TabletopNuke
First Post
Edit 11-11-09: I've updated this following feedback I've gotten over at Giant in the Playground.
I'm trying to create series of "madness feats", which work independently from Unearthed Arcana's Sanity system. These probably wouldn't work well with the Taint system either. How do they look?
Madness Score
Madness feats typically have double the benefit of regular feats, because they come with hefty drawbacks. A creature has a "madness score" equal to the number of madness feats they possess.
This score is applied as a penalty on all Wisdom-based checks (Spot, Survival, Will Saves, and so on), representing hallucinations, delusions, poor judgment, irrational thinking, and the like. This score is also applied as a penalty on Diplomacy and Gather Information checks made to influence sane creatures, and on Disguise checks to impersonate sane creatures. The madness score applies as a bonus on Intimidate checks made to influence sane creatures.
Sane creatures are defined as creatures without madness feats, racial madness, such as that of beholders, derro, and howling dragons, or under the influence of an effect such as the insanity spell.
With the Madness feat rules, the special ability for the Madness cleric domain is Clarity of Madness as a bonus feat, rather than the usual special ability.
Going Insane
Sometime all it takes is a single devastating event to completely unravel a previously sound mind. When a character reaches a new level, with the DM’s approval, they may switch out any number of pre-existing feats for any madness feats for which they meet the requirements. The character cannot switch out any feats that are requirements for other features the character possesses (such as prestige classes and other feats).
Madness Feats
Audacious Certainty:
You have absolute confidence in your own capability, regardless of any evidence to the contrary.
Prerequisites: Madness Score 3, Cha 13, Insane Confidence
Benefit: You do not apply your madness score as a penalty to Will saves.
Clarity of Madness:
Your madness occasionally grants you bursts of insight beyond what others perceive.
Benefit: Once per day you can add ½ your character level to the result of a single Will save or Wisdom-based skill check. You must decide to add the bonus before you know if the check or save succeeds.
Fear Nothing:
You have become disconnected from reality to the point that you can no longer tell if a situation is unsafe.
Prerequisites: Madness Score 1
Benefit: You are immune to all fear effects (magical or otherwise).
Feel No Pain:
You are indifferent to physical pain.
Prerequisites: Madness Score 1
Benefit: You are immune to all pain effects (such as physical torture or symbol of pain).
Insane Confidence:
Your belief in yourself extends past what most consider good sense.
Prerequisites: Madness Score 2, Cha 11
Benefit: You add your Charisma modifier to Will saves instead of your Wisdom modifier. However, you can no longer apply the bonus from Clarity of Madness feat as to Will saves.
In addition, you apply only 1/2 your madness score (rounded up) as a penalty on Will saves.
Lunatic Sagacity:
You can immerse yourself in the depths of your hallucinations and delusions in order to see truths that sane minds can’t comprehend.
Prerequisites: Madness Score 2, Feats: Clarity of Madness
Benefit: Twice per week, but no more than once per day, you can tap into your psychosis and receive the answer to a yes or no question, as if you had asked it with a commune spell.
Using this ability renders you exhausted.
Mad Resiliency:
You act with complete disregard for the condition of your body.
Prerequisites: Madness Score 1, Feats: Feel No Pain
Benefit: You can continue to fight without penalty even while disabled or dying. This benefit has the following specific game effects.
When reduced to 0 hit points, you can act as if you weren’t disabled (that is, you ignore the normal restriction of only a single move action or standard action per round). You do not lose 1 hit point for performing a standard action or otherwise strenuous action while at 0 hit points.
When reduced to -1 to -9 hit points, you do not fall unconscious. You do not automatically lose 1 hit point each round when at -1 to -9 hit points.
When your current hit points drop to -10 or lower, you immediately die.
No Ones’ Puppet:
Your impenetrable mind can’t be controlled by others.
Prerequisites: Madness Score 1
Benefit: You are immune to enchantment effects.
Reckless:
Acting without any hesitation or inhibition enables you to move faster, even if others consider it dangerous.
Benefit: You gain a +4 bonus on Initiative checks and a +2 bonus on Reflex saves. This ability does not stack with the Improved Initiative or Lightning Reflexes feat, but counts as both of them for purposes such qualifying for feats and prestige classes.
Terrifying Madness:
Your madness can strike terror into the weak of heart.
Prerequisites: Madness Score 2, Intimidate 5 Ranks
Benefit: You gain the use of the frightful presence ability. Whenever you attack or charge, all opponents within a radius of 30 feet who have fewer levels of Hit Dice than you become shaken for a number of rounds equal to 6 + your madness score. The effect is negated by a Will save (DC 10 + ½ your character level + your madness score).
A successful save indicates that the opponent is immune to your frightful presence for 24 hours. This ability can’t affect creatures with an Intelligence of 3 or lower.
In addition, you can use your madness score in place of your Charisma modifier on Intimidate checks. This means that you add double your madness score on Intimidate checks made to influence sane creatures.
Treacherous Mind:
The mind is a dangerous place, especially yours.
Prerequisites: Madness Score 3
Benefit: Your mind is something horrid and unfathomable, filled with terrifying visions and incomprehensible ideas. Anyone who attempts mental contact with you exposes themselves to this madness. The mental trauma of this experience can destroy weaker minds. Whenever someone targets you mind control or thought detection, they must make a Will save (DC 14 + your madness score) to retain their mental composure to the sudden onslaught of insanity. If that save fails, the subject must make a Fortitude save (same DC), or die from the shock of the experience. Even if the Fortitude save is successful, the target takes 3d6 points of damage.
This is a mind-affecting enchantment effect, but not supernatural in nature. You cannot suppress this ability.
Unbreakable:
Your mind cannot be broken any further than it already is.
Prerequisites: Madness Score 4, Special: Immunity to Enchantment, Fear, and Pain
Benefit: You are immune to ability damage and drain to your mental ability scores. In addition, you are immune to all mind-effecting affects.
Unpredictable:
Your movements are erratic and unpredictable.
Benefit: Your movements are confusing to others. You gain a +1 dodge bonus to armor class against any one sane creature within 30 feet of you
In addition, you can attack such a way that you catch your opponent off-guard, denying them their Dexterity bonus to their Armor Class. You can only use this ability against a sane opponent within 30 feet, and only once per opponent per encounter (an opponent who is targeted by this ability can recognize it for the duration of that combat.). Any abilities that can be used when a foe is denied his Dexterity bonus to his Armor Class can be used with an Improved Unpredictability attack (for example, a sneak attack could be made with this attack if you can make such an attack).
Special: Unpredictability has no effect against foes with no line of effect to you. This feat can be substituted for the Dodge feat for the purpose of qualifying for classes or other feats.
I have a fluffed version of this stuff too, for anyone interested:
Adventuring with Madness
Insanity greatly influences those who live with it. An adventurer afflicted with madness will likely have to rely on his teammates to make up for his shortcomings. An insane character will almost certainly not be the speaker for the party. His poor judgment and difficulty to separate reality from fantasy probably makes the role team leader and unwise decision. Party scout will also be a difficult role to fill.
However, a mad adventurer’s troubled mind may prove an unpleasant surprise for the evil enchanter who thinks dominating such a character would be a good idea. The insane character’s complete disregard for personal safety might make him the only party member not cowering in fear as the ancient red dragon swoops down on the group.
Degrees of Madness
Madness comes in varying degrees. There is a world of difference between the gloomy soul who just can’t see the bright side of life and the delusional psychopath who spends most of her life lost in hallucinations. The severity of a creature’s mental instability is measured by its madness score, which is equal to the number of madness feats it possesses.
Roleplaying Insanity
Madness feats provide a wealth of roleplaying opportunities. A player who makes an insane character should consider several factors.
What drove the character insane? Was he the victim of some childhood trauma that damaged his mind? Has he inherited madness from a parent, possibly even a monstrous ancestor such as a howling dragon? Is it the result of exposure to some unnatural anomaly, such exposure to the Far Realm?
How does the character’s insanity manifest? Does he suffer manic periods followed by deep depression? Is he unable to recall the order that events happened in? What kind of effect does the character’s mental instability have on others, particularly his teammates? You might even choose specific mental conditions.
I'm trying to create series of "madness feats", which work independently from Unearthed Arcana's Sanity system. These probably wouldn't work well with the Taint system either. How do they look?
Madness Score
Madness feats typically have double the benefit of regular feats, because they come with hefty drawbacks. A creature has a "madness score" equal to the number of madness feats they possess.
This score is applied as a penalty on all Wisdom-based checks (Spot, Survival, Will Saves, and so on), representing hallucinations, delusions, poor judgment, irrational thinking, and the like. This score is also applied as a penalty on Diplomacy and Gather Information checks made to influence sane creatures, and on Disguise checks to impersonate sane creatures. The madness score applies as a bonus on Intimidate checks made to influence sane creatures.
Sane creatures are defined as creatures without madness feats, racial madness, such as that of beholders, derro, and howling dragons, or under the influence of an effect such as the insanity spell.
With the Madness feat rules, the special ability for the Madness cleric domain is Clarity of Madness as a bonus feat, rather than the usual special ability.
Going Insane
Sometime all it takes is a single devastating event to completely unravel a previously sound mind. When a character reaches a new level, with the DM’s approval, they may switch out any number of pre-existing feats for any madness feats for which they meet the requirements. The character cannot switch out any feats that are requirements for other features the character possesses (such as prestige classes and other feats).
Madness Feats
Audacious Certainty:
You have absolute confidence in your own capability, regardless of any evidence to the contrary.
Prerequisites: Madness Score 3, Cha 13, Insane Confidence
Benefit: You do not apply your madness score as a penalty to Will saves.
Clarity of Madness:
Your madness occasionally grants you bursts of insight beyond what others perceive.
Benefit: Once per day you can add ½ your character level to the result of a single Will save or Wisdom-based skill check. You must decide to add the bonus before you know if the check or save succeeds.
Fear Nothing:
You have become disconnected from reality to the point that you can no longer tell if a situation is unsafe.
Prerequisites: Madness Score 1
Benefit: You are immune to all fear effects (magical or otherwise).
Feel No Pain:
You are indifferent to physical pain.
Prerequisites: Madness Score 1
Benefit: You are immune to all pain effects (such as physical torture or symbol of pain).
Insane Confidence:
Your belief in yourself extends past what most consider good sense.
Prerequisites: Madness Score 2, Cha 11
Benefit: You add your Charisma modifier to Will saves instead of your Wisdom modifier. However, you can no longer apply the bonus from Clarity of Madness feat as to Will saves.
In addition, you apply only 1/2 your madness score (rounded up) as a penalty on Will saves.
Lunatic Sagacity:
You can immerse yourself in the depths of your hallucinations and delusions in order to see truths that sane minds can’t comprehend.
Prerequisites: Madness Score 2, Feats: Clarity of Madness
Benefit: Twice per week, but no more than once per day, you can tap into your psychosis and receive the answer to a yes or no question, as if you had asked it with a commune spell.
Using this ability renders you exhausted.
Mad Resiliency:
You act with complete disregard for the condition of your body.
Prerequisites: Madness Score 1, Feats: Feel No Pain
Benefit: You can continue to fight without penalty even while disabled or dying. This benefit has the following specific game effects.
When reduced to 0 hit points, you can act as if you weren’t disabled (that is, you ignore the normal restriction of only a single move action or standard action per round). You do not lose 1 hit point for performing a standard action or otherwise strenuous action while at 0 hit points.
When reduced to -1 to -9 hit points, you do not fall unconscious. You do not automatically lose 1 hit point each round when at -1 to -9 hit points.
When your current hit points drop to -10 or lower, you immediately die.
No Ones’ Puppet:
Your impenetrable mind can’t be controlled by others.
Prerequisites: Madness Score 1
Benefit: You are immune to enchantment effects.
Reckless:
Acting without any hesitation or inhibition enables you to move faster, even if others consider it dangerous.
Benefit: You gain a +4 bonus on Initiative checks and a +2 bonus on Reflex saves. This ability does not stack with the Improved Initiative or Lightning Reflexes feat, but counts as both of them for purposes such qualifying for feats and prestige classes.
Terrifying Madness:
Your madness can strike terror into the weak of heart.
Prerequisites: Madness Score 2, Intimidate 5 Ranks
Benefit: You gain the use of the frightful presence ability. Whenever you attack or charge, all opponents within a radius of 30 feet who have fewer levels of Hit Dice than you become shaken for a number of rounds equal to 6 + your madness score. The effect is negated by a Will save (DC 10 + ½ your character level + your madness score).
A successful save indicates that the opponent is immune to your frightful presence for 24 hours. This ability can’t affect creatures with an Intelligence of 3 or lower.
In addition, you can use your madness score in place of your Charisma modifier on Intimidate checks. This means that you add double your madness score on Intimidate checks made to influence sane creatures.
Treacherous Mind:
The mind is a dangerous place, especially yours.
Prerequisites: Madness Score 3
Benefit: Your mind is something horrid and unfathomable, filled with terrifying visions and incomprehensible ideas. Anyone who attempts mental contact with you exposes themselves to this madness. The mental trauma of this experience can destroy weaker minds. Whenever someone targets you mind control or thought detection, they must make a Will save (DC 14 + your madness score) to retain their mental composure to the sudden onslaught of insanity. If that save fails, the subject must make a Fortitude save (same DC), or die from the shock of the experience. Even if the Fortitude save is successful, the target takes 3d6 points of damage.
This is a mind-affecting enchantment effect, but not supernatural in nature. You cannot suppress this ability.
Unbreakable:
Your mind cannot be broken any further than it already is.
Prerequisites: Madness Score 4, Special: Immunity to Enchantment, Fear, and Pain
Benefit: You are immune to ability damage and drain to your mental ability scores. In addition, you are immune to all mind-effecting affects.
Unpredictable:
Your movements are erratic and unpredictable.
Benefit: Your movements are confusing to others. You gain a +1 dodge bonus to armor class against any one sane creature within 30 feet of you
In addition, you can attack such a way that you catch your opponent off-guard, denying them their Dexterity bonus to their Armor Class. You can only use this ability against a sane opponent within 30 feet, and only once per opponent per encounter (an opponent who is targeted by this ability can recognize it for the duration of that combat.). Any abilities that can be used when a foe is denied his Dexterity bonus to his Armor Class can be used with an Improved Unpredictability attack (for example, a sneak attack could be made with this attack if you can make such an attack).
Special: Unpredictability has no effect against foes with no line of effect to you. This feat can be substituted for the Dodge feat for the purpose of qualifying for classes or other feats.
I have a fluffed version of this stuff too, for anyone interested:
Adventuring with Madness
Insanity greatly influences those who live with it. An adventurer afflicted with madness will likely have to rely on his teammates to make up for his shortcomings. An insane character will almost certainly not be the speaker for the party. His poor judgment and difficulty to separate reality from fantasy probably makes the role team leader and unwise decision. Party scout will also be a difficult role to fill.
However, a mad adventurer’s troubled mind may prove an unpleasant surprise for the evil enchanter who thinks dominating such a character would be a good idea. The insane character’s complete disregard for personal safety might make him the only party member not cowering in fear as the ancient red dragon swoops down on the group.
Degrees of Madness
Madness comes in varying degrees. There is a world of difference between the gloomy soul who just can’t see the bright side of life and the delusional psychopath who spends most of her life lost in hallucinations. The severity of a creature’s mental instability is measured by its madness score, which is equal to the number of madness feats it possesses.
Roleplaying Insanity
Madness feats provide a wealth of roleplaying opportunities. A player who makes an insane character should consider several factors.
What drove the character insane? Was he the victim of some childhood trauma that damaged his mind? Has he inherited madness from a parent, possibly even a monstrous ancestor such as a howling dragon? Is it the result of exposure to some unnatural anomaly, such exposure to the Far Realm?
How does the character’s insanity manifest? Does he suffer manic periods followed by deep depression? Is he unable to recall the order that events happened in? What kind of effect does the character’s mental instability have on others, particularly his teammates? You might even choose specific mental conditions.
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