Addiction GMG

[noretoc]

Looking at these rule, I can't see how there are any addicts. If you get addicted to a drug that is higher then minor addiction, the user can't heal the damage from the drug, will need to keep take doses to function and each dose does more ability damage. How can an average commoner get addicted to any medium or major drug without being dead in a few days.
Am I missing something?

[Blymurkla]

noretoc wrote:

Am I missing something?

That addictions are sad and depressing and the rules therefore eliminates them in Pathfinder so your game doesn’t have to deal with them.

Or that, in line with D&D4e and opposed by oft-cited intention to do otherwise, the rules of Pathfinder are sometimes written only with the player characters in mind and shouldn't be applied to average NPCs nor be seen as a reflection of how the game-world works.

[Saldiven]

If you become addicted and do not take the drug, for a Moderate Addiction, you suffer a -2 Penalty to Strength and Constitution. This is not cumulative per day. It's not Damage or Drain. It is merely the Penalty you suffer for being addicted and not having the drug.

So, if you're suffering from a Moderate Addiction and never again use the drug in question, you suffer from that -2 Penalty until you make two consecutive successful daily saves.

Compare the wording of the Addictions to the wording for Poisons or Diseases. In those, the Effect is Damage or Drain. For the Addiction, the Effect is merely a Penalty.

In all honesty, the Addiction rules are really friendly. There's nothing that results in an addicted character from becoming a useless basket case for lack of the drug. Now, being addicted and continuing to use the drug will probably result in a permanent coma or death.

[noretoc]

But they do not simulate the circumstance where a person can get addicted and manage the addiction by taking more of the drug regularly without killing themselves in a few days. It may be as Blymurkla says in that they are designed to basically tell players "you use you die". As for NPC, well they don't use those rules, but that is pretty inconsistent with how Paizo normally do things.

[Snowblind]

It doesn't really matter what happens when they keep taking the drug for most NPCs anyway. Drugs are so absurdly expensive that they aren't affordable to anyone who isn't rich. Seriously, an untrained worker earns about 30gp per year. A reasonably competent craftsman earns about 300gp. Most drugs cost about 50gp or so a pop. How many people would be on drugs today if cheap drugs were $5000 a hit?