Explain the Sanity Rules Like I'm a Six Year Old

[DungeonmasterCal]

First, let me explain why I'm asking this here. I tried to open the "Rules" forum but it kept taking me to the front page of the Paizo website. If someone can move this to the right place it would be great. I'm flagging it myself to grab someone's attention.

So, my conundrum. I'm a reasonably smart guy. I know a lot of stuff. I can spell Pachycephalosaurus without looking it up. But I can't quite grasp the Sanity Rules from "Horror Adventures". Could someone kindly break it down to a middle aged guy who's not firing on all cylinders tonight?

Thanks, gang.

[Cthulhu-chan]

The GM hates you and Paizo is in on the conspiracy to make you suffer.

And thus, all is suffering dedicated to make you despair. And despair you shall, until the bonds of your sanity in real life break and you slowly descend into gibbering madness.

That is the key to the sanity rules. There is no truly understanding them. They are an eldritch abomination in text form, and the more you contemplate them the closer to losing your own sanity you come.

Ia! Ia! Paizo ftaghn!

[John Napier 698]

Okay, Cal, to begin with, all characters have three derived attributes. They are the Sanity Score, Sanity Threshold, and Sanity Edge.

The Sanity Score is simple. Just add up the character's Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores. The total is the Sanity Score. Think of them as Mental Health Hit Points.

The Sanity Threshold is the highest value of Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma, minus the amount of Ability Damage to that score. If a character suffer Sanity loss greater than the Threshold value, that character gains a madness.

The Sanity Edge is equal to half the Sanity Score. It is used to determine the severity of the Madness. Whenever a character gains a Madness, compare the total sanity lost to the Sanity Edge score. If the loss is less than the Edge score, a Lesser Madness is gained. If it is greater, a Greater Madness is gained instead.

[John Napier 698]

So, when a character encounters something horrific, the GM will ask for a Will Save with the DC taken from the table on the bottom of page 13. Apply the failure or success according to the type of Sanity attack.

Sanity points can be healed. For each 7 days of uninterrupted rest, a character heals Sanity Damage equal to the Character's Charisma Modifier. Lesser Restoration, Restoration, and Heal restores 1d2, 2d4, and 3d4 Sanity points respectively. Greater Restoration, Psychic Surgery, and Lesser Wish heals all Sanity loss if the loss is less than the Edge score, otherwise the character's sanity is healed to one less than the Edge score. Miracle and Wish spells completely restore lost Sanity.

[John Napier 698]

So, any questions?

[GM Mort]

The point about sanity rules is to drive the GM insane ;)

I find it personally very player unfriendly and would choose to use it as little as possible.

Also note that Lesser Restoration, Restoration, and Heal can only be used once per day.

[John Napier 698]

GM Mort wrote:

The point about sanity rules is to drive the GM insane ;)

I find it personally very player unfriendly and would choose to use it as little as possible.

Also note that Lesser Restoration, Restoration, and Heal can only be used once per day.

Thanks, Mort. I missed that. Oops.

[Dracoknight]

You know uncle Tom? Thats what sanity does to you.

[The Mad Comrade]

Made up example:

7th level Ezren the Iconic Wizard has 20 Int, 12 Wis, 10 Cha.
SAN score: 42. SAN edge: 21. SAN threshold: 5 (this highest modifier minus ability damage to that score, in Ezren's case, INT).

Ezren triggers a magical trap that sends him into a maze of madness and suffering that takes him 15 rounds to find his way out of. 20% of the time in this DC 23 trap he wanders a strange city, requiring the poor mid-level mage to attempt a DC 23 Will save to negate taking 2d10 sanity damage. Ezren spends 3 of the 15 rounds in the strange city part of the trap and suffers 3 separate instances of 2d10 sanity damage.

For the sake of this example we will assume Ezren got through the other 12 rounds with no pertinent-to-Sanity-rules effects to his mental ability scores.

The first failed save deals 11 sanity damage - more than twice his threshold but less than his edge - he has not 'gone over the edge'. He acquires one lesser madness.

The second failed save deals another 9 sanity damage - Ezren acquires a second lesser madness having exceeded his threshold twice. Having taken 20 sanity damage, his mind teeters on the edge of madness as he is almost over his edge.

Sadly, on the third trip through a strange city Ezren blows this Will save as well, taking another 13 sanity damage for a total of 33 out of his 42 sanity score. This blows through his edge and pushes him across his threshold, resulting in a greater madness to go with his two lesser madnesses.

Presuming Ezren escapes the cultists' lair with his body intact, his allies tuck him into a cottage somewhere nice and quiet that won't trigger his assorted madnesses. Seela with a 13 WIS has access to lesser restoration. The cleric died, so the paladin is taking care of Ezren whilst Merisiel finds a new divine caster that hopefully has better WIS than Seelah and access to restoration.

Week 1
With a +1 WIS modifier Seelah is not going to help Ezren very often, not with a DC 20 WIS check required thanks to Ezren's greater madness. She succeeds amazingly enough during the week Merisiel is gone while dutifully applying a lesser restoration to Ezren every day for that week. Altogether the rest, Seelah's WIS check and spells cure (7d2+2) 9 of Ezren's 33 sanity damage. He remains over his threshold at 24 out of his 42 sanity score.

Week 2
Once Merisiel returns with the iconic 7th level cleric of Sarenrae, the latter takes up the duties of tending to their insane Wizard. She'll cure on average 6.5 sanity damage per day from 2 spells which will eliminate the mage's sanity damage completely in 4 days.

During the course of a week of magically-enhanced therapy the cleric's repeated castings of restoration once the sanity damage is removed greatly alleviate Ezren's suffering. Each lesser madness' DC is reduced by 5 whilst the greater madness' DC is reduced by 2. The cleric succeeds on the DC 20 WIS check to council Ezren through the second week of his recovery, adding another 2 points of DC reduction against the greater madness, although Ezren fails to muster his CHA enough to help himself. This counseling in combination with restoration reduces the DC against his greater madness by a total of 4.

Ezren picked up delirium (DC 16), hallucinations (DC 14) (two lesser madnesses) and cognitive block (DC 20) (greater madness). No wonder the party got out of where they were! The previous treatments reduce the DCs to 11,9 and 16 respectively.

Week 3
Until these DCs are reduced to 0, Ezren needs to stay in the happy cottage with the cleric's counseling and spells. They're in the cottage for another week - for a total of 3 weeks - before Ezren is in adventuring form again.

[GM Mort]

Furthermore if you're playing under dormancy rules:

If you are afflicted with madness and then are healed of all sanity damage, all of your madnesses become dormant until you accrue further sanity damage.

Typically, a dormant madness does not affect you at all, but some madnesses feature an effect that occurs only while that madness is dormant. - >depending in which madnesses, even after Erzen's sanity damage is dropped to 0 he may still take ill effects.

A lesser madness that becomes dormant does not manifest again until you take sanity damage equal to or greater than your sanity edge. A greater madness stays dormant only as long as your total sanity damage remains at 0.

Which means if Erzen takes any sanity damage in the future his cognitive block would be back again.

[Selene Spires]

Um...my parents would explain things when I was 6 years old with...
"Because I said so!"

But I don't think that is what you are looking for here.

;)

[DungeonmasterCal]

John Napier 698 wrote:

So, any questions?

None! You helped a lot. Thanks!

[DungeonmasterCal]

Thanks, everyone! The rules didn't seem very user friendly. This weekend I plan for the PCs to encounter a Vampire Drider. This will be the first time a Sanity check will be called for, so I really wanted a handle on things.

[Farael the Fallen]

You see Cal, when two people love each other they get married, have some private time, and then the Mommie person has a baby. That's how you were born. The end.

[Vanykrye]

Farael the Fallen wrote:

You see Cal, when two people love each other they get married, have some private time, and then the Mommie person has a baby. That's how you were born. The end.

Now make a Will save at DC 25 to avoid 4d10 sanity damage.

[DungeonmasterCal]

I failed.

[Wheatley]

Sanity? Whassat? Is it that thing we threw away? Was that important?

[DungeonmasterCal]

Not so important, but it was a nice conversation piece sitting on the coffee table.

[John Napier 698]

And, when you stare into it, it shows you things.

[Wheatley]

Ooh lemme see lemme see lemme see!

[Magic 8-Ball says...]

John Napier 698 wrote:

And, when you stare into it, it shows you things.

Reply hazy, try again later.