Drinking Rules
Alcohol is treated as a specialized poison. Ales and wines usually have a fortitude save DC of 10-15, most human spirits a 15-20 dwarven or special spirits would have a 21+. Like most poisons, continued “doses” increase the DC of checks that must be made to stave off drunkenness.
Inebriation
When a character consumes alcoholic beverages in excess, they go through gradual states of inebriation. Characters can consume one drink per 6 points of Constitution, per hour, without having to make any checks. As soon as this ratio of beverage/time is exceeded, characters must make checks for each alcoholic beverage to avoid entering Stage I of inebriation.
Stage I
After a failed fort save at the DC of the beverage being consumed, the character gets a +2 morale bonus to physical stats for 1d4 hours. Additional alcoholic intake within this time requires Fortitude saves at a -2 Morale penalty to avoid going to Stage II. The temporary Constitution bonus to fort saves does not apply to drinking fort saves.
Stage II
Upon entering Stage II, the character must immediately make a second Fort save at the DC of the beverage that caused them to enter this stage. Failure indicates taking 1d8 subdual damage. While in Stage II, the character takes a -2 temporary morale penalty to all mental stats, but keeps the benefits from Stage I. The Stage II penalties have a separate 1d4 hour window from the Stage I bonuses.
Stage III
After a failed fort save while continuing to drink while in Stage II, the following occurs -
Character loses all benefits from Stage I
Character takes an additional -2 penalty on ALL stats for 1d4 hours. These negatives are innate, and stack with the penalties from Stage II.
Character must make a secondary Fortitude save at the adjusted DC of the imbibed liquid, or lose consciousness or “black out” for 2d4 hours.
Hangovers
If a character reaches Stage II or III of inebriation, they must make a Fortitude save at a DC of what they were drinking (if mixing drinks, they take the highest DC and add 2 for each additional alcohol source) or become hungover when the benefits/penalties of their inebriation state wear off.
Hungover characters are treated as Fatigued, but undertaking any activity which requires a check which is affected by statistics (attacks, skills, some spells) cause them to become exhausted. The duration of a hangover is 1d4 hours for each hour spent Inebriated.
DM may rule that repeated exposure to high levels of drunkenness, or extended periods of hung-over exhaustion may have longer-term detrimental effects on a character (subdual damage or stat penalties which require abstinence and rest to go away).
Magical Mitigation of Alcohol Effects
Unlike normal poisons, alcohol is not affected by neutralize poison, but restoration and similar spells can mitigate the effects of both hangovers and drunkeness.
Any time a drinker fails a fortitude save which would progress them to inebriation, they can opt to vomit, in lieu of progressing. This reduces a drinker one stage of inebriation, but penalties to fort saves for continued exposures continue to last until the character has had a full rest, instead of the normal 1d4 hours. If a character vomits more than once in a drinking bout, they immediately become Fatigued, and they will have a hangover which lasts a minimum 8 hours, even if they are only at Stage I. Monks and Druids are still affected by alcohol, regardless of class abilities, but Dwarves +2 racial bonus against poison also carries over to alcohol. Most creatures with an immunity to poison will have a bolstered resistance to inebriation, like dwarves.
Source:
Statistics: Posted by Boric Glanduum — Wed Dec 28, 2016 8:13 pm
]]>
]]>
Pathfinder Advice: How to Handle Zero Ranks in Knowledge
by Creighton Broadhurst
Knowledge is power, and canny adventurers learn all they can about their foes and where they live. However, sometimes it’s not that simple…
In my Borderland of Adventure campaign we’ve recently started running the Shattered Star adventure path. We’ve been having a blast. Part 1—Shards of Sin by Greg A. Vaughan—is very well written, and the various mini-dungeons and encounters are inventive, atmospheric and engaging.
However, we’ve run into a problem.
During character generation, I encouraged my players to create characters dedicated to saving Ratik from a growing, ancient evil. They took to this with gusto and the party ended up looking like this:
Aq Quyonlu (LG male human paladin [Aq] 1)
Grooble Fizzlebottom III (LG male gnome cleric [Baravan Wildwanderer] 1)
Kara Quyonlu (N female human sorcerer [undead] 1)
Narfu Shalmstaff (LN male half-orc monk 1)
Nylond Axeheart (NG male dwarf cleric [Muamman Duathal] 1)
Tristham Spicer (LG male human paladin [Heironeous] 1)
As quicky became evident during game play, we’ve run into a bit of a problem—with the exception of Knowledge (religion) and Knowledge (arcana) the party have no knowledge skills! While this might be resolved somewhat as our heroes gain levels (and possibly multi-class) at the moment they’re struggling. I thought I’d never say it, but man do they need a bard!
Knowledge is power, after all, and in several encounters they’ve failed to get useful—or even vital—information. For example, a few weeks ago, Aq (one of the paladins) was bitten by a wererat. Putting aside the party don’t know what a wererats is, they also don’t know that at the next full moon, they could suddenly have a rather pressing problem on their hands! On one level, this doesn’t matter; if Aq has indeed been infected with lycanthropy (Hi Alec!) it’s sure to generate some fantastic roleplaying moments and be jolly memorable. On the other hand, Aq’s potential infection could derail the campaign and possibly even lead to the paladin’s death.
This has led me to ponder exactly what information someone without any ranks in a given Knowledge skill knows.
Although Knowledge is a trained skill, characters can make Knowledge checks as long as the DC is 10 or lower. This means, a character with no ranks in a given Knowledge skill can:
Answer really easy questions on a given subject (DC 10).
Identify common monsters such as goblins (DC 5 + CR) but not their special powers or vulnerabilities.
Example Really Easy Questions
The core rulebook provides some sample DCs for various Knowledge checks. The following questions all have a DC of 10:
Identify mineral, stone or metal (dungeoneering).
Identify dangerous construction (engineering).
Identify a creature’s ethnicity or accent (geography).
Know recent or historically significant event (history).
Know local laws, rulers and popular locations (local).
Identify a common plant or animal (nature).
Know current rulers and their symbols (nobility).
Know the names of the planes (planes).
Recognise a common deity’s symbol or clergy (religion).
Taking 10
A character taking 10 (assuming an Intelligence score of 10 or more) automatically knows all the above information. Of course, the character can only do this when not in danger or distracted so while he may not recognise the holy symbol of an enemy priest in battle, he should be able to work it out afterwards. Similarly, while the character may not know the ins and outs of a local area, he should know enough to get around.
Furthermore, if a character has access to an extensive library that covers a specific subject, the DC 10 check limit is removed, meaning that with enough time a character can theoretically learn almost anything. That’s rather handy, when time is not critical.
A Final Word—Common Sense Strikes!
Some characters must know more that what can be revealed with a DC 10 check because of their background, race or even class. Sometimes a GM needs to override the rules above, and apply some common sense.
For example, a dwarf fighter was once a miner and has ranks in Profession (miner). Even though he might not have ranks in Knowledge (dungeoneering) he’ll know more than normal about mines and their perils. In this example, a GM could simply rule the PC knows the relevant information or perhaps allow him (within reason) to use Profession (miner) in place of Knowledge (dungeoneering) when in a mine.
Similarly, the same dwarf should be able to identify his racial enemies (orcs, goblins and giants) with a fair degree of accuracy. Given he either hates them with a passion (goblinoids and orcs) or has trained specifically to fight them (giant subclass creatures) he should probably recognise them when they face him across the battlefield.
Applying this kind of common sense to Knowledge checks rewards a character for taking the time to write a background or for choosing to sink skill ranks into Profession and Craft skills. Given these kinds of decisions tend to build more organic, believable characters and often lead to more roleplaying I think it makes sense to rewards such choices.
What do you think?
Statistics: Posted by Boric Glanduum — Mon Mar 30, 2015 1:49 pm
]]>
Statistics: Posted by Greylen — Mon Jun 27, 2011 1:15 pm
]]>
Published: 06/25/2011, Last Updated: 06/27/2011 02:19am
Wizards of the Coast has downsized its Dungeons & Dragons creative team. Included in the layoffs was Bill Slavicsek, WotC’s Director of Roleplaying Design and Development, who joined TSR in 1993 after a stint a West End Games where he oversaw the development of West End’s Star Wars RPG. Slavicsek, who wrote the second and third editions of A Guide to the Star Wars Universe, is considered one of the world’s leading Star Wars experts.
In a farewell statement posted on the Wizards Website Slavicsek noted the projects he had worked on since WotC acquired TSR and moved the staff from Lake Geneva to Seattle: “I’ve had the pleasure of working closely with a talented group of creative people over the years, and we accomplished such feats as launching both the 3rd and 4th editions of the D&D roleplaying game, creating d20 Modern and d20 Star Wars, launching painted plastic miniatures for D&D, creating new worlds such as Eberron and the D&D Core World, and most recently launching a new category of D&D board games that started with Castle Ravenloft.â€
Statistics: Posted by Boric Glanduum — Mon Jun 27, 2011 12:26 pm
]]>
[color=darkblue]Save Versus Epiphany
Just realized something yesterday afternoon that I hadn’t realized till now…Saving Throws are just as abstract as any other part of D&D’s combat system.
I mean, sure, it says as much in the rules, but I just didn’t “get it,â€
Statistics: Posted by Boric Glanduum — Thu Sep 09, 2010 12:25 pm
]]>
I still haven't gotten any further than when I last posted.
Statistics: Posted by Boric Glanduum — Tue Jul 14, 2009 2:24 pm
]]>
]]>
I thought the same thing and have valiantly tried to plow through the first 100 pages.
Wow.
Talk about nearly unreadable. A 10th-grader on LSD could write so well.
Statistics: Posted by Boric Glanduum — Wed Jul 01, 2009 10:06 am
]]>
Statistics: Posted by Zanther — Fri Jun 26, 2009 8:59 am
]]>
]]>
]]>
]]>
]]>
Yeah, I know....big loss, right?
But take a look at this wicked (I mean this as in "wicked good") gnome druid. THAT'S one I'd almost be willing to play...well....If I was a girl....
Heh.
(oh yeah....why is this in the Dragon Mag section of the forum? Well.... since the picture is from Paizo, I figured it was fitting.)
Statistics: Posted by Boric Glanduum — Thu May 29, 2008 10:34 am
]]>