Tome of Flaws: Substance Addictions (3.5e Sourcebook)
Your character is addicted to an addictive substance. You can determine the addiction by rolling a D20 and consulting the Substance Addictions Chart.
Drugs function like poisons, allowing the user an initial and a secondary saving throws to resist their effects. Delay poison, neutralize poison, and similar effects negate or end a drug's effects, but they do not restore hit points, ability scores, or other damage caused by the substance.
A creature that willingly takes a drug automatically fails both saving throws. It is not possible to intentionally fail the initial save but attempt to save against the secondary damage, or vice versa. DCs are provided for situations in which a character is drugged against his will.
Drugs in Your Campaign: Depending on your campaign, drugs may be difficult or easy to obtain - the decision is a matter of taste. However, whether drugs are illegal (as might be the case in a restrictive but good-aligned civilization) or commonplace, pushers will exist.
Pushers are those who directly or indirectly want to see a drug dispersed into a population. Usually profit motivates them. A pusher's typical tactic is to offer the drug at only 1/10 of its normal price (or even free) to potential new customers, in hopes of addicting the customer to the drug. Once the customer seeks out the pusher for the drug (usually, once he or she is addicted), then the pusher charges full price for the drug, or even a premium.
Adding drugs into your campaign is probably most easily accomplished through a nonplayer character (NPC) pusher. Player characters (PCs) cats expect to run into pushers illicitly in a civilization where drugs are outlawed, or in bazaars in a society where drugs are common. In a society where magic potions are commonplace, drugs might be legal, too.
Drug addiction functions much like diseases. Upon initial exposure (anytime a character imbibes or applies a drug with an addiction rating), the character must succeed at a Fortitude Save or become addicted, as shown below. Addiction proceeds like a disease - while addicted, the character takes ability score damage each day unless he succeeds at a Fortitude Save against the given DC.
Addiction Rating: Drugs are rated according to their addictive potential. For example, many popular stimulant drinks have a negligible addiction rating, but have addictive qualities all the same. Sometimes, an individual's long-term addiction increases a drug's addiction rating for that individual. Drugs with a negligible rating are not subject to this change. Stronger drugs increase their rating by one step for every two full months a character remains addicted to the drug. A character who recovers from an addiction and later becomes addicted again does so at the addiction rating the drug had just prior to his recovery.
Satiation: Each time a user takes a drug to which he is addicted, he is satiated and staves off withdrawal symptoms for the given period of time. After the satiation period wears off, the DC of the Fortitude Save to resist the effects of addiction increases by +5. The dose in which a character becomes addicted counts for satiation.
Damage: Addiction deals the listed damage each day unless the character succeeds at a Fortitude saving throw or is satiated. Ability score damage is temporary, and characters naturally heal 1 point in each ability score per day.
Recovery: If a character makes two successful saving throws in a row, he has fought off his addiction and recovers, taking no more damage. Of course, he can always become addicted again later by taking another dose of the drug and failing his Fortitude Save to resist addiction.
If the character is no longer addicted to the substance, they lose any bonus Feats or Talents associated with the Flaw. They regain the Feat or Talent if they become addicted again.
A lesser restoration or restoration spell may negate some or all of the ability score damage caused by an addiction, but on the next day the victim may accrue more ability score damage if he continues to fail his Fortitude Saves. Remove disease immediately causes the user to recover from the addiction, but it does not restore lost ability score points. Greater restoration or heal causes recovery and restores all ability score damage from the addiction. Characteristics are spelled out in a text entry for each drug. After a general description of the drug, the following characteristics are described in the following way:
Addiction Name (Addiction)
Initial Effect: The effect of the drug if the initial saving throw is failed. If multiple effects are given, the result of one saving throw indicates whether all or none of these effects occur.
Secondary Effect: The effect of the drug if the secondary saving throw is failed. If multiple effects are given, the result of one saving throw indicates whether all or none of these effects occur.
Side Effects: Side effects, if any. These occur immediately upon taking the drug.
Overdose: What constitutes an overdose and the effects it has on a character.
Delivery: This explains the method that the drug is taken.
Addiction Rating: This refers to the Addiction Ratings Chart, which gives a Fortitude rating for the characters addiction and how often they need to take the drug.
Price: This explains the basic open market costs of the drug; this can go up and down depending on the availability of the drug.
Resistance DC: This is DC check for an unwilling character to take the drug.
Alchemy DC: This is difficulty rating in making the drug. Failing a roll to make a drug can cause side effects. This can make the drug deadly to use, make the user sick for hours or days and it can also have no effect at all.
If the maker of the drug fails the DC Check to make the drug, consult the following:
• Failure by 1-5: The drug has no effect.
• Failure by 6-10: The drug makes the user sick for 1d6 hours.
• Failure by 11-15: The drug makes the user sick for 1d6 days.
• Failure by 16-19: The drug places the user fall into a coma for 1D6 days.
• Failure by 20+: The user is killed by the drug if they fail to make a Fortitude Check with a DC rating from the Addictions Rating Chart + their level.
| Addiction Rating | Fort DC | Satiation | Damage |
| Negligible | 4 | 1 day | 1d3-2 Dex (can be 0) |
| Low | 6 | 10 days | 1d3 Dex |
| Medium | 10 | 5 days | 1d4 Des, 1d4 Wis |
| High | 14 | 2 days | 1d6 Dex, 1d6 Wis, 1d2 Con |
| Extreme | 25 | 1 day | 1d6 Dex, 1d6 Wis, 1d6 Con |
| Vicious | 36 | 1 day | 1d8 Dex, 1d8 Wis, 1d6 Con, 1d6 Str |
| Roll | Drug Name |
| 1-4: | Agony |
| 5-8: | Barbweed |
| 9-12: | Black Pudding Paste |
| 13-16: | Bulls Head |
| 17-20: | Daccan |
| 21-24: | Fajah |
| 25-28: | Glue |
| 29-32: | Hakka |
| 33-36: | Halfling Herb |
| 37-40: | Koa |
| 41-44: | Lights Path |
| 45-48: | Maiden |
| 49-52: | Mole Sight |
| 53-56: | Mudders Embrace |
| 57-60: | Mushroom Powder |
| 61-64: | Purple Curse |
| 65-68: | Silver Eyes |
| 69-72: | Siminion |
| 73-76: | Splinter Sate |
| 77-80: | Tentacular Mist |
| 81-84: | Troll Spit |
| 85-88: | Un |
| 89-92: | Wizard's Ware |
| 93-96: | Yuk-Tee |
| 97-100: | Zelphin |
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