Talk:Traits (4E)

Cute

Should these variants exist alongside cute, or should you choose between them when you pick cute? Are these three variants enough?

Benefit: Being cute makes it easy for you to get into social events, make acquaintances, and generally be very popular in a non-domineering sort of way. There is something about you that makes others care for you if you succeed on a Charisma roll against Will defense. People would would ordinarily be hostile might instead kidnap you instead of kill you.

• Adorable: You inspire others to take care of you. This often goes with a somewhat infantile presence. As long as you stay somewhat subdued or submissive you can expect many people to give you favorable treatment, with minor gifts, favors, and treats.
• Alluring: You have a mystery about you that is appealing to others. By remaining silent and aloft, you inspire others to think about you and perhaps even approach you. Once they get to know you, they will slowly realize what is under the surface and the allure is replaced by other feelings. This can be bad if there is nothing beneath.
• Perky:You have an upbeat personality and your antics are generally taken in a positive way. This cheers up those around you and contributes to a positive atmosphere. You often serve to inspire others to action, though sometimes not into doing what you want them to.

Fans

Prerequisite: Trained as a Celebrity

Benefit: You have a group of followers who look up to you, but who do not work for you. On many occasions, they will turn up and offer to help, fawn over you, or just hang around. This is often helpful, but sometimes annoying. They will not generally accompany you on adventures and never enter dungeons.

At any time, you have a number of fans equal to your Charisma score hanging around. All your followers are NPC minions no higher than two levels lower than you. All details are determined by the DM. Rarely, a powerful person or even a monster might turn out to be a fan, in which case he or she is likely to e extra pushy and demanding.

Gold Digger

Benefit: You are good at ingraining yourself with rich and powerful people. Having you around and spending money on you makes people feel rich and successful. This makes it easy for you to live off others and join parties and social occasions as a hanger-on. Actually gaining riches or influence will require more effort.

Guild Member

Benefit: You are a member of an established guild; a conservative organization that exists to further the professional interests of its members. A guild provides little direct help, but have facilities you can use with skills and rituals and can provide access to markets. They are a great source of trainers, aides, and expertise. Many guilds also have medical resources, and act as insurers and advocates, and have a pension fund, but such services are generally of little interest to adventurers.

Insider

Benefit: Skilled in Diplomacy.

Benefit: You are quick to learn the codes and behaviors that make you an accepted member of a social circle. Once in a group, you are quick to integrate yourself and get treated as an insider; a member rather than an associate, family rather than a friend. You are good at understanding the unwritten rules that holds a group together and exploit them. However, if you break the tenets of the group, people might suddenly realize you were never really a member at all.

Ordained Priest

Benefits: You are an ordained and recognized member of the official clergy of an important religious order. You can officiate at ceremonies and perform religious functions; this makes you a trusted individual and makes sure you are aware of the local gossip. People will naturally turn to you with spiritual and supernatural problems.

Note that not all clerics need to have this talent. Many clerics have internal duties within their churches and almost never meet lay people, others are free wanderers with no official sanction or responsibilities. Many churches do not have the formal structure this feat implies at all.

Power Signature

Benefit: There is something special about the way you use powers. This is a purely visual effect and does not change what the powers actually do, but it makes your power-use distinctive and noticeable. Choose one visual effect for your powers; this can be something like flaming skulls, psychic shock waves, or celestial light. A martial character would have more mundande power signatures, such as carving your initials or leaving a signature item behind.

A power signature generally makes it easier for others to recognize your handiwork. If you succeed at a Celebrity roll, people will recognize your power signature and react accordingly. It can serve as an alibi (I could never have done that; everyone knows I leave a rose behind) or as a lead for an investigator. it is possible to fake your power signature, so it is not enough to count as evidence against you.

Secret Society Member

Benefit: You are the member of a secret society, a fanatic group with a specific agenda. As long as you obey all orders and devote yourself to the organization, you can expect their support. You have no control over what for this takes; it can range from payment for special missions, information, and fencing loot, to a suicide assault by fanatic cultists. In general, a player character will not be given suicidal orders, but of you don't live up to the expectations of the cult, you can expect very stern reprisals indeed.

Paragon Talents

These talents become available at level 11. At this level, character can assume social obligations and responsibilities, gaining power and influence thereby. You should choose such positions sensibly. While it is certainly possible for a rogue to be a High Priest in church that has gone political, such a position is generally more appropriate to a divine class character.

The practical benefits of such a position rarely applies to adventuring, but are a reward in themselves as it gives you prestige and social status. It is generally a good idea to have an Agent to run the practical side of such a position, leaving you free to adventure.

Army

Benefit: You have a horde or army of low-level followers you can call upon. When in active service, these followers take time and money to maintain, tough a successful campaign generally pays its own expenses. No member of your army has a higher level than half your level, and the army generally has a comprehensive look-and-feel; an infantry force, engineering corps, barbarian horde, or cavalry troop. You build it like an encounter, with an xp budget equal to the gp cost of a magic item of your level. Such an army can be used for military campaigns, as guards, and for other tasks that need a lot of people; they are not very useful on adventures.

Special: This feat can be taken several times, each time with a different army, often different in style.

Baron

Benefit: You are a regional landowner of considerable power, controlling a town or several villages. Benefits include a corps of guards similar to half an Army and a castle, but these guards are needed in the area and cannot range far afield. You are also a political figure of importance, and your voice will be heard on most matters.

Environmental Echo

Benefit: Your association with an element or force is strong enough that the effect goes with you wherever you go. Decide on an effect related to the powers you have, typical examples include elements, times of day, seasons, and so on. Wherever you go, the effect you are related to grows stronger. If you are related to winter, it is always cold where you are, if you are related to spring flowers bloom in tour path, and so on. While this has no direct game effect, it establishes you as a personage of power and importance.

Guild Master

Benefit: You are a master of a guild, or in the case of very large and powerful guilds, a ranking offical and regional leader. A guild is a professional organization as outlined under Guild Member above. You can call on your subordinates for support and professional services; this allows you to delegate work related to your organization. The guild also reports to you, which gives you a great deal of information.

Notes: Unless you are also a Guild Member, you do not gain access to guild resources like a guild member does; you are assumed to lead the guild from above, not be a working member.

High Priest

Benefit: You have a high position in a church or religious order, generally being the regional leader comparable to a bishop. You can set the policy of the local church, and learn a lot of information about supernatural and everyday events. You can declare holidays and feast days, and are expected to officiate at important ceremonies; if you do not it is seen as divine censure and can have political and divine repercussions.

Magical Warden

Benefit: You are the guardian of a magical site; this can be a gateway to another world or a place of power. It is best to choose a place of power that has already appeared in the campaign, so that it has an already established magical effect. Typical effects of such sites are to aid certain rituals or allow travel to other planes. They also act as monster magnets; your presence influences what kinds of monsters appear, generally insuring they are amenable to your cause. A site with a responsible warden is an asset to its neighbors, and this position gives you social standing approximately equal to that of a baron or bishop.

Minster

Benefit: You have made a political career and won access to important political venues; as a royal council, minister, or otherwise close to the seat of power. In this way you are a power behind the crown, with insight in and influence over policy.

Representative

Benefit: You are a political representative on the ruling body of your country. If your country has a parliament, you are a member. You might also be a spokesman for a noble family, burgomaster, ambassador, elected judge, governor, or otherwise be an officer of whatever political system you are a member of. This does not mean you have access to government (choose Minster for that), but you can make political appeals and have them respected and your opinion is given due weight. If you are mistreated or ignored, there might be unrest in the group you represent.

Secret Master

Benefit: You are the regional master of a Secret Society. Your word is law to your lesser brothers. They will report anything they hear and are willing to do anything fr you, but their fanaticism makes the society frail; it is easy to carelessly throw away the lives of your followers if you are not careful.