Insanity impacting which ability score?
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the Jester
Legend
I too recommend using the Madness prestige domain ability as your base. In short, the character's Madness score increases her Wisdom for spellcasting purposes but decreases it for all other purposes. So your wis 20 cleric with a madness score of 9 functions as if her wis was only 11 for spot checks, will saves, etc. but as if it were a whopping 29 for spell purposes!
MWAHAHAHA!
MWAHAHAHA!
Crothian
First Post
I don't know. It could be something like a disease, but that would be to easy to cure. It it could be rulked as just specail damage from either a mental disorder or physical injury, however, restporation might be able to cure that as well. So, I guess it depends on how you want it to be defined , but anyway it's done it seems really easy to cure.
Another PrC example: the Mad Tailor from Librum Equitis 2 has the character become manic-depressive. They roll every morning for mood, and get bonuses or penalties accordingly. It's not perfect in terms of realism, but sounds like it would work faily well as a game mechanic. In Star Wars 2e, I rememeber some cases where a character would be forced to make some willpower checks to resist urges to do things if they were somewhat obsessive-compulsive. I think that mechanic could be transfered to 3e without much dificulty.
In general, I don't think that penalizing a stat is a great way to go to show insanity. Some extra checks or other rolls seem to model it better. Of course, I think that "insane" is also to broad of a word to describe most cases in a way that can easily turn them into gaming numbers. In the case you described, I would think that the character would be more likely to become paranoid about his old god or church plotting his demise. Maybe every time he is faced with something revealing the presence of either, he would have to make a check or become feared?
In general, I don't think that penalizing a stat is a great way to go to show insanity. Some extra checks or other rolls seem to model it better. Of course, I think that "insane" is also to broad of a word to describe most cases in a way that can easily turn them into gaming numbers. In the case you described, I would think that the character would be more likely to become paranoid about his old god or church plotting his demise. Maybe every time he is faced with something revealing the presence of either, he would have to make a check or become feared?
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dcollins
Explorer
Well, the core spell insanity produces a continuous confusion effect, which randomizes their behavior 9-rounds-out-of-10 (more or less) but changes no ability scores.
If that's not satisfying, I'd dig out a 1st Ed. DMG which had far more detailed insanity descriptions for 20 different specific ailments.
If that's not satisfying, I'd dig out a 1st Ed. DMG which had far more detailed insanity descriptions for 20 different specific ailments.
In the Freeport series of modules its mentioned that a character inflicted with a type of insanity drops to zero Wisdom and is essentially inactive, consumed by some sort of nightmare.
I was thinking about how this works out, and I'm not sure it exactly does. I started a thread a couple months back called something like "The Meaning of Wisdom" which had some interesting comments in it. I noted that there's a big gap in the Wisdom table; that the average Orc is WIS 8 and the next lowest creature is a Shrieker at WIS 2. So what is the meaning of WIS 5 or so? My favorite suggestion was that the victim's perception of reality is becoming so distorted that they might see an advancing Troll or a nearby cliff, but not consider either to be actually dangerous. Anyway, it seems by the time you are WIS 2 you can respond in kinda a binary way to outside stimulus, but by the time you are WIS 1 (Gelatinous Cube) you just go happily about your amoeba-like business. Your ability to make a wise plan about the future has diminished to utterly nothing.
Anyway, this works ok for WIS damage and it simulates an insanity that's like Catatonia. (If Catatonia is not what you want, then I wouldnt suggest going down the WIS damage road. Unless you find a good answer to the Wisdom question above. ;-) Its definitely a tricky business, I look forward to any really cool suggestions people come up with. Surely the Call of Cthulhu game must have all kinds of good stuff?
I was thinking about how this works out, and I'm not sure it exactly does. I started a thread a couple months back called something like "The Meaning of Wisdom" which had some interesting comments in it. I noted that there's a big gap in the Wisdom table; that the average Orc is WIS 8 and the next lowest creature is a Shrieker at WIS 2. So what is the meaning of WIS 5 or so? My favorite suggestion was that the victim's perception of reality is becoming so distorted that they might see an advancing Troll or a nearby cliff, but not consider either to be actually dangerous. Anyway, it seems by the time you are WIS 2 you can respond in kinda a binary way to outside stimulus, but by the time you are WIS 1 (Gelatinous Cube) you just go happily about your amoeba-like business. Your ability to make a wise plan about the future has diminished to utterly nothing.
Anyway, this works ok for WIS damage and it simulates an insanity that's like Catatonia. (If Catatonia is not what you want, then I wouldnt suggest going down the WIS damage road. Unless you find a good answer to the Wisdom question above. ;-) Its definitely a tricky business, I look forward to any really cool suggestions people come up with. Surely the Call of Cthulhu game must have all kinds of good stuff?
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I would defintely look at CoC if you want some really detailed insanity rules.
Note that in a standard DnD world, many kinds of insanity are curable via spells like Restoration and its bigger brothers.
If you want to go with ability damage, Wis is defintely the way to go with insanity. If I remember correctly, one of the MM monsters (the Allip) has a touch attack that is supposed to drive the target insane. This effect is represented by 1d4 Wisdom drain. The real problem with using ability damage this way is that it leaves the insanity portion completely up to whoever is playing the character.
It would be theoretically possible to continue to play the character exactly as before (although this would be bad role-playing.) CoC will give you a good number of real world mental disorders, and in-game ways of making sure they are played out at least somewhat.
The Maddness Clerical domain is a good way to have an insane Clerical spell caster that can actually cast spells. It probably works better than straight Wisdom drain, again if you want to go with the ability damage route.
As a final note, a powerful Cleric of a Neutral God turning his back on his God to become a Lich isn't automatically insane. Some Neutral Gods might not even care. If that is a story affect, thats all and good. Just making sure you weren't laboring under a false pretense.
Note that in a standard DnD world, many kinds of insanity are curable via spells like Restoration and its bigger brothers.
If you want to go with ability damage, Wis is defintely the way to go with insanity. If I remember correctly, one of the MM monsters (the Allip) has a touch attack that is supposed to drive the target insane. This effect is represented by 1d4 Wisdom drain. The real problem with using ability damage this way is that it leaves the insanity portion completely up to whoever is playing the character.
It would be theoretically possible to continue to play the character exactly as before (although this would be bad role-playing.) CoC will give you a good number of real world mental disorders, and in-game ways of making sure they are played out at least somewhat.
The Maddness Clerical domain is a good way to have an insane Clerical spell caster that can actually cast spells. It probably works better than straight Wisdom drain, again if you want to go with the ability damage route.
As a final note, a powerful Cleric of a Neutral God turning his back on his God to become a Lich isn't automatically insane. Some Neutral Gods might not even care. If that is a story affect, thats all and good. Just making sure you weren't laboring under a false pretense.
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