Sanity
In campaigns using these rules, characters gain a new attribute called Sanity. This statistic functions like an ability score in some ways, but it has its own unique mechanics that represent the character’s descent from a stable and healthy mental state into confusion, dementia, and mental instability. As a character encounters monsters, witnesses horrible acts, masters forbidden knowledge, or casts ancient spells(as compared to the safer modern counterparts), his Sanity score, and his corresponding ability to function as a normal member of his race, deteriorates. This gradual descent is balanced in part by the powers that characters gain each time they overcome a horrific foe or grow in skill and expertise, but even as those characters grow in power, they know or fear that an even greater peril lies ahead—the threat of becoming permanently insane.
Metagame Analysis: Sanity
Because it affects the way that characters interact with the creatures and objects that they encounter on their adventures in many different and profound ways, this variant, perhaps more than any other in Unearthed Arcana, can alter the entire feel of a campaign. If you adopt this variant in your campaign, the largest change will most likely be one of tone.
For Example:
As in the Call of Cthulhu Roleplaying Game, characters feel more vulnerable, for no matter how powerful they become, the dark gods are always greater. Religion is not only a source of comfort or succor, but also a dangerous enemy. Characters are suspicious, even paranoid, for a seemingly innocent commoner could secretly serve a cult. And yet, with such dark challenges come the opportunities for greater heroism.
What is Sanity?
Sanity is the natural mental state of ordinary life. Normal mental balance is endangered when characters confront horrors, entities, or activities that are shocking, unnatural, and bewildering. Such encounters cause a character to lose points from his Sanity score, which in turn risks temporary, indefinite, or permanent insanity. Mental stability and lost Sanity points can be restored, up to a point, but psychological scars may remain.
Insanity occurs if too many Sanity points are lost in too short a time. Insanity does not necessarily occur if Sanity points are low, but a lower Sanity score makes some forms of insanity more likely to occur after a character experiences an emotional shock. The character’s Sanity may be regained after a few minutes, recovered after a few months, or lost forever.
A character may regain Sanity points, and even increase her Sanity point maximum. However, increasing a character’s ranks in the Knowledge (forbidden lore) skill always lowers her maximum Sanity by an equal amount.
Forbidden Knowledge
The Sanity rules assume that some knowledge is so alien to human understanding that simply learning of its existence can shatter the psyche. While magic and nonhuman races form an everyday part of a d20 character’s life, even a seasoned adventurer cannot conquer or understand some things. Knowledge of these secrets and creatures is represented by a new skill that goes hand in hand with a character’s Sanity score: Knowledge (forbidden lore).
This type of knowledge permanently erodes a character’s ability to maintain a stable and sane outlook, and a character’s current Sanity can never be higher than 99 minus the modifier the character has in the Knowledge (forbidden lore) skill. This number (99 minus Knowledge [forbidden lore] ranks) is the character’s maximum Sanity.
Seee below for more information on what happens when you roll.
Knowledge (Forbidden Lore) (None)
You know That Which Should Not Be Known. You have had horrible supernatural experiences and read forbidden tomes, learning truly dark secrets that have challenged everything you thought you knew. Since these revelations defy logic or commonly accepted fact, it does not matter how intelligent or wise you are when using this skill—only how much exposure to these dark secrets themselves you have experienced.
Check
Answering a question about the horrible deities and secrets that lurk at the edges of reality has a DC of 10 (for really easy questions), 15 (for elementary questions), or 20 to 30 (for difficult or really tough questions). Unlike in other fields of study, there are almost no really easy questions associated with this dark knowledge.
You can use this skill to identify monsters and their special powers or vulnerabilities. In general, the DC of such a check equals 10 + the monster’s HD. A successful check allows you to remember a bit of useful information about that monster. For every 5 points by which your check result exceeds the DC, the GM can give another piece of useful information.
The GM can decide which monsters are subject to the Knowledge (forbidden lore) skill and which monsters are subject to one of the standard Knowledge skills. For example, the GM may rule that Knowledge (the planes) is still the relevant skill for learning or knowing about outsiders, rather than allowing them to be iedntified by Knowledge (forbidden lore). However, in most campaigns that use the Sanity variant, aberrations and oozes should be able to be identified by Knowledge (forbidden lore) rather than by Knowledge (arcana) and Knowledge (dungeoneering) respectively.
Action
Usually none. In most cases, making a Knowledge check doesn’t take an action—you simply know the answer or you don’t.
Try Again
No. The check represents what you know, and thinking about a topic a second time doesn’t let you know something that you never learned in the first place.
Special
You cannot gain ranks in this skill by spending skill points. You can only gain ranks by reading forbidden tomes or having experiences with horrible creatures. Each rank you gain in this skill permanently reduces your maximum Sanity by 1 point: The more you know about the horrible truths underlying reality, the less capable you are of leading a normal life.
A character’s first episode of insanity (that is, an occurrence of temporary or indefinite insanity) bestows 2 ranks in the Knowledge (forbidden lore) skill, thereby lowering his maximum Sanity by 2 points. Each time a character fails a Sanity check and endures another episode of insanity, he gains an additional rank in Knowledge (forbidden lore).
For example, Caldark has 1 rank of Knowledge (forbidden lore) after reading a strange manuscript. She then steps outside, sees a chaos beast, and goes indefinitely insane, her raving mind failing to understand the strange creature she has encountered. Since she has never gone insane before, her player adds 2 ranks of Knowledge (forbidden lore) to Caldark’s character sheet. Now Caldark’s Maximum Sanity is 96 (99 minus 3 ranks of Knowledge [forbidden lore]).
You cannot take the Knowledge (forbidden lore) skill during character creation. However, the skill has no maximum rank; your level does not limit the number of ranks in Knowledge (forbidden lore) that you can acquire.
Sanity Points
Sanity points measure the stability of a character’s mind. This attribute provides a way to define the sanity inherent in a character, the most stability a character can ever have, and the current level of sane rationality that a character preserves, even after numerous shocks and horrid revelations.
Sanity is measured in three ways: starting Sanity, current Sanity, and maximum Sanity. Starting and current Sanity cannot exceed maximum Sanity.
Starting Sanity
A character’s starting Sanity equals his Wisdom score multiplied by 4. This score represents a starting character’s current Sanity, as well as the upper limit of Sanity that can be restored by the Heal skill (see The Heal Skill and Mental Treatment, later in this section). After creation, a character’s current Sanity often fluctuates considerably and might never again match starting Sanity. A change in a character’s Wisdom score changes his starting Sanity in terms of what treatment with the Heal skill can restore. Current Sanity, however, does not change if Wisdom rises or falls.
Current Sanity
A character’s current Sanity score fluctuates almost as often as (and sometimes much more often than) his hit points.
Making a Sanity Check
When a character encounters a gruesome, unnatural, or supernatural situation, the GM may require the player to make a Sanity check using percentile dice (d%). The check succeeds if the result is equal to or less than the character’s current Sanity.
On a successful check, the character either loses no Sanity points or loses only a minimal amount. Potential Sanity loss is usually shown as two numbers or die rolls separated by a slash, such as 0/1d4. The number before the slash indicates the number of Sanity points lost if the Sanity check succeeds (in this case, none); the number after the slash indicates the number of Sanity points lost if the Sanity check fails (in this case, between 1 and 4 points).
A character’s current Sanity is also at risk when the character reads certain books, learns certain types of spells, and attempts to cast them. These Sanity losses are usually automatic (no Sanity check is allowed); the character who chooses to undertake the activity forfeits the indicated number of Sanity points.
In most cases, a new Sanity-shaking confrontation requires a new Sanity check. However, the GM always gets to decide when characters make Sanity checks. Confronting several horribly mangled corpses at one time or in rapid succession may call for just one Sanity check, while the same corpses encountered singly over the course of several game hours may require separate checks.
Going Insane
Losing more than a few Sanity points may cause a character to go insane, as described below. If a character’s Sanity score drops to 0 or lower, she begins the quick slide into permanent insanity. Each round, the character loses another point of Sanity. Once a character’s Sanity score reaches -10, she is hopelessly, incurably insane. The Heal skill can be used to stabilize a character on the threshold of permanent insanity; see The Heal Skill and Mental Treatment, below, for details.
A GM’s description of a Sanity-shaking situation should always justify the threat to a character’s well-being. Thus, a horde of frothing rats is horrifying, while a single ordinary rat usually is not (unless the character has an appropriate phobia, of course).
Maximum Sanity
Ranks in the Knowledge (forbidden lore) skill simulate a character’s comprehension of aspects of the dark creatures at the edges of reality. Once gained, this horrible knowledge is never forgotten, and the character consequently surrenders mental equilibrium. A character’s Sanity weakens as his comprehension of these hidden truths increases. Such is the way of the universe.
A character’s current Sanity can never be higher than 99 minus the character’s ranks in the Knowledge (forbidden lore) skill. This number (99 minus Knowledge [forbidden lore] ranks) is the character’s maximum Sanity.
Loss Of Sanity
Characters ordinarily lose Sanity in a few types of circumstances: when encountering something unimaginable, when suffering a severe shock, after casting a spell or when learning a new spell, when being affected by a certain type of magic or a particular spell, or when reading a forbidden tome.
Sanity Resistance
The Sanity mechanic was originally created to mimic the effect that the unspeakable horrors of the Cthulhu Mythos would have on normal folk from a world much like our own. Since d20 characters live in a world of magic and monsters, however, the GM might want to make them less susceptible to Sanity loss caused by encountering strange creatures (see Table: Sanity Loss from Creatures) by allowing them to have a measure of Sanity resistance, which is tied to one of two attributes.
Each character can be allowed to have Sanity resistance equal to his character level. Alternatively, each character can be allowed to have Sanity resistance equal to his Wisdom modifier. (Obviously, the second alternative will produce lower Sanity resistance figures in most cases.) This number is the amount of Sanity loss a character can ignore when he encounters a creature that requires a Sanity check.
The GM may decide that Sanity resistance also applies to certain kinds of severe shocks (although it might not apply to personally horrific experiences, such as seeing a close friend die) and to the casting or learning of spells.
Encountering the Unimaginable
When people perceive creatures and entities of unspeakable horror, this experience costs them some portion of their minds, since such creatures are intrinsically discomforting and repellent. We never lose awareness of their slimy, fetid, alien nature. This instinctive reaction is part and parcel of humans, elves, dwarves, and other humanoid races. In this category, we can include supernatural events or agents not always recognized as specifically devoted to these dark gods, such as hauntings, zombies, vampires, curses, and so on.
Table: Sanity Loss from Creatures provides some default Sanity loss values for encountering creatures, based on their type and size. These are only default values—the GM can and should adjust individual monsters he deems more or less horrible than others of their size. An aasimar, for instance, hardly presents a Sanity-shaking sight, and should probably be treated as a humanoid rather than an outsider. On the other hand, a vargouille—a Small outsider appearing much like a flying, bat-winged head—might provoke a much more visceral reaction than other Small outsiders.
In addition, certain types of monstrous behavior might force additional Sanity checks, much like those described under Severe Shocks, below. For instance, an aboleth is an unnerving sight, but watching one transform your best friend with it's slime should certainly force another check, with losses appropriate to the situation.
In most d20 games, no character should need to make a Sanity check when encountering an elf, dwarf, or other standard humanoid race, or for encountering domesticated or otherwise commonplace animals. In some cases, even humanoid races such as orcs and goblins might be so common as to not cause Sanity loss either.
Specific Monsters and Sanity
Some monsters have additional or variant special abilities when using the Sanity variant.
Allip - The allip’s madness ability causes the loss of 2d6 Sanity points rather than the normal effect.
Derro - The derro’s madness ability protects these creatures from any further Sanity loss. Sane derro (especially derro player characters) track Sanity points normally.
Monstrous Characters and Sanity
In most cases, the GM does not need to keep track of a monster’s Sanity score, but sometimes, especially when in the hands of a player, monsters need Sanity scores just as other characters do.
Although most campaigns that use the Sanity variant limit players to creating characters from the standard player character races, it’s still easy to envision a world where one or two monstrous races are so common or so integrated into the culture of other races that the GM wants to present them as viable player character options. In these cases, the monsters(aliens) available as player character races should never provoke a Sanity loss from other characters or NPCs, and these creatures should have a Sanity score and track their Sanity losses just like characters made with the standard PC races. A monster should never lose Sanity for seeing others of its race (spectres don’t lose Sanity when encountering other spectres, and so on). In all cases, what causes Sanity loss for a specific creature is in the hands of the GM.
Sanity Loss from Creatures:
Severe Shocks
A shocking sight of a more mundane nature can also cost Sanity points. Severe shocks include witnessing an untimely or violent death, experiencing personal mutilation, losing social position, being the victim of treachery, or whatever else the Game Master decides is sufficiently extreme. The following list gives some examples of severe shocks, and the Sanity loss each one provokes.
Learning Magic
When learning a Magic spell for the first time. The character will loose Sanity due to being exposed to unknowable secrets.
Amount of Loss has yet to be determined.
Casting Magic
Casting Magic in of itself does not cause any Sanity Loss. However there are spells out there, that will have the loss of Sanity written amongst it. Either being required to cast, or as a side affect of casting said spell.
The amount of Sanity will be written on the spell.
Types Of Insanity (WORK IN PROGRESS - NOTHING BELOW IS FINALIZED When related to Temporary, Indefinite and Permanent Insanity)
Character insanity is induced by a swift succession of shocking experiences or ghastly revelations, events usually connected with dark gods, creatures from the Outer Planes, or powerful spellcasting.
Horrifying encounters can result in one of three states of mental unbalance: temporary, indefinite, and permanent insanity. The first two, temporary insanity and indefinite insanity, can be cured. The third, permanent insanity, results when a character’s Sanity points are reduced to -10 or lower. This condition cannot be cured.
Temporary Insanity
Whenever a character loses Sanity points equal to one-half her Wisdom score from a single episode of Sanity loss, she has experienced enough of a shock that the GM must ask for a Sanity check. If the check fails, the character realizes the full significance of what she saw or experienced and goes temporarily insane. If the check succeeds, the character does not go insane, but she may not clearly remember what she experienced (a trick the mind plays to protect itself).
More to be added soon™
Indefinite Insanity
If a character loses 20% (one-fifth) or more of her current Sanity points in the space of 1 hour, she goes indefinitely insane. The GM judges when the impact of events calls for such a measure. Some GMs never apply the concept to more than the result of a single roll, since this state can remove characters from play for extended periods. An episode of indefinite insanity lasts for 1d6 game months (or as the GM dictates). Symptoms of indefinite insanity may not be immediately apparent (which may give the GM additional time to decide what the effects of such a bout of insanity might be).
More to be added soon™
Permanent Insanity
A character whose Sanity score falls to -(Wisdom Score) goes permanently insane. The character becomes an NPC under the control of the Game Master.
A character with permanent insanity may be reduced to a raving lunatic or may be outwardly indistinguishable from a normal person; either way, she is inwardly corrupted by the pursuit of knowledge and power. Some of the most dangerous cultists in the world are characters who have become permanently insane, been corrupted by forbidden knowledge, and “gone over to the other side.”
More to be added soon™
Gaining Or Recovering Sanity
A character’s Sanity score can increase during the events of a campaign. Although a character’s Sanity score can never exceed 99 minus her Knowledge (forbidden lore) ranks, her maximum Sanity and current Sanity can exceed her starting Sanity.
Story Awards
The GM may decide to award increases in character’s current Sanity if they foil a great horror, a demonic plan, or some other nefarious enterprise.
The Heal Skill And Mental Treatment
The Sanity rules presented here provide a new use for the Heal skill, allowing trained healers to help characters recover lost Sanity points. The DC and effect of a Heal check made to restore lost Sanity depend on whether the therapist is trying to offer immediate care or long-term care.
Variant— Party Ability (Counselling)
A new skill called Party Ability (Counselling) can serve as the primary way to treat those who have suffered Sanity loss. Party Ability (Counselling) is a Wisdom-based skill that cannot be used untrained. If you use this variant, characters with the Heal skill can only offer immediate care, and cannot offer long-term care. Party Ability (Counselling) skill allows both types of treatment.
Immediate Care
When someone suffers an episode of temporary insanity, a therapist can bring him out of it—calming his terror, snapping him out of his stupor, or doing whatever else is needed to restore the patient to the state she was in before the temporary insanity—by making a DC 15 Party Ability (Counselling) check as a full-round action.
A Character with Party Ability (Counselling) can also use immediate care to stabilize the Sanity score of a character whose current Sanity is in the negatives. On a successful DC 15 check (requiring a full-round action), the character’s Sanity score improves to 0.
Long-Term Care
Providing long-term care means treating a mentally disturbed person for a day or more in a place away from stress and distractions. A therapist must spend 1d4 hours per day doing nothing but talking to the patient. If the therapist makes a DC 20 Party Ability (Counselling) check at the end of this time, the patient recovers 1 Sanity point. A therapist can tend up to six patients at a time; each patient beyond the first adds 1 hour to the total time per day that must be devoted to therapy. The check must be made each day for each patient. A roll of 1 on any of these Party Ability (Counselling) checks indicates that the patient loses 1 point of Sanity that day, as she regresses mentally due to horrors suddenly remembered.
Mental Therapy
To give useful mental therapy, a therapist must have the Party Ability (Counselling) skill. Intensive treatment can return Sanity points to a troubled character. However, Sanity points restored in this manner can never cause the patient’s Sanity score to exceed her starting Sanity or maximum Sanity, whichever is lower. A character can have only one healer at a time.
Such treatment can also be used to help a character snap out of an episode of temporary insanity (for example, from an acute panic attack). It does not speed recovery from indefinite insanity, but it can strengthen a character by increasing her Sanity points.
Recovery from indefinite insanity only comes with time (typically, 1d6 months). It is not dependent upon the character’s Sanity points and is not connected to them. A character can be sane with 24 Sanity points and insane while possessing 77 Sanity points.
Restoring Sanity with Magic
The way that Sanity loss and magic healing interact can greatly affect the feel of your game. At one extreme, the GM can rule that magic can easily cure Sanity loss, in which case Sanity becomes little more than a specialized version of “mental hit points” that includes some neat side effects (insanity). In such a case, characters can usually restore themselves to full Sanity with a day or two of rest and spellcasting.
At the other extreme, the campaign might be structured so that magical healing can do little or nothing to restore Sanity, and even powerful divine spellcasters capable of curing the most deadly physical malady shy away from those encounters that might drain away Sanity points. The spells that can potentially restore Sanity points are discussed below. The GM should feel free to choose which of these spell effects are present in the game, but once established, these effects should not be changed in mid-campaign.