Madness System V. 1

# Madness System V. 1

Madness points are a new mechanic that measures your current sanity level. Considering the amount of extraordinary and horrific things adventurers experience, it stands to reason that one's sanity may be tested. From novice green horns to even the most weathered explorer, everyone has a breaking point.

When a character is faced with a situation that could test their sanity, its called a madness event. It is essentially up to the DM what constitutes a madness event as well as the saving throw DC. DMs should work with players before beginning to discuss different factors that could lead to a madness event.

This document contains guidelines and charts for madness but as with most of 5e, its up to the table on how to proceed.

### Madness Points

Madness points are based on your mental stability and ability to handle stressful or frightful situations. Each different ability score counteracts madness and insanity in different ways. Intelligence helps you rationalize and use logic to overcome madness. Wisdom allows your existing knowledge of the world and its elements to combat madness. Finally, if you are cunning and manipulative, Charisma is best for steeling your mind against assaults.

When you begin a one short or campaign featuring this system, each character chooses a mental ability stat listed above. That stat becomes your Madness ability score. Once chosen, it cannot be changed.

You have a number of madness points equal to the chosen ability's score.

### Madness Saving Throw

When an event or situation occurs that tests your mental limits, the DM will ask for a saving throw, using the chosen ability. The DC of the saving throw will be situational and dependent on the severity of the madness events.

If you succeed a saving throw, you've managed to fight against the incoming madness and you remain unaffected. At times a success could provide a benefit.

If you fail a madness saving throw, you lose 1 madness point. Immediately, roll on one of the madness charts to determine the effect.

If you roll a natural 1, you lose 2 madness points. If you roll a natural 20 on the saving throw, you regain 1 madness point and roll on the Moment of Courage table.

Each different type of madness and effect has a specific duration. When you are affected by madness, the DM will explain the effect and the duration.

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### Losing Madness Points

When you fail a madness saving throw, there are different charts depending on the cause and severity of the madness. The effect caused is tied to the event that caused it. As stated before, its up to the DM's discretion what constitutes a madness saving throw, but the following are a few situations that may require one:
* You witness a horrific scene, such as an eldritch horror appearing and attacking you.
* An ally is killed in front of you.
* You fail a death saving throw.
* You are *frightened* for longer than 1 minute.
* An enormous or incredibly terrifying monster dashes toward you.

### Regaining Madness Points

Once a madness point is lost, it can be regained in one of three ways.

* At the end of a long rest, you recover a number of madness points equal to your chosen ability's modifier. For example, a character with an Intelligence of 16, has 16 madness points and regains 3 at the end of a long rest.

* When you are missing madness points and have *Lesser Restoration* cast on you, you regain 1 point and can end one madness currently affecting you. If you have more than one, roll to randomly determine which effect ends. Similarly, a *Greater Restoration* spell recovers 2 madness points and ends two type of madness effecting you. You can only benefit from *Lesser Restoration* or *Greater Restoration* in this way once each per long rest.

* When you make a madness saving throw and you roll a 20 on the d20, you regain 1 madness point as well as a Moment of Courage.

Madness points can also be restored when you accomplish great acts. When you score a critical hit or kill a creature,  for example, your DM may grant you a madness point.

## Moment of Courage

A moment of courage is just that. A moment, a split second of bravery and force of will to not be deterred. In the face of maddening threats, you have maintained your wits and composure and received an additional benefit.

When you earn a Moment of Courage, you will roll on the table below, with the benefit applying instantly.

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## Moment of Courage

| d8 | Benefit |
|:--------:|:---------:|
|1 **Leadership**| Your leadership bolsters your allies and reminds them of their strength. You and each ally within 60 ft. of you regain 1 madness point.
|2 **Courageous** |Your fearless spirit empowers you. On your turns, you gain an additional action. That action can be used to move up to your movement speed or make one weapon attack. This benefit lasts for 1d4 rounds.
|3 **Focused** | Breathing deep you push past distraction and steel your focus. You have advantage your first attack each turn. This benefit lasts for 1d4 rounds.
|4 **Stalwart** |You stand as a fortified force to be reckoned with. You gain +2 to your AC. This benefit lasts for 1d4 rounds.
|5 **Powerful** |Your power is second to none in this moment. You may immediately move up to half your movement speed and make a weapon attack. If it hits, its a critical hit.
|6 **Vigorous** |A natural child of vigor and endurance, you can push yourself past normal limits. Your movement speed is doubled for 1d4 rounds.
|7 **Bravery** |You present yourself as the warrior you are, attempting to pull aggro. Choose up to three creatures that can see you within 60 ft. On the creature's next turn, it must use its action to attack only you.
|8 **Respite** |You've learned to heal momentarily by taking a moment to breath. You may roll a number of hit dice up to your proficiency bonus. You regain hit points equal to the total of the roll without expending the hit dice.

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## Madness Effects

Losing madness points can have different effects and detriments. Below is a list of effects that are triggered when your madness ability score is reduced to the value listed. When you gain an effect of madness from a reduction of your madness ability score, you retain that madness until your madness points are raised above that point again. If you gain a madness when your Wisdom score drops beloe 15, you retain that madness until its raised to or above 15.

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### Losing Madness Points

|d100	|Effect| 
|:----:|:------:|
|20| You have advantage on madness saving throws.
|17| You gain a Short Term Madness
|15| You gain a Long Term Madness
|13| You gain a fear of an element. When you see that element you must succeed a Wisdom saving throw or be *frightened* until the end of your next turn.
|10| You gain a form of Indefinite Madness
|7| You gain a form of Tragic Madness
|5| 1 Level of Exhaustion (Disadvantage on Ability Checks)
|4| 2 levels of Exhaustion (Speed Halved)
|3| 3 levels of Exhaustion (Disadvantage on attack rolls and saving throws)
|2| 4 levels of Exhaustion (Hit point maximum halved)
|1| 5 levels of Exhaustion (Speed reduced to 0)
|0| You are completely insane. The DM takes control of your character and you roll a new one.

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## Madness Effect Tables

### Short Term Madness

| d100 | Effect (lasts 1d10 minutes) |
|:--------:|:---------:|
|01-20 |	The character retreats into his or her mind and becomes paralyzed. The effect ends if the character takes any damage. 
|21-30	|The character becomes incapacitated and spends the duration screaming, laughing, or weeping.
|31-40	|The character becomes frightened and must use his or her action and movement each round to flee from the source of the fear.
|41-50	|The character begins babbling and is incapable of normal speech or spellcasting.
|51-60	|The character must use his or her action each round to attack the nearest creature.
|61-70	|The character experiences vivid hallucinations and has disadvantage on ability checks.
|71-75	|The character does whatever anyone tells him or her to do that isn't obviously self-destructive.
|76-80	|The character experiences an overpowering urge to eat something strange such as dirt, slime, or offal.
|81-90	|The character is stunned.
|91-100	|The character falls unconscious.

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### Long-Term Madness

|d100	|Effect (lasts 1d10 x 10 hours)|
|:--------:|:---------:|
|01-10	|The character feels compelled to repeat a specific activity over and over, such as washing hands, touching things, praying, or counting coins.
|11-20	|The character experiences vivid hallucinations and has disadvantage on ability checks.
|21-30	|The character suffers extreme paranoia. The character has disadvantage on Wisdom and Charisma checks.
|31-40	|The character regards something (usually the source of madness) with intense revulsion, as if affected by the antipathy effect of the antipathy/sympathy spell.
|41-45	|The character experiences a powerful delusion. Choose a potion. The character imagines that he or she is under its effects.
|46-55	|The character becomes attached to a "lucky charm," such as a person or an object, and has disadvantage on attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws while more than 30 feet from it.
|56-65	|The character is blinded (25%) or deafened (75%).
|66-75	|The character experiences uncontrollable tremors or tics, which impose disadvantage on attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws that involve Strength or Dexterity.
|76-85	|The character suffers from partial amnesia. The character knows who he or she is and retains racial traits and class features, but doesn't recognize other people or remember anything that happened before the madness took effect.
|86-90	|Whenever the character takes damage, he or she must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or be affected as though he or she failed a saving throw against the confusion spell. The confusion effect lasts for 1 minute.
|91-95	|The character loses the ability to speak.
|96-100	|The character falls unconscious. No amount of jostling or damage can wake the character.

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### Indefinite Madness

|d100	|Flaw (lasts until cured)|
|:--------:|:---------:|
|01-15	|"Being drunk keeps me sane."
|16-25	|"I keep whatever I find."
|26-30	|"I try to become more like someone else I know--adopting his or her style of dress, mannerisms, and name."
|31-35	|"I must bend the truth, exaggerate, or outright lie to be interesting to other people."
|36-45	|"Achieving my goal is the only thing of interest to me, and I'll ignore everything else to pursue it."
|46-50	|"I find it hard to care about anything that goes on around me."
|51-55	|"I don't like the way people judge me all the time."
|56-70	|"I am the smartest, wisest, strongest, fastest, and most beautiful person I know."
|71-80	|"I am convinced that powerful enemies are hunting me, and their agents are everywhere I go. I am sure they're watching me all the time."
|81-85	|"There's only one person I can trust. And only I can see this special friend."
|86-95	|"I can't take anything seriously. The more serious the situation, the funnier I find it."
|96-100	|"I've discovered that I really like killing people."

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### Minor Madness

|d10	|Detail|
|:--------:|:---------:|
|1	|You lose any sense benefits you have, such as darkvision, blindsight, etc.
|2	|You constantly hear a voice murmuring an unknown, guttural eldritch language. Though you can't understand it, it begins to convince you.
|3 |You never feel alone. No matter where you go or how far you travel from other people, you always feel someone near you.
|4 |You lose your sense of sight, hearing, or speech.
|5 |When you walk past any type of statue, you always feel like they seem to move ever so slightly.
|6 |You completely forget your name.
|7 |You lose proficiency in one random skill you are proficient with.
|8 |You cannot speak the truth. Every word you utter must be a lie.
|9 |You suffer from partial amnesia. You retain all racial traits and class features but you don't remember your name, anyone you ever met, or anything before the effect.
|10 |You begin to hallucinate a massive, monstrous beast. You can hear everything around you but you can only see the hallucination.

### Tragic Madness

|d6	|Detail|
|:--------:|:---------:|
|1	|Choose one ability score at random. That ability score is reduced by 1d6.
|2	|When you take the attack action, you may only make one attack, regardless of other features, such as Extra Attack.
|3 |You can only cast cantrips.
|4 |You can't take bonus actions
|5 |You can't take reactions
|6 |Your maximum hit points are reduced by twice your proficiency bonus.

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### Additional Madness Effects Table

|d100	|Effect| 
|:----:|:------:|
|01-02	|Spells are half as effective. (Duration, Range, Power of Effect, Damage)
|03-04	|Your character believes the gods are watching and mocking them, and hear booming, echoing laughter from the sky intermittently.
|05-06	|Your character develops extreme social anxiety, and finds it difficult to speak in front of others.
|07-08	|Your character believes they've been body swapped with the first person they see.
|09-10	|Your develops a fear of being alone and must have at least one person in a room with them at all times.
|011-012|	Your character hears the regular sounds of rolling dice.
|013-014|	Your character feels like their teeth are loose and threatening to fall out.
|15-16	|Every time your character makes a suggestion, they hear a loud voice in their head urging the opposite.
|17-18	|Your character believes they are being watched and are under constant surveillance.
|19-20	|Your character can tell if any person they see has committed murder before, as their eyes appear entirely black and empty.
|21-22	|Every time someone else speaks, your characters sees bugs crawling out of their mouth.
|23-24	|You believe that the first person you speak with is proposing marriage.
|25-26	|Your character sees all walking surfaces/roads as flooded with 6-inch deep ooze.
|27-28	|Your character develops a crippling fear of the first animal/insect/monster it sees.
|29-30	|Your character views everything as if it was highly saturated and surreal.
|31-32	|Your character sees everyone as large, humanoid, clothes-wearing birds. If your character looks in the mirror, they are also a bird.
|33-34	|Your character believes the party are hallucinations of their own split personalities.
|35-36	|Your character becomes obsessed with the first object they see, and feel the need to carry it, touch it, use it, speak to it etc.
|37-38	|Your character becomes incredibly sensitive and conscious of their looks.
|39-40	|Your character can tell if any NPC can offer info on a quest as they have a glowing, golden aura around them.
|41-42	|Your character believes that every person they meet is an old friend.
|43-44	|Your character sees everyone as adorable chibi versions of themselves that speak in extra sweet voices.
|45-46	|Your character is convinced that the first person they meet is a werewolf.
|47-48	|Your character believes that they are invisible.
|49-50	|Spells targeting yourself, now target the nearest friendly person.
|51-52	|Your character is convinced that boulders are falling from the sky around them at random times.
|53-54	|Your character believes they are twice as tall as they really are.
|55-56	|Your character believes that the first person they see is polymorphed into a sheep before their eyes.
|57-58	|Every question or comment directed at your character must be answered with a plain truth about themselves.
|59-60	|Your character can tell when someone lies, as their eyes briefly glow white, giving the illusion they're blind.
|61-62	|Your character hears anyone but your party's speech as gibberish. (Think Sims speak).
|63-64	|Your character believes the first party member they see has been afflicted with an infectious disease.
|65-66	|Your character believes they have the power/strength of a level 20.
|67-68	|Your character becomes incredibly light-sensitive, and believes that their skin burns in sunlight.
|69-70	|Your character feels incredibly emotionally sensitive – everything is moving, or sad, or upsetting, or enraging.

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### Additional Madness Effects Table Continued

|d100	|Effect| 
|:----:|:------:|
|71-72	|Your character becomes terrified of the dark, and must be in well-lit spaces at all times.
|73-74	|Your character believes they've suddenly switched gender.
|75-76	|Spells targeting others, now targets yourself.
|77-78	|Your character is convinced they've been poisoned, and must find an antidote by the end of the day.
|79-80	|Your character can tell if anyone they approach or speak to is keeping as a secret, as the sound of soft, urgent whispers increases in volume the closer they are.
|81-82	|Your character believes they are an alcoholic, and feels compelled to remain in a state of mild to severe drunkenness.
|83-84	|Your character develops a paralyzing fear of water.
|85-86	|Your character is only capable of thinking aloud.
|87-88	|Your character believes their bones are made of glass and incredibly fragile.
|89-90	|Your character believes that their limbs have been replaced with tentacles.
|91-92	|Your character is convinced that they are dreaming.
|93-94	|Your character feels constantly peckish, and no amount of food or drink quells it.
|95-96	|Your character believes that every person they meet outside the party is an old rival.
|97-98	|Your character can smell burning flesh nearby, and nothing alleviates or eliminates it.
|99-00	|Spells are twice as effective. (Duration, Range, Power of Effect, Damage)

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### Paranoid Madness Table

|d6|Effect| 
|:----:|:------:|
|1| You have a constant feeling of being watched. You speak in code you created.
|2| Anyone who tries to inquire about you obviously has ulterior motives and will use any information gained against you.
|3| You only consumed food and drink you grow or produce. You feel all other food and drink are poisoned.
|5| Everyone I know will betray me...unless I betray them first.
|6| I have found safety in a location or near a creature. You are unwilling to leave that location or that creature's side.

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### Bloodlust Madness Table

|d6	|Effect| 
|:----:|:------:|
|1| You only feel pleasure and peace when killing.
|2| There's no point in arguing. If you kill them, you win the argument.
|3| I find meaning in my own pain by inflicting pain on others.
|5| Beautiful creatures haven't met violent yet. I will introduce the two.
|6| I will not die alone, everyone around me will join.

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### Identity Madness Table

|d6	|Effect| 
|:----:|:------:|
|1| Someone has stolen my identity. I must take it back by wearing that person's clothes and acting like them.
|2| Each day, more memories fade. Each one is replaced by a falsehood from your past, blurring reality and fiction.
|3| You are convinced your don't exist.
|4| You believe you are a sleeper agent that was just activated. The DM chooses your mission.
|5| You crave a legacy but feel others will forget you. You must find a way to remind them.
|6| To you, what's dangerous seems mundane and risky situations appeal to you.

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### Emotional Madness Table

|d6	|Effect| 
|:----:|:------:|
|1| What should make you angry, makes you laugh.
|2| What should make you happy, enrages you.
|3| You have an invisible friend that dictates your thoughts and actions.
|5| You have trigger words, that change daily. Hearing one can cause a complete shift in your attitude.
|6| When extremely stressed, you develop a second personality.

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### Alt Emotional Madness Table

|d20	|Effect| 
|:----:|:------:|
|1| The afflicted thinks every other creature is more powerful than it, and treats them with either respect or fear.
|2| The afflicted thinks its power became overwhelming, and hardly ever attacks out of fear of breaking the world.
|3| You realize you are in a game, and everything that makes you the person you are is just a collection of numbers and a few sentences on a sheet of paper.
|4| The insane person suffers from extreme paranoia and treats ALL creatures as 'hostile.'
|5| The afflicted has memory issues. Whenever he needs to remember something, roll a d4. If the result is a 1, the person forgets everything about it.
|6| The effected develops a pathological hate of ducks.
|7| The effected believes everything to be a conspiracy- this town is run by doppelgangers, the king is a dragon in disguise, the Gods aren't real, etc.
|8| The effected believes everything to be a conspiracy- this town is run by doppelgangers, the king is a dragon in disguise, the Gods aren't real, etc.
|9| The effected suffers from autocannabalism, and finds the taste of their own flesh more delicious than anything else.
|10| The effected hears the constant sound of rolling dice.
|11| The effected develops a drinking problem.
|12| The effected can only speak in rhymes. 
|13| The character now only talks in third person.
|14|Your character is convinced they are a Lycanthrope, and will seek out a cure. On a full moon, they will shed their clothes and try to bite people. If your character IS a Lycanthrope, they believe they aren't.
|15| The afflicted is completely convinced that they have been made god over something incredibly small, specific, and pointless, and they make sure everyone knows about their newfound divinity
|16| You will have an obsession with flipping a gold coin for every decision you make.
|17| Character becomes extremely sadistic. Deaths elicit the most laughter - the gorier, the more happiness is achieved.
|19| The afflicted believes to be in a dream, and is constantly trying to wake up.
|20| The person believes they are a polymorphed metallic dragon, stuck in human form. They set out to fix their 'curse'.