Effects of Torture

[Zephalon]

Attention: This topic is vile mature content

I dm'ed last weekend a dungeon crawl sort of adventure which left one dwarf as a prisoner of a sadistic goblin shaman (you all know how much love goblins have for dwarves). The other adventurers had to flee (they ran naked out of the dungeon screaming for help *harhar*). So now to give the dwarf a chance to survive (get rescued) I figured that the shaman would torture him for awhile before sacrificing him to Maglubiyet.

My house rule was
- successful Fortitude save vs. DC 10 for each 8 hours of torture or suffer permanent ability loss depending on the type of torture.

Types are:
- disfigurement (CHA -1 & CON -1)
he burnt his facial hair and skin
- crippling (DEX -1 & CON -1)
- weakening (STR -1 & CON -1)
- slowly murdering (CON -2)

Additionally the PC looses half his hit points (no save).

Is the permanent ability loss too much? Are there any rules governing this?

 

[mkletch]

I rarely use torture as a game device, but I would vary between temporary and permanent ability damage. Perhaps temporary at first, then, after you ran out of temporary (if you wanted to kill the PC, you easily could), start substituting temporary for permanent. This way, you can drag it out longer. Or, make it random (1-17 temporary, 18-20 permanent).

-Fletch!

 

[AuraSeer]

It doesn't sound too bad to me, as long as "permanent" doesn't mean "unfixable."

If you're applying normal ability drain that doesn't heal over time, but can be fixed by Restoration, I see no problem with what you're doing. But if you actually want to reduce the PC's ability scores forever and incurably, I'd say you're being very harsh. Just killing the guy would be simpler, since he could always gain back the lost level.

 

[Zephalon]

I agree, it's not unfixable, it's like ability drain. Restoration is not yet in the capability of the group, so it's not as easy to come by.

 

[heirodule]

my recent slavery idea

My idea is to do something similar for slavery.

If you are whipped down to a staggered condition, you have to make a will save or become shaken.

Each week you may try a more difficult will save to become non-shaken.

If you cry out during a whipping you lose 1d6 points of charisma, representing your being "broken" (for torture, you'd "spill it"). It's a fortitude save to avoid crying out, modifiied by charisma.

 

[mkletch]

Re: my recent slavery idea

My idea is to do something similar for slavery.

If you are whipped down to a staggered condition, you have to make a will save or become shaken.

Each week you may try a more difficult will save to become non-shaken.

If you cry out during a whipping you lose 1d6 points of charisma, representing your being "broken" (for torture, you'd "spill it"). It's a fortitude save to avoid crying out, modifiied by charisma.

Very interesting. Wonder how this will be covered in BoVD?

-Fletch!

 

[Zephalon]

Re: my recent slavery idea

My idea is to do something similar for slavery.

If you are whipped down to a staggered condition, you have to make a will save or become shaken.

Each week you may try a more difficult will save to become non-shaken.

If you cry out during a whipping you lose 1d6 points of charisma, representing your being "broken" (for torture, you'd "spill it"). It's a fortitude save to avoid crying out, modifiied by charisma.

Good idea, but wouldn't a will save be more appropriate to withstand crying out?

 

[kreynolds]

Re: Re: my recent slavery idea

Good idea, but wouldn't a will save be more appropriate to withstand crying out?

I would go with a Will save as well.

 

[AuraSeer]

I'd be more inclined to use a Fortitude save there. That would let the big macho Conan-type more likely to resist beatings than the spindly sickly wizard-type.

 

[craig copeland]

Rules Shmules!

If the dwarf has always been tough as nails and would rather die than make a sound, they'll just beat him harder. Skip rolls and checks and roll play. If the wizard knows to suck up his pride and squeal and pretend to be wholly broken to buy time, let him. I'm still haunted by memories of 13 yr old geeks making up percentile charts to see of they could find paid companions in bars or how well they performed. (shudder)

Dice Rolls Bad! Role Playing Good!