Incompetence - wild divergence in price fairness

[Gollum]

Originally Posted by a humble lich

If you want a version of incompetence which is worth more points there are a few existing advantages that I would consider:
1. Social Stigma(Ignorant)/Social Stigma(Uneducated) -- If the skill is truly something important that everyone has, then they should have one of those social stigma.
2. Vow -- For skills important to a campaign, things like Vow(Will not use Guns) would be appropriate. I might even allow Vow(Will not learn guns). Things like Vow(Will not learn Astronomy) probably should not be allowed except at the quirk level in most campaigns.
3. Delusion -- For characters like Rincewind, Delusions of the from Delusion(I am a powerful Wizard) or Delusion(I am the best sword fighter in the world) would make sense. The combination Vow(Won't learn fencing), Delusion(I am the best sword fighter in the world), and Compulsive Behavior(Challenging people to duels) should be worth a whole lot of points.

That is exactly what I wanted to mean.

There are a lot of disadvantages which can already make a character incompetent. And, sorry, I don't know Rincewind enough to speak about him.

So the good way to find which advantage to take (and what is its point cost), rather than trying to build a new (and not so useful) one is to wonder: why is my character incompetent, that is, which mental or physical problem prevents him from learning that skill?

People are rarely just incompetent. They may be afraid of something, lazy, crazy enough to believe they already know the skill when they obviously don't, and so on.

If the reason is just being convinced that you cannot learn it (thanks to a bad teacher you met during school, for instance), then the quirk is the good choice. But if the problem is deeper, choosing a more severe disadvantage is a better option.