What if magic was like drugs

[Climowitz]

Have you ever thought or ruled magic as if it was like drugs, not only recreational but medicinal drugs, I the way that if you abuse it your body will get used to. For example someone who would constantly cast on himself bull's strength, would see his strength diminished as the body would get used to the increase. What do you think would be others effects of other spells?

[Snowbluff]

Swiftblades are literally crack addicts who snort haste and also inject themselves with Tempo bloodspikes.

[sadatg]

First thing to pop into my head after reading the title was MtG followed quickly by "Its not like drugs?"

It feels like most of transmutation is fairly obvious.

Illusion spells: slowly develop hallucinations that others cant see.

Divination: sense loss

Conjuration (teleportation) muscle atrophy.


ect.. ect..

[gkathellar]

The Tortall books by Tamora Pierce did something like this: people would develop a tolerance for magic over repeat exposures, which was mostly bad as it applied to healing magic.

[The Viscount]

Interesting thought. I think it worth mentioning that the existence of Swiftblade suggests against this sort of thing. Transmutation seems the hardest hit school by this, since there's a lot of buffs people would get used to having on.
Presumably it would work on offensive spells as well, so you might find that some people with the time and resources could invest in making their guards sleep-proof, for example.

[Snowbluff]

Interesting thought. I think it worth mentioning that the existence of Swiftblade suggests against this sort of thing. Transmutation seems the hardest hit school by this, since there's a lot of buffs people would get used to having on.
Presumably it would work on offensive spells as well, so you might find that some people with the time and resources could invest in making their guards sleep-proof, for example.

There's also the spell touched feats. (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/buildingCharacters/spelltouchedFeats.htm) Also the spellwarped template.

[Particle_Man]

Iron Heroes has a rules variant for magic items as addictive that could be ported over to other d20 games.

[Psyren]

Have you ever thought or ruled magic as if it was like drugs, not only recreational but medicinal drugs, I the way that if you abuse it your body will get used to. For example someone who would constantly cast on himself bull's strength, would see his strength diminished as the body would get used to the increase. What do you think would be others effects of other spells?

If that were the case then everybody with a belt of giant strength/periapt of health etc would see a decrease over time, or some kind of penalty when they took it off - most of those characters likely sleep with those items still on, or at the very least they wear them for far longer time periods than the associated spells last.

[OGDojo]

let me add a roleplay aspect to this side of things. the fighter is now begging the wizard to continue casting certain spells on him and when he doesnt the fighter then begins to resent them (almost like a pain pill addict to his doctor) or a stealth character who has always had invisibility cast on them would want the wizard to only have that spell ready for them, or perhaps the wizard is addicted to his own spells. like haste and refuses to cast spells for the others cuz he wants his spells all to himself. it would create an interesting party dynamic that would be hard to play out but very entertaining

Fighter: "NO I SAID BULLS STRENGHT!"
Rogue: "NO HE HAD HIS FIX ITS MY TURN!"
Wizard: "SCREW BOTH OF YOU! THEY"RE MY SPELLS ILL USE THEM ON ME!"

you could also make the group leader the wizard since its his magic that everyone is addicted to so he now has all the power,

[AlexanderRM]

The Tortall books by Tamora Pierce did something like this: people would develop a tolerance for magic over repeat exposures, which was mostly bad as it applied to healing magic.

Years ago a friend of mine suggested (he may have gotten this from an online discussion somewhere) that if increased hit points as you level represent not getting hit due to skill/luck/divine favor, then maybe they also represent a gradually built-up resistances to healing magic, which explains why a spell that would cure a lethally wounded peasant to full health wouldn't even fix a glancing blow on a higher-level character.

[unseenmage]

Ever watched a player slowly become an optimizer who then slowly starts digging deeper and deeper for justifications instead of rulings? Def is already a drug.

[Psyren]

The bigger point is that this is yet another change that amounts to "screw martial classes." Because they are far more buff- and item-dependent than casters are. So I would advise against it.

[King of Nowhere]

First thing to pop into my head after reading the title was MtG followed quickly by "Its not like drugs?"



first thing that popped in my head was "spells are sold by shady individuals in slums"

anyway, it would make for a great setting for a book, but i don't see an rpg working well with it. it would be a real nightmare to find adequate rules to establish it, and it would encourage roleplaying dysfunctional party dinamics.

[Vaern]

In one of the Discworld books the act of casting a spell is described as an ecstatic experience: Raw magic flows like blue-white fire through every nerve in your body, filling you and lifting you up as you surf down a rising, curling wave of elemental force until the power blazes through your fingers and the spell is released. Casting his first spell sent Rincewind into shock and it took about fifteen pages before he was lucid enough for a description of the experience to be given from his point of view.
If this is the case, regardless of what other side-effects spellcasting may entail, the act of spellcasting may be a highly addictive experience on its own. This may result in casters hastily preparing their spells and being overly eager to cast them with little or no excuse to do so, rather than putting significant thought into their choices and saving them for an opportune moment.

[KillianHawkeye]

Wow, this is going to be the inspiration for my next spellcaster! :smallwink: