Alcohol and Getting Drunk

Alcohol is treated as a specialized poison. Ales and wines usually have a Fortitude save DC of 10-15, most human spirits a 15-20 dwarven or special spirits would have a 21+. Like most poisons, continued “doses” increase the DC of checks that must be made to stave off drunkenness.

Inebriation

When a character consumes alcoholic beverages in excess, they go through gradual states of inebriation. Generally, a character can take a number of drinks of the following styles before needing to make a Fortitude save.

3-4	Most ales and wines
2-3	Spirits and liquors
1-2	Special spirits (dwarven, magical, particularly strong beverages)

Inebriation

After a failed Fortitude save at the DC of the beverage being consumed, the character gets a +2 morale bonus to physical stats (STR, DEX, CON) coupled with a -2 morale penalty for mental stats (INT, WIS, CHA) for 1d4 hours.

Additional drinks within the next hour will force another Fortitude save.

Failing the second Fortitude save causes the following;

• Character loses the previous +2/-2 morale bonus/penalty to all stats
• Character is now considered to have the sickened condition for the next 1d4 hours

Hangovers

If a character reaches the sickened condition of inebriation, they must make a Fortitude save at a DC of what they were drinking (if mixing drinks, they take the highest DC and add 2 for each additional alcohol source) or become hungover when the benefits/penalties of their inebriation state wear off.

Hungover characters are treated as Fatigued, but undertaking any activity which requires a check which is affected by statistics (attacks, skills, some spells) cause them to become exhausted. The duration of a hangover is 1d4 hours for each hour spent Inebriated.

Mitigation of Alcohol Effects

Unlike normal poisons, alcohol is not affected by neutralize poison, but lesser restoration and similar spells can mitigate the effects of both hangovers and drunkenness.

Any time a drinker fails a Fortitude save which would progress them to inebriation, they can opt to vomit, in lieu of progressing. This staves off the Fortitude save—unless they continue to drink.

If a character vomits more than once in a drinking bout, they immediately become Fatigued, and they will have a hangover which lasts a minimum 8 hours.

Monks and Druids are still affected by alcohol, regardless of class abilities, but Dwarves +2 racial bonus against poison also carries over to alcohol. Most creatures with an immunity to poison will have a bolstered resistance to inebriation, like dwarves.

Alcoholism

Those that regularly abuse alcohol may develop a moderate addiction (GM judgement call).

If the GM judges this to be a risk, she may call upon the player to make a DC 18 Fortitude save. If they make the save, they dodge the addiction (for now). If not, they contract a moderate addiction (see below). Should a character take multiple doses of alcohol in a short period of time, addiction becomes more difficult to resist. The DC of the saving throw increases by +2 every time a character takes a another dose of alcohol while still suffering from damage caused by a previous dose. Keep track of how high this DC rises, even for characters already addicted, as it determines the DC necessary to overcome the disease.

Addiction encourages sufferers to continue making use of the alcohol they are addicted to. While a character is benefiting from the effects of the alcohol he is addicted to, she does not suffer the penalties of her addiction disease. As soon as the alcohol effects expire, the disease’s effects return.

Moderate Addiction

Type disease, variable; Save DC 18+

Onset 1 day; Frequency 1/day

Effect –2 penalty to Con and Str, target cannot naturally heal ability damage caused by this addiction; Cure 3 consecutive saves

Curing Addiction

As addictions are diseases, they can be cured as such, through the use of spells like remove disease or by succeeding at Fortitude saves over time. Unlike with other diseases, an addicted character can only make a Fortitude save to overcome his addiction after a day of not taking the drug he is addicted to. The DC of this Fortitude save is equal to the highest addiction DC his drug use has reached (not necessarily the DC that addicted him if he has continued to make use of the drug while addicted). This DC decreases by –2 for every day the character does not make use of the drug, to a minimum of the drug’s base addiction DC. Should a character take a dose of the drug he’s addicted to, he immediately relapses, causing the addiction DC to instantly return to its highest DC and negating any successful past saves.