More about Shiver

[Gillian Wiseman]

I'm actually going to get to PLAY in this campaign; I'm thinking of running a character addicted to Shiver. But the player's guide doesn't go into detail on what Shiver does to you while you're taking it. What would the penalties be if you tried to take actions while under the influence? How long does a dose last? How expensive is it? How hard to get?

I realize that the background in the booklet assumes you've "cleaned up" and are no longer addicted. How hard is it to break such an addiction? How long would it take? Can magic help? If so, how, and if not, why not?

Is there any place I can get answers to these questions?

Thanks for any input.

Gilladian

[Rechan]

The rules are in Edge of Anarchy in the bestiary.

You take it by mouth, make a fort save or take one point of wis damage. THen you make another save a minute later or go into a coma for 1d4 hours. Each dose in a 24 hour span raises the DC by 1 and the duration by 1d4 hours.

It costs 25 a dose in Karvosa.

[Kruelaid]

Wow, that sucks.

Don't you get high?

[Gillian Wiseman]

Thanks! That will help a lot. Anybody else have any other info, opinions or advice on the subject?

[Rechan]

Kruelaid wrote:

Wow, that sucks.

Don't you get high?

You have intense, vivid hallucinating dreams.

[Jodah]

It's an analog of opium, except that it comes from a spider (which I have described as a "walking meth-lab"). it further fits with Korvosa's London vibe; it just wouldnt be london without opium dens.

[James Jacobs]

Shiver absolutely gets you high; as mentioned up-thread, it gives you VERY vivid dreams. The game effects of that, though, is Wisdom damage and possibility of comas.

[Illessa]

Gillian Wiseman wrote:

I realize that the background in the booklet assumes you've "cleaned up" and are no longer addicted. How hard is it to break such an addiction? How long would it take? Can magic help? If so, how, and if not, why not?

Once you're addicted (DC10 Fort save to avoid becoming addicted each time you take the drug) it's a DC15 Fort save every week you go without the drug or take 1d10 points of Wisdom damage, two of successful saves in a row breaks the addiction. I imagine clerics can help in all the usual ways, bed rest and restorations to help with the stat damage, and spells to boost/replace saves. I guess you could also ask your GM if they'll let someone with heal treat the addiction like a disease, substituting for the fort save with a heal check, but since there's nothing about this mentioned in the sidebar for the drug it would be pretty reasonable to say that rehab care can only help you deal with the symptoms and resist the temptation to start up again, barring magic the physical addiction can only leave in it's own time.

One of my players is planning an ex-addict Human Conjurer with Con of 10. He's allowed four months for rehab in his backstory after a 6 month binge (after he graduated from the Acadamae and discovered that his only family, his demanding, drunkard father, had died). I ran the numbers on his Fort save of +0 for him (it's pretty easy in a spreadsheet) and this is fairly reasonable. There's pretty much no way he could have avoided addiction in those 6 months even if he was only taking it once a week (hell, he probably got addicted from his second dose, if not his first), and 4 months gives him around a 70% chance of making the two saves in a row (10 weeks would give a 50/50 chance). Obviously with a higher fort save you'd likely kick the habit far faster. One of the other characters is a Favoured Soul of Iomedae who could potentially have helped him out, but we haven't hammered out the details on that character yet, so we'll have to see.