Like many, I was a bit concerned when I read through the new Sanity rules presented in Horror Adventures. Here's a breakdown of how they work:
Sanity Score equals the sum of all mental ability SCORES, minus any mental ability damage. Certain monsters, spells, effects, etc. will prompt a Will save to avoid taking Sanity damage. Sometimes saving will still take half damage. If the sanity damage taken equals or exceeds your Sanity Threshold (equal to your highest mental ability MODIFIER, minus any mental ability damage), you gain a madness. If you gain a madness while your total sanity damage is below your Sanity Edge (1/2 your Sanity Score), you gain a Greater Madness - otherwise, you gain a Lesser Madness. Healing sanity damage requires a full week of rest, at the end of which, you heal a number of damage equal to your Cha mod. In addition, a professional or confidante can pay you regular visits during the week, at the end of which, they can make an Int or Wis check (whichever is higher), and reduce your sanity damage by an additional amount equal to their Int or Cha mod if successful.
The main problem to me, and those I've heard opinions from is the fact that this system favors casters quite a bit. Now, I'm not a member of the martial disparity train by any means, but I do agree that this system can very easily cause madnesses in martial characters. Avoiding dumping mental stats HELPS, but it doesn't remove the problem. For one thing, without significant investment, a martial character is likely to gain a madness from taking a measily 2 sanity damage, since a 14 in any mental stat for a Fighter isn't much help for anything, and that 14 will quickly drain potential out of physical stats, causing them to lag in the role they're supposed to fill. Meanwhile, a caster is playing their role WRONG if their highest mental stat is only a 14, which gives them a huge advantage with this system without even considering it.
My idea is to remove Int as a stat that effects sanity. By most accounts in movies, games, etc, the intelligent scholar is usually the first person to go insane, so it's basically behaving counter to how it should. In place of Int goes Con, as physical health is often linked to mental health. Another change is to take Will saves out of the equation. Instead, a new save is added (Sanity saves), which increases at the same rate for all classes (1/2 HD + 2). Charisma is the stat that supplements Sanity saves.
I haven't had the opportunity to put a lot of extra thought or trial into these changes, so I'm hoping I can get some feedback here. Any insight would be appreciated!
I think the reason that you often see the "Intelligent character is the first to go mad" trope has more to do with the fact that those characters have a certain insatiable curiousity that pushes them to delve headfirst into whatever madness-inducing situation they find themselves in because they have to KNOW.
So I'd say that has much less to do with Intelligence than curiousity (it killed the cat, you know.)
Use middle mental mod plus two instead? Or even lowest plus four.
Since we're talking houserules anyway, how about making the sanity damage threshold level-dependent rather than attribute-dependent?
So, for example: Sanity threshold is equal to 2 + 1/2 character level (minimum 1.)
(Or set to whatever value you think is "fair". This puts everyone at the equivalent of a +3 mod at level 1.)
The advantage here is that at low-levels, sanity is more fragile, whereas experienced and hardened adventurers are tougher to shake (similar to the way stress mechanics work in Darkest Dungeon.)
It also continues to scale for all characters in the same way that it would scale with your casters. Not only will your casters naturally start with a high casting stat, they're also going to prioritize enhancing that stat, further increasing their sanity threshold.
My suggestion maxes out at a sanity threshold of 12 at level 20, which is about what you can expect a level 20 caster to get their primary casting mod up to. Mental-based characters are still rewarded for having high mental stats anyway, since they can take more overall sanity damage by having a higher total Sanity Score.
I can see your concern. Off the top of my head. CHA (awarness of self) INT (awareness of the world) and WIS (mental fortitude) seems like the basis for resisting insanity. Clearly what the designers had in mind. However considering another foundation (personal identity) that can be represented by any stat. (The burly warriors sense of self is based on his high STR more so than anything else). So for a more balanced approach could be each character picks any two of the mental state and one other stat that is fundamental to that character concept (in reality that will always be the classes primary stat). This off hand gives non spellcasters a better overall rating. You also could have the third chosen stat modifier used for the threshold. How's that sound?
So,
Total Sanity Points: WIS + CHA + CON (scores)
Sanity Threshold: WIS or CHA or CON (modifier)
Sanity Saving Throw: Strong plus CHAIs your proposal?
Correct.
@ Gulthor - I like your idea of scaling the threshold with HD.
@ Aloha Gamer - I like your interpretation of a player's personal identity being tied to his primary stat. It seems like the player gets to cherry pick their stats for their Sanity score, though, which I'm a bit hesitant about.
Thanks for the suggestions, anymore?
A character usually gains a Will save against a sanity attack, right? If you are worried about martial characters, let them apply the bonus from class features such as bravery or rage against these attacks.
You could also apply the barbarian's DR against sanity damage while raging.
I made a sanity system a few years back, as many of my campaign's prominently feature Lovecraftian creatures that are known for causing madness. My rules were as follows:
I made will saves based on charisma instead of wisdom. Your wisdom score times five, maximum 99, equaled your sanity score. You were given will saves to reduce or negate sanity damage. Any time you took sanity damage, you rolled a d%. If the result was higher than your sanity score, you developed a madness.