#bovd

Drugs as a Story Element

Although I will never support or condone the use of drugs, they can make for some awesome tragic story arcs or flawed characters. A character that uses drugs is potentially missing something else in their life that can only be filled with the drug. Reasons a character might take drugs:

To deal with strife, stress, or grief

To deal with mental illness

To fill their boredom; recreational use

To chase the high (whether or not they are addicted)

To fit in with others that do it (perhaps family or a social group)

Religion/magic (especially in the world of D&D)

Try to tie the drug use to your character's story, whether through their flaws, traits, bonds, or their ideals. If you plan for your character to tragically fall, their spiral into addiction can be a real mechanical way to track that and roleplay accordingly. The process of withdrawal can also be treated as a path to redemption in your story arc. The temptation of drugs after freeing oneself from addiction can be used to represent the character's past, bringing up memories when that temptation arises once more.

As a DM, introducing a character that uses or abuses drugs can hint that something in that NPC's past might be the culprit. It adds a layer of depth ranging from a hint of mystery to a sea of tragedy. Offering drugs to player characters (through NPCs or simply acknowledging their existence in your setting) could be symbolic of temptation or looming evil. Any player that takes this offer is giving you, as a DM, a great opportunity to tilt that PC's story arc. Single out that character for moral decisions or climactic moments and see whether the player's choices or die rolls cause them tragically fall or be redeemed. It sounds sadistic, but it will add drama to your story.

From a symbolic standpoint, drugs represent evil, vice, and pleasurable temptation. Throughout history, they have also come to be associated with magic and witchcraft. The visions presented through hallucinogens, the euphoria of uppers, and the meditative state of downers could often be seen as magic. Weaker drugs might be used by religious figures in your campaign world. Stronger drugs are more likely to be used in evil rituals to dark or forbidden gods. The use of drugs in magic, metaphorically, represents that magic is greater than mortals. The drugs help the caster reach an "enhanced" mental or physical state to be able to channel the magic. Thus, drugs in magic in D&D heightens the drama of particularly meaningful or powerful spells. Again though, this is usually associated with evil. I mean, it's from the Book of Vile Darkness, after all.

Addiction Table for D&D 5e

Addiction Rating: How addictive the drug is.

CON DC: The Difficulty Class of the Constitution saving throw made to resist addiction and withdrawal symptoms. When resisting withdrawal, this DC increases by 3 every day after the first satiation period.

Satiation: How much time can pass without the drug before an addicted character must make a saving throw to resist withdrawal symptoms.

Withdrawal Effects: When the character fails their first withdrawal saving throw, they become affected by the effects here until they can get access to the drug once more. For effects that grant multiple levels of exhaustion, this only counts for the first failed withdrawal save. After that, each failed save only imparts one level of exhaustion.

Using Drugs in D&D 5e

Taking a Drug: When a creature takes a drug, they must make a CON saving throw with a DC based on the drug’s Addiction DC as listed in the drug entry. On a failed saving throw, the creature becomes addicted. After this roll is made, the creature automatically becomes affected by the Side Effects of the drug. The creature may also make a CON saving throw to resist the primary effects of the drug, but the creature may opt to voluntarily fail this save if they wish.

Withdrawal: When a character becomes addicted to a drug, they must make a CON saving throw with a DC based on the drug’s addiction rating (see the table above) at the end of the drug’s listed satiation period. On a failed saving throw, the character suffers symptoms of withdrawal based on the drug’s addiction rating. Every day thereafter that the character does not take the drug, the character must make another saving throw. Each new saving throw that the character makes has its DC increased by 3 each day, regardless of a previous roll’s success or failure. Withdrawal symptoms and saving throws end once the character takes another dose of the drug.

Recovery: If a character makes two successful saving throws in a row for withdrawal saves, the character overcomes the addiction. However, the drug leaves a lasting impression on the character. The addiction rating for all drugs increase by one level permanently (just for that character). This represents how dangerous relapses can be, even if the character finds a new addiction.

List of Drugs

All drugs here are taken from the D&D 3e Book of Vile Darkness (I didn't add any new ones). I basically scaled their DCs down the higher they were and replaced ability damage with more 5e-friendly concepts. Drugs count as poisons for the purposes of determining immunity or resistance. Drugs can be crafted by spending half the drug’s price in materials and making an INT check using Alchemists Supplies. See a drug’s description for its crafting DC.

My last few posts, which I took the time to type instead of just looking for interesting content (pftt, effort? Not ever day) and reblogging, were summaries of the characters I've played enough to really get to know as well as a couple other characters who seemed significant. Many of my favourite characters and/or builds I've never been able to play. Perhaps my favourite would be a character I built to resemble Slenderman. This was another 3e build.

I started with a human for the bonus feat. Knowing I might become useless in many regions due to specialization I wasn't afraid to use some Unearthed Arcana flaws to pick up the extra two feats I needed. If I remember correctly most of the feats were from the Book of Vile Darkness (such a beautiful book, 3.0 unfortunately but we were playing with any books available) and a couple from the 3.5 upgrade Hero's of Horror. There was the mutilation feat, which allowed for other mutilation feats. One was my body had been stretched well over seven feet tall, and my arms as well. This gave me a longer reach. My hands had been broken, graphed, altered and made into a tool; essentially claws in exchange for a negative on Dex checks. This also turned my hands into an effective weapon dealing 1d6 damage. Improved trip was in there too, I'm feeling I'm going to need to find my paper for this character to post the other feats for that's all that's coming to mind.

As for an outfit and general appearance: pale skin, dark eyes, and black fine clothes. A small black backpack held a few visible toys such as a sickle, while my hand held a scythe (what's more evil than a sickle and a scythe?). When I spoke for this character I used a voice which accentuated 's' 'c' 'k' 'x' and elongated vowels when it seemed appropriate. My speech mannerism was built on getting the job done, suggesting morally terrible actions, and murmuring possible threats. The rest was left open ended as I could leave it. My goal was for the other characters to build an image, which was rather uniform after discussing it with them. I feel I succeeded in building a character and not just a character build.

As for class I was a Cleric of Darkness and Artifice. This made for some nice 'n evil resembling magic and easier crafting, which came in handy for one of my specializations which I'll mention soon. The cleric spells were a nice bonus for many of them were touch spells. What happens when you have touch spells, improved trip, reach, and an effective unarmed attack? Attacks of opportunity for days. When someone got close and I didn't swing at them with the extra range granted by having reach and a reach weapon, I could make an opportunity attack. Inflict 'x' wounds, +1d6 slashing, plus a free trip attempt (I'm not sure if this is a situation where the free trip was permitted according to RAW but the DM allowed it). Not much got close to me.

Now that I've built an appearance, mannerism, weapon set, series of feats, and picked a class which would allow me to exersize these all well, there was still lots of room for specialization of skills. Craft (Poison) was an easy choice. Not only is poison crafting the best crafting for money making, but it seemed to be just one more potentially evil feature to add. Finding all the rules in one place in a book was difficult but a few guides exist across popular forums. Lots of notes, double checking books, and asking the DM what I could and couldn't reasonably expect to find if I were to look for (this was one of the big flaws of poison which I'll discuss in another post dedicated more to the topic) lead to a good understanding of the aspect of game; which became more and more disappointing with more research. I stuck to it however, and carried around what was needed to whip up a mean brew (given I had four to eight hours of free time, could hit the target, and not kill it before the poison was actually useful).

That said, the soul eater PRC was pretty damn cool.