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New Spell: Befuddlement
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<blockquote data-quote="Wofano Wotanto" data-source="post: 9428476" data-attributes="member: 7044704"><p>"Feeble-minded" used to be a medical term, part of a spectrum of descriptors for "mental deficiencies" that also included idiot, imbecile, and moron. They're all closely associated with the pseudoscientific eugenics movements of the early 1900s, although feeble-minded has been a catch-all way to call someone unintelligent since the early 1500s. When eugenics was largely debunked all those words almost universally reverted to their original vernacular usage as insults.</p><p></p><p>Amusingly, "Befuddle" most accurately means "to make drunk" so the spell presumably involve magically manipulating your target's blood alcohol content. Going by that, saving throws should be based on Con and really hardcore drinkers (and folks with poison resistances) ought to get bonuses. It would be ancestrist to suggest that Dwarves might be particularly resistant.</p><p></p><p>When (inevitably) someone starts railing against the removal of a perfectly good adjective from the English lexicon because a bunch of quacks used it for their racist agendas ~120 years ago, be sure to point out that addlepate, lackwit, saddle-goose, zounderkite and dullard are all still as politically correct as they've always been. If there's one thing English has a surfeit of, it's ways to call someone none to bright.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Wofano Wotanto, post: 9428476, member: 7044704"] "Feeble-minded" used to be a medical term, part of a spectrum of descriptors for "mental deficiencies" that also included idiot, imbecile, and moron. They're all closely associated with the pseudoscientific eugenics movements of the early 1900s, although feeble-minded has been a catch-all way to call someone unintelligent since the early 1500s. When eugenics was largely debunked all those words almost universally reverted to their original vernacular usage as insults. Amusingly, "Befuddle" most accurately means "to make drunk" so the spell presumably involve magically manipulating your target's blood alcohol content. Going by that, saving throws should be based on Con and really hardcore drinkers (and folks with poison resistances) ought to get bonuses. It would be ancestrist to suggest that Dwarves might be particularly resistant. When (inevitably) someone starts railing against the removal of a perfectly good adjective from the English lexicon because a bunch of quacks used it for their racist agendas ~120 years ago, be sure to point out that addlepate, lackwit, saddle-goose, zounderkite and dullard are all still as politically correct as they've always been. If there's one thing English has a surfeit of, it's ways to call someone none to bright. [/QUOTE]
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