Disabilities - Flaws from 3.5 to 5e

[BRKNdevil]

So in Unearthed Arcana, a 3.5 supplement, they brought about the option of Flaws. They acted like Negative Feats that would detract in some form but allow you to gain an extra Feat. Couldn't find it anywhere else so i thought i'd get some input for it here.

Same as before, 2 Disabilities unless your DM says otherwise. The Disabilities chosen have to be cleared by your DM as well before usage. Thats to prevent super munchkinness

Disabilities; Flaws for 5e

Missing Limb –
You are missing an otherwise dominant upper limb. You can’t duel wield, use Two-Handed weapons, or have a shield equipped in an offhand. You can perform sematic components while holding material components and are otherwise unrestricted by your missing limb in terms of weapon usage (i.e. you can reload a one handed ranged weapon without difficulty).
You take a disadvantage on all skill rolls that would require or benefit from the use of two arms without the use of specialized equipment. This includes but not restricted to the following: Grappling with Athletics, Climb rolls without climbing gear fitted for your use, Sleight of Hand rolls that would benefit from the usage of two limbs and other such things.

Pathetic Figure – You are born with a weak body and have to work harder to compensate for it. You roll with a disadvantage on all skill rolls for Strength and Constitution and you receive one less bonus Health point gained from High Constitution to a minimum of 0 per hit die.

Murky-Eyed – You are either born with bad vision or your vision had deteriorated severely in life. Everyone else is always treated as Lightly Obscured (PHB 183) and if they are in a Lightly obscured area, they are treated as Invisible.

Slow – You are exceptionally slow for some poor reason. You halve your movement speed for all forms of movement to a minimum of 15ft for any movement speed you naturally have.
Required: you must have a minimum base speed greater then 20ft.

Unreactive and Vulnerable – You move too slowly and react a step behind your attackers due to some old injury or minor disability that you carry. You roll with a Disadvantage on all Initiative Checks and take a -1 Penalty to your Armor Class.

Noncombatant – You have a disadvantage on all melee attack rolls.

Shaky – You have a disadvantage on all ranged attack rolls.

Inattentive – You roll with a disadvantage on all Perception checks (including the -5 on passive checks) and attackers have an advantage on all attacks against you, should you be caught in a surprise attack, till your first turn.

Phobia – you have a severe fear to something. For as long as you are within the presence, area, or belief, you start are Frightened (Appendix A) and can roll once a round to negate those effects for your turn with anywhere between a Moderate and Very Hard DC Wisdom Save
DM’s note, this should be something that is encountered with moderate to low frequency, Such as Claustrophobia in an open world with hidden small crypts or such.

[BRKNdevil]

made some edits

[Nifft]

Murky-Eyed – You are either born with bad vision or your vision had deteriorated severely in life. You are always treated as Lightly Obscured (PHB 183). "When you take an action, your foes are treated as lightly obscured."


Phobia – you have a severe fear to something. For as long as you are within the presence, area, or belief, you start going under symptoms of suffocation (PHB 183). Instead of being incapacitated at the end of the holding breath limit, you fall prone and must roll a Wisdom Save with a DC of anywhere between a Moderate to Very Hard DC as determined by your DM (DMG 238) or be Paralyzed (PHB Appendix A) by your fear. You can then roll once a round till you succeed at a DC as determined by your DM and start the cycle again on the round after you succeed.
DM’s note, this should be something that is encountered with moderate to low frequency, Such as Claustrophobia in an open world with hidden small crypts or such. Suffocation!?

Why not just use the Frightened condition?

[redwizard007]

Missing Limb –
You are missing an otherwise dominant upper limb. You can’t duel wield, use Two-Handed weapons, or have a shield equipped in an offhand. You can perform sematic components while holding material components and are otherwise unrestricted by your missing limb in terms of weapon usage (i.e. you can reload a one handed ranged weapon without difficulty).
You take a disadvantage on all skill rolls that would require or benefit from the use of two arms without the use of specialized equipment. This includes but not restricted to the following: Grappling with Athletics, Climb rolls without climbing gear fitted for your use, Sleight of Hand rolls that would benefit from the usage of two limbs and other such things.

So having one hand nerfs melee types but not casters or missile attacks? I'd change to "you can not use spells with a somatic component," or "you may not cast spells with both a somatic and material component." Probably the former.




Pathetic Figure – You are born with a weak body and have to work harder to compensate for it. You roll with a disadvantage on all skill rolls for Strength and Constitution and you receive one less bonus Health point gained from High Constitution to a minimum of 0 per hit die.

Again, you are singling out characters that use Str and Con. Why would Dex or mental stat focused builds NOT take this? A caster getting a free feat for this would be terrible for game balance.




Murky-Eyed – You are either born with bad vision or your vision had deteriorated severely in life. You are always treated as Lightly Obscured (PHB 183).

I think you mean "your targets/foes/something else is treated as..." Aside from that, nice flaw. That is worth a feat.




Slow – You are exceptionally slow for some poor reason. You halve your movement speed for all forms of movement to a minimum of 20ft for any movement speed you naturally have.
Required: you must have a minimum base speed greater then 20ft.

Why not just reduce speed by 10' or 15' or some other arbitrary number. All the 30' speed races get this for a lower cost than faster races? Also, ranged attackers and spell casters are again affected at a lower significance. This might work with some tweaks, but it's probably not worth a 5.0 feat.



Unreactive and Vulnerable – You move too slowly and react a step behind your attackers due to some old injury or minor disability that you carry. You roll with a Disadvantage on all Initiative Checks and take a -1 Penalty to your Armor Class.

Ok. I think it's a little weak, but I'd probably allow this one.




Noncombatant – You have a disadvantage on all melee attack rolls.

Once again, it has no consequence for a huge chunk of characters. Perhaps, "all your attacks and spells deal minimum damage."



Shaky – You have a disadvantage on all ranged attack rolls.

No. See previous comments.




Inattentive – You roll with a disadvantage on all Perception checks (including the -5 on passive checks) and attackers have an advantage on all attacks against you, should you be caught in a surprise attack, till your first turn.


Wow! This one sucks. In a good way. This is a great flaw.



Phobia – you have a severe fear to something. For as long as you are within the presence, area, or belief, you start going under symptoms of suffocation (PHB 183). Instead of being incapacitated at the end of the holding breath limit, you fall prone and must roll a Wisdom Save with a DC of anywhere between a Moderate to Very Hard DC as determined by your DM (DMG 238) or be Paralyzed (PHB Appendix A) by your fear. You can then roll once a round till you succeed at a DC as determined by your DM and start the cycle again on the round after you succeed.
DM’s note, this should be something that is encountered with moderate to low frequency, Such as Claustrophobia in an open world with hidden small crypts or such.

Phobia- (noun) way to cause intensely un-fun gaming session. No. Never. And anytime someone brings this to your table, ban them.


You have a couple solid starting points here, but I'm not sure you can make a diverse list of flaws that have enough relevance to offset feats in the 5.0 system. Remember, these feats aren't Weapon Focus. They actually matter. Balancing that with flaws that will ADD to the gaming experience is going to be really tough. If you really want more feats in your game, just add bonus feats. It's not unbalanced if everyone gets them.

[Potato_Priest]

Murky-Eyed – You are either born with bad vision or your vision had deteriorated severely in life. You are always treated as Lightly Obscured (PHB 183).

Because light obscuring only imposes disadvantage on perception checks, Murky eyed is pretty much strictly superior to Inattentive.



Inattentive – You roll with a disadvantage on all Perception checks (including the -5 on passive checks) and attackers have an advantage on all attacks against you, should you be caught in a surprise attack, till your first turn.

[BRKNdevil]

To Potato Priest
Your right on that, originally i thought blinded then, but then what about creatures that are in lightly obscured areas hiding from target? So went with they are treated as invisible for the character

To Red Wizard
thus the GM caveat for most of your arguments
For the huge physical focus on these feats. Couldn't think of good names and pairings for mental stats
was thinking Uneducated and Uncouth for Int and Char as two separate Disabilities since they have so many skills attached those stats as well

the Strength and constitution are rolled up into one because they have to few things tied to them. Was thinking about a disadvantage on Death saves but that seemed to cruel

that attack roll ones i was thinking that you wouldn't be able to make a disengage action, but it doesn't really work well with Shaky

To Nifft
agreeing on Frightened and made edits to the other

[Liran Sterling]

Maybe choose some existing 5e feats and make a polar opposite.

Take Athlete for example. +1 to STR or DEX; prone takes only 5ft of movement; climbing doesn't half your speed; and jumping takes half the distance to get a running start

Then what if we made an exact opposite to this. Call it something offensive, like gimp, if you want, or maybe just limp, or out-of-shape. -1 to STR or DEX; prone takes a full turn and a DC 10 acrobatics or athletics saving throw; climbing quarters your speed; need 20ft to take a running jump.

You get the idea? make it really seem like anti-feats.

[redwizard007]

Maybe choose some existing 5e feats and make a polar opposite.

Take Athlete for example. +1 to STR or DEX; prone takes only 5ft of movement; climbing doesn't half your speed; and jumping takes half the distance to get a running start

Then what if we made an exact opposite to this. Call it something offensive, like gimp, if you want, or maybe just limp, or out-of-shape. -1 to STR or DEX; prone takes a full turn and a DC 10 acrobatics or athletics saving throw; climbing quarters your speed; need 20ft to take a running jump.

You get the idea? make it really seem like anti-feats.

From a balance perspective, this is brilliant. Making sure they are actual hindrances to most builds would be my only concern.