Alcohol and Drinking

Like in real life, too much drinking ingame can make people sick and ruin their fun, but a little drunkenness can add to the merriment of all.

See also: Corwyn Drinks

Drink Sizes

Servings of alcohol are measured in ‘shots.’ A ‘shot’ does not denote any real-world significance; rather, it is simply a convenient word to measure small volumes of liquid in game terms. The number of shots contained in various drinking vessels is as follows.

Shot glass/mouthful 1
Small glass (cup) 2
Mug/glass (pint) 4
Wineskin (pint) 4
Large Flagon (quart) 8
Jug (two quarts) 16
Large Pitcher (gallon) 32
Keg (3 gallons) 96
Small Barrel (10 gallons) 320
Large Barrel (40 gallons) 1280

Drink Strengths

The strength of a drink is measured on a scale, and forms the Endurance skill check's DC which is rolled when the drink is consumed. The following table should not be regarded as a definitive list of drinks, but rather a rough guide to how to use Alcohol Strengths.

Water 0
Weak Beer 12
Regular Beer 13
Wine 15
Strong Wine 16
Spirit 18
Strong Spirit 20
Dwarf Spirits 22

As you drink, you make an Endurance check for each drink consumed; every time you fail the Endurance check, you get a little more drunk. This is described under “Getting Drunk”.

New Conditions

Alcohol is, basically, a poison. The more you drink, the greater effect it has. There are several levels of intoxication, each accompanied by penalties to certain abilities, and a slight bonus to resist pain; these take the form of conditions.

Tipsy

Judgement slightly impaired, but no noticeable effects.
-1 penalty to attack rolls, skill checks, ability checks, and Reflex defence.
No effect on movement or hit points.

Merry

Inhibitions lower, voices raise, and balance wavers slightly.
-2 penalty to attack rolls, skill checks, ability checks, and Reflex defence.
+1 temporary hit points per hit level.
No effect on movement.

Drunk

Dizzy and disoriented, words slurred.
-3 penalty to attack rolls, skill checks, ability checks, and Reflex defence.
+2 temporary hit points per level.
Slowed, must make an Acrobatics check (DC 10)* or fall prone if you move.

Hammered

Can’t walk in a straight line, generally incoherent.
-4 penalty to attack rolls, skill checks, ability checks, and Reflex defence.
+3 temporary hit points per level.
Dazed and slowed, must make an Acrobatics check (DC 10)* or fall prone if you move.

Plastered

Communication is nearly impossible, as is standing up.
-5 penalty to attack rolls, skill checks, ability checks, and Reflex defence.
+4 temporary hit points per level (but usually unable to take advantage of this).
Dazed and slowed through nausea. Must make an Acrobatics check (DC 10)* or fall prone if you move.

Passed Out

Character is unconscious, usually from sickness or extreme dizziness and confusion.
*Skill check penalty applies for this level of drunkenness as normal.
This does NOT apply to the drinking Endurance checks.

Getting Drunk

Each time you take a drink, you make an Endurance check against the DC of your drink. This check receives the following bonuses:

  • Any resistance to poison is added as a bonus to the roll.
  • The Hard Drinking feat grants a +4 bonus to the roll.
  • Size small or smaller creatures suffer a -2 penalty to the roll, and size larger or larger creatures get a +2 bonus.

Each time you drink, you suffer a cumulative -1 penalty to your Endurance check. Even the hardiest of drinkers cannot continue to do so forever!
Each time you fail a check, you progress to the next stage of drunkenness, from Tipsy through Plastered, until you finally pass out.
The game master may give a bonus to skill checks of up to +2 for factors such as a full stomach or magical enhancements.
A failure by 5 or more causes the character to become dazed until the end of his next round from gagging. In most drinking contests, this also means that the character has lost; even if it doesn't disqualify him, for the next round he only has one action to his opponent's three to use for drinking.

Drinking Too Fast

A medium size character can drink 2 shots (half a pint) as a minor action. Double this number for each size category above Medium and halve it for each size category below Medium. Attempting to drink more than this in one minor action causes an Endurance check penalty of -2 for each multiple of the character's normal drinking capacity.

  • Tiny: half-shot
  • Small: 1 shot
  • Medium: 2 shots
  • Large: 4 shots
  • Huge: 8 shots
  • Gargantuan: 16 shots

Hard Drinking (Feat)

You are well-accustomed to drinking, and do not get drunk easily.
Requirements: Con 13+
Benefits: You gain a +4 bonus to Endurance checks made when drinking. In addition, you double your normal drinking capacity (normally 2 shots/minor action for a medium-sized creature) and ignore the weakened effect of a hangover.

Recovery & Hangovers

A character recovers naturally at a rate of one category per hour. Additionally, an extended rest enables him to recover completely
A character who has become Drunk or higher suffers a hangover once he sobers up. A hangover consists of headaches, nausea and other unpleasant side effects. After recovering from drunkenness, a hangover begins. While hung over, the character is weakened for a duration dependant on the level of drunkenness achieved. Refer to the following table:

Drunk 1 hour
Hammered 2 hours
Plastered 3 hours
Passed Out 4 hours

Folk Remedies

A Nature or Healing check (DC 20) will allow a character to brew a hangover or drunkenness remedy. Most such folk remedies sell for 2 gold pieces per dose, and many inns and taverns make as much money sobering up their patrons as getting them drunk. A character can only benefit from one dose of a folk drunkenness remedy per day.
Remedies have an effect either on current drunkenness, or on hangovers.

Drinking Contests

Drinking contests are common on most worlds. Basically, two or more contestants match each other drink-for-drink until they pass out – the last conscious drinker wins.
Creating a drinking contest is easy: Simply agree on the drink and amount to be consumed, establish the stakes, and then each drinker is required to consume one drink of the agreed size each round. Larger drinks cause more problems, since as the competitors reach the Hammered stage they only have one action per round and may need to use the “Drinking Too Fast” rule (above).
A tougher variation might have the drinkers required to perform a task (perhaps an Acrobatics check) in between each drink, failure to complete the task meaning that they forfeit the competition.

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License