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Archives of Nethys

Archives of Nethys

Pathfinder RPG (1st Edition) Pathfinder RPG (2nd Edition) Starfinder RPG

Rules Index | GM Screen | Player's Guide
Gamemastery Guide / Chapter 2: Tools / Afflictions

Drugs

Source Gamemastery Guide pg. 120
Drugs offer short-term benefits with harmful side effects and long-term consequences. These short-term benefits, such as euphoria, draw many to drugs, but addiction keeps users hooked long after their first dose. A character can voluntarily fail their initial save against a drug, but for each dose they consume, they must attempt a saving throw against addiction, a disease that represents cravings and withdrawal. Addiction is unique to each drug, so a character can be affected by multiple instances of addiction at once.

Certain drugs alter how addiction works for that drug, adding the virulent trait to the addiction, limiting the maximum stage a character can reach, or adding additional stages beyond those listed in the base affliction.

Drugs in Your Games

Drugs are socially complex, and including them in your game has the potential to make some of your players uncomfortable—particularly players who have struggled with substance abuse themselves or seen friends and family members go through that struggle. As with any potentially difficult subject matter, you should discuss the role drugs play in your game with your players and ensure that all the players at the table are comfortable with the material; if they aren’t, avoid the topic.

If you do include drugs in your game, consider the role they’ll play. In some campaigns, drugs might simply be an element of flavor and a tool characters use to reach their goals; in others, the side effects and risk of addiction might be a terrible price to pay. The rules assume something of a middle path, where drugs are addictive substances that may provide a short‑term benefit but have consequences. To make drugs more accessible in your game, remove some of the more severe stages of addiction. To make them more dangerous, add the virulent trait to the addiction affliction, add more stages with increasingly severe effects, or increase the DC of the save against the addiction by 1 for every use of the drug, decreasing back to normal over time as they stop using the drug.