What are some lesser know traits that you like to include on your characters?
Reactionary/Armor Expert need not apply.
Chillblight Emmisary (From People of the North). My PC was going to be from Irrisen anyway. It seemed like a good choice on my part.
Student of Philosophy is easily my favorite trait. Makes diplomacy and bluff intellect based for the two times you need it most.
Oh! I really enjoyed Historian on a book worm I played recently.
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River Rat, for any character using knives.
Bred for War, for any character focusing on CMB.
Seeker, for any character that does not get Perception as a class skill.
Friend in Every Town, to make any character have a shot at Diplomacy.
Dangerously Curious, for UMD.
Indomitable Faith, because failing Will Saves is horribly bad.
Bruising Intellect, for INT-based Intimidation.
Prophesied: Your coming was foretold in prophecy, and people familiar with your legend regard you with awe and fear. Thats awsome RP.
Reincarnated: You lived a previous life as someone—or something—else. For you, life and death are a cycle, and you have no fear of death. Again. Full of possible rp flavor.
Hunter's Blood: Your from a family of Undead hunters. How friggin cool is that. Your Van Helsing. Undead not only know of your family name but fear it too. Thats just awsome sauce in a undead themed game.
As you can see I like the RP flavored traits alot. They all provide decent boons but really you take any of these 3 for the built in backstory. From a mechanical standpoint... Dangerously Curious. UDM is just too good. For any class that doesn't have UDM this is a free +4 to UDM when you take into account it adding the in class bonus.
Clever Wordplay from Pathfinder Society Primer. One social skill is now Int-based.
Bruising Intellect from Ultimate Campaign makes Intimidate class skill and Int-based.
Bloodline of Dragons from Ultimate Campaign can get someone low-light vision.
Call of the Longships gives a +1 trait bonus to attacks while made on a ship, and Expert Boarder gives a +1 unnamed bonus to attacks with one-handed weapons while made on a ship. Both would stack. Great for sea-based games.
Reckless and Soaring Sprinter are great ways to get Acrobatics as class skills regardless of background: Rice Runner is regional, Wisdom of the Flesh is religion (and makes it Wis-based), and Captain's Blade is PFS faction specific.
I like Rich Parents simply because I like using it to buy stuff I'm too hard-pressed to justify with actual hard-earned loot: fancy clothes, alcohol, fine foods, carriage or wagon + horses, cheap magic items such as potions/scrolls or even a wayfinder, situational but useful mundane gear, or maybe even a tavern while using Ultimate Combat's optional downtime rules.
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Reactionary and Armour Expert are pretty good.
reads the first post in the thread Oh, never mind ;)
Seriously, there are a few I like, and they've been mentioned already, so...
The ones that haven't been mentioned:
- Accelerated Drinker: Buff yourself with a Potion during the first round of combat as a move action (as long as you carry said potion around with you; pretend it's in an alcohol bottle and you act drunk for some RP fun). Buff yourself with your Standard however you see fit.
- Keleshite Princess: Gain Diplomacy or Intimidate as a class skill, and gain +1 to both of those skills. Really great for a class that is Charisma-based and wants to act like the party face. I took this trait with my PFS Oracle to gain Intimidate as a class skill, and +1 to Diplomacy and Intimidate. This goes great with...
- Under Siege: Gain Bluff or Sense Motive as a class skill, and gain +1 to both of those skills. The PFS Oracle above took this as her other trait to gain Bluff as a class skill, and +1 to Bluff and Sense Motive.
- [BLAH] of the Society: Get some cool abilities, like Defender for +1 AC, Berserker for 3 more rounds of Rage, Maestro for 3 more rounds of Bardic Performance, etc.
- Glory of Old: If you are a Dwarf, this is an awesome trait to gain an additional +1 to all saving throws vs. Poison, Spell, and Spell-like abilities. Combine this with the Dwarven Steel Soul feat for more hilarity.
As an aside: Am I the only one who thought the following when I read the thread title?
Traits, traits, traits
Which are good, which are bad?
Traits, traits, traits
Ask your mom or ask your dad?
(And if you even get that reference, you must be old. And Canadian.
Traits, traits, traits
Which are good, which are bad?
Traits, traits, traits
Ask your mom or ask your dad?(And if you even get that reference, you must be old. And Canadian.
Yup.
If I want sense motive in class I like to grab the survivor trait. +1 sense motive, in class, and you get +1 initiative too. Also like any theme that involves surviving things.
Faiths of Purity has an awesome never be flat-footed again trait if you worship Torag - EDIT Defensive Strategist, thanks MrSin, as I'm not with the book right now.
Ultimate Campaign has a bunch of golden ones like Pragmatic Activator (add INT to UMD, make it a class skill with a +1) for all you INT characters who want to UMD.
Faiths of Purity has an awesome never be flat-footed again trait if you worship Torag - I believe it's called "Dwarven Defense" or "Dwarven Defender," something along those lines.
Defensive Strategist, for followers of Torag.
Power of Suggestion. It's fairly useless, but hilarious all the same.
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Tips and Traits
Guide to the Very Best Traits
You've checked out these right?
Trifler: human only, gives prestidigitation 3/day. It does not sound like much, but prestidigitation lasts for 3 hours, so it is basically 3 hours/day.
I often have found myself arguing that prestidigitation is like the duct tape or wd-40 of murderers (particularly as an SLA, since those have no somatic or material components). It takes care of all of the small little details that are so essential to prevent pesky detectives off your trail.
The most obvious is of course the fact that it can clean up blood; the fact that it also says it can 'soil' materials as well means you can also plant incriminating blood stains on a patsy's weapon/clothes/etc. It can chill objects, so you could alter the perceived time of death to make it appear a lot later (although I am a bit vague about the '1 pound of nonliving material' bit; either 1 pound per round, or will we have to get creative with a hacksaw?). Change the flavor of food or drink to hide less subtle poisons (maybe ones that are so unsubtle, no one would NOT notice they drank it, and they MUST have taken it willingly?). Finally, it can color clothes for easy disguises (the killer was in a red cloak, why bother the guy in yellow?) and it can create small decorative objects (we all need our calling cards, no?
Overall, prestidigitation is a fantastic spell for the clever, and trifler gives you enough of it to be very useful throughout the day. And admittedly, I would love to have the spell just to ease cleaning and cooking. Who wouldn't want to learn it?