Designing: Major Drawback (Germaphobic)

[jburner1234]

Hey, guys, I am currently dabbling with Major Drawbacks, which If I read it right allow you to take a Bonus Feat. So essentially these negative Traits are supposed to be equivalent to a feat/anti-feat. That being said I attempted to make my own and am a bit concerned I made it a bit too detrimental. Here is what I have so far:


Germaphobia (Major Drawback)

You are obsessed with cleanliness and cannot function properly when dirty.

Anytime you become covered in gore, sewage, or other things that mar your overall look or overall cleanliness you must succeed at a Fortitude Save (DC15) or become nauseated. This save must be made every minute until you manage to again become clean.

This is for a specific character I am designing and I thought it would be fun to implement his quirk mechanically. Also, it might assist with roleplay as well. Any feedback and suggestions would be greatly apreciated.

[jqavins]

First, it'll never work until you fix the spelling; it's germophobia. (Well, OK, both spellings are used, but the 'o' spelling is more in keeping with phobia's in general.)

All kidding aside, what sort of setting is your character in? If it's medieval fantasy then you can't very well have a germophobe when no one knows what a germ is. But I guess you could have a filthophobe anyway.

I would change the save to Will; even though it's do avoid being Nauseated, the nausea would be a result of the psychological condition, so a Will save seems more appropriate. For role playing purposes, Nauseated doesn't seem like the best choice either, but I guess it's not worth making up new rules the Freaked Out or Squicked condition.

Last, and probably most important, I'd change the save from every minute to every time you move from one activity to another. For instance, make a save when a fight starts, but that's good for the length of the fight, as long as that might be, because you're not paying attention to the filth while fighting. After the fight is won and you switch activity to looting the bodies you make another save. And so on.