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View Full Version : Sanity Rules in Eberron [3.5]



tsatthoggua
2009-02-25, 02:51 PM
My current Eberron campaign has more of a horror edge and I wanted to add a subsystem that gave players a constant sense of decay and danger.

First choice was using the Taint mechanic, but it was never implemented because it presupposes a moral absolutism that doesn't fit Eberron at all. It's more for a Ravenloft kind of game.

I started using a modified version of Fear/Madness/Horror rolls from OGL Horror but I think it monopolizes too much Will saves, it's not "colorful" enough, requires too much table verification and classes with strong Will progressions are unfairly benefited by it while men-at-arms turn out to act more cowardly than what should be expected for brave warriors.

So I think the Sanity rules for UA should be the best option for what I'm trying to do. After all, aberrations are really alien beings in Eberron, we have a full-fledged Plane Of Madness, societies entirely based on the enslavement of mental powers, it conceptually fits everything. However, I propose some modifications:


Since Eberron is a more heroic game, the die categories for Sanity loss for aberrations, dragons, ooze, outsiders and undead will be reduced by 1 for PCs (a Huge outsider will have a Sanity rating of 1d3/1d8, for instance, against player characters)
NPCs unless they are NPCs with action points, the counterparts of PCs, should suffer full effects from Sanity.

All other monster types will rarely grant any Sanity loss at all. Vermin are not really scary if you will inevitably rush into them while traveling in the jungle, elementals are part of the society, Khorvaire is cosmopolitan and features many distinctive kinds of humanoids, etc. Perhaps for some specific critters I could add a Sanity loss 1 die or 2 dice categories lower.

No Sanity loss for casting spells, with the possible exception of some of the most powerful mind-altering, plane-travelling, vile and necromantic spells

Perhaps no indefinite insanity and long-term sanity for player characters - boring bookkeeping for a pulp game

I want to make Sanity recovery trickier, more expensive and rarer. I think I'll create a Feat analogous to what Track is to Survival and Surgery is to Treat Injury in d20 Modern to allow PCs or NPCs with it to use the Heal skill as a form of psychotherapy



Should really all fear-based effects be replaced by Sanity-effects? I have nothing against it, really, it's much easier bookkeeping and makes more sense because on average, high level fighters are not going to be complete cowards near high level wizards.

How about the liberal use of psionics? If I am to use Sanity rules, where should I keep an eye while using psionics at the same time?

What else should I be thinking?

Thanks in advance!

PinkysBrain
2009-02-25, 03:33 PM
I have no experience with the UA insanity rules but I do know the normal fear mechanics are hideously broken (too many ways to get shaken without a save ... and twice shaken is frightened, aka useless). So replacing them seems a pretty good idea.

tsatthoggua
2009-02-25, 03:56 PM
I agree, it's an ugly and boring mechanic.

mr.fizzypop
2009-02-25, 08:21 PM
Perhaps no indefinite insanity and long-term sanity for player characters - boring bookkeeping for a pulp game

I disagree, I play CoC and the indefinite sanity and long-term sanity really spices up things, without it, there's no point.

tsatthoggua
2009-02-25, 10:30 PM
I disagree, I play CoC and the indefinite sanity and long-term sanity really spices up things, without it, there's no point.

I play CoC as well and PCs in CoC are ordinary people par excellence. And ordinary people may suffer from all sorts of mental breakdowns.

For the pulp factor in Eberron, I tend to think less of CoC and more of Indiana Jones. For characters that are meant to be the best of the best, champions and celebrity superstars of the world I feel that giving them too many psychological flaws would be cumbersome.

Well, perhaps that could be manageable. After all, the gnome that founded the Wayfinder Foundation acquired a perilous and mysterious curse on his last expedition and is currently dying. Similarly, PCs may slowly acquire perilous mental traits.