so, one of my players' characters was afflicted by a lamia matriarch's drain, and they were wondering how their characters would know that the character actually needed restoration used on them. None of us were able to think of a way they would notice aside from a change of actions.
generally less aptitude with wisdom based actions.
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Wouldn't the character who had their wisdom drained eventually realize that they weren't feeling quite right?
When you feel your willpower being sucked out of your mind, your thoughts get cloudy, it's harder to make decisions, and your senses blur ... you know what's happening.
Plus, it's basic transparency and fair play. PCs should almost always know what was done to them and by whom.
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Generally, unless you are being secretly poisoned, you notice when attacked. Even with secret poisoning, you notice that you aren't quite right. For the most part, after you figure this out, a simple divining spell could deduce the problem. A heal check might also notice the damage somehow (like sucker marks or whatever) followed by knowledge checks to see what happened/what did it/what was done.
HP and attribute damage/drain is generally assumed to be something PCs are at least vaguelly aware of. Otherwise a lot of the 'norms' of play start to fall apart (such as when to start/stop healing, when to use restoration, etc etc).
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How much wisdom was drained? He might not know but the other players might figure something is up if the wise old druid starts trying to pull his foot up to his head because he wants to know what his toes taste like. Well, unless it's one of those eccentric druids.
A Lion Shaman trimming his toenails with his teeth wouldn't be eccentric at all; my cat does that all the time.
On the one hand, the wis drained character would probably pick up on feeling... wonky. But on the other, if the drain reduced his wisdom dramatically, he may not have the awareness that something's not right.
The party would probably pick up on the latter, after all, their stubborn, perceptive friend is now a push-over who's walking into trees alot because "they snuck up on him."
Or, since I assume the party were all present during the lamia fight, a knowledge check to figure out what was happening when she put her fingers in Bob's brain could always be handy, but I figure the party/players/characters have an awareness of things like HP, Attribute drain, etc... otherwise alot of things go south.
A knowledge roll would probably be best for my group. The thing is my players are the ones that brought it up that they probably wouldn't notice anything happened to him mentally in the battle since they imagined the lamia preventing herself from being grappled.
There is also the problem that we don't really know how to roleplay wisdom. So while the PC had had a high wisdom they did a lot of unwise things. E.G. always screaming, "sandpoint police department get on the gound" then running up to tackle the nearest "enemy" regardless of the situation.