Drugs & Addiction

Drugs and alcohol function similarly to poisons in many ways. What mainly sets apart drugs from poisons is that drugs generally provide some benefit to the user in addition to a penalty and, although ingesting drugs is generally less deadly to the user than ingesting poison, prolonged or heavy drug use can be just as life-threatening and an addiction can be as debilitating as any disease.

Each drug has a listed onset time, onset effect, effect, duration, and side-effects. Some drugs take effect immediately and have no listed onset time. Each drug only provides the listed effect when a full dose is administered, but a creature can still suffer the side-effects of a drug if they are exposed to less than a dose (such as by mishandling the drug).

Onset Time: The amount of time after the drug was administered before the drug begins to take effect.

Onset Effect: A one-time effect that happens immediately as soon as the onset time expires and, if applicable, lasts for the duration of the drug. Some onset effects may be similar to side-effects, but do not affect creatures who are only exposed to the side-effects of a drug (such as by accidental exposure). Additional doses of the drug taken before the duration expires may provide an additional onset effect after the onset time expires, if applicable.

Effect: The effect of the drug, which persists for the duration. Additional doses of the drug taken before the duration expires do not change the effect.

Duration: Once the onset time expires, the effect of the drug persists for the listed duration. Additional doses of the drug taken before the duration expires renew the full duration but do not stack additively together.

Side-Effects: The side-effects of a drug take place when the duration expires, and may include secondary effects that persist for a listed duration. A Fortitude save is made against the DC of the drug when the duration expires. Additional doses of the drug taken before the duration expires increase the save DC by +2 for each additional dose. A successful save avoids any side effects from that dose.

Much like poisons, drugs fall into four categories: contact, ingested, inhaled, and injury.

Contact: Contact drugs are intended to be applied to the skin, like a salve or an ointment. Applying a contact drug is usually a full-round action that provokes attacks of opportunity, requiring contact with bare skin. A creature applying a contact drug to another creature generally requires the use of gloves or an applicator tool and carries with it a 5% chance of also affecting the administering creature with the side-effect of the drug (certain abilities and class features may remove the chance of accidental exposure). Contact drugs usually have a short onset time.

Ingested: Ingested drugs are swallowed either as a part of food and drink or in pill or potion form, and consuming a contact drug usually uses the same action as drinking a potion. Preparing and administering ingested drugs usually carries no risk of another creature being affected by the side-effect of the drug. Ingested drugs usually have the longest onset time.

Inhaled: Inhaled drugs generally come in two varieties: vapors and powders. Creatures that do not need to breathe cannot be accidentally exposed to inhaled drugs, and creatures that do not breathe at all cannot be exposed to them.

Vapors can fill an area and expose multiple creatures to the same dose of the drug, and generally have a fairly long onset time. A single dose of a vapor drug fills a 5-foot cube. A creature that ends its turn in this space is exposed to the drug. A creature that spends at least 2 consecutive turns (ending its turn in that space and remaining there for its entire next turn) in an adjacent space is also exposed to the drug. A creature in an adjacent space may reduce this to 1 turn by spending a move action to deeply inhale the vapor. If a creature passes through the target area or an adjacent space but does not linger long enough for a full dose, it instead receives only the side-effects. A creature can hold its breath to avoid inhaling the vapor, though if it was not holding its breath before it entered the affected area this only has a 50% chance of being effective. Vapor drugs generally linger in the target area for a period of time and can affect multiple creatures.

Powders are inhaled directly by a creature, and usually do not have an onset time. A creature may inhale a powder as a move action as long as it has the dose ready and at hand. One creature cannot administer a powder effectively to another, and attempting to do so exposes the administering creature to a 10% risk of suffering from the side-effects (certain abilities and class features may remove the chance of accidental exposure).

Injury: Injury drugs are similar to contact drugs, in that they are applied directly to an open wound. An injury drug cannot be applied to an undamaged creature, but a willing creature may receive 1 point of damage as a part of administering the drug. Administering an injury drug to a damaged creature may use the same action as applying a contact drug but carries no risk of accidental exposure. Administering an injury drug to an uninjured creature is a 1 round action that provokes attacks of opportunity and is interrupted if the administering creature takes damage. If the action is interrupted, the target creature still receives 1 point of damage from the failed attempt. Injury drugs usually do not have an onset time.

Addiction
When a character makes regular use of a drug, they risk becoming addicted to that drug and suffering additional penalties when deprived of it. A character that is affected by a drug (whether a full dose or merely the side-effects), must make Fortitude and Will saves at the end of the day to avoid becoming addicted to that drug. If both saves are successful, the character suffers no ill effects from their drug use. Otherwise, compare degrees of success and failure to determine whether the character suffers from an addiction. With one successful save and one failed save, the character suffers from a mild addiction. If the successful save had an additional degree of success and the failed save had no additional degrees of failure, this makes up for the failed save and the character is not addicted. Likewise, if one save failed by an additional degree of failure, the successful save would require two additional degrees of success to overcome it. If both saves fail, but neither has an additional degree of failure, the character suffers from a moderate addiction. If either or both failed saves have an additional degree of failure (or there were two more degrees of failure than there were degrees of success on a mixed result of saves), the character suffers from a severe addiction. The DC of a save to avoid becoming addicted is equal to the base DC to avoid the side-effects of the drug, +2 for each dose taken within 24 hours, +5 if the character already has a mild addiction to the drug (or had previously been addicted to that drug) or +10 if the character has a moderate addiction (when rolling to break the addiction, a severe addiction adds +15 to the DC), and +4 if the character currently has an addiction to another drug.

Mild Addiction
A character suffering from a mild addiction receives a -1 penalty to all d20 rolls. If the character takes a dose of the drug, the penalty is alleviated when the onset time expires, and it remains suppressed for 8 hours afterward.

Moderate Addiction
Characters suffering from a moderate addiction receive a -2 penalty to all d20 rolls. The penalty is alleviated for 4 hours after taking a dose of the drug.

Severe Addiction
Characters suffering from a severe addiction receive a -4 penalty to all d20 rolls. The penalty is alleviated for 1 hour after taking a dose of the drug.

Recovering From Addiction
Once a character is addicted to a drug, they receive a new set of saves and the end of each day to break the addiction as long as they did not take any doses of the drug on that day. Each day that the character goes without taking the drug, the DC lowers by 2 (to a minimum of the drug’s base DC). When making saves to break the addiction, the character still rolls both Fortitude and Will saves, but only needs to succeed on one. A successful save lowers the addiction severity by one step (severe to moderate, moderate to mild, mild to recovered). Addiction is a disease of both the mind and body. A successful Medic skill check against the current DC of the addiction grants the character a +4 competence bonus to the saves on that day (as per the Treat Disease use of the Medic skill). Spells such as Cleanse, which can remove conditions, do not remove the mental damage caused by addiction but lower the DC of the save for that day by -4 if it can remove a condition of the addiction’s tier (a mild addiction is equivalent to a Tier 1 condition, a moderate addiction is a Tier 2, and a severe addiction is a Tier 3).