INTOXICATION

Often many characters will delve into the realm of liquid refreshments of an alcoholic nature, and this does and should have consequences, both long term and short term. This article is intended to give some rough guidelines for how the DM may treat intoxication, and each character may place themselves somewhere between teetotaler and alcoholic if they wish.

This article, I must point out, is not a scientific treatment of this subject, but merely some fun or practical guidelines that can be adopted in most AD&D games. Thus, writing to me and telling me in detail how the liver oxidizes alcohol at a particular rate will not really help, but as I base this on my personal experience with alcohol it should be reasonably useful and accurate. As an overview of what's coming, I intend to show you how to calculate a base number of drinks your character can safely consume. Several factors will be included, so be sure to account for them all.

How alcohol may affect a character depends on several factors. Mostly their body weight, but personal tolerances and racial tolerances will be a factor too, as well as constitution, the primary requisite for staving off the effects of poisons (alcohol, in this case). The figures are given for adults (16 years or older).

First, take your character's constitution score and divide this by 4 and drop all fractions. This is your base number. Other factors will modify this base number.

As a general rule, and not wishing to get into too many details, men now add 1 to their base number as they are typically heavier than women across the board. Your own character's weight may take this up or down depending, but as men are generally heavier, they add one to their base number. (If the DM says your race has females heavier than men, then the women add one here and not the men).

Here is a table of weights for various races. M/F, or male and female averages are given. Height doesn't matter, so whether your character is over or under weight for their height is irrelevant. Only their actual weight matters here.

Determine how many increments of 10 pounds your character is above or below the average weight for their race and sex. For each 10 pounds over, add 1 to your base number. For each 10 pounds under, subtract 1 from your base number. For example, if your character is 12 pounds over their racial average for their sex, add 1 (ignore any fractions of 10 pounds).

Next, add racial adjustments. This is the same as that given for poison and will apply for dwarves, halflings, and any other race the DM feels has innate resistances to poison. (To find this number, look it up in the PHB or divide your character's constitution by 3.5 and round off. This should give dwarves and halflings (and maybe some other races) a bonus between +1 and +5. Add this to your base number.

NOTE: This is for standard or nearly standard PC races. Some races that are very large, like hill giants for example naturally will have to consume much more alcohol to get drunk. The DM should just calculate the ratio of the average racial weight to the human average and multiply the initial base by that number for such a large race. Similarly, a small race, like a pixie, would have a ratio of less than 1 and would need to consume much less. Of course, such considerations may be ignored if the DM just figures each race is drinking a standard portion for them. For example, a hill giant may still take N drinks but each drink is giant sized (perhaps half gallon mugs or something). Either way, the DM should make adjustments for overly large or small races not on the typical PC choice list.

Next, a random factor may be added. Roll 1d2-1 and add this to your base number. This will account for genetics variables.

Finally, individual tolerances must be taken into account. Over time, a body develops a sort of immunity and this means it takes more of the same drug (alcohol in this case) to achieve the same effect. There are 6 stages of tolerance for our purposes summarized here in a table. Find your number and add it to your base number.

Now, after taking your constitution's base number, your weight, your gender, your race, a random factor, and your personal tolerance into account, you have arrived at a number we will call N drinks.

Here, a drink is defined rather loosely, but it is a regular drink of regular size for its type, so that would be 12 to 16 ounces of beer or ale, about 8 ounces of wine, or about 1 ounce of strong liquor such as whisky, vodka, and the like. Despite their relative sizes, each contains about the same amount of alcohol and counts as one drink.

Naturally, some drinks are notorious for being deceptively strong. This is usually because the alcoholic content is hidden in the mix and not because there is stronger alcohol in it. However, some drinks will be made using a higher proof or higher alcoholic content liquor than normal (such as 160 proof rather than 80 proof). Such drinks should be considered stronger and count as 2, 3, or even 4 drinks each. For example, a Long Island iced tea has more than 1 ounce of liquor in it and should count as two drinks. Dwarven ale is similarly stronger than normal ale and should count as two drinks. Making a drink with 1 ounce of 80 proof vodka is one drink, but making it with 160 proof vodka would count as two drinks. The DM will either know or arbitrarily assign a number to each drink (usually it will simply be 1, but stronger drinks will be 2, 3, or even 4, but no higher unless some magic or other drug is involved as 4 is close to pure alcohol i.e. 200 proof).

After you have determined your character's N, consult the table below and see how many drinks should produce what kind of effects for your character.

Naturally, if your N is 3 or lower and the table implies you begin to feel drunk even before you actually take a drink, this just means even one drink will really take its toll on you since your character has little tolerance for alcohol, but you must have at least one drink to have any effect. Ignore all results that suggest otherwise.

Here are two complete examples: A human male, 195 pounds with an average constitution of 11 and his friend, a male dwarf of 187 pounds and a constitution of 16.

The man has a constitution of 11, so 11/4=2.75, but round off to 2. You do not round up. He is a man, so add 1 and he is now at 3. His weight of 195 compared to a human male's average of 177 is 18 pounds over. This is only 1 complete increment of 10 pounds, so add 1. He is now at 4. Humans have no special tolerance for poisons or alcohol, so no modifiers apply here. Rolling 1d2-1, he rolls a 2, and 2-1=1, so he adds 1 more and is now at 5. Since he drinks daily, he adds 2 more and finishes at 7. This means this man would have to have more than 7 drinks before his gets drunk. N=7, so N-3=4 and it would take 4 drinks for this man to get even a slight buzz. His tolerance and genetics and drinking habits allow him to have 3 drinks without any appreciable effect.

The dwarf, on the other hand, has a much greater tolerance. His con of 16/4=4. He is male, so that's 5. His weight of 187 is 35 pounds over dwarven male average, so that's 3 increments of 10, bringing him to 8. 16/3.5=4 or 5 depending, so let's make it 5, taking him to 13. He also rolls a 2, and 2-1=1, so he is now at 14. Finally, he is a borderline alcoholic and adds 3 more, giving his final N = 17. Such a character could consume 17-4=13 drinks without any appreciable effect, but would begin to feel it around the 14th drink. This is an amazing tolerance, and no wonder the dwarven people have such reputations for hard drinking, and no wonder the dwarven ale is so strong. It would take 7 mugs of dwarven ale for him to feel it (each mug counts as 2 since it is dwarven ale and a strong drink).

Remember, pacing yourself and nursing a drink will help. If you drink less than one drink/hour, do not count that drink. Also, a Neutralize Poison spell will instantly sober any character up. The extra hit points come from being so relaxed a blow meets no resistance and you naturally roll (fall) with the punch, but the penalties to one's THAC0 and movement rate isn't usually worth it.

Finally, if your character's personal tolerance gets to be borderline alcoholic, you should play it as if you have to make a 3d6 wisdom roll to pass up a drink. That is, roll 3d6 and get less than your wisdom or you must drink (assuming a drink is available). If you are an alcoholic, make a 4d6 wisdom roll instead. However, for a roleplaying game, it is preferred you play your role rather than have the dice determine things for you. This means you should either intend to play a character who is not a borderline alcoholic and doesn't need to roll, or you should play your character as an alcoholic and play it as if their problem is a serious one. A good roleplayer could do this without the wisdom roll and so the DM should let them forgo the roll unless the DM feels they are not playing it properly.

Fortunately for the adventurer, a Neutralize Poison spell, when cast on a sober alcoholic, will "dry out" an alcoholic as well and even stave off their desire to drink, but they must never drink alcohol again or they will become instantly addicted and either need magic again to kick the habit or dry out as normal. Alcoholism is not really heroic, so it is recommended no one try to roleplay this just so they have a higher tolerance, but should only take it as a character roleplaying challenge. Be warned, however, that like real life alcoholics, most people will come to distrust your character's reliability and they will quickly find themselves out of the party and therefore out of the game (assuming you play it right).

© October of 2000
by
James L.R. Beach
Waterville, MN 56096