Maluses are passive downsides you can give your character for the purpose of showing off a character trait or story detail through your stats. It is the opposite of a "bonus", and we've already done things like this before. We love to bring statistical value to character or story traits already, this page is just making it an official stat concept.
For example, if your character is afraid of ghosts, you can say it to the party and repeat yourself 20+ times and people still might forget that you are afraid of ghosts. But, if the party encounters a ghostly enemy and suddenly you have disadvantage on all of your attack rolls, not only will the party
absolutely remember, but this trait has now had a solid impact on the campaign.
We've done it before with Rex and Katiel, where they had to roll to lose control for various reasons (schitzo rage or the plague).
How to Obtain a Malus
You can gain a malus for almost anything that will have a negative affect on your character or their gameplay. For example, if Madison really wanted to, Ilissa could have had a Malus for her Sand-gem racism. She could have had disadvantage on all wisdom checks around Sand gems to really nail in that hatred. You can malus-ify most negative traits, and I encourage anyone to try it for any trait they really want people to remember.
The Bonus of a Malus
If you choose to give your character a Malus, let me know in advance. If you desire, I will give you a bonus to match it as long as that bonus makes sense for the character. I can't promise any bonus I am willing to provide will be equal to the malus you created for the sake of balance; having a bonus at all will almost always outweigh a malus (since your teammates will almost always be able to cover for your weaknesses), but we can discuss it plenty before you decide if you're sticking with any negatives. You can still have negative traits without turning them into maluses, so only do what you think would be fun for the character. I'll only give out one bonus even if you have more than one malus, so there won't be any bonus stacking from this.
For example, say Quinn had a malus; because they were so shy, they had disadvantage on any charisma check dealing with other people. Sounds really bad, but if they ever got help from their friends (the Help action nullifies disadvantage) they can overcome the disadvantage. They are still left vulnerable alone, however, and this can drive an encounter in-game that solidifies Quinn as a shy character within the story. In exchange, I would have given Quinn advantage on any intelligence check they make involving ecology. Since Quinn can always ask other party members to talk for them, the bonus would always outweigh the negative and yet that negative would cement Quinn as a shy character who needs help from their friends to talk to others.
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