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Shhalahr Windrider
2019-02-17, 07:03 PM
I will be running a horror-themed solo campaign in the near future. I have decided to incorporate the Sanity ability score variant described in the DMG. But I would like some good ideas for places to use basic ability checks. I've no problem coming up with situations that would spur a Sanity save, but I am coming up dry when it comes to regular checks, other than the few examples provided. Has anyone here made use of Sanity checks in any creative ways?

TL;DR: The theme is Cancerverse (https://comicvine.gamespot.com/cancerverse/4015-56220/)-style outsiders vs. Undead, with regular folk caught in the middle.

Over a thousand years ago, there was an incursion from another realm. This invasion was an attempt by a great, undying being whose only desire is to absorb other universes. Unfortunately for this being, the portal to this realm opened up underneath a large city that many magic-users called home. They were able to fight back. Still, they had to deal with the problem of killing a being to whom death was an unknowable concept. In the end, they performed a ritual that ripped a hole to the Negative Energy plane. The resulting wave of negative energy pushed the being back and helped to close the portal. It also killed half of all life on the planet.

Roughly a hundred years ago, a kingdom founded in the wake of the disaster has expanded to the point that a logging and mining town now sits on the ruins of the city over the portal. And unfortunately the portal is reopening. The Undying One has recovered from its injury and is ready to continue its growth. But enchantments over the portal site also awakes a guardian— a wizard that used the negative energy to become an undead being so that he could watch over the portal. Unfortunately, a millennium of undeath and isolation has left him rather single-minded and with a weak moral compass. He helped kill half the world to defeat the Undying One before, and he’s willing to do it again.

A horrible war of otherworldly threats and living death is about to descend upon the town, and the inhabitants will be merely collateral.

Malifice
2019-02-17, 10:31 PM
A DC 15 Sanity check is required any time you log onto this site, and see a threat about alignment.

Disadvantage if you actually read it.

Willie the Duck
2019-02-17, 10:50 PM
I've found the regular checks to be useful in emulating something akin to sanity fatigue, as opposed to a chance of sanity damage. Even more so, they are good for determining when someone can or cannot operate towards their intended goals in incomprehensible situation. This could be anything from trying to act normally while under the influence of an LSD-esque poison, to shell shock or even merely a 'fog of war' situation.

Shhalahr Windrider
2019-02-18, 07:55 PM
I've found the regular checks to be useful in emulating something akin to sanity fatigue, as opposed to a chance of sanity damage. Even more so, they are good for determining when someone can or cannot operate towards their intended goals in incomprehensible situation. This could be anything from trying to act normally while under the influence of an LSD-esque poison, to shell shock or even merely a 'fog of war' situation.

To me that sort of thing still feels a little bit more like a save than a check. Any tips on making it feel like the latter?

Willie the Duck
2019-02-18, 08:45 PM
To me that sort of thing still feels a little bit more like a save than a check. Any tips on making it feel like the latter?

Not sure. Saves are 'supposed' to be about resisting things while checks are supposed to be about accomplishing things (with some spillover/cross-contamination-- Dex saves are avoiding fireballs but stealth checks are avoiding sentries?). When exactly you are accomplishing sanity, resisting insanity, and accomplishing something despite a madding effect is going to be a judgment call. It's not unlike when the game calls for an Int save vs. and Int check. Not exactly a perfect distinction.