You have an overactive stress response, causing you to have a fight-flight-freeze reaction to non-threatening situations. This response is triggered seemingly randomly (IE)d4 times per day and during any remotely stressful situation, including being awakened suddenly. If you are a barbarian, when this response is triggered, you must succeed on a DC 10 + (IE) Wisdom saving throw or begin to Rage involuntarily, using up one of your daily Rages. You have a +(IE) bonus to Charisma (Intimidation) checks but a −(IE) penalty on Charisma (Persuasion) checks. Because of your heightened awareness, you also have +1 bonus on initiative rolls. If you have multiple traits, you may choose Rash as one of them.
Real-world Examples
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Anxiety
Assistive Options
Several behavior changes can have a positive cumulative benefit. Upon keeping three of the following for seven days, the IE decreases by 1 as long as you maintain them: spend an hour each day on a calming activity such as meditating, exercising, and staying in contact with at least two trusted people. If you change which of those you’re doing, at least three must stay the same, or you lose the benefit for seven days.
Repetitive Movement
August 3, 2022
You feel the need to use repetitive physical stimulation (stimming) for (IE)d4 rounds to manage your emotions. Stimming can manifest as hand flapping or finger movements, rocking, unusual posture, watching a repetitive movement, making or listening to a song or noise repeatedly, manipulating a fidget device, or mouthing inedible objects or your own appendages. Aside from drawing negative attention from those who don’t understand this behavior, inability to stim can lead to emotional dysregulation. When needing to stim, if unable, you must succeed on a DC 3 + (IE) Wisdom check to fight the urge each round, the DC increasing cumulatively by (IE) each round until you meet your stimming needs. Failure to resist the urge causes a −(IE) penalty on all ability checks until you meet your stimming needs.
At IE 4, stimming may be self-injurious, such as hand-biting (succeed on a DC 5 Constitution saving throw or develop Infection), eye-poking (succeed on a DC 5 Constitution saving throw or develop Infection. On a critical failure, develop Refractive Difference), or head-banging (1 bludgeoning damage every 1d4 rounds).
While stimming is normally harmless and in fact helpful, if it gets in the way of achieving your goals or is self-injurious, some helpful options may include attempting to avoid the causal stimulus, which is not always possible. You may also attempt proactively stimming if expecting a triggering situation, which reduces the length needed later by 1d4 rounds and gives a +1 bonus to the Constitution saving throw to resist. Wearing a helmet or other protective gear that still allows you to get the needed stimulation but reduces or eliminates the resulting injury may also be possible for self-injurious stimming. Fidget items and chewelry sometimes provide a safe alternative to some injurious movements.
Phobia
August 3, 2022
You have a persistent, excessive fear of an object, person, animal, activity or situation. Choose or roll on the following table, or choose a different stimulus. When within (IE) × 10 feet of the phobic stimulus, you must succeed on a DC 8 + (IE) Wisdom saving throw each round. On failure, you must move away from the stimulus or have a −(IE) penalty on all Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma ability checks due to distraction, and you must succeed on a DC 8 + (IE) Constitution saving throw to maintain concentration on an applicable spell each round. This trait always has a Triggered Frequency, and you may choose or roll more than one Phobia.
Note that the labels can be broad, so when you roll or choose a Phobia, discuss with your GM what exactly it encompasses and what may have caused it. A fear of rats may relate more to their size than their shape. It also doesn’t give you additional awareness and is based on your perceptions, so if you’re afraid of spiders, a fiend that looks like one would probably also be included, or a fear of a gender would be based on your perception of gender, not the object’s own gender experience.
document.getElementById("generate-phobia").addEventListener("click", function() {
var phobias = [
"Biomophobia: a specific biome",
"Topophobia: a specific location or places like it",
"Numerophobia: a specific number",
"Ektropophobia: aberrations",
"Batrachophobia: amphibians and frog-like creatures",
"Thymomenophobia: angry people",
"Kallitechnophobia: aristocrats and royalty",
"Panoplophobia: armor",
"Anthropozoophobia: beast-like humanoids",
"Zoophobia: beasts",
"Autophobia: being alone",
"Catagelophobia: being ridiculed",
"Scoptophobia: being stared at",
"Aphenphosmphobia: being touched",
"Ornithophobia: birds",
"Hemophobia: blood",
"Bibliophobia: books and scrolls",
"Toxophobia: bows and other stringed weapons",
"Gephyrophobia: bridges",
"Zootryponophobia: burrowing creatures",
"Koumpounophobia: buttons",
"Wiccaphobia: casters",
"Ailurophobia: cats",
"Angelophobia: celestials",
"Pedophobia: children",
"Politophobia: cities",
"Ierotikophobia: clerics and clergy",
"Kibotophobia: closed containers",
"Coulrophobia: clowns",
"Trypophobia: clusters of small holes",
"Claustrophobia: confined spaces",
"Kataskeniphobia: constructs",
"Chromozoophobia: creatures of a certain color",
"Cornophobia: creatures with horns or antlers",
"Pterophobia: creatures with quills and spikes",
"Plokamophobia: creatures with tentacles",
"Pterugophobia: creatures with wings",
"Achluophobia: darkness",
"Necrophobia: death or dead things",
"Dinosaurophobia: dinosaurs",
"Cynophobia: dogs",
"Draconophobia: dragons",
"Pogonophobia: dwarves",
"Stoicheiodiphobia: elementals",
"Xotikophobia: elves",
"Basophobia: falling",
"Neraidophobia: fey creatures",
"Daemonophobia: fiends",
"Pyrophobia: fire",
"Anthophobia: flowers",
"Pteromerhanophobia: flying",
"Megalophobia: giants",
"Nanophobia: gnomes",
"Misophobia: halflings",
"Acrophobia: heights",
"Domatophobia: houses",
"Automatonophobia: human-like figures",
"Entomophobia: insects",
"Astynomiophobia: law enforcement officers",
"Technourgimophobia: magic items",
"Stratiotophobia: martial classes",
"Androphobia: men",
"Catoptrophobia: mirrors",
"Pithikophobia: monkeys and ape-like creatures",
"Teratourgimophobia: monstrosities",
"Aichmophobia: needles or pointed objects",
"Trypanophobia: needles/injections",
"Arithmophobia: numbers",
"Chromophobia: one or more colors",
"Kalikantzarophobia: one or more monstrous humanoid races such as orcs or goblinoids",
"Laspophobia: oozes",
"Agoraphobia: open spaces or crowds",
"Algophobia: pain",
"Anthropophobia: people or society",
"Botanophobia: plants",
"Herpetophobia: reptiles",
"Amaxophobia: riding in a cart or carriage",
"Pontikiphobia: rodents",
"Katergarophobia: rogues",
"Metamorphophobia: shapeshifters",
"Microphobia: small animals",
"Ophidiophobia: snakes",
"Chionophobia: snow and ice",
"Glossophobia: speaking in public",
"Arachnophobia: spiders",
"Bathmophobia: stairs or steep slopes",
"Xenophobia: strangers or foreigners",
"Sminophobia: swarms",
"Noctiphobia: the night",
"Tonitrophobia: thunder",
"Astraphobia: thunder and lightning",
"Chronophobia: time (deadlines and schedules)",
"Lilapsophobia: tornadoes and hurricanes",
"Haphephobia: touch",
"Dendrophobia: trees",
"Cacophobia: ugliness",
"Apethanatophobia: undead",
"Hydrophobia: water",
"Aerophobia: wind",
"Gynophobia: women"
];
var randomNumber = Math.floor(Math.random() * 100) + 1;
var result = phobias[randomNumber - 1];
document.getElementById("result").innerHTML = result;
});
With professional assistance, gradual increased exposure and proximity to the phobic stimulus can help reduce the phobic reaction over time. The assisting cleric, druid, or physician must succeed on a DC 8 + (IE) Wisdom (Medicine) check to offer proper assistance. If the assistant fails this check or it’s made without an assistant, you make your Wisdom saving throws with disadvantage. You (the character) will not know that the assistance succeeded, but if they fail, you may notice over time that it’s not helping and seek a different assistant.
When attempting to reduce your phobic reaction, begin with a representation such as a painting or imagining the stimulus and work up from there to maximum exposure with the real version. The player and GM should develop a strategy of eight to ten steps and may attempt this once per day. For the first step, you must succeed on a DC 8 + (IE) Wisdom saving throw for three consecutive attempts. The days need not be consecutive. Once accomplishing that step, the DC increases by 1 and requires three consecutive successful attempts, repeating the process until every step is successfully completed. If you have a traumatic or dangerous experience related to the stimulus, you must succeed on an additional Wisdom saving throw equal to your current step roll or lose one step, even if you’ve completed all steps.
Magical Assistance
The Heroism spell will negate Phobias in the target creature for the duration.
Personality Difference
August 3, 2022
The way in which you think, function, and interact with others significantly affects your ability to relate to situations and people. Choose or roll 2d4 traits from the following table, ignoring duplicates.
function generateTrait() {
var traits = ["Anhedonia", "Anxiousness", "Attention Seeking", "Callousness", "Cognitive and Perceptual Dysregulation", "Deceitfulness", "Depressivity", "Distractibility", "Eccentricity", "Grandiosity", "Hostility", "Impulsivity", "Intimacy Avoidance", "Irresponsibility", "Manipulativeness", "Perseveration", "Restricted Affectivity", "Rigid Perfectionism", "Risk Taking", "Separation Insecurity", "Submissiveness", "Suspiciousness", "Unusual Beliefs and Experiences", "Withdrawal"];
var probabilities = [4, 7, 3, 5, 3, 5, 4, 3, 3, 7, 5, 3, 3, 5, 5, 3, 4, 9, 3, 2, 2, 6, 2, 3];
var result = "";
var rand = Math.floor(Math.random() * 100) + 1;
var i = 0;
var sum = probabilities[i];
while (rand > sum && i < probabilities.length - 1) {
i++;
sum += probabilities[i];
}
result = traits[i];
document.getElementById("traitResult").innerHTML = result;
}
Personality Differences/Disorders
Among the most misunderstood, mischaracterized, and stigmatized mental experiences, personality differences arise from trauma and tend to lead to significant challenges to navigating relationships and maintaining a favorable quality of life in a social context. While we highly recommend treatment and counseling for those affected and for those close to someone affected that’s beyond the scope of this book, this book was created to promote understanding and remove stigmas.
Personality differences may cause intense feelings, similar to the Amplified Emotion trait as it’s described below (In the real world, people with Borderline Personality Disorder are often misdiagnosed as Bipolar, even though the former is more common.), but instead of changing gradually over days, mood shifts can come quickly and unexpectedly with no external stimulus. Not only does this make relationships challenging, but it can also lead to fears of abandonment, which can then amplify distressing emotions even further. Those with personality differences may not realize the effects of hurtful behavior, and while these conditions don’t excuse hurtful behavior, it’s important that those who need help have access to treatment, support, and society.
In the real world, personality disorders are treatable with therapy, and their effects can be managed with medication if necessary. But like all of us, those who experience personality differences need patience and understanding, to be recognized as complex people with value, and who deserve love and respect.
Anxiousness. You experience both Baseless Emotions: Panic/Nervousness and Worrying. Roll a separate IE for each.
Attention Seeking. You depend on the attention and approval of others for your self-worth. This motivates you to excessive emotional, outspoken, and dramatic behavior, excessive concern with physical appearance, and to be easily influenced by others as you seek their approval. You tend to believe that your relationships with others are closer than is reciprocated. You have a −(IE) penalty on all Wisdom (Insight) and Charisma (Persuasion) checks and saving throws against being charmed.
Callousness. You have difficulty recognizing others’ needs or feelings, which leads to repeated harmful, aggressive, impulsive, or irresponsible behavior without remorse. You have a −(IE) penalty on all Charisma (Persuasion) and Wisdom (Insight) checks and +(IE) to all Charisma (Intimidation) checks and saving throws against psychic damage and being charmed.
Cognitive and Perceptual Dysregulation. You experience 1d4 of the following: Depersonalization, Derealization, Sleep-Wake Disorder, Asomatognosia. Roll a separate IE for each.
Deceitfulness. When you tell others about yourself or your experiences, you misrepresent or embellish the facts, assume false identities, or otherwise lie for personal gain without experiencing remorse. While this practice lying gives you a +(IE) bonus to Charisma (Deception) checks, your inability to empathize gives you a −(IE) penalty on Wisdom (Insight) checks.
Depressivity. You experience all of the following Baseless Emotions: Guilt, Hopelessness, and Worrying. Roll a separate IE for each.
Distractibility. You have difficulty concentrating and focusing on tasks, and you are easily distracted by environmental stimuli. Finishing any task takes (IE) × twenty percent longer to accomplish, and you have a − (IE) × 2 penalty on all Constitution saving throws to maintain concentration. If you cast a spell with a casting time longer than 1 action, you must succeed on the saving throw. On a failed saving throw, the spell is not cast.
Eccentricity. You act in unusual and unexpected ways for your culture, motivated by unusual superstitions, beliefs, and perceptions such as believing you can perform spell-like effects without casting those spells or have senses that you don’t. You have a −(IE) penalty on saving throws against illusion magic and a −(IE) penalty on Charisma (Persuasion) and Charisma (Intimidation) checks, but your creativity gives you a +(IE) bonus to Charisma (Performance) checks.
Grandiosity. You believe that you’re more important than others and feel the need for others to recognize that. You have difficulty valuing others’ feelings and needs compared to your own and expect favors, advantages, and admiration. You have a +(IE) bonus on Charisma (Intimidation) and Charisma (Performance) checks but a −(IE) penalty on Wisdom (Insight) checks.
Hostility. You feel frequent anger, become irritable from minor insults, and tend to act mean. You have a +(IE) bonus to Charisma (Intimidation) checks but a −(IE) penalty on Charisma (Persuasion) checks. If you are a barbarian, you get an additional Rage per day, but your Rage is so intense, you spend one Hit Die every time you Rage. If you have multiple traits, you may choose Baseless Emotions (Irritability) as one of them.
Impulsivity. You have difficulty establishing plans and act without considering consequences. You have a +(IE) on initiative rolls but a −(IE) penalty on saving throws against enchantment magic.
Intimacy Avoidance. You have a narrow range of social experience and expression. You don’t enjoy social or personal relationships and find them challenging. You have a −(IE) penalty on all Charisma checks but a +(IE) bonus on saving throws against enchantment magic.
Irresponsibility. You experience little or no sense of obligation or commitment to agreements and promises and are careless with others’ property. Whenever you use the help action, you must succeed on a DC 10 + (IE) Constitution saving throw or fail to help, still using your action but with no effect.
Manipulativeness. You use subterfuge to influence or control others, using ingratiating yourself to people to control them for your purposes. You have a +(IE) bonus to Charisma (Deception) and Charisma (Persuasion) checks but a −(IE) penalty on Wisdom (Insight) checks.
Perseveration. You persist at tasks or methods even though the behavior is no longer effective, no matter how much evidence or failure demonstrates reasons to stop or change. You have a +(IE) bonus to Constitution checks and saving throws to continue an action, but on initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties), you must choose your course of action for the round, and you must succeed on a DC 15 + (IE) Constitution saving throw to choose the disengage action or to choose a different course of action during the round.
Restricted Affectivity. You have a narrow range of emotional experience and expression. You don’t enjoy most activities. You have a −(IE) penalty on Wisdom (Insight) and Charisma (Persuasion) checks but a +(IE) bonus to saving throws against psychic damage or being charmed or frightened. If you are a barbarian, you must succeed on a DC 10 + (IE) Wisdom check to Rage, and you do not benefit from Bardic Inspiration.
Rigid Perfectionism. You are preoccupied with details, orderliness, and rules. Tasks must be completed perfectly, and you feel the need to be in control of people, tasks, and situations, having trouble delegating tasks for fear that they won’t be done perfectly. You’re rigid in your values and morals and protective of your valuables, obsessing over the perfect way to use them. You have a bonus of +(IE) on saving throws against being charmed but a −(IE) penalty on Charisma (Persuasion) and Charisma (Performance) checks. If you have multiple traits, you may choose one or more Alleviation Behavior traits as one or more of them.
Risk Taking. Your emotions are unstable, which leads to impulsive or risky behavior with little regard for personal safety or consequences. You have a −(IE) penalty on all saving throws against enchantment spells but a +(IE) bonus on saving throws against being frightened. If you have multiple traits, you may choose Baseless Emotion (Restlessness) as one of them.
Separation Insecurity. Your self-image is unstable, which leads to ongoing feelings of emptiness and fear of being alone or abandoned. You have a −(IE) penalty on all saving throws against psychic damage and enchantment spells. If you have multiple traits, you may choose one or more of the following Baseless Emotions for one or more of them: Dread, Panic/Nervousness, and Worthlessness. Roll a separate IE for each.
Submissiveness. You lack self-confidence and feel the need for others to take care of you, feeling like you can’t reliably take care of yourself. You tend to be submissive and cling to others, need close relationships to get approval, and will tolerate being treated poorly. You have a −(IE) penalty on rolls against Charisma (Intimidation), Charisma (Persuasion), and being charmed. If you have multiple traits, you may choose Executive Functioning as one of them.
Suspiciousness. You have an undeniable feeling that those around you can’t be trusted, that others are trying to harm you or plotting against you, and that those who claim loyalty to you are unfaithful to you. You’re reluctant to share information about yourself with others for fear that they’ll use it against you. Suggestions and minor criticisms seem like personal attacks. You have a −(IE) penalty on all Wisdom (Insight) checks and Charisma (Persuasion) checks but +1 to Charisma (Intimidation) checks.
Unusual Beliefs and Experiences. You have beliefs outside of your culture or religion that others do not share. This leads you to dress and act differently, have inappropriate emotional responses, and experience social difficulties. You believe that certain events have messages for you or that you can influence people or events with your thoughts beyond any casting ability you actually have. You have a −(IE) penalty on all Wisdom (Perception), Wisdom (Insight), and Charisma (Persuasion) checks. If you have multiple traits, you may choose Hallucinations or Delusions as one or more of them.
Withdrawal. You feel inadequate, inferior, or unattractive, which leads you to avoid social situations, meeting new people, or new activities. You’re overly sensitive to criticism, embarrassment, and ridicule. You have a −(IE) penalty on saving throws against the Vicious Mockery spell or similar effects, saving throws against being frightened, and on rolls against Charisma (Intimidation).
Real-world Examples
Personality Disorders
Assistive Options
Because you may not even be aware that you have a Personality Difference, and due to their effect on how you perceive yourself and reality, these can be especially difficult to manage. Party members will require patience and understanding to help you function in a healthy, cooperative manner. When needing a check related to one of these traits, a party member can use the help action to give you advantage on the roll.
Obsessive Thoughts
August 3, 2022
You have uncomfortable thoughts, images, or impulses that occur repeatedly in your mind beyond your control. Even though you may know they don’t make sense, you have trouble freeing yourself from them. Examples include fear of losing control of your behavior, fear that you will cause harm or that harm will come to you, fear of inadequacy, fear that you caused a tragedy, fear that a past action will have harmful consequences in the future, or a false memory that you did something harmful that caused a current situation. You have a −(IE) penalty on saving throws against being frightened and a −(IE) penalty on passive Wisdom (Perception). If you have multiple traits, you may choose Alleviation Behaviors or Alleviation Behaviors as one or more of them.
With professional assistance, gradual increased exposure and proximity to the obsessive stimulus can help reduce the troubling thoughts over time. The assisting cleric, druid, or physician must succeed on a DC 8 + (IE) Wisdom (Medicine) check to offer proper assistance. If the assistant fails this check or it’s made without an assistant, you make your Wisdom checks with disadvantage. You (the character) will not know that the assistance succeeded, but if they fail, you may notice over time that it’s not helping and seek a different assistant.
When attempting to reduce your obsession, begin with a representation such as a painting or imagining the stimulus and work up from there to maximum exposure with the real version, monitoring your actions and talking about how you reacted to it. The player and GM should develop a strategy of eight to ten steps and may attempt this once per day. For the first step, you must succeed on a DC 8 + (IE) Wisdom check for three consecutive attempts. The days need not be consecutive. Once accomplishing that step, the DC increases by 1 and requires three consecutive successful attempts, repeating the process until every step is successfully completed. If you have a traumatic experience, you must succeed on an additional Wisdom saving throw equal to your current step roll or lose one step, even if you’ve completed all steps.
Magical Assistance
While magic that alters your thoughts, perceptions, or emotions can offer temporary relief, they can easily become Alleviation Behaviors as you come to depend on them for comfort instead of acknowledging and tolerating the associated discomfort.
Learning Difference
August 3, 2022
You have trouble processing information in certain ways, making learning via those methods more difficult. Choose or roll on the following table. If you have multiple traits, you may choose Attention Difference, Sense Processing Difference, or Language Processing (Dysgraphia) or more than one Learning Difference as one or more of the others.
function generateLearningDifference() {
var randomNum = Math.floor(Math.random() * 20) + 1;
var result;
if (randomNum <= 5) {
result = "Dyscalculia";
} else if (randomNum <= 17) {
result = "Dyslexia";
} else if (randomNum == 18) {
result = "Dysorientia";
} else {
result = "Visual Processing";
}
document.getElementById("learning-difference-result").innerHTML = result;
}
d20
Learning Difference
1-5
Dyscalculia
6-17
Dyslexia
18
Dysorientia
19-20
Visual Processing
Dyscalculia. You have difficulty understanding numbers, arithmetic facts, and processing mathematical problems into equations. You have a −(IE) penalty on all mathematical ability checks.
Variant Rule: More Dice, Less Math
To reduce the amount of math calculations, when your trait requires you to add or subtract the IE from the die roll, you can instead roll 1d6. If you roll at or under your IE, make your ability check with advantage/disadvantage. (e.g., You have Dyscalculia (IE 2) and need to make an Intelligence check to solve a math problem. Roll 1d6: 1–2, roll the Intelligence check with disadvantage; 3–6, roll the Intelligence check normally.)
Dyslexia. You have difficulty accurately reading words. Reading or preparing a spell from a spellbook takes you an additional (IE) × 20% of the standard time unless you have someone assisting you by reading it to you.
Dysorientia. You have difficulty determining directions, distinguishing right and left, and navigating to avoid getting lost. You have a −(IE) penalty on all Wisdom (Survival) checks to avoid getting lost, and preparing a spell with somatic components from a spellbook takes you an additional (IE) × 20% of the standard time as you practice the movements in the correct direction. If someone helps you prepare those spells, the extra time reduces to (IE) × 10%.
Visual Processing. You have difficulty understanding and using visual information, including judging physical distances, differentiating between similar letters or objects, and understanding spatial relationships. You have a −(IE) penalty on all ranged attack rolls and Wisdom (Investigation) checks. Preparing a spell from a spellbook takes you an additional (IE) × 20% of the standard time unless you have someone assisting you by reading it to you.
Wearing asymmetrical clothing or jewelry can help with Dysorentia, reducing the spell preparation penalty by half. Using a map reduces the Disorentia Wisdom (Survival) penalty by 1. Sunglasses with yellow tinted lenses may reduce Dyslexia IE by 1 while worn.
Magical Assistance
The Comprehend Languages spell can be used for known languages to eliminate the reading penalty for the duration, but note that the caster must touch the printed words.
Intrusive Thoughts
August 3, 2022
Thoughts that you don’t like enter your head, such as thoughts of committing atrocities, doubts about your identity or relationships or value, and you can’t get rid of them. While everyone has such thoughts, you can’t easily get past them, and they happen a lot. You fear that you might act on those thoughts, or that, even though they’re not based on evidence, that they indicate something about you or your life. You have a −(IE) penalty on saving throws against being frightened. Because you’ve honed your critical thinking skills as coping strategies, you have a +(IE) bonus to saving throws against illusion magic.
Because you are often ashamed of intrusive thoughts as they don’t reflect your character and values, it’s hard getting help from others. Realizing that these are “junk thoughts” that your brain produces, not urges, and don’t reflect on your character, can help you feel better about yourself when these thoughts come, but they don’t eliminate the thoughts or affect game mechanics. If you have a trusted friend that takes time to talk to you about it, or if you keep a journal where you list evidence for and against the truth of the thought with a statement that acknowledges the thought and demonstrates that it’s false, you can use your action to check it, and for either of these, the IE reduces by 1 for 2d4 – (IE) (minimum 0) hours.
Intellectual Disability
August 3, 2022
You learn skills more slowly than others. When you gain experience points, you gain (IE) × 20% less than usual or, when not using XP, when gaining a level, you need an additional (IE)d20 days to gain the bonus, and you have a −(IE) penalty on all Intelligence ability checks. If you have multiple traits, you may choose Disinhibited Social Engagement as one of them.
Intelligence in fifth edition
The word, “Intelligence” can have many meanings. In 5th Edition, “Intelligence measures mental acuity, accuracy of recall, and the ability to reason.”
In this supplement, we use it specifically to refer to acquired areas of knowledge and the ability to learn them, not a character’s ability to make beneficial decisions or think or communicate clearly. Avoid common tropes such as the inability to make moral choices (including being inherently innocent or evil), being easily manipulated, or incapable of complex thought or emotions.
Real-world Examples
Intellectual Disability, Down Syndrome
Assistive Options
You need people to treat you as a peer, with respect and patience, helping you when you ask for help or when they know you well enough to know your specific challenges.
Hallucinations
August 3, 2022
You have sensory experiences created by your mind. Choose or roll on the following table. When you experience this stimulus, you must succeed on a DC 5 + (IE) Wisdom check to recognize the stimulus as a hallucination. Even when recognized as such, the hallucination remains. While you can ignore it, you still experience a −(IE) penalty on Wisdom (Perception) checks with that sense while it persists.
Auditory. You hear sounds, often voices speaking to you or illusory environmental sounds.
Gustatory. You experience tastes that are often strange or unpleasant, like metallic tastes. If you have multiple traits, you may choose Seizures as one of them.
Olfactory. You experience smells unrelated to your environment.
Tactile. Your sense of touch/interoception causes false experiences, such as bugs crawling on your body or your organs moving inside you.
Visual. You see things that aren’t there, such as objects, creatures, people, lights, or visual patterns.
Real-world Examples
Schizophrenia, Epilepsy
Assistive Options
The most helpful aid for those hallucinating is calm conversation with a trusted ally. A party member can use the help action to listen to you and let you know that you’re hallucinating. This will allow you to reroll the Wisdom check with advantage.
Magical Assistance
The True Seeing spell will counteract visual hallucinations for the duration.
Executive Functioning
August 3, 2022
You have trouble organizing yourself, including your thoughts, your possessions, your emotions, your time, and your memory. You have trouble making decisions about what to do next to the point of being unable to act on a choice at all. You have a −(IE) penalty on all initiative rolls, and on an initiative roll of 1 or less (or a natural 1), you cannot use your action or bonus action for the first round due to indecision, but you can still use your reaction. In some cases, you may have trouble transitioning unexpectedly to a new task or changing plans. You have a −(IE) penalty on your passive Wisdom (Perception) to determine surprise, and if the plans for the day change, you must succeed on a DC 8 + (IE) Constitution saving throw or have disadvantage on all Wisdom and Charisma checks for (IE)d4 minutes while you mentally adapt to your new circumstances and plans. On any attempt to find something that you previously possessed, you have a −(IE) penalty on Wisdom (Perception) checks to find it. You have a −(IE) penalty on all reaction ability checks, saving throws, and attack rolls. Because you’re used to having to compensate for your decision-making, you have developed creativity and resilience, so once per day, when making a non-combat ability check, you can choose to do so with advantage. Multiple days in a row with high stress or demands can temporarily increase the IE. If you have multiple traits, you may choose Attention Difference, Amplified Emotion (Uncomfortable), Diminished Motivation, or Amnesia (Anterograde) as one or more of them.
Planning ahead helps organize thoughts, breaking down the upcoming days into manageable chunks of time. The party should do what they can to develop strategies for the future. Any situation that has been anticipated and planned accordingly reduces IE by 1 for that situation as you implement strategies to keep track of everything.
Magical Assistance
When the Haste spell is used on you, you can choose whether to gain the usual benefits or instead to reduce your IE by 2. The Foresight spell can also be used in this way with its longer duration, but casters may be unwilling to use a ninth-level spell slot for this purpose. A Handy Haversack can help you organize some possessions (if that’s where you put them).
