Part 1) Why rules?
The life of an adventurer begins and ends in the tavern. They walk in a starry-eyed farmboy, and walk out a battle-scarred veteran. They start as a rookie pickpocket, and walk out a thief without peer. Regardless of what campaign setting you play, regardless of level of technology, and regardless of what the tone of your campaign is, odds are the party will be taking a trip to a inn, tavern, or bar at some point. This article tells you what the drinking styles are for the various races, their attitudes towards excess, and the effects of alcohol on the body in D&D terms.
Part 2) Alcohol's effects on the PC
Pinning down exactly what happens when a character becomes intoxicated can be pretty hard. Seemingly, every part of the body is affected by alcohol. A nimble thief may be a clumsy drunk. A brilliant wizard may not retain the ability to spell his own name legibly, much less scribe a scroll, and the doughtiest dwarf may become violently ill or even die of too much liquor. When statting out the effects of alcohol, I kept the following things in mind:
1) Alcohol is a poison
2) Alcohol's effects generally wear off in a day or two unless poisoning is severe.
3) Inability to control bodily functions is largely controlled by Constitution.
4) Inhibition and outward senses are controlled by Wisdom.
5) The strength and potency of effects is incredibly varied, especially in fantasy setting, so anything's possible.
These assumptions lead me to conclude that while most drinking can be resolved as a simple, low toxicity poison:
Alcohol, Generic (1 Mug): Ingested poison, DC 10 1Con 1Wis/Unconsiousness
Keep in mind that alcohol is a many-splendored thing that comes in many forms, so while any given tavern at any given town would serve the above drink, Dwarven Ale might have triple the effect at double the DC, and Elven wine might have a lower fort save that even a slight wizard could make. The above sample is appropriate for most the varieties
The low save DC and minimal affects make it seem like nobody with a decent Fort save, notably barbarians, fighters, and other roughnecks, would ever be able to get good and hammered if they wanted too. Keep in mind though, that one can voluntarily fail a save and allow alcohol to simply take effect. Once they get their buzz, they can attempt to make the relatively easy save. On the other hand, spellcasters and rogues, who are not known for their strength of body, would find it difficult to "hold their liquor", at least until they have some experience.
Part 3) Drinking among other races
Given the exotic careers of adventurers, it should come as no surprise that they would find themselves in the bowels of Dwarven city or among the boughs an elven village. Fantastic imagery aside, the heart of a people is its hospitality, and the heart of hospitality is a good party. This part of the article explores how Dwarves, Elves, Halflings, and Gnomes relax. Half-Elves and Half-Orcs are too deeply enmeshed in another race's culture to develop drinking habits of their own.
DWARVES
Specific Liquors
Dwarves, as a rule, don't have many different drinks. They value uniformity in all aspects of their lives, and what's good enough for one clan brother is good for next, in their way of thinking. As far as drinks go, however, they picked a good one. Dwarven ale is dark, thick, and rich. In addition, it is far more toxic than generic alcohol. The Dwarves keep also keep drinks with the potency of Generic alcohol on hand, but it's frowned upon for a dwarf to drink it.
Dwarven Ale (One Mug): Ingested Poison, DC15 1d3Con 1d3Wis/Unconsciousness
Dwarven Ale's PR is 27.
Dwarven Drinking Rituals
First, dwarves never drink alone, and while in Dwarven lands, don't drink in taverns, they drink in a feast hall. Whereas a human watering hole might be a cozy little affair with a thatched roof, small fire, and a few tables, its Dwarven Counterpart would be a massive stone hall, lit by a massive hearth that stands at the head of a dozen or more long tables with benches that seat 100 or more on either side.
The table nearest the fire is always reserved for clan leaders, and their important guests. In many Dwarven cities, outsiders are rare enough to warrant a seat at the head table, adventurers even more so, because they typically have tales of bravery and courage that Dwarves enjoy. Typically, all Dwarves in a given clan eat at the same time. The eldest member of the clan stands, toasts the health of everyone present, the bravery of Dwarven Defenders, and the safety of Dwarves abroad. The elder takes the first drink of the meal, and then, in unison, the other dwarves present speak a ritual toast to the health of the Elder. Then the meal begins.
SIDEBAR: HOW TO HAVE A DRINKING CONTEST
The DMG states that for simple contests the person with the higher score ought to win. However, drinking is about fun, and simply letting the guy with the higher score win just doesn't sound like much fun. If you want a game of chance, use the following method:
First, take the higher score of the two pertinent to alcohol consumption (Wisdom or Constitution), divide by 2, and add 5. That number is your Inebriation Class (IC). It represents the probability of you holding your liquor in a contest.
To resolve a contest using this method, roll a d20 and add your drinking score. Your goal is to beat the drink's PR (potency rating). The typical PR for a generic drink is 20, but the PR should vary by drink. Both contestants roll off, add their IC, and attempt to meet the PR. If one fails to meet the PR, they vomit, pass out, or otherwise lose the game. If both meet or beat the PR. then subtract one from their IC, and roll again. Eventually one drinker will drop.
As an optional rule, DMs might want to allow players to add the bonus granted from the Great Fortitude feat to their IC. Also, Dwarves add their racial bonus against poison to their IC.
TO BE CONTINUED Coming up next, Elves, Halflings and Gnomes.
by E.N. Publishing
Great book, a must have, and it has exceptionally good drinking rules.
The DC could be fixed with a variant poison rule: repeated poisoning increases the DC by one. So the DC for the first dose is 10, second is 11, third is 12, etc. So long as you retain poison in your bloodstream (maybe 1 hour after the last poisoning, but I’m not defining this) the DC would be cumulative.
As for the effects of alcohol itself, i would use: ingestion, DC 10, primary damage 1d2 Int and 1d2 Wis, secondary damage 1 Dex and 1 Con.
Unconsciousness would happen when the character's Int or Wis falls to zero. On extreme cases, the Con damage simulates the risk of genuine intoxication.
I regularly drink around 12 to 15 beers to get to “puking” drunk. Either you are a very lightweight individual or you just drink 20% beer. I drink 6-10% usually. Canadian beer all the way (English beer too, yay)!
Not to undermine you're post, but an idea just came to me and I thought I'd submit it and see what you guys would think. Contesting for one player against any number of other players (or NPCs).
At first drink, everyone rolls to pass a DC of something ridiculously easy like 2 or 3, and adds their CON modifier. Failure to pass means you're out, via unconsciousness, unable to hold it down, what have you. With each drink, the DC increases from 2 to 4, for it to go faster or slower.
Right now, a major flaw reveals itself to me, in that on a fluke, a dwarven fighter could lose to a halfling wizard on drink three, and that just WOULDN'T happen, but hey, it started out well.
Reply encouraged, and PoeticJustice, I can't wait to read your next installment!
In regards to the Drinking system
Nodles: I understand your point about the fixed DC, but I think we're on two different wavelengths here. My goal is not to bring an accurate drinking experience to the gaming table. My goal is to present a simple system that represents inebriation in a manner that the DM can easily manage. Increasing DCs amid a table full of people, not counting NPCs, who've drank different amounts would be far too much for a DM of my caliber to keep track of.
I keep unconsciousness because I can't think of a way to knock somebody out without reducing their WIS score to 0. I feel the damage to WIS is bad enough to cope with, and that forcing a drinker to spend weeks bedridden after a single night of heavy drinking is detrimental to the game.
Karok: I only drink on an empty stomach, and almost never to puking, so it's difficult to say what I am, or for me to present a fully accurate system. In my mind, losing 3 or 4 points of CON is enough to get puking drunk, especially if you consider the effects of losing all your CON.
tttmmmsss: Honestly, I like the idea that a Dwarven Fighter could, on a fluke, lose. There's always gotta be that element of risk, right? Now, if you wanted to represent true Dwarven Fortitude, you could always say that dwarves roll 2d20 and take the higher (or that they roll d100) when making a save due to alcohol.
dabeast: I would say that alcohol poisoning is just that; within a round or two, you're dead. In fact, there might be a business in keeping a priest or two around to neutralize poison on a few more ambitious bar patrons.
Beer, Ale, and Mead - Cost per GALLON
Wine - Cost per BOTTLE
Spirits - Cost per BOTTLE
Due to a few typo's, under some of the unique alcohol descriptors, it lists all "drinks" as being "tankards". This is obviously incorrect as no one that enjoys life would drink a tankard of any spirit. However, under the description for intoxication, it lists the various portions as follows:
Beer, Ale, and Mead - TANKARD
Wine - GLASS
Spirits - JIGGER
Historically, a tankard holds 1 pint (16 ounces) of liquid, so this means that in 1 gallon of beer, there are 8 "drinks".
Using a standard 750 mL wine bottle, I filled a standard sized wine class 5 times, each time pouring about 5 fl. oz. into the glass (filled it w/in 1/2" from the top of the glass). This gives us 5 "drinks" in a standard bottle of wine.
A bottle of spirits is generally found in "fifth's", which is right around the same size as a bottle of wine. A Jigger is equal to 1.5 fl. oz. (just slightly more than a vial of any potion), so this means there are about 17 "drinks" in a standard bottle of any spirit.
However, not every PC wants to carry around their drinks in the container they purchased them in. Here are a few alternative containers that can be used to carry liquid (along with their usual contents):
Hand Keg - Beer (8 drinks), Wine (25 drinks)
Flask - Spirits (11 drinks)
Wineskin - Wine (10 drinks)
Rum Horn - Spirits (6 drinks)
Ceramic Jug - Spirits (85 drinks)
Now, in the PHB3.5, it lists in the equipment section "mug of ale" and "pitcher of wine". For these purposes, treat a mug as a tankard, and treat a pitcher as 4 bottles of wine. Since this is common wine, it's probably spiced, locally brewed, and won't taste to terribly great. But, being common wine, it still has a Fort Save DC of 11 and will get you as drunk as something that is more expensive, albeit better tasting. However, 20 drinks is pretty good for a standard adventuring party of 4 to 6 people.
Here's something I observed while looking at the equipment section. A gallon of ale costs 2sp, but a mug costs 4cp. This is what we call "economic mark-up", meaning you're gonna pay more for a serving of something than you would if you bought the bottle/keg and served yourself. This is a 60% mark-up in price. So if you want to find out how much a serving of your favorite drink is, find the cost for a bottle/keg of it, divide the cost by the number of servings it can hold, then multiply that number by 1.6. There you have the standard tavern serving cost.
Since we're talking about tavern serving costs and whatnot, let me throw out a couple house rules to consider:
Tavern's are historically infamous for watering down their drinks (it is even stated under the descriptor for Common Meals per Day). If a drink is made of equal parts alcohol and water, the Fort Save DC is reduced by 1. However, don't expect to pay less for this drink if the bartender isn't called on it.
Also, as we all know, a full stomach helps handle the effects of alcohol much better than an empty one. Eating a Poor Meal grants a +1 bonus on the Fort Save for the FIRST alcoholic drink that is consumed. A Common Meal grants the same bonus for the FIRST and SECOND drinks, and a Good Meal grants the same bonus for the FIRST, SECOND, and THIRD drinks. Afterwards, make saves as normal.
For pricing purposes, treat the ale in the PHB3.5 as "Ale, Weak" in the A&EG (Fort Save DC 10). Note: this ale has NOT already been watered down, it simply has a very low alcohol content (more to kill germs in the water than for the taste).
One last thing. The price for a bottle of "typical spirits" is not listed anywhere. I ad-hoc ruled it to be about 32gp, making the tavern cost for a jigger to be 3gp. This includes your whiskeys, gins, rums, etc... Vodka, Moonshine, Everclear and your other stronger spirits would be either Very Strong or Dangerously Strong spirits.
There you go. Hope this helps someone out.
Alcohol is poison. This is a known fact. Dwarves get a +2 bonus on saves vs. poison. On top of that, they get a +2 modifier to their Constitution attribute, which adds an additional +1 to their Fort Save Throw. So the "day-to-day" brew with its Fort Save DC of 13 is really just an average roll of the dice for most dwarves, just like the weak ale is with its Fort Save DC of 10 for humans. Hence, this is why dwarves can drink so well.
There you go - on topic and informative.