On of my PCs is going INSANE! Advice needed.

[lastalas]

I agree with most posters that insanity should be more negative than positive, however it needs to be worthwhile to the PC, otherwise why bother. You want to reward his roleplaying while being realistic to the problems involved with being nuts.

I think the first step is to define the nature of his insanity...that might lead to a better understanding of how it affects him.

Let's say he is becoming schizophrenic with auditory hallucinations (he hears things like voices). This would mean that in social interactions he is penalized, he would become paranoid of many things. The fear of water is a good example. A schizophrenic wouldn't be afraid of water per se, but he could absolutely believe that there are little men who make the water move, and these little men are in league with the people who want to hurt him. Sounds crazy, but based on some of the stories I hear from people who interact with people who have sanity issues, plausible.

On the other hands, the voices make him paranoid, so he could be less likely to be surprised since he is usually on edge. Maybe he gets a bonus to critical hits because the voices help him see the vital spots, tell him how to hurt people. If in a threatened situation, his adrenaline could go into overdrive similar to the rage you mention. However, he would strike out at any one in his way...including other PCs. He may become super strong, but unlikely to be particular about who he whacks.

And this being D&D, it makes a great plot point for you. A few levels done the line, maybe everyone (including the player) learns that he isn't really going insane and the voices are real. Some demons have cursed his family line or are reaching into the Prime Material to corrupt people through some new power that must be shut down to avoid Chaos. You have so many opportunities to turn this sucker into major story arcs...I am jealous.

 

[Corsair]

Roleplaying should not have mechanical benefits. Sets bad precedent.

 

[Infiniti2000]

For the next game or two this will be characterized by further and more noticeable mood swings. Perhaps total passivity during combat or headlong confrontation that may not be advantageous to the party. His behavior will become increasingly more erratic and eccentric. He has already begun to hear voices.

Ah, so he's going for the ole' manic depressive...oops, I mean bipolar. That's the easiest one.

I want to stay away from any hard and fast phobia (afraid of water) because:
1)I think that's lame; and
2)There's no reason to develop a phobia like that at this point on the game

I got news for you then, "roleplaying" belligerence and poor combat decisions is even more lame. How about something a little less trite and interesting like dissociative identity disorder, body integrity identity disorder, or even that he thinks he's a duck? Even something like post traumatic stress disorder would be more interesting. It would be far less intrusive in the game. Though I know you said that's not a problem, I can't help but disagree.

Whatever you do, good luck and I hope it works out.

 

[nittanytbone]

Mental illness is serious and debilating. It shouldn't offer any meaningful benefits, especially in combat. Perhaps allow an occasional (once per day or week) reroll of a failed knowledge check as a "flash of insight." Otherwise, I would consider prolonged mental illness to be a disease which does 1d2 damage to all mental stats. Eventually he'll fail enough saves and drop to 0 and lose it all the way.

From a Gygaxian point of view, such a character should be killed off by the harsh laws of the jungle or expelled by the group. Afterall, he is becoming an increasing liability and hazard to group survival. The player will eventually learn to be cooperative and not dysfunctional.

If you want to seriously explore mental illness in your game, be careful how you do it. It can change the focus on the campaign, can bring up sensitivities to your players (maybe one has a relative with alzheimers or schizophrenia), and be a charged topic.

One idea is to give the PC a cursed item which is causing the insanity. Maybe he's wielding a power but cursed weapon. Now it is up to the other PCs to figure out what's going on, get a Remove Curse cast, and figure out what to do with the item. Now you've given the problem a definite reason, a solution, and can move on, while still allowing your player to have his fun for a bit.

 

[RigaMortus2]

Doesn't Book of Vile Darkness have different insanities ("mental illnesses" for the politically correct) listed in there?

 

[irdeggman]

Pg 207 of Unearthed Arcana descrobes mood insanites (including both depression and mania).

Try there. Note that there are no benefits for having an insanity though.

I would echo the sentiment that this should not provide a mechanic advantage sicne insanity is supposed to be a disadvantage. Instead I would award greater exp bonuses due to role-playing, perhaps up to 10 %. This will give the player a feeling that he is gaining something for his efforts but the other players won't feel like he is getting something special for simply choosing to have his character act in a certain manner.

 

[Cheiromancer]

I agree with most posters that insanity should be more negative than positive, however it needs to be worthwhile to the PC, otherwise why bother. You want to reward his roleplaying while being realistic to the problems involved with being nuts.

Why bother indeed. It sounds like the player is going to be disruptive (or at least a hindrance) to the group, and wants to grab the spotlight during play. Should such behavior be rewarded?

 

[Lothar2]

One way to game-mechanically have him act the way he wants is to have him affected by the "random action" spell at the begining of every combat. He could stay under that effect until he gets "act normally".

For other effects, lower his wisdom 1 or 1/2 point per charater level. Then give him a 1 point per character level bonus to will saves against enchantments. This will make him increasingly vulnerable to illusions, but less to enchantments. The reasoning is that it is diffficult to convince the insane to do anything that doesn't originate in there own mind.

You could set a critical failure threshhold for social situations that would either trigger the random action effect, or just hear or see things that aren't real.

As an aside, I think this character will likely ruin your game.

 

[Nonlethal Force]

I am glad other people are agreeing with my earlier statement (and someone's before me) that this character will likely ruin the game.

The way I see it - given the snippet of the E-mail sent - if I was a player I'd get rid of the guy. He's not reliable in combat ... when reliability is an absolute MUST! He's unreliable in social interactions ... so those characters who are social builds are going to get hosed to. The way I se it, this guy is looking for a spotlight and that spotlight will probably mean a lot less fun for the rest of the players. Why? Because spotlights are addictive. Once the player experiences the thrill of ruining (or even making an encounter more difficult than it need be) that kind of power is addictive. Ever wonder why a gaming group that gets off track is hard to get back on track? That's why.

I would advise the player to either regain sanity or get a new player. But I also said earlier that I am not a fan of this concept.

 

[Felix]

however it needs to be worthwhile to the PC, otherwise why bother. You want to reward his roleplaying while being realistic to the problems involved with being nuts.

I agree with this, BUT:

Reward role-playing hardship with role-playing benefits, not mechanical ones. Especially when you're talking about a hardship that will likely run your campaign off track.

If you're going to do it (which I advise against), I'd say keep away from the mechanical benefits. And give some insight to the cleric of the party so he can try to have the group cure him and restore his sanity. It's in the best interest of the party, really. This is more of a plot-hook than anything else; the reward to the ranger will be that his psychosis enabled an interesting side-adventure.