Ability scores to 0

[Crimson Jester]

I am making this thread because of the beginnings of a tangent on another thread.

What do you think should happen when an ability score reaches 0?
The example in the other post was that someone who reaches a 0 int looses any chance at rational thought.

How would you express that in game terms?

What about other stats as well?

Say a 0 Con and you are fatigued? What would you also have to change in the game to make these work?

I just feel that having any stat reduced to 0 should not be in and of itself a death sentence for a PC or a quick kill of the monster you are fighting and liked the previous idea enough to ask others

PS: If this post is in the wrong place please move it, My bad.

[Benjamin Davis 99]

In my groups I have always used the following for results of 0 on an Ability Score due to a temporary (or, should the occasion arise, permanent) score adjustment. In most cases, the character is bedridden and cannot continue on the adventure until cured.

STR - Awake and aware, but paralyzed.
DEX - Awake and aware, but unable to control movement. Restraints required to keep character still.
CON - For all intents and purposes, dying. The 3.5 PH outlines the results of 0 CON.
INT - Comatose.
WIS - Insane.
CHA - Unable to effectively communicate in any way.

[Gene 95]

D20srd.org sets the consequences for having a 0 in ability scores as follows:

* Strength 0 means that the character cannot move at all. He lies helpless on the ground.

* Dexterity 0 means that the character cannot move at all. He stands motionless, rigid, and helpless.

* Constitution 0 means that the character is dead.

* Intelligence 0 means that the character cannot think and is unconscious in a coma-like stupor, helpless.

* Wisdom 0 means that the character is withdrawn into a deep sleep filled with nightmares, helpless.

* Charisma 0 means that the character is withdrawn into a catatonic, coma-like stupor, helpless.

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Definitely not stuff you want happening to you.

[KaeYoss]

My take:

Str 0 means you're too weak to lift a finger. Unable to move and helpless.

Dex 0 means your muscles just won't respond. Unable to move and helpless

Con 0 means you're stone dead. It's probably better that way: Your tolerance to pain is negative, you'll get ill when you take medicine...

Int 0 means coma. You just can't make any conscious decisions, or think at all.

Wis 0 means complete mental breakdown: You can't work up the will to do anything and all senses have completely failed. Probably some sort of complete dissociative state

Cha 0 means a completely dissociative state. Your sense of self is totally lost and you stand beside yourself.

[Beckett]

There are two things I would like to change, but they require a little a little bit of more rules, so may not be for everyone, and can get more complicated. However, I like more in depth games and more horror, so as your Wis and/or Cha go down, you begin to go insane. Both Wis and Cha deal with how you interact with "things" outside of yourself and your own mind, so as those go, so do the senses of how the world works.

With Int, you just become more forgettful and less skilled until the point that you drop into a coma, but with Wis and Cha you just become more chaotic (not alignment) and disturbing, maybe acting in ways that hurt yourself and others.

[KaeYoss]

Wis is usually used as the sanity attribute, and many critters and characters that are insane have low wis scores.

I don't think the game should have hard and fast rules for the effects of "sanity loss", but GMs and players are encouraged to introduce mental disorders if the wis score drops sufficiently low.