Is Alcohol considered a poison in the game?

[Judas]

If you're going to treat it as a poison, then you need to determine how much can be consumed before DC checks need to be made. Having one mug of beer shouldn't cause any harmful effects. You need to look at the amount of alcohol consumed vs. body weight. A 95 lbs. person will get drunk MUCH faster than a 250 lbs. person. I'm sure local state police and doctors, actually have a ratio chart that someone could get info from.

 

[LostSoul]

This is one of the reasons I don't really like hit points. You can't apply them to situations (like poison) that you should be able to. So you're stuck with trying to shove a nice round pint into a square peg. It doesn't seem to fit.

Here's a suggestion:

Make a Fort Save vs. the drink. (DC 7 for a pint/shot; more or less for other types)
Each time you fail, you lose a point off each attribute, except Charisma. (Because who the hell knows just what charisma means, anyways. )
Each additional drink tacks on 1 (or 2, depending on the type of drink) to the DC.
It takes an hour to recover from the effects of 1 drink; to recover, you make another Fort save at the current DC. (eg. You've had 6 pints in the past hour, feeling no pain, and your Fort save is 13. You can try to recover against the effects of the first drink; the DC is 13. If you pass that, you treat the first drink as if you had made the save. If you have another drink, though, the DC raises to 14.)
Emptying the beer bank might give you a +2 circumstance mod to your Fort saves.

edit: changed the DCs

 

[Macbrea]

Charisma is your presence. It would be perfectly fine to remove points off charisma. Technically, it has absolutely nothing to do with how you look. This is why a Mind flayer has such a huge charisma.


Info from the SRD

• STR 0 means that the character cannot move at all. He lies helpless on the ground.
• DEX 0 means that the character cannot move at all. He stands motionless, rigid, and helpless.
• CON 0 means that the character is dead.
• INT 0 means that the character cannot think and is unconscious in a coma like stupor, helpless.
• WIS 0 means that the character is withdrawn into a deep sleep filled with nightmares, helpless.
• CHA 0 means that the character is withdrawn into a catatonic, coma like stupor, helpless

 

[RangerWickett]

If you swing by http://www.d20reviews.com/Natural20/drink.htm you can download the free drinking rules, presented in Natural 20 Press's Tournaments, Fairs, & Taverns.

The rules are really quite simple. Each character has an Alcohol Threshold, usually equal to your Constitution. Each drink has a rating in AU (Alcohol Units) per shot. Once the total alcohol units you've imbibed exceeds your Alcohol Threshold, you're tipsy. From then, ever time you reach the next higher multiple of your Alcohol Threshold, you move on to the next level of drunkeness.

For example, Cheap Beer has an AU of 1 per shot (or 6 AU per bottle). Regdar has a Constitution of 14, and thus also an alcohol threshold of 14. It takes at least three bottles of cheap beer before he's even tipsy, and it takes 12 or more to get him plastered, assuming he drinks them straight in the span of less than an hour.

I sincerely suggest you take a look at them; they handle pretty much all your questions so far about drinking.

 

[LostSoul]

If you swing by http://www.d20reviews.com/Natural20/drink.htm you can download the free drinking rules, presented in Natural 20 Press's Tournaments, Fairs, & Taverns.

I'm not really fond of these rules because they introduce things you don't see anywhere else - liquor strengths, new character states, etc. That's probably based on the D&D rules themselves, though (with oddities like hit points).

 

[LostSoul]

Charisma is your presence. It would be perfectly fine to remove points off charisma. Technically, it has absolutely nothing to do with how you look. This is why a Mind flayer has such a huge charisma.

So you should gain Charisma points then, when drinking.

Here's my rationale: nobody ever sees a quiet drunk. When you're smashed, everyone knows. That's a lot of presence.

The problem is, some people open up and are much more sociable when drunk (Cha bonus). Other people turn mean and nasty (Cha penalty). So you can't really go either way.

 

[SteelDraco]

STR 0 means that the character cannot move at all. He lies helpless on the ground.
DEX 0 means that the character cannot move at all. He stands motionless, rigid, and helpless.
CON 0 means that the character is dead.
INT 0 means that the character cannot think and is unconscious in a coma like stupor, helpless.
WIS 0 means that the character is withdrawn into a deep sleep filled with nightmares, helpless.
CHA 0 means that the character is withdrawn into a catatonic, coma like stupor, helpless

Heh. I've seen all these effects from drinking (well, except for the CON 0 one, but it does happen). If you're going to classify alcohol as a poison in D&D terms, it's going to be a darned strange one. I have noticed that different drinks have different effects - something to consider. I'd probably go with more than 'generic alcohol'. As a general rule, though, I'd say that Dex and Wis are the most affected stats. The DC would vary based on the drink, as would the dosage. I'd put beer at DC 11 or so, with a dose representing your typical cup. Primary is 1d2 Dex, secondary 1d2 Wis.

As a side note, I have played the unfortunate dwarven druid who couldn't get drunk before. Great character - that was just one of his little quirks. He ended up carrying chemicals that reproduced the effects, and he'd spike his own drinks with them. Quite a bit stronger than normal alcohol, though - he did have a 20 Con. His badger animal companion drank whiskey out of a dish.