Redesigning Madness

[Crucius]

Hello people,

I'm planning an encounter where my players enter Baphomet's lair; an infinite maze that drives you mad. One would say that dishing out some madness status effects would be a great way to sell the flavor of that place. So when I read the Madness tables in the DMG I was severely disappointed. Some of those madness effects are just way too debilitating, while others do exactly nothing.

So what am I looking for in madness (in this case): Something that changes character behavior in combat. And with behavior I mean tactics/strategy. Something to force the player to do something different, without completely taking away all their agency. When the players roll for initiative they would also be rolling on a madness table, which lasts until the end of that combat.

Here are a few madness effects I have come up with so far, to give you an idea along which lines I'm thinking:


You feel constantly surrounded and on edge; At the end of the initiative order you reroll your initiative.
You find your enemies repulsive, and cannot bear them for too long; You cannot attack the same enemy more than once each turn (round?).
The darkness is staring back at you. You have disadvantage on attack rolls against enemies standing in shadows (dim light), and they have advantage on saving throws against your spells/abilities.
You are overcome with loneliness; If you end your turn and you are not within 5 feet of another creature, you drop prone, rocking back and forth in a fetal position. While prone this way, you cannot take reactions.
Masochism: You become charmed of the first enemy that damages you, until the end of your next turn.
Agoraphobia: During your turn you must expend all your movement in a straight line before the end of your turn.


I'm curious to see what you all come up with!

[Segev]

The simplest way to do this is to use hallucinations. Monsters who appear and disappear. The fact that players will know some are (effectively) illusions only adds to it. Do they react to the "illusion" or not? Some of them, of course, are real.

Lair actions where an attack on a monster instead hits an ally within reach on a failed save, as the attacker mistakes the ally for the target.

Lair actions or outright spell attacks from monsters...or just a random "event" type thing...where you inform them that they were just attacked by their friend for psychic damage of a certain amount. Sometimes, this will be just madness and paranoia and hallucination. Other times, it will be an actual monster that looks like their friend. Mix in doppelgangers.

Have "You feel something watching you from the darkness" induce a Wisdom save or be Frightened of the dark, whether that specific shadowy patch or just darkness in general. Have the darkness sometimes genuinely conceal threats.

Offer Inspiration for taking certain irrational actions, or meeting certain goals; these represent obsessions creeping upon them.