Mental Effects of Slavery

[pitdude243]

What's going on guys,

I recently started playing in an Underdark campaign where the party were enslaved to a drow priestess as a "Exotic Pet" collection. We were sexually abused (the DM put heavy emphasis on the fact we didn't like it), we were beaten and tortured for hours a day, and paraded around the city as toys for over a year.

The house we belonged too was ransacked by an enemy house and destroyed and we were helped out by a drow turned good (DM is a huge fan of Drizzt) and we are navigating through the Underdark to find our way to the surface.

My character was chosen to be apart of this collection because he is a Tiefling Psion with purple skin. His skin is purple because his heritage traces back to a despicable Ghaunadaur cult who, in exchange for power, let Ghaunadaur corrupt their lifeline and producing Tieflings (this will be revealed to the party is a really cool way).

What would my character have as a mental side effect of all of this abuse? I personally think that because he's a psion he'd be more vunerable to the more severe mental afflictions.

By the way, we are playing this campaign in 4th edition but I find this forum is much more active and friendly, and since this question has nothing to do with 4th edition rules, procedures, or 4e Essentials I thought it was cool, but I can repost this in the 4e sub-forum if need be.

Thank you all in advance for the help. :smallsmile:

[Kid Jake]

Personally I'd consider psions to be less likely to be broken mentally since their whole thing is manifesting ungodly power through sheer force of will, but undirected rage or aversion to physical contact could both be likely effects.

Or maybe he has a more detached world view now? Mentally and physically separating himself from the rest of the world to avoid inadvertently retriggering painful memories?

[A_S]

I imagine the after-effects of sexual abuse and torture would fall more in the realm of roleplaying than mechanics. You'd probably have more luck doing a little research on the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder than asking our advice on a D&D forum.

Dissociative episodes, flashbacks, memory difficulties, depression and anxiety are some pretty common possibilities, as is anhedonia (inability to experience pleasure) with regard to stuff that reminds you of the trauma. If you feel a need to tie these into mechanics, perhaps some or all of them could be avoided with a Will save? Or you could talk to your DM and have him sometimes start describing things to you that aren't really happening, to simulate flashbacks?

[JusticeZero]

Mostly various PTSD triggers. Those basically are situations where you were in great stress, but some tangential and silly thing you noticed was associated with the memory. Now, that trigger puts you in action movie mode even though it might be completely innocent. For instance, the orc horde killed your parents while you hid under the bed. Under the bed was dusty. Now every time you smell dust, your body goes "Oh crud, I roll for initiative and got a 16, quickened improved mage armor go, is there cover within a 5' step, I need to get close to a corner so I don't get flanked?!?" With a lot of sustained misery, you will have a collection.

[137beth]

Yea, I'd go with look up information about PTSD, preferrably stuff written by experts (i.e. not just people on a D&D forum).

Also, for future reference, this seems like the sort of thing that would be more appropriate to the general roleplaying games forum--it doesn't have anything to do with the specific system's rules.