More horrific effects or cumulative effects can result in long-term or indefinite madness.Ī character afflicted with short-term madness is subjected to an effect from the Short-Term Madness table for ldl0 minutes.Ī character afflicted with long-term madness is subjected to an effect from the Long-Term Madness table for ldl0 x 10 hours.Ī character afflicted with indefinite madness gains a new character flaw from the Indefinite Madness table that lasts until cured. Most relatively mundane effects impose short-term madness, which lasts for just a few minutes. Madness can be short-term, long-term, or indefinite. Resisting a madness-inducing effect usually requires a Wisdom or Charisma saving throw.
Some artifacts can also break the psyche of a character who uses or becomes attuned to them. Diseases, poisons, and planar effects such as psychic wind or the howling winds of Pandemonium can all inflict madness. Certain spells, such as contact other plane and symbol, can cause insanity, and you can use the madness rules here instead of the spell effects in the SRD. Various magical effects can inflict madness on an otherwise stable mind. If your campaign has a strong horror theme, you might want to use madness as a way to reinforce that theme, emphasizing the extraordinarily horrific nature of the threats the adventurers face. In a typical campaign, characters aren’t driven mad by the horrors they face and the carnage they inflict day after day, but sometimes the stress of being an adventurer can be too much to bear.
Psychic damage types now deal Sanity damage.Different madness rules (use HP as madness, and dying gains you a permanent insanity).Here we give codified rules on how sanity (and the lack thereof ) can play a role in your game, and how you can inject the substance of sanity into your game, creating a mood of fear and uncertainty. The madness that takes hold can be a signpost of horror, as the protagonists meet twisted minds that have been broken by inhuman creatures, as well as mortal born cruelties like war and terror. Insanity plays a strong part in the elements of horror, as fear is a cloying presence that can unhinge the mind.