I love coming up with traits, backgrounds, gods or races to better fit with concepts/balancing in my free time. I also love frequently creating characters that belong to a race that is particularly hated by most commoners in Golarion: tieflings, dhampirs and the like. However I also like having a concrete concept of how that affects them when they try to interact with the normal world.
What I got was something like this, and I was wondering if it's a decent drawback, given that a drawback is essentially a negative trait or negative half-feat.
Reviled Countenance:
Prerequisite: Tiefling, Dhampir, Half-Orc, or other "Monstrous race" according to GM discretion.
Fluff: Your racial heritage makes those who don't know you quick to band together to strike against the perceived threat you pose.
Crunch: Whenever you enter a small town or smaller settlement undisguised a mob will form within 1d20 hours at which point you will have to leave, be imprisoned, or attacked. In larger settlements the time taken for a mob to form increases to 1d20 +10. If you enter a town while disguised but are then discovered by a perception check, the character will attempt to contact guards immediately or attack you with those around them, depending on their situation. If while disguised you change a creature's attitude towards you, their attitude declines by one step upon discovering your true nature, but they do not attack you, nor attempt to form a mob.
I understand though that this has a rather lengthy mechanical component, so it may serve better as a mechanic for campaigns with monstrous player characters.
That's a BIG drawback there. Most drawbacks are like "Must do X daily or take Y penalty" or "You have some sort of disadvantage".
Not "I feel like f*~~ing over the party, but don't want to be up front about it."
This kind of forces you to take tons of ranks in disguise if you want to be any of those races, or your whole party is screwed.
Or they could leave you alone outside of town. An adventurer who has done nothing but piss off evil folk, alone in the wilderness...
Found a different and already-existing mechanic that works much better; the fame/infamy system in "Ultimate Campaign".
I think that's a better system than a "People are racist to you" Drawback. It's earned, rather than automatic. Especially since it's more universal rather than being in a weird case where two Dhampir could be in a party, each a complete unknown, with one being reviled for no reason and the other not.
Though I did do a double take and go WTF at "Keep company with someone of disreputable character" being worth twice as much Infamy as being CONVICTED OF MURDER.
You should probably tweak it a bit. IMO stuff like attacking innocent people, murder, and treason should be worth a hell of a lot more than hanging out with a shady guy.
Though I did do a double take and go WTF at "Keep company with someone of disreputable character" being worth twice as much Infamy as being CONVICTED OF MURDER.
I want to say something witty about this involving Hitler, but nothing I can think of seems to equal how utterly ridiculous that is.