Forums of the Megaverse®

PFrpg/BtS Potion addiction . Could this lead to their version of a juicer compleate with pros and cons ?

interesting thoughts, I have thought about adding potions kind of like you see them in Dresden files. I also like the use of magic items in the books it seem vary interesting and a way to help mages work with the limited ambient power...

Magic is addictive. The reason for the stereotype of the wizard's tower is that older psions, elementalists, bio mages, empaths, clerics, mages, shamans, cultists, alchemists, spiritualists and druids have tasted the seductive sweetness of raw Power firsthand, and they begin to need it. It starts out slowly, imperceptibly. During their youth, it is a physical sensation, the feeling of power flowing through them, into them, filling them. Casting spells causes exertion, but the endorphins released are addictive, giving them a "magic high".

This often manifests itself as mages who cast larger spells than necessary. That is a sure sign of a growing problem. That is stage one of what is commonly called Arcane Affective Disorder.

As time passes and mages, as well as other magic users, continue to use Power, they often begin to gain items that grant them more Power than they typically would have access to. Naturally the quest to gain more Power and hoarding magic items is yet another step on the road to addiction. This is stage two Arcane Affective Disorder.

The next stage is the need to have spells active at all time. Protective spells that are cast obsessively, healing potions that are imbibed for no reason and a need to have magic items on one's body at all times is stage 3 of Arcane Affective Disorder.

When a character fails to curb their appetite for magic, they will eventually fall to Arcane Affective Disorder and one of two things will occur. They will either die, or they will undergo a transformation, which will change them forever. This is stage 4 Arcane Affective Disorder. If they do not die, one of the following will occur; a complete metamorphosis, possession, vampirism, cannibalism, becoming a lich, or becoming a ritualistic sacrificial mass murderer.

Arcane Affective Disorder has different syptomology for Shamans than it does for others. A shaman with Stage 1 AAD will sometimes begin to act like one of their totems, sniffing the air, pawing objects, etc. at random times, though with a successful Willpower roll, they can maintain control.

Stage 2 AAD is when the shaman will begin to become noticeably more atavistic, preferring uncooked food, spending more time outside, and when they speak, about 50% of the time, they will make animal noises instead of humanoid speech.

When Stage 3 AAD is reached, the shaman will often simply run away and live in the wild as if they were an animal of a type they are a shaman of. Thus a Stage 3 AAD Bear Shaman will simply run away and be a bear, albeit in other skin. A Stage 3 AAD Shaman is called “feral”, and they are.

A Stage 4 AAD Shaman becomes something else entirely. These are actually quite rare, since the majority of feral shamans simply become animals and never perform willworking again. A Stage 4 AAD Shaman is called a Wendigo, however. A Wendigo is almost the karmic opposite of a feral shaman. While a feral behaves like a natural animal of a type determined by his totem, a Wendigo operates like an evil version of that totem. Thus a Wendigo Dog shaman would hunt children, assault humanoids, steal food, etc., while a Wendigo Bear shaman will hunt and kill almost anything operating in it’s “territory”, which can be a city park or a cave complex. Wendigo Shamans are hunted and killed wherever they are found.

-STS

interesting thought, I never really thought that magic or spell working could be addictive. I wonder of the mage or shaman properly grounds them selves after spell work or ritual. That helps to drain off any exess power that was raised but not burned in the spell. I would think it would be the residue of magic spell work if left in you

I was thinking more of chemical addiction from alchemy . But addiction and dependency to enchanted objects and magic itself could be interesting .