Drugs & Addiction

GM Reference

Drugs are alchemical items that grant short-term benefits at the cost of ability damage and the risk of addiction. These rules cover everything from a drinking contest at a tavern to the soul-scouring depths of a severe dependency — useful for gritty campaigns, villain motivation, or encounters with decadent NPCs.

How Drugs Work

Taking a Drug

When a character takes a drug, three things happen simultaneously:

They gain the drug's beneficial effect immediately.
They take the listed ability damage (representing side effects and how long the drug remains active — 1 point of ability damage = ~1 day in the system).
They make a Fortitude save to resist becoming addicted.

Taking multiple doses simultaneously rarely adds extra benefit, but stacking doses as the previous wears off renews the effect while increasing both ability damage and the addiction save DC (+2 per dose taken while still suffering ability damage from a previous one).

Crafting & Drunkenness

Craft (alchemy) can produce drugs. The DC to craft a drug equals its addiction DC. Rolling a natural 1 on the Craft check while making a drug exposes the crafter to it.

Alcohol follows simpler rules. A character can safely consume 1 + (Con modifier × 2) drinks. Each drink beyond that causes the sickened condition for 1 hour.

Exotic or unusually potent alcohol may be treated as a drug with its own stat block. Regular alcohol abuse can eventually cause a moderate addiction.

Addiction

Addiction is a disease with three severity levels. Each imposes a persistent ability score penalty that lasts for as long as the character has the disease. While actively benefiting from the drug, the addiction's penalties are suppressed — they return as soon as the drug's effect expires.

Minor Addiction

Onset: 1 day
Frequency: 1/day
Effect: −2 Con
Cure: 2 consecutive saves

Moderate Addiction

Onset: 1 day
Frequency: 1/day
Effect: −2 Con, −2 Str; cannot naturally heal ability damage from the addicting drug
Cure: 3 consecutive saves

Severe Addiction

Onset: 1 day
Frequency: 1/day
Effect: −2 Dex, −2 Con, −2 Str, −2 Wis; cannot naturally heal ability damage from the addicting drug
Cure: 3 consecutive saves

Curing Addiction

Saving Throws

A character can only attempt a Fortitude save to overcome addiction after at least 1 day of not taking the drug. The save DC equals the highest addiction DC reached through use — not necessarily the DC that originally addicted them.

DC Reduction

The addiction DC decreases by −2 per day of abstinence, down to a minimum of the drug's base addiction DC. Minor addiction requires 2 consecutive successful saves; moderate and severe require 3.

Relapse

Taking any dose of the addicting drug while recovering immediately resets the DC to its highest-ever value and negates all prior successful saves. Spells like remove disease cure addiction without requiring abstinence.

Sample Drugs

Each drug entry lists: Type (how it's ingested) · Addiction (severity and base Fort DC) · Price (per dose) · Effect (duration and benefit) · Damage (ability damage taken). The Craft (alchemy) DC to make a drug equals its addiction DC.

Drug	Type	Addiction	Fort DC	Price	Effect	Damage
Flayleaf	Inhaled or ingested	Minor	12	10 gp	1 hour; +2 alchemical bonus on saves vs. mind-affecting effects; fatigue	1d6 Wis
Zerk	Injury	Minor	18	50 gp	1 hour; +1 alchemical bonus to initiative (addicted users also gain +1d4 alchemical bonus to Str while addicted)	1d4 Con
Elven Absinthe	Ingested	Moderate	16	500 gp	1 hour; +1d4 Cha	1d4 Wis
Aether	Inhaled	Moderate	16	20 gp	1d4 hours; must succeed at a caster level check (DC 15 + spell level) to cast spells	1d6 Wis
Pesh	Ingested or inhaled	Moderate	20	15 gp	After 1 hour; 1d2 hours of fatigue	1d2 Str
Dwarven Fire Ale	Ingested	Moderate	20	50 gp	1 hour; cold resistance 5	1 Con
Shiver	Injury or ingested	Severe	18	500 gp	Variable; 50% — sleep 1d4 hours; 50% — immunity to fear for 1d4 minutes	1d6 Str
Opium	Inhaled, ingested, or injury	Severe	20	25 gp	1 hour; +1d8 temporary hp, +2 alchemical bonus on Fortitude saves; fatigue	1d4 Con, 1d4 Wis
Scour	Ingested or inhaled	Severe	24	45 gp	3 hours; +1d4 alchemical bonus to Dex, −1d4 penalty to Wis	1d6 Con