Traits

Jason

Traits can be confusing, but I’m going to try to make it simple.

Pathfinder 1st edition is a hodgepodge of a game. It started as an add-on to Dungeons and Dragons version 3.5, and eventually became its own thing. Along the way, they added things, and they weren’t always great at naming them. Traits are one of these things.

The word “trait” appears in a lot of things. For instance, each race has its own list of “racial traits” and “alternate racial traits”. Sometimes you’ll hear about “class traits”, too. Ignore those! What we’re talking about here are a group of abilities that you can find all on this one page.

These traits are split up into different categories. Originally, there were the four “basic” categories, but over time they kept adding new categories. Some of these you can flat-out ignore: the Mount category is only useful if your class gives you a mount (cavalier and paladin, mostly), while Faction, Family and Exemplar are hard to use and require extra setup. And the only Campaign traits you can take are those listed in the Player’s Guide. In fact, you must take one of these traits.

Regional traits are ok, but you can only use traits that specify Varisia, the place where the game is set, as the region. Optionally, you can also pick a “generic” region, but there are few traits that qualify. Religion and Faith traits often require you to worship a certain deity. Cosmic traits are basically the Zodiac signs of the local calendar. Finally, Race traits can only be used if you’re of the specified race. (By the way, Pathfinder 2nd edition has move on to use the term “ancestry”, while D&D now uses “species”, and I wish they would update all the data online to start using “ancestry” in the 1st edition stuff.)

Players are limited to two traits. Specifically, you can take two traits, but they must be from different categories. Since you’re taking a campaign trait, you are free to pick any other non-campaign trait as your second trait. (Yes, there are ways to take more than two traits, but I will cover them later in this article!)

Advice

Traits give you minor boons, at best. I’ve tried to pick out some traits that provide some useful effects you may want, or you may find fun.

These traits add the given skill as a class skill. They usually give a small bonus to that skill and another related skill, but the main draw is getting that sweet +3 bonus. My character, Zoriel, picked a trait that grants Sense Motive as a class skill. Note that some traits appear multiple times in the list below because they offer a choice between two or more skills. For example, “Criminal” lets you choose between Disable Device and Intimidate as your class skill.

Bonus Types

In Pathfinder, some bonuses have types to them. For example, most traits will give you a “trait bonus”. Class abilities, feats, magic items, etc. can all grant typed bonuses like “holy bonus”, “competence bonus”, “dodge bonus”, etc. A bonus that has no type is considered “untyped”.

Bonuses of different types “stack” with each other: a +1 trait bonus and a +2 luck bonus will add together into a +3 bonus. Untyped bonuses and dodge bonuses will also “stack” with themselves: a +1 dodge bonus and a +2 dodge bonus add up to a +3 bonus. But other bonuses do not stack with themselves. If you have a +1 trait bonus and a +2 trait bonus to the same thing, you will only get the +2. Keep that in mind when you pick traits: picking Civilized and Family Ties will only give you +1 on Knowledge (local) checks, not +2!

The traits above aren’t even the full list. I’ve tried to limit it to traits that don’t require specific races or religions.

These traits boost your initiative, which lets you act first in a combat round. This is always a good thing!

  • Ambush Training :: +1 Initiative, and +1 to damage during a surprise round
  • Arcane Temper :: +1 Initiative, and +1 to concentration checks (sometimes useful for a caster)
  • Bloody-Minded :: +1 Initiative, and +1 to Intimidate
  • Giant Ambivalence :: +1 Initiative, +1 to Sense Motive, and a +2 to Perception checks made to not be surprised during a surprise combat round
  • Heedful Readiness :: Once a day, you can add your Wisdom modifier to your Initiative
  • Reactionary :: +2 to Initiative, the best trait bonus available
  • Tactician :: +1 Initiative, and once per day you can get a +2 bonus to an attack of opportunity

These traits can boost your Perception, one of the most-used skills in the game.

These traits can give you proficiency in certain weapons, if you’re looking for something specific.

  • Arodenite Sword Training :: proficiency with the longsword, or if you’re already proficient, you get a +1 bonus to attacks of opportunity you make with a longsword
  • Heirloom Weapon :: you get a specific weapon (that you must “buy” with your initial funds) and can get proficiency with it; the catch is that you are only proficient with this one specific weapon and not any other weapons of the same type
  • Shoanti Tattoo :: +1 on saving throws vs fear, plus proficiency with earth breakers, klars, and shoanti bolas
  • Varisian Tattoo :: +1 on saving throws vs charm/compulsion effects, plus proficiency with bladed scarves and starknives

These traits give you things for free, or modify your starting gold so you can buy more things.

What Is an Armor Check Penalty?

Physical skills, those that are modified by Strength or Dexterity, can be hampered if you’re wearing bulky armor or using a shield. Typically, light armor and shields impose a penalty of 0, -1 or -2, medium armor has penalties between -2 and -5, and heavy armor will penalize you -5, -6 or -7.

  • Ancestral Armor :: free masterwork armor worth up to 300gp (masterwork armor reduces its armor check penalty by 1, to a minimum of 0)
  • Apothecary :: start with 400gp worth of poison and a good source to get more
  • Rich Parents :: your starting gold increases to 900gp, you glorious nepo baby!
  • Signature Moves :: get any single masterwork item worth up to 900gp and get +1 to Bluff and Intimidate while you’re holding that item; is it a weapon? a musical instrument? a glittery skull with clacking teeth? It’s your choice! (masterwork weapons have +1 to attack, but not to damage; other masterwork items generally have some sort of bonus towards their intended purpose)
  • Well-Provisioned Adventurer :: Start with a set of appropriate equipment instead of gold; you can choose from several different sets, most of which include a small amount of “leftover” money

These traits don’t pay off immediately, but will help you in the future.

  • Hedge Magician :: get a 5% discount when creating magic items; if you get the Craft Wondrous Item feat at 3rd level, you’ll be able to make some pretty cool things for less than half their regular price
  • Magical Knack :: increase your caster level by 2, to a maximum of your current character level; this is only useful for “delayed” spellcasters like rangers or paladins, whose caster level always lags behind their character level
  • Magical Lineage :: choose one spell: reduce the level cost of any metamagic feat you apply to that spell by 1 level (for example, Quicken Spell normally raises the level by 4; this trait reduce it to a 3-level increase)

These traits offer decent bonuses to common situations.

  • Armor Expert :: reduce your armor check penalty by 1
  • Deft Dodger :: + 1 to Reflex saves
  • Resilient, Life of Toil :: +1 to Fortitude saves
  • Indomitable Faith :: +1 to Will saves
  • Birthmark and Focused Disciple :: +2 on saving throws vs charm/compulsion
  • Abject Faith and Courageous :: +2 vs fear effects
  • Darkest Before Dawn :: +2 vs emotion, fear and pain effects, and once per day it becomes +4
  • Reincarnated :: +2 vs fear and death effects
  • Necrotic Aura :: +1 trait bonus vs necromancy and negative energy damage
  • Inspired :: once a day, you can choose to roll twice for a skill/ability check and take the higher result
  • Fey Protection :: +1 trait bonus to AC against attacks of opportunities made by fey, and +1 trait bonus on saving throws against the effects of fey creatures
  • Promising :: temporary +1 trait bonus to AC every day (it lasts until you get hit by something)
  • Trap Savvy :: +1 to AC vs traps and on saving throws vs traps, +1 trait bonus to Craft (traps) (Darklands native only)
  • Lunar Birth :: +1 trait bonus on saving throws against spells cast by humans
  • Armored Soul :: while you’re wearing armor or using a shield, you get a +1 trait bonus on saving throws vs divine magical effects that deal damage
  • Dogged :: If you roll a natural 1 on an attack, save, or check, you get a +1 bonus to a different roll you make within 1 round

Sometimes, you want to be good at something, but your stats are getting in the way. These traits can fix that.

  • Planar Savant :: Use your Charisma bonus instead of Intelligence for Knowledge (planes)
  • Irrepressible :: Use your Charisma modifier instead of your Wisdom modifier when you make a Will save vs charm or compulsion effects
  • Bruising Intellect :: Use your Intelligence instead of Charisma for Intimidate checks, and get it as a class skill
  • Clever Wordplay :: Pick one Charisma-based skill and use Intelligence for it, instead
  • Stealthy Escape :: Use Sleight of Hand instead of Escape Artist to escape from ropes or manacles, and get a +2 bonus to Bluff to pretend you’re still tied up
  • The Flexing Arm :: Use Strength instead of Dexterity for Escape Artist checks, and get a +1 bonus, too (must worship Kurgess)
  • Wisdom in the Flesh :: Choose a Strength or Dexterity-based skill: use Wisdom instead, and you get it as a class skill (must worship Irori)

Finally, Adopted is a special trait. It lets you get a third trait for free, from a race different than your own. Want to be an orc with an elf-only trait? This is how you do it! (Please note, this technically means you have a Social trait [Adopted] and a Race trait, so if you get any more traits [see the section below!], you can’t choose any from those two categories.)

Getting More Than Two Traits

There are two main ways of getting extra traits. The first one is taking the Additional Traits feat, which grants you two more traits. The other way is taking a drawback, which is like an anti-trait that gives you a penalty instead of a bonus.

However you get them, you are limited to one trait of each category. That means you can’t take two campaign traits, or two combat traits, or two religion traits, and so on. If you take more than two traits, just make sure to check their categories. (As a reminder, the categories are Combat, Faith, Magic, Social, Campaign, Cosmic (zodiac), Equipment, Exemplar, Faction, Family, Mount, Race, Region, and Religion.)

Here are some decent drawbacks that won’t hamper you too much, but you can look at the full list, too.

  • Betrayed :: you roll twice and take the lower result when you use Sense Motive to get hunches
  • Condescending :: -5 penalty on Diplomacy and Intimidate checks to improve other creatures’ attitudes toward you
  • Foul Brand :: choose one: either a -1 penalty on Disable Device, Disguise, and Sleight of Hand checks because there’s an evil symbol on your hand, or a -2 penalty on Bluff, Diplomacy, and Disguise checks because there’s an evil symbol on your face (Zoriel has the hand version!)
  • Haunted :: -2 on saving throws against spells with the [evil] descriptor
  • Meticulous :: -2 on untrained skill checks (skills you haven’t put any ranks into)
  • Naïve :: -2 penalty to your AC against attacks with improvised weapons, and -2 vs “dirty trick” combat maneuvers
  • Paranoid :: typically, an ally can use the “Aid Another” action by rolling against DC 10 to give you a +2 bonus on whatever you’re attempting; with this drawback, the DC of aiding you increases to 15
  • Power-Hungry :: -2 penalty on Will saving throws against charm and compulsion effects if the creature creating the effect promises you wealth or power
  • Provincial :: -2 penalty on Diplomacy checks and Sense Motive checks made against all creatures whose religion or alignment differs from your own
  • Scarred :: horrible scarring gives you -5 to Disguise and -2 to Bluff
  • Stigmatized :: -3 penalty on Diplomacy checks to gather information or improve a creature’s attitude