Rules for torture?

[fishyfishyfishy]

Are there rules for torture in 3.5? I have a player that made some bad decisions in a game and got herself captured...

[Jormengand]

Probably not, but I imagine that repeated will saves (Maybe one per hour) might be the way to go. Not sure on the DC, though...

Or just provide a bonus to intimidate to get information.

[Karnith]

There is a sidebar in the Fiendish Codex II on page 22 detailing how devils torture creatures. The rules are generic enough that they can be adapted to general rules on torture.

[dantiesilva]

I believe book of Vile darkness has rules on it believe it or not.

[Deepbluediver]

If there where I suspect they would be in the Book of Vile Darkness, though quite a few players describe actually trying to read and interpret the rules given in BoVD and BoED as torture in of itself.

Edit: Sword-saged!

[Necroticplague]

BOVD has a rather extensive section on this, complete with stats for all the various devices, how much they help, the HP damage for using them, and the use of Intimidate, and Sense Motive.

[fishyfishyfishy]

Awesome, thanks all! I'll give that a look when I have the opportunity.

[Amphetryon]

BoVD and FCII both do, indeed, have guidelines for torture.

From personal experience, this subject needs to be approached very carefully in-game. I don't think it's anyone's goal to make the game experience itself difficult for the Players to sit through, regardless of how much discomfort the Characters may be in.

[ZamielVanWeber]

May I recommend that you just imply after the fact, talk about scars, etc. Ex: iron maidens leave a distinctive scar pattern, you could mention that she has it on her hands, or perhaps an unseen yet very uncomfortable branding scar on her cheek. Calculate everything beforehand, do the rolls, describe a bit afterwards.

[CRtwenty]

I've had my players get tortured before, but I usually just have them make a fortitude save or something similar to see if they give any useful information and have them regain consciousness later with some odd injuries. Getting explicit in what's going on is really something you want to avoid doing.

Player 1: "Where did those suction cup shaped scars come from?"
Player 2: "I don't want to talk about it... :smallannoyed:"

[fishyfishyfishy]

I appreciate the concern and words of warning. I considered glossing over most of the details, and will probably do just that. I'm confident that my players will be mature about the subject. I mostly wanted a set of guidelines to see how much info, if any, the character would give up under torture.

[Krobar]

I use fortitude saves, but only if someone is interrogating the victim. Since NOBODY can hold out forever, I make those saves progressively harder. +1 to the DC every hour, starting at DC 10 is a good place to start. Letting the victim rest only drops 1 from the DC per day of rest. If there's no interrogation going on, it just does damage, albeit very painfully. In either case, every day the victim makes a Will Save to retain his/her sanity (again, with increasing difficulty) and/or alignment.

Feel free to use this / not use this / adjust it as you see fit. I didn't have BoVD when our evil party grabbed someone up and decided to torture them for information, so I had to make something up on the fly. It worked okay, so I just kept it.

[CRtwenty]

Regarding the rules for torture from the BoVD they basically work via Intimidate checks. The Torturer makes an Intimidate check, adding a bonus based on whatever device he is using against a DC equal to 10 + the target's HD/Level. Passing the check means the Torturer obtains some useful information.