Effect of smoking pot?

[WSmith]

Hey! Don't rag on Dark Star! That was one of my favorite cartoons as a kid! I loved that funky sword!

Me thinks we are talking about two different Dark Stars. I never saw a cartoon, but a movie about some guys getting stranded in space, with a beachball alien locked in the other part of the ship. It was the kind of movie you would see the guys on MST3K would make fun of.

 

[Pielorinho]

I wanna elaborate on my last post.

Before you decide on effects, you should decide: are you gonna make dreadweed totally negative, totally positive, or somewhere in-between?

Decide also whether the negatives and positives will be rules-based or not. It's possible, though difficult, to encourage a drug-habit amongst your PCs when the positives are non-rules-based and the negatives are rules-based. (That is, dreadweed makes you feel totally groovy, but you suffer a -2 to three ability scores).

This player clearly wants there to be at least some positive effects to the drug, and I'd encourage you to allow such effects to exist. Just make sure they're overbalanced with penalties: otherwise, you'll have a party full of druggies, rather than just the one. A prestige class might gradually eliminate the penalties.

Think about the original assassins, who used hashish to work themselves into a bloodlust; or about the early Sufis, who drank coffee to make it through their long rituals; or about ancient Inca runners, who chewed coca leaves to dull their sensitivity to pain. All of these folks suffered some drawbacks to the use of the drug, but they believed the benefits outweighed the drawbacks.

Daniel

 

[Neowolf]

On the other hand, speaking as a pagan there's a long tradition of seeking enlightenment through drugs (mushrooms, peyote, etc.) so why not go with his prestige class idea? If it isn't unbalancing and doesn't spoil anyone's fun, and if it isn't totally outside the campaign's flavor, it might be worth a look into.

I'd agree with you in the context you put it in, but with all due respect this doesn't seem to be the situation. I agree that a shamanistic character concept would be appropriate for many fantasy settings, but if the guy's pretending to be Cheech, he's not in it for religious or spiritual reasons.

Alcamtar, just out of curiosity, how old is this player? I've noticed that a lot of the people who obsess about drugs and alcohol are generally the ones who are much too young to really know anything about the subject (seems especially common among young teenagers).

 

[AGGEMAM]

Unless you have a PC that's running around nude with a pair of scissors in his hands and want to share it..now THAT is funny!

Edward Scissorhand ??

 

[Alcamtar]

I'd agree with you in the context you put it in, but with all due respect this doesn't seem to be the situation. I agree that a shamanistic character concept would be appropriate for many fantasy settings, but if the guy's pretending to be Cheech, he's not in it for religious or spiritual reasons.

Alcamtar, just out of curiosity, how old is this player? I've noticed that a lot of the people who obsess about drugs and alcohol are generally the ones who are much too young to really know anything about the subject (seems especially common among young teenagers).

Oh, early 30s. In real life he wouldn't touch the stuff (AFAIK), so your point about naivete may still be valid. At least he doens't play ALL his characters this way!

He does act like Cheech (sort of) and the character is totally non-religious, but he also wants some sort of mystical enlightenment. Some of his suggestions were gaining free metamagic feats or something like that as part of a prestige class.

I think what I'm going to do is apply some fairly stiff penalties, but still allow some benefits -- things like Vision or Contact Other Plane -- but only when he gets REALLY stoned, and even then there is the chance of having a "bad trip" (Phantasmal Killer, Nightmare, etc). He probably won't care about minor penalties since his character is a practical joker and half the time he just stands around in a drugged stupor casting cantrips on other party members, having conversations with his familiar, interacting with hallucinations, and similar nonsense. But if he starts having trouble remembering spells (or miscalculating the area of his fireballs!) I think he'll at least back off a bit.

He does have this weird idea that pot sharpens your mind and reflexes though (which may be why he thinks it's cool), and I haven't managed to convince him otherwise.

Mike

 

[bushfire]

I have a PC who insists on smoking "dreadweed" every chance he gets (and generally acting like a stoner). It has been established in the campaign that this is a pot-like herb which can be smoked or mixed into food. It has somewhat mild effects like pot, although it can also cause hallucinations as powerful as a phantasmal force. Behaviorally, the character acts like Cheech and Chong, Bill and Ted, the guys on "Dark Star", etc. He's also always trying to push it on NPCs or sneak it into their food.

The player is so into it he thinks his wizard should get special magical abilities from it and wants to design a prestige class around it. OTOH I (the GM) think there should be some detrimental effect, plus I'm getting tired of the "stoner" silliness, but I don't know enough about pot to really say what it does to you.

Some things I've done in the game is draining a few points of wisdom, inflict hallucinations, having spells misfire or have unexpectedly powerful results, have the character spontaneously levitate when very stoned, lose interest in whatever he's doind and stand there in a stupor, etc.

So, what effect would pot smoking have in D&D terms? Would it affect initiative? AC? Spell memory?

Also, what magical effects might it have? I'm looking for ideas here.

Thanks,
Mike

Ok, first thing is download Ambient's "Portable Hole Full of Beer (this product contains no alcohol)"
http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=148&
(don't worry it's free) and them make him take the Reefer Madman Prestige Class

PHFoB(tpcna) also has D20 rules for Pipeweed.

 

[Master of Monkeys]

I would argue a subtraction to int and a bonus to wis. When you are really stoned (tripping stoned) your brain just thinks and thinks about all sorts of things. Also, hardcore stoners tend to remember some of the really weird thoughts they had so the bonus could get in to permanent (although one of my good friends who is a huge stoner is an idiot but thinks he is wise and says things that only sound smart).

As a point to the pagan rituals and stuff, I think I heard on the discovery channel that witches used to rub a paste made from mandrake root on their bodies and then would go unconscious and just think that they had magical powers like flight and stuff while they were under.

 

[Leopold]

Edward Scissorhand ??

no the game Postal made by running with scissors.


check out the picture

 

[Pigeon]

Speaking from past experience here (I'm a psychiatric nurse), and with no actual evidence to back me up (although I do recall reading some research on it somewhere) Smoking pot makes you more likely to develop mental health problems, especially schizophenia.

But if you are going to have your players develop schizophrenia then do it right. Paranoia - yes, hearing voices - yes, social withdrawal - yes, multiple personalities - NO.

 

[CWD]

Heck, this is a fantasy game people! Have it open him up to demonic posession or something...