without using these abilities. It's been very fun roleplaying and allowing other players to help him feel secure, even with how rude and impatient he can be. I enjoy the idea of having a negative effect on a character because it's true to life. Not everyone can easily accomplish the same things. Some people have to use work around or work extra hard to accomplish the same goals, and that's a role to play out.

[@theVaam8]

the notifications come from the heart of your passion. they are on your left side while filming

[@jaywalmoose9623]

Having disadvantage on a +22 modifier doesn't seem like it would change much. Maybe that's why they had to swap to using a spear to have an impactful disadvantage. That made me think: Having a disadvantage that pushes a character from amazing to just great doesn't really change anything. Unless maybe they're not happy with being just great.

[@Talonidas7403]

Artificers are the masters of +20s

[@persimmonplays2399]

I have a Centaur bard with sigils carved into his back that activate when he casts bardic spells or gets really worked up. My DM imposed a wisdom saving throw during those times to see if he could keep his power under control. I love this mechanic, it's a great way to add consequence and angst when the roll fails.

[@brian72999]

Just an FYI the sunslight sensitivity as well as any races that inherently gives you negative modifiers no longer do. I believe it was a ruling in Tasha’s or Crawford stated it, it’s been a thing for a year or two now, I can’t remember. However in the new monsters of multiverse you can also see all the races have removed negative penalties to allow for players to not be dissuaded by the race.

[@luckypeanut9943]

I had a villain who was a hexblade warlock, the party let their guard down cuz she was blind but we're shocked when her pact weapon turned into a bow. Her background was she was a ranger who got attacked by someone in the parties backstory, since eldritch blast is guided she would "shoot them" and it would act as an arcane focus

[@jamesblount3143]

I had a wizard who had been badly burned as a teen and as a result he couldn't use fire magic and felt anxiety around anything more than a small cooking fire. I never used a set negative modifier but instead worked with my DM to tailor the penalty to the action. This could mean a concentration check to cast a spell when the village is burning around him or a single missed round due to him getting the anxiety under control. It was fun to be able to narrate how the fire affected him and working with the DM kept me from diving too deep on the disadvantages.

[@theawkwardpotato1973]

I think as long as there is a benefit to come along with the disability that outweighs the downside, it’s fine! Like (as an example) a +2 to intimidation checks with a -1 to persuasion or something or a flavorful disadvantage like people avoiding you more when you get a particularly nasty scar, which isn’t much of a disadvantage to a combat-focused character.

[@ZanraiKid]

When it comes to imposition of physical limitations, I’m a huge fan of letting the DM know, “Hey, this is something that is physically affecting my character” through RP and let them give any feedback. This might not come easily to people who don’t like RPing, but advantages include letting the DM have final say, giving character moments, and moving seamlessly with the flow of play. Example: During one session, my LE Sorcerer Psalm had to fend off against a wild man who wanted to attack her. They both worshipped Auril, which in her religion, doing harm against another cleric is a sin. Psalm reached out and flooded him with Inflict Wounds. This is her go-to spell as an Evil Divine Sorcerer, but in the presence of a altar of cold fire (a symbol of Auril), something went wrong. Though the fight was eventually won, Psalm was on death’s door when Auril came to her as a motherly figure in a dream to comfort her. When she woke up from being unconscious, I told my DM through RP that her fingers were developing spider veins at an alarming young age due to always outputting necrotic damage in almost every fight. Her fingers weren’t frostbitten, but the veins were blackening. In a later session, I mentioned them again in a very shocking scene where Psalm gave up her vow of temperance, but the DM didn’t ask for any imposed negatives in the moment, so play went as normal. Still, my DM now knows that, at any moment, Psalm’s fingers could go necrotic. It’s give the DM a little narrative bread crumb, almost like Inspiration, to use against my character. It’s a balancing act of being too obvious and pushing the envelope or being too vague and not getting the point across. If you can hit the sweet spot of communicating through RP, that’s when DnD really sings for me.

[@sir.rettfordiii8824]

On a similar topic as this, how would you go about playing a character who has been cursed? Like a disability, most curses in the game have a negative impact on characters. For example, the berserker axe causes the wielder to be unable to differentiate between friend and foe, or perhaps something more RP focused where a plager been cursed by a hag to slowly become morally corrupt. How would you Role play such a character and not have it negatively impact the party too much?

[@duwanglover3424]

I frequently play a blind boxer character (ironic since Lee Sin is on the thumbnail) and the way I go about playing is simple. I fail any check that needs color, line of sight, etc but can use advantage in any check that could justifiably be made with scent or hearing.

[@marcelosilveira2276]

2:00 I'm almost blind without glasses, feel free to say it is a huge f-ing negative to see only blurs when you are trying to identify something or someone. I didn't recognized my mother without glasses when I was 7. Strangely enough, it don't seen o affect my capacity to hit throws/shots at range, nor to fight on a dojo, but if your characer have to distinguish between friend or foe in a chaoic enviroment, you can be danm sure you would have negative modifiers on your skill check. Same thing with sounds, detecting when there is sound is easy, bu identifying what that sound is is an entirely different story (at least to me), worse part of this one is that ear-medics exams ask only if you hear the sound, so I was pass with high scores, but the problem remains that any white noise drastically drop my capabilities of identifying that sound, for example: when listening to music I either follow the lyrics or the melody, I am uncapable of doing both... now imagine your character is wearing a helmet on a skirmish and someone yells something... it could be your ally asking for help, just shouting, an enemy just shouting, an enemy offering you the chance to surrender or even an enemy asking for mercy... but while you can pretty easily identify where the sound is coming from, identifying what it is or even the speaker will be quite hard. Don't be afraid of saying the truth, phisical flaws ARE flaws, they do negatively impact your character's capabilities.

[@quendi5557]

when you are facing the camera the card icon is to your upper left. just thought this might be helpful. edit: I meant camera instead of corner

[@SuperGoose42]

My player wanted his character to have vulnerability to psychic damage, and a high enough amount of psychic damage recently caused the character's seizures to return (they were in the character's backstory, now they're present in the current story). I made an entire mechanic system for seizures and how likely they are to occur per-day, what can trigger them in the moment, what they do to the PC in the moment, etc

[@washmyhoohah]

I had an interesting discussion about this with my group when I was playing my Warlock character who essentially had a Two-Face thing going on, in that he had half of him turn into a zombie thanks to a necromancy spell gone horribly wrong. Despite being half-zombie, my character still had a very good Dex stat (15) and proficiencies in Stealth and Perception, which my group didn't think make sense. My logic was my character had to take a more slower, methodical pace when trying to avoid people. Sure, he wasn't gonna look like a badass ninja humming the Mission Impossible theme to himself whilst doing it (and I did entertain the idea of rolling disadvantage on Acrobatics), but his backstory and god-awful Strength stat of seven meant that he HAD to avoid conflict unless absolutely necessary and so learnt to work around his limitations to do it. This eventually ended up helping my group come up with creative solutions for certain problems and created interesting conflicts between characters, particularly my friend's Goliath Barbarian who wanted everything to be done by yesterday but had to figuratively and literally carry me past certain scenarios.

[@AndrewWilson-ol6jb]

I've personally played 2 characters with disabilities, and I'm a type 1 diabetic so I'd say I have at least a partial understanding of life with extra steps. My first character was a blind 400 year old aasimar who made a pact with the angel of vengeance after his home, an obsevatory was destroyed, killing everyone he knew and leaving him blind. Mechanically, I had him look through his sprite familiar's eyes most of the time, and because he was so old he had lowered movement slightly. Blindness was especially hard for him because he'd spent his whole life looking at the stars, and having that taken from him was the main catalyst for his revenge quest. Once he got his revenge, he retired and started a new observatory where he trained a group of ex-pirates (it's complicated) to become a new generation of astronomers. The other was, recently, was my previous character's sister, who had lost a leg in a battle. Mechanically, she had 5 less movement, but rp wise it meant I often climbed onto out Barbarian's shoulders when we were in dungeons, and onto our Paladin's summoned steed while we were traveling. She was a wizard so not much need to be trouncing about.

[@vincent-antoinesoucy1872]

I just realize that you post 3 times a week holy shit that's alot! Must keep you hella busy

[@PlayYourRole]

It definitely does haha! I'm _trying_ to go full time soon, would make it much easier to keep this pace haha

[@ron.c.koster]

Well i made a char for our new campaign and he was easier controller & had 1 working eye. The way the dm and i desided to reflect that was that he had a low wisdom score, that way i had the story i wanted without all the disadvantage.

[@MrMossMan7272]

I like to have something in the backstory for my characters that cause events or have triggers. I have done this with a majority of my characters and it never seems to bother people. As an example I had a wizard character who had pretty severe ADD. So most of the time it wouldn’t effect anything. He did little things to fill his time and keep his fingers moving so that it wasn’t an issue. But when the party got into analysis paralysis that’s when I would trigger it. If the other players were role playing a discussion of something in character. If the talk took longer then like 3-5 minutes my character would just walk up and do it himself. He nearly died several times because of this. But it also helped quite a bit several times haha. I also had a vengeance paladin who basically had PTSD. So any time something came up with his backstory I would make him do a wisdom save and if he passed it he would act as he normally did, if he failed however… full bloodlust and rage filled him and nothing would stop him outside of knocking him out. Another character I had, a totem barbarian, had in his backstory that his family had died in a fire. So he was EXTREMELY against arson. And if he saw someone committing arson he would A) throw himself on the fire to put it out then B) come down with all the anger that a barbarian can muster against the person who started the fire. And this included a few times against the party before he explained what happened. He never killed anyone for it but he did knock several people out. I think having small quirks like this that don’t come up very often are fun to have in characters and don’t usually actually cause a detriment to the party. Which is why I prefer these over taking negatives. Plus it gives you an opportunity to roleplay and explain why the character acted a certain way when they did, which is a good way to naturally get into backstory. Just my 2¢ though

[@MrTailson1]

I had an isekai'd Shadow Sorcerer who we used his sunglasses as the means of how he was granted Darkvision up to 120ft. If he ever got within dim light while not wearing them, he would be blind while within the light, so he had photosensitivity. He also was unable to swim and was terrified of the ocean or bodies of water that were deeper than he was tall. When our party went on a boat to sail, I asked to roll for overcoming Fear every turn in order to have a turn while on the boat, otherwise he'd drop prone in hopes of grabbing onto the boat to steady himself while it rocked from the waves. As well as apart from these he had a very sensitive stomach, barely able to eat rations a day, and if he ate anything more, he would be nauseous and be unable to concentrate on any spells as he kept his focus on not upchucking. And to finish it off, he has a skin condition, the Sorcerer quirk that made him always freezing cold to the touch, and as such he always had to sleep nude while bundled up in thick blankets, otherwise if he slept in clothes he would wake up with itchy skin and would have disadvantage on everything until he either got healed by at least 1 point or had anything restore him, or even just a bath. The party caught on during those times and would actually look out for my Sorcerer to help him with those events because he was sweet to the party and everyone took care of him. His many disabilities brought lots of good roleplay moments that the party would constantly joke and jab at to make sure he was okay for the day. It was a lot of fun and we had a lot of laughs about it.

[@milesrapaport307]

A little bit of a different topic but the other day I was rolling for a random character and I rolled a 3 for one of the stats but the rest of the stats were pretty good. I was like', what for have a 3 for one of its ability scores? Well a cat has a 3 strength, so I decided to play a wizard cat that was once a familiar who had the awakened spell cast on them. I'm really excited to see how the negative modifier plays into the story!🙃

[@hannahevertson8306]

Lol, he’s seen people playing drow and I'm actively playing one in our underdark campaign. Can't wait until we reach the surface for a tiny while before going back down lol. Also I kind of added one mechanical issue for my charater that will only effect in very specific circumstances outside the drow thing where I want him to actively struggle.

[@vincent-antoinesoucy1872]

Look at open legend system if you haven't character have flaws, witch you get inspirations for using (that's mostly how you get inspirition in the system though it is loose). Basically the player is the one saying ''yeah I'm overweight I won't be able to get on the platform'' or ''My disfigure half bitten by a zomby face will scare away the people in the tavern while I'm trying to gather info''. Then you have a bunch of inspiration point to make important rolls matters. Give alot of player agency and make sens ''statwise''.

[@PlayYourRole]

Man I have GOT to start using inspiration more, it is such a cool system that I should use but totally have neglected.

[@EilonwyG]

I am all for players imposing negative mechanics on their own characters for story purposes. I've used it on occasion for my cleric with PTSD, and my deaf druid never really stood watch on her own. It reminds me of Caleb and Nott from Critical Roll; both had negatives to dealing with aspects of their character that I believe were worked out with Matt for story purposes. Caleb occasionally had issueswith killing things with fire and Nott gad a drinking problem that would actually give her both pluses and minues for being drunk. As our group is incredibly character driven, we like seeing our character have to handle difficult personal thing - whether it be emotional or physical - that they rise up and grow stronger because of it. I'm not big on just random penalties because someone chose a disfigurement or a disability or some kind of handicap because they wanted to explore developing a hero with that. But a player that wants help from the dice to help them tell their character's story - that I can get behind. Your gunslinger sounds pretty awesome, btw. :)

[@allenyates3469]

As a player I love them. As a DM I love them. However it depends on the game and the situation. If you bust out a brand new injury system on a campaign that's already been together for a while it's no fun.

[@camazettz]

I played a one-eyed gunslinger in pathfinder once, which already has things like that built-in. She ended up having to engage at a maximum range of 30ft, and carried a Machete as a means of making up for her lack of range

[@Shaderox]

I play a character like that currently, they're of a weak (physical) build and only childlike stature so i asked the DM to lower my STR score much lower that i had rolled since it wouldn't make sense for the character to be almost as strong as your average grown person. It's one of those things it's a logical and clear thing for the character that they're not strong but also since it's a cleric it generally doesn't come up in everyday tasks as they can cover their weakness with magic in most cases (Inflict Wounds is a strong option for a low cost in close range). It has only come up one or twice when they surprised people(with some magic trickery) that expected a weak person... and once when trying to wack someone in the back of the head with their staff for a mighty -1 damage

[@caramccullough3615]

I played a Noble Sorcerer who is chronically sick and had negative constitution. I also played a Monk who had survived a traumatic event while fighting in a war and was presumed dead. It was rare but she was emotionally unstable and if she was near an explosion she would have to make a wisdom save and have disadvantage if she was in the explosion. I failed she would revert to back in the war and become VERY hostile towards dwarves.

[@ancientdarkmagic1409]

I think in role-playing makes it better to show characters growth instead of mechanical effect. I always wanted to play a one arm College of Swords Barb Swords man. Similar to Auron from FFX or Dumband from Xenoblade Chronicles. Another character that was interesting to play was the blind or deaf fighter now that blind fighting is a fighting style and with the alert feat you can make sure that those disadvantage doesn't really affect you mechanically speaking. Which can lead to some interesting character arcs.

[@pumpkinzz5728]

Here’s an idea: how to play a ‘gross’ character without making the table uncomfortable

[@RedrumZombies]

Even if every attack is disadvantage, disregarding spells, magic items, and abilities. A +22 will mean, you'll have a 24 to hit at minimum. That's higher than an Ancient Red Dragon AC already... 4:40 I agree to a degree. A Missing arm, should limit a person. 5:14 a +8 spear is still good. It ain't great, especially when you have a Proficiency of 5 or 6... But it's doable even at levels 14+.

[@LegendStormcrow]

I don't like when a DM says I can't impose mechanical negatives. I had a character that rolled 15 and above, and that was a SINGLE 15. I was also forced to use a background generator that gave me even more. If I want to voluntarily lower a stat I.should be allowed. That said that was the last time I rolled well with that character...

[@gabrielsouzasilva703]

On the coments from"loose cannon" video I talk a litthe abouth inspirations that I put in my character basead in the backstorie, one of this basecly turns dungeons in real horrific place: is his massive fear of dark ceilings, I don't ask to DM to nerf my passive perception to -10 because his always looking down or to the light of the torch. I RP this and the DM follows the vibe turning giants spider on the ceiling a very powerful threat. This still applys to nights without full moon, nunbers are not so expressive than the interpretation

[@thesuitablecommand]

I'm currently playing a sweet old Halfling grandma. She's exclusively a support character who doesn't like fighting and hurting other creatures. Due to her age, she only has a Dex score of 10 and a movement speed of 20. I have some tricks to compensate for her low AC and Dex saves, but it emphasizes the fact that she is not a fighter and does not belong in the front lines

[@kelmirosue3251]

I personally use the rules in the DMG for insanity and injuries. Although for injuries it's modified so it only happens when a player drops to 0 HP instead of critical hits taken and dropping to 0 HP. For monsters I do critical hits because they're more then likely to be killed at 0 HP so I would like the players to have a chance to create critical injuries to monsters before they drop. IF the players choose to only knock out the monster, then I would also do a critical injury because the monster dropped to 0 HP. And this also gives players a chance to spend gold on clerics to heal their critical injury. But otherwise I generally don't impose mechanical disadvantage otherwise

[@dj_mykie]

I play a Goliath fighter/warlock. He is like a stupid reckless fighter that can use some magic. For rolpaying fun I inleg let him drink milk. But if someone let him drink alcohol he gets drunk and become a noble version of himself. Now the dm gif him a cursed item that can make him to the drunk version. The problem is that we were investigating a tavern and we “broke in”. My caracter was like I am not going in becouse it is agents the law. The encounter inside was way more difficult because they must a player. Was it a good resson to not go in because a noble don’t want to get trouble if he can Easley avoid it?

[@benjaminjenkins394]

I once played a human fighter who was terminally ill and decided that that was to be his last mission. We didn’t finish but the GM and I worked out that he would probably die at the end if he didn’t get murdered in during the campaign beforehand. I think we worked out that my level of exhaustion would increase incrementally throughout the story.

[@shinrafugitives3880]

Many games have a set of crit tables that inflict critical injuries and have a healing DC to stabilize, then treat that injury. By the time it's fully treated, it will impose a small permanent penalty, such as a face scar that imposes negatives to charisma skills. My policy would be to just use those crits on otherwise able bodied characters further in the game for mechanical disadvantages. Especially if the system allows those penalties to be bought down later on.

[@joshuawoodfolk8202]

Hey, I believe that was my comment you answered with this video! Thank you so much!

[@samuelflynn9521]

I as a gm allow for one disability for one buff. I had to limit it to one because I have some serious minmaxers.

[@lunaredelvour2972]

I love these minor penalties that deal with story! It's such a good way to tell an aspect of your character without having to take up time at a table and have it come flying out of nowhere. For example, I have a character that is scared of dogs/wolves. Instead of having this monologue out of the blue where he talks about this fear, I instead just.... didn't bring it up for a while. And when the time came to fight against wolves when they attacked as we passed through the woods, I let the -5 to all my melee attack rolls do the talking (with some distance, he's a bit more composed and I didn't want *all* my abilities be useless since he was more of a martial character than a spellcaster, so I went with being within about 10 feet that imposed the penalty). Party figured out real quick that he's scared of canine creatures without me needing to openly tell them that he's scared of them and DM was happy to see I followed through and remembered about the -5 on my own and stayed consistent about it

[@letsplaysvonaja1714]

My lizardfolk forge cleric made an oath to not use any weapon, armor or shield he hasn't crafted himself as long as it can be avoided

[@crisisOstrich]

Whenever my players get knocked out (rolling death saves) I have them roll 1d20 and give them a lingering injury from the table in the DMG

[@ryanb5127]

My opinion about a disability is that if it comes from an injury mid campaign they will have a negative mod until they learn how to adapt to their new situation. They can overcome it but not instantly.

[@clayxros576]

I avoid this issue by always playing with other lore/story nerds who are all about roleplay. Dont gotta worry about unbalance when they're excited to play around a character quirk. One of my favorites is a Fear of mechanic I invented for a Tiefling Cleric. His refugee village was burned down while he was a kid, giving him a fear of any fire bigger than a torch. The way it works is that if he witnesses a medium-high fire, I roll a flat d20. The starting save DC is 10. If he passes, hes fine. If not, he becomes Fearful for 5 rounds, with the usual "get yourself together" saving throw at start of turn. Heres the part I love though. If he gets a Nat 20 on his sace throw, the rest of the encounter he is immune to his fear, and the DC is reduced by 1. So it is possible he can overcome his fear. If he gets a Nat 1, it's the usual Fearful but the DC increases by 1, meaning the fear is over taking him. I designed it specifically to be possible to resolve later down the line and to provide story fodder for the DM and other characters.

[@WilliamWhyles]

I'm about to play a Way of the Penitent Monk (homebrew) as a character who took a vow of silence. I was first gonna pick Cleric then I realized "Wait shit I can't speak" and then I drop that idea. Do you think playing a character that doesn't speak is a good idea? If it's not, then I have to pull of shenanegans with Telepathic Feat and Voices of Gods.

[@garnarum]

I have a character, who really dislikes my friend's character. At first I was mad, but soon I decided it was a good dynamic I've never RPed before. We talked and I explained to her that this is just our characters and I still treat her well. She seemed to understand, but I see it's being uncomfortable for her to differentiate our relationships. Is it even a good idea to play characters who hate each other? Or is it possible to make it comfortable and cool?

[@nemonomen3340]

I don’t necessarily think there’s anything wrong with it but, if you’re going to decide when you do well and bad, you might as well write a book together.

[@danieldaza2141]

I'm also that kind of player who always is trying to make their chatacters have something to work on either from the begining of the campaign or in the middle. First time was his hatred for the race of his best friend and being always treated as a pet, second was a fear of magic itself (mind you, he is a summoner, he has to use magic) and the imposibility to use a certayn level of magic, next I was trying to make it a physical handycap, like blindness for a fighter, some missing limb for a paladin. Even if it is something that's just "they are a childish person" that's going to afect the story in some way, and that's what's so great about this game, no matter how you do things or what you are planning to do, history won't wait for you to write it, but neither will it write it itself

[@dumbghost3109]

i think if they have a negative due to disability they should gain some benefit (whether related or non related) so they dont fall behind the rest of the party. if a character has one arm they wouldnt be able to use a shield or 2 handed weapon, but they should be strong enough with that one arm that they can use longswords as their 2 handed variant.

[@DoubleL11862]

I don't know if you watch Dimension 20, but it is a master class in making NPCs with stakes. This leads to player characters being able to stand out even more because they are being elevated by a supporting cast. It is also encourages players to make characters that aren't loners or orphans and actually be emotionally invested in NPCs

[@lejandario7779]

Great insights as always but having disadvantage on soft stat checks with my agoraphobic wizard led to some great roleplay moments (falling in love with the bimbo bard). Besides like you said its gives an opportunity for other players to shine by depending on them as the ranger makes most of the checks outside.

[@deadeye7924]

I had a really cool take on the disability side of this. I had a divination wizard who had his eyes put out as punishment for delivering an ill omen to his lord which he inadvertently made come true. The character had a disad on perception checks, knowledge checks not pertaining to preexisting knowledge as he didn't know braille and had to have his allies direct his spells using their voices as guide posts to aim where to fire cc or dmging abilities. The idea is that playing with a disability is something that shouldnt make the character who they are, but rather an obstacle to create character development. This is why i hate when people rip on those of us who make characters like this as its not all about number crunching and maxing out dps but having a character who has to reconcile with their own physical imperfections whether they be born with or caused by either fate or their own doing. It makes them feel more human.

[@prosamis]

100% agree that disabilities should be acknowledged It's not an aesthetic or a character trope, it's a real issue people actively and continuously face and power through

[@christopherealy8025]

I think you should think about the ways you can use in game mechanics to sort of disregard the worst parts of the mechanical downsides, because if we think about it, dnd is already full of mechanical downsides built to make characters interesting, or to balance out certain abilities. For example, varient human fighter with polearm master and great weapon master can deal some big dps, but how about doing that as a BLIND fighter with the blind fighting fighting style, and you have created an interesting dynamic in combat. A human blender to anything within 10 feet, but a sack of hp to everything else. Taking alert can also help a ton, but the big thing here is that your trait isn't preventing you from playing the game, but it changes the way you use your character in interesting ways.

[@grimjudgment6527]

I'm someone that's been parmenently injured IRL and I recently started playing an orc in SOTDL and they allow you to take a story complicaiton called "Maimed" which reduces your max health, perception or speed. an orc's speed is 12 in that game and almost everyone else gets a 10 so I traded that 2 speed for an ability that basically makes him too angry to die. He's also addicted to pipeweed because it helps distract him from the pain. He's a mage/sorcerer storm/primal caster so he will always say "I may be mangled, but I will still rip off your head if you screw with me." So while the downside he has will require me to cast limited use spells on my own character, there's always the fact that he's pushed past those limitations by seeking alternatives. Can't go fast? well, your boy over here can shoot a lightning bolt and then teleport to it! He's one of the most beloved members of the party despite being a highly aggressive man with such an odd, obtuse philosophy on life that people will either predict what he will do, or he will do something so outlandish that it has to work. A funny example is he found a cultist's dagger and he follows the dark gods, which the cultists follow the demon lord. So, he simply walked over to the campfire we had, cut his hand with it, and when he suddenly heard voices in his head when dripping blood into the fire, he simply nodded. He expected that type of thing to happen. He doesn't have a high intellect score, but what he does have is specialized knowledge in a few things and it keeps the party guessing since he doesn't boast about what he knows and doesn't.

[@DowntownRB]

In my campaign I play a Druid who's got a fey in his head who loves to mess with him. (played by my friend.) Whenever I try to wild shape I roll a D20 to see if I meet the DC to change into what I want. She usually turns me into a pigeon or some useless animal. An ant on a nat 1. It's made for some incredible moments.

[@DowntownRB]

(We have a podcast on SoundCloud called The Looming Dark if you want to hear for yourself!)

[@TheFinkbat]

You should make a video on how to make a good non musical bard I’m playing a druegar lawyer rn

[@quendi5557]

Just before anyone reads this: This is my opinion, if you disagree, that is fine but do not tell me I am wrong for feeling the way I do, I am open to discussion but keep in mind a lot of this opinion was formed by my experiences in my specific case. I would like to say that in my specific case in terms of disability(autism), there are very much negatives that have an effect on my life. And saying it is offensive to not represent that is utter bullshit in my specific case. It might offend others but it doesn't offend me. I have to deal with all the issues that my disability causes me, are there some upsides to it? yeah, but that does not mean that the problems that it causes do not exist. My brain does not work the same as most people, I have to live with that, and deal with all the issues that it causes and the strengths that I have because of it. I do not want people to dance around that, there is a reason Autism is classed as a disability. I do not care if you play your autistic character with some mechanical negatives as long as they are accurate to the kind of autism this character is supposed to have. It's not the negatives that bother me, it's the accuracy of those negatives that are important to me.

[@crapphone7744]

I would think it would be annoying to have to watch someone role play autism badly. but I guess that's part of role-playing some people are better at it than others and we all have to tolerate that. I'd be interested to hear if you agree that it is annoying to watch someone act out your disability in a game badly.

[@quendi5557]

@@crapphone7744 what do you mean by badly? because there can be multiple ways it could go and I got multiple possible reactions.

[@crapphone7744]

@@quendi5557 what I had in mind was someone who plays autism inaccurately. I don't know if you're familiar with the actor Alec Baldwin who used to pretend to be Donald Trump on Saturday night live. He didn't accurately try to be like Trump he exaggerated certain things so that it was apparent it was a parody. I am wondering how it would feel if someone was role playing autism and through lack of knowledge or experience ended up playing it unintentionally, but definitely like a parody of what it is really like. I thought that might be hard to watch.

[@quendi5557]

@@crapphone7744 Yeah, wouldn't get mad unless it was deliberately meant to poke fun at autism in a mean way. But definitely would find it hard to watch.

[@PureGoldNeverCorrodes]

Like Adaine Abernant’s Anxiety Mechanics.

[@jiminkpen9750]

Really interesting discussion, love it. Firstly, session 0, or even discussion after during/sessions if needed, so that the game works for your group is key. But, in my thoughts, GMs putting disadvantages on characters is really important. Overcoming these disadvantages, or giving in, or needing to work as a team, etc are great and lead to situations and rp that the player may not necessarily have thought of or even wanted before it happened. In the same way a character dying must always be a possibility. Without these situations we as players actually lose agency and might as well just co-write a story.

[@Tyrayde]

Your videos so far have been very hit or miss for me. I absolutely adored your character creation video, but this one feels odd when you start the video by saying that "I don't have a disability, and thus I won't throw my hat into the ring here," and then go on putting your entire hat into the ring. It makes a lot of sense that you did mention your opinion, since that is what the video is about, and I do really like what you talked about as well! It just felt a bit off-putting to hear you at first mention that you weren't going to go on with the topic, even though it was the entire video. All in all, good video and cool ideas/opinions to share, idk how others felt about it but maybe be careful when you say you're going to refrain or be careful with a topic, then talk about it for 7 more minutes. If I'm misunderstanding what you 'weren't going to throw your hat into the ring' for, then I apologize, and hopefully some improvement could be made on the explanations you give in the future. Thanks for all the work, I'm excited to keep watching these videos, I hope the algorithm keeps being nice to you!

[@wayneslater5531]

Good vid with a lot of good points! Here's 1 for the algorithm gods!

[@edvvyn7508]

I dont know if you’ve already made a video about this but I’ve like to see a video on how to play a poet without being poetic

[@arthurpprado]

That's one thing I've been thinking about with a character I'm going to play soon. He is a reborn human monk. I've handwaved his mangled limbs with ghost limbs, so he shouldn't have any penalties with using them. However, he does have a missing eye that I kept and since he is a monk who fights primarily with a spear, I've been thinking about how that would affect his depth perception, especially for throwing the spear. I've thought of having him run a quick check in his mind by extending an arm with his index finger pointing up to estimate how far the target is by how big it looks (Yoshikage Kira, anyone?). That would translate to having him making either an INT or WIS check before rolling for the attack. I still have to discuss this with the DM, though

[@zinogrevz7389]

the dmg has a table for lost limbs and eyes and such

[@txt5220]

As the only human in my group, my mechanical disadvantage is not having darkvision 😭

[@HairofSteel555]

I got to 6:50 in the video before I had to say: This is good for you, but most players I've run into online are bastard troglodytes that don't have the same amount of narrative integrity you seem to have. You can preach about how fun it was to have a gunslinger with PTSD all you want, and I applaud that narrative and your drive to keep at it. But YOU are not the community as a whole. And some players don't deserve to be as trusted with 'no negative modifiers'. It's been about half-a-year since this was really an honest issue, but the mind-set of a very LOUD portion of the player-base really showed they need to have negative-modifiers imposed on their characters. Because DnD has gone so far down hill that now players EXPECT to play a legless, blind, mute archer and not get penalized for that. They want all the 'glamour' of being disabled while pretending they're being sympathetic towards people that have these issues. I don't understand how a DM can just sit there, and say: "No. It's not your job as a DM to dictate what negatives there are..." It's our job to try keep the table fun. There's a point where 'fun' is too much. When players are telling you you're a bigot because you won't let a player start off with..and I fucking quote; "A battletank that deals 2d10 with a 60/120 range that has multi-attack baked in, as well as a flight and climb speed. That can't be disarmed because it's a 'part of the character'" at 1st level. You can fuck, RIGHT off. It's the job of the DM to keep the table fun for everyone, not just the entitle powergamer brats that want to play t4 characters at 1st level under the guise of being 'progressive' and 'sympathetic'.

[@voidmystic00]

Another way to potentially portray a disability in game is to tie in the disability to one of stats. Let's say your character has low strength or dexterity, your character can have a missing arm due to a past injury and that's why their strength is low. The same can be applied to dexterity and a leg. Role play that situation as your table allows and of course discuss with the table for permission. But generally speaking applying negatives to a disability does make sense. Especially when applied correctly. It's only insulting IMO when people use stupid stereotypes, nonsensical assumptions, and/or are blatantly being rude or dehumanizing about the disability.

[@pancaker258]

I'm not gonna throw my hat into this ring but... Here's my hat it's in the ring

[@jayteepodcast]

When you buff something down buff something else up

[@SeraphSilverstar]

If a character, narratively, imposes a disadvantage on themselves and they succeed anyway, then they overcame the mechanical disadvantage. That’s it. There is nothing further. They left it to the dice. A character can ALWAYS choose the worst outcome in a situation. They can voluntarily fail. But they CHOSE to let it be up to the dice. So, players essentially can either fail purposefully OR let success be random. I don’t see a need to go further mechanically. FLAVORFULLY, of course a player can choose a sub-optimal route. But that up to them. Not the DM