I have spent a lot of time looking through the rules of various sourcebooks, and I often find things that eliminate or reduce the effects of alcohol, but I remain with several questions:
What are the normal effects that would be removed by say using a tankard of sobriety. Is it just for RP? Is there some condition you are afflicted with such as a number of levels of exhaustion to imitate a hangover or the poisoned condition? Does it affect all skills negatively or does it not effect strength and constitution? In the context of spells and abilities such as Dwarven Resilience(advantage against poison) and Purify Food and Drink is alcohol and other intoxicating substances poison? Does different beverages and substances have the same effects or DC’s or does this vary? How does alcoholism function?
The closest thing we have to actual rules for the effects of alcohol so far is some of the consequences for lower-class carousing in Xanathar’s Guide.
So far my theory is this: for the first quantity of alchohol consumed, a character must make a DC 10 Constitution Saving throw or gain one level of inebriation, two if they failed by more than 5, 3 if they roll a 1, for every quantity after that the DC increases by 2. Abilities that give advantage on saving throws against poison would apply to this. Creatures immune to poison are not immune to inebriation but the DC for them only increases after the third quantity. The “quantity” referenced above is a pint for medium creatures, 2 pints for large creatures, 1/2 for small creatures, and so on with the pattern of multiplying by two for every size. A polymorphed creature’s apparent size is the one used for this calculation.
There are multiple levels of inebriation:
1. Disadvantage on Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma checks
2. Disadvantage on Dexterity Checks
3. Automatic failure on checks mentioned in 1, in addition the next time the character wakens from a long rest they gain the poisoned condition. At this point shenanigans may occur at the DM’s discretion.
4. Every time the character stands or moves faster than half speed they must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution Saving Throw or fall prone/throw up, at the DM’s choice, if the DM chooses vomiting, the character removes 1 level of inebriation.
5. The character falls unconscious.
This is how I would treat alcohol consumption, but as this is only my idea, it is by no means perfect.
Assuming equal levels of tolerance and rough body mass and confining myself to just 5e rules (since we had like six major competing sets back in the 2e days):
Alcohol affects inhibitions, coordination, and perception. Dexterity, Perception, susceptibility to suggestion, and RP.
generally speaking, they kick in as blood alcohol rises (hence the 1 per hour rule in RL), so unless you want to create a chart for weight (google one if you do), after every 2 drinks in a given half hour, a constitution check. For every three or more, disadvantaged. target should start at 12 and increase by one for every drink.
Failure penalizes Dexterity checks and Perception checks (disadvantage or a number penalty, possibly both, increase for more drunk.
Two failures equals a fatigue issue (6e rules for fatigue if you want), three equals exhasution, four is passed out, all at disadvatnage.
Additionally, at disadvantage against charm and Charisma rolls.
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Going to note everything AEDorsay just put is not official 5E rules.
There are no official rules on drinking alcohol and its effects in 5th Edition D&D.
Many create a homebrew rule to use the Poisoned condition, since alcohol in the real world is technically a poison. However, 5E does not establish alcohol as a poison, so this is a homebrew rule.
Some develop systems and thresholds for Con Saves and create effects but, again, these are all homebrew.
You will need to check with the DM of the game what homebrew rules they want to make for drinking in 5e, if any.
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Going to note everything AEDorsay just put is not official 5E rules.
There are no official rules on drinking alcohol and its effects in 5th Edition D&D.
Many create a homebrew rule to use the Poisoned condition, since alcohol in the real world is technically a poison. However, 5E does not establish alcohol as a poison, so this is a homebrew rule.
Some develop systems and thresholds for Con Saves and create effects but, again, these are all homebrew.
You will need to check with the DM of the game what homebrew rules they want to make for drinking in 5e, if any.
this is all very true, and I thank you for saying it.
i meant I would use 5e mechanics to determine, as opposed to create something new.
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Why aren’t there official rules though? They have items such as the mug of sternness and the Drunkards amulet and that one Wild Magic Surge effect that allow the character to ignore the effects of alcohol, yet they do not say such effects! We are left alone to homebrew on what people’s homemade brew does! I hope this is covered in 6e, because it seems like a misstep on their part.
We’re there mechanics for inebriation in a previous edition? One’s that we could adopt into 5e games?
Why aren’t there official rules though? They have items such as the mug of sternness and the Drunkards amulet and that one Wild Magic Surge effect that allow the character to ignore the effects of alcohol, yet they do not say such effects! We are left alone to homebrew on what people’s homemade brew does! I hope this is covered in 6e, because it seems like a misstep on their part.
We’re there mechanics for inebriation in a previous edition? One’s that we could adopt into 5e games?
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The only other references to drinking I’ve found are centered around constitution checks.
DMG pg 237 Ability Check table. Constitution Stamina and health Endure a marathon, grasp hot metal without flinching, win a drinking contest
PHB pg 177 Constitution checks. Quaff an entire stein of ale in one go
With these references in mind it seems there was a focus on constitution checks instead of saving throws. It is a bit more difficult to gain bonuses to ability checks with no associated skill to than saves.
there was no mention of consequences that I could find beyond what’s already been discussed in Xanathars. Edit: brewers supplies tool recommendations for medicine check enhancement refers to alcohol poisoning and also seems to recommend a DC 20 check to ignore the effects of alcohol. Do with that what you will.
I am pretty sure that prior to the errata, some of the Vistani (including Luvash) in Curse of Strahd were so drunk that they had disadvantage on their attack rolls and ability checks, which would just be the poisoned condition. There are also some inexplicably "drugged" cultists in Princes of the Apocalypse that effectively have the poisoned conditon.
My copy says "first printing: March 2016," and is copyright 2016. Idk if that means anything, but from what I can tell the only revision to the book was the 2020 one, and it's definitely not that. Anyway, no mention of any such disadvantages in my copy of the book.
This isn't technically part of the DMG or the PHB, but it's there in an official module. Still up to the DM, though, and whether or not you would consider the rule "official". Here's the text, anyway:
A character who imbibes a glass of brandy regains 1 hit point, but a character who drinks two glasses within 1 hour becomes poisoned for 1 hour.
"N9c. Vistani Tent (p. 121). In the paragraph immediately following the boxed text, “Luvash is so drunk that he has disadvantage on his attack rolls and ability checks,” has been replaced with the following text: “Luvash is the older of the two and the brother whom the other Vistani fear most.”"
This isn't technically part of the DMG or the PHB, but it's there in an official module. Still up to the DM, though, and whether or not you would consider the rule "official". Here's the text, anyway:
A character who imbibes a glass of brandy regains 1 hit point, but a character who drinks two glasses within 1 hour becomes poisoned for 1 hour.
Progress! Since this specifically with dwarven brandy (One small cask is filled with an exceptional dwarven brandy, which the goblins overlooked because of its size. The cask contains the equivalent of twenty glasses. A character who imbibes a glass of brandy regains 1 hit point, but a character who drinks two glasses within 1 hour becomes poisoned for 1 hour.) how specifically would it be different for normal brandy?
I've recently started making my own homebrew rules for alcohol, with a view to keeping it simple!
I haven't made it too far, but I'm ruling that:
a shot counts as two drinks
you can have a number of drinks equal to double your con modifier (minimum 2) before increasing a level of drunkness.
the 3 stages of drunkenness are loss of inhibitions (wisdom), loss of balance (dex), and then loss of consciousness.
The alternative is to consider that Alcohol affects everyone a bit differently. You could instead say that you can drink what you want, but:
your drunkenness is equal to 8 plus the number of drinks you have had.
If your drunkenness exceeds any of your stats, you have disadvantage on saves, checks, and attacks made with that stat.
If your drunkenness exceeds 3 or more of your stats, then you need to start saving to not pass out.
So if you have an intelligence of 6, then one drink makes you stupider. If you have a strength of 18, then getting very drunk will make you weaker. It also means you become an exaggerated personification of yourself - a strong, charismatic person would, whilst drunk, rely more on their strength and charisma.
My house rules for intoxication (drunkenness or being stoned):
It uses a DC 11 Con save, and the DC increases by 2 per drink/dose per hour, and if you have advantage on saves against poison it applies to these saves. Each failed save adds a level of Intoxication.
I use what is essentially a parallel of the Exhaustion table. It does all the same stuff as Exhaustion, but isn’t technically “Exhaustion” per se. They stack, but if you get to 6 levels because of a combination of intoxication and exhaustion then you blackout instead of dying. (If you get to 6 levels of either intoxication or exhaustion individually you do still die.)
In addition, each long rest clears 2 levels of intoxication. So if one were to hit 5+ levels of intoxication it would result in the 2-day hangover (presuming they survived). But not both Intoxication and Exhaustion. It goes Intoxication first, then Exhaustion levels as normal afterwords.
See, I looked it from a medical, physiological standpoint; thinking of known effects, body weight, role playing, levels of consumption, and even double checked with a co-worker on effects — all for a short post with something I have never used in game.
that was not the direction things went, lol.
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Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities .-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-. An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more. Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
This isn't technically part of the DMG or the PHB, but it's there in an official module. Still up to the DM, though, and whether or not you would consider the rule "official". Here's the text, anyway:
A character who imbibes a glass of brandy regains 1 hit point, but a character who drinks two glasses within 1 hour becomes poisoned for 1 hour.
Progress! Since this specifically with dwarven brandy (One small cask is filled with an exceptional dwarven brandy, which the goblins overlooked because of its size. The cask contains the equivalent of twenty glasses. A character who imbibes a glass of brandy regains 1 hit point, but a character who drinks two glasses within 1 hour becomes poisoned for 1 hour.) how specifically would it be different for normal brandy?
Maybe dwarven brandy is stronger? But yeah, I've used that section as a basis every time a PC in my group has gotten drunk. Somewhere down the line, I changed it to CON saves but the overall "drunkenness = poisoned" thing has stuck. Oh and characters who have advantage on saves against poison obviously have advantage.
My house rules for intoxication (drunkenness or being stoned):
It uses a DC 11 Con save, and the DC increases by 2 per drink/dose per hour, and if you have advantage on saves against poison it applies to these saves. Each failed save adds a level of Intoxication.
I use what is essentially a parallel of the Exhaustion table. It does all the same stuff as Exhaustion, but isn’t technically “Exhaustion” per se. They stack, but if you get to 6 levels because of a combination of intoxication and exhaustion then you blackout instead of dying. (If you get to 6 levels of either intoxication or exhaustion individually you do still die.)
In addition, each long rest clears 2 levels of intoxication. So if one were to hit 5+ levels of intoxication it would result in the 2-day hangover (presuming they survived). But not both Intoxication and Exhaustion. It goes Intoxication first, then Exhaustion levels as normal afterwords.
I like the idea of an exhaustion-like system for inebriation, especially since it can take multiple days for it to wear off. Though I also like the simplicity of "if you are drunk, you are poisoned". I mostly play it by ear in my games; if a player chugs down a bottle of whiskey, they're probably down pretty bad, and might just fall unconscious or throw up.
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[REDACTED]
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I have spent a lot of time looking through the rules of various sourcebooks, and I often find things that eliminate or reduce the effects of alcohol, but I remain with several questions:
What are the normal effects that would be removed by say using a tankard of sobriety. Is it just for RP? Is there some condition you are afflicted with such as a number of levels of exhaustion to imitate a hangover or the poisoned condition? Does it affect all skills negatively or does it not effect strength and constitution? In the context of spells and abilities such as Dwarven Resilience(advantage against poison) and Purify Food and Drink is alcohol and other intoxicating substances poison? Does different beverages and substances have the same effects or DC’s or does this vary? How does alcoholism function?
The closest thing we have to actual rules for the effects of alcohol so far is some of the consequences for lower-class carousing in Xanathar’s Guide.
So far my theory is this: for the first quantity of alchohol consumed, a character must make a DC 10 Constitution Saving throw or gain one level of inebriation, two if they failed by more than 5, 3 if they roll a 1, for every quantity after that the DC increases by 2. Abilities that give advantage on saving throws against poison would apply to this. Creatures immune to poison are not immune to inebriation but the DC for them only increases after the third quantity. The “quantity” referenced above is a pint for medium creatures, 2 pints for large creatures, 1/2 for small creatures, and so on with the pattern of multiplying by two for every size. A polymorphed creature’s apparent size is the one used for this calculation.
There are multiple levels of inebriation:
1. Disadvantage on Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma checks
2. Disadvantage on Dexterity Checks
3. Automatic failure on checks mentioned in 1, in addition the next time the character wakens from a long rest they gain the poisoned condition. At this point shenanigans may occur at the DM’s discretion.
4. Every time the character stands or moves faster than half speed they must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution Saving Throw or fall prone/throw up, at the DM’s choice, if the DM chooses vomiting, the character removes 1 level of inebriation.
5. The character falls unconscious.
This is how I would treat alcohol consumption, but as this is only my idea, it is by no means perfect.
If any of you find official rules on inebriation please say it on here.
Assuming equal levels of tolerance and rough body mass and confining myself to just 5e rules (since we had like six major competing sets back in the 2e days):
Alcohol affects inhibitions, coordination, and perception. Dexterity, Perception, susceptibility to suggestion, and RP.
generally speaking, they kick in as blood alcohol rises (hence the 1 per hour rule in RL), so unless you want to create a chart for weight (google one if you do), after every 2 drinks in a given half hour, a constitution check. For every three or more, disadvantaged. target should start at 12 and increase by one for every drink.
Failure penalizes Dexterity checks and Perception checks (disadvantage or a number penalty, possibly both, increase for more drunk.
Two failures equals a fatigue issue (6e rules for fatigue if you want), three equals exhasution, four is passed out, all at disadvatnage.
Additionally, at disadvantage against charm and Charisma rolls.
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities
.-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-.
An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more.
Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
Going to note everything AEDorsay just put is not official 5E rules.
There are no official rules on drinking alcohol and its effects in 5th Edition D&D.
Many create a homebrew rule to use the Poisoned condition, since alcohol in the real world is technically a poison. However, 5E does not establish alcohol as a poison, so this is a homebrew rule.
Some develop systems and thresholds for Con Saves and create effects but, again, these are all homebrew.
You will need to check with the DM of the game what homebrew rules they want to make for drinking in 5e, if any.
Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond.
Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ this FAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
this is all very true, and I thank you for saying it.
i meant I would use 5e mechanics to determine, as opposed to create something new.
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities
.-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-.
An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more.
Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
Why aren’t there official rules though? They have items such as the mug of sternness and the Drunkards amulet and that one Wild Magic Surge effect that allow the character to ignore the effects of alcohol, yet they do not say such effects! We are left alone to homebrew on what people’s homemade brew does! I hope this is covered in 6e, because it seems like a misstep on their part.
We’re there mechanics for inebriation in a previous edition? One’s that we could adopt into 5e games?
"Family Friendly"
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities
.-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-.
An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more.
Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
The only other references to drinking I’ve found are centered around constitution checks.
DMG pg 237 Ability Check table.
Constitution Stamina and health Endure a marathon, grasp hot metal without flinching, win a drinking contest
PHB pg 177 Constitution checks.
Quaff an entire stein of ale in one go
With these references in mind it seems there was a focus on constitution checks instead of saving throws. It is a bit more difficult to gain bonuses to ability checks with no associated skill to than saves.
there was no mention of consequences that I could find beyond what’s already been discussed in Xanathars.
Edit: brewers supplies tool recommendations for medicine check enhancement refers to alcohol poisoning and also seems to recommend a DC 20 check to ignore the effects of alcohol. Do with that what you will.
We've always played it as the poisoned condition. Dwarves have advantage, and everyone knows dwarves love strong drink.
Curse of Strahd features a fair few drunk NPCs. None of them are given any conditions, though.
I am pretty sure that prior to the errata, some of the Vistani (including Luvash) in Curse of Strahd were so drunk that they had disadvantage on their attack rolls and ability checks, which would just be the poisoned condition. There are also some inexplicably "drugged" cultists in Princes of the Apocalypse that effectively have the poisoned conditon.
My copy says "first printing: March 2016," and is copyright 2016. Idk if that means anything, but from what I can tell the only revision to the book was the 2020 one, and it's definitely not that. Anyway, no mention of any such disadvantages in my copy of the book.
Lost Mine of Phandelver: Cragmaw Castle, area 5 (storeroom)
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This isn't technically part of the DMG or the PHB, but it's there in an official module. Still up to the DM, though, and whether or not you would consider the rule "official". Here's the text, anyway:
A character who imbibes a glass of brandy regains 1 hit point, but a character who drinks two glasses within 1 hour becomes poisoned for 1 hour.
[REDACTED]
CoS-Errata.pdf (wizards.com)
"N9c. Vistani Tent (p. 121). In the paragraph immediately following the boxed text, “Luvash is so drunk that he has disadvantage on his attack rolls and ability checks,” has been replaced with the following text: “Luvash is the older of the two and the brother whom the other Vistani fear most.”"
Oh, nice! I wonder why they changed it. He's still drunk in the errata. Just not enough to have disadvantage, lol.
Progress! Since this specifically with dwarven brandy (One small cask is filled with an exceptional dwarven brandy, which the goblins overlooked because of its size. The cask contains the equivalent of twenty glasses. A character who imbibes a glass of brandy regains 1 hit point, but a character who drinks two glasses within 1 hour becomes poisoned for 1 hour.) how specifically would it be different for normal brandy?
I've recently started making my own homebrew rules for alcohol, with a view to keeping it simple!
I haven't made it too far, but I'm ruling that:
The alternative is to consider that Alcohol affects everyone a bit differently. You could instead say that you can drink what you want, but:
So if you have an intelligence of 6, then one drink makes you stupider. If you have a strength of 18, then getting very drunk will make you weaker. It also means you become an exaggerated personification of yourself - a strong, charismatic person would, whilst drunk, rely more on their strength and charisma.
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My house rules for intoxication (drunkenness or being stoned):
It uses a DC 11 Con save, and the DC increases by 2 per drink/dose per hour, and if you have advantage on saves against poison it applies to these saves. Each failed save adds a level of Intoxication.
I use what is essentially a parallel of the Exhaustion table. It does all the same stuff as Exhaustion, but isn’t technically “Exhaustion” per se. They stack, but if you get to 6 levels because of a combination of intoxication and exhaustion then you blackout instead of dying. (If you get to 6 levels of either intoxication or exhaustion individually you do still die.)
In addition, each long rest clears 2 levels of intoxication. So if one were to hit 5+ levels of intoxication it would result in the 2-day hangover (presuming they survived). But not both Intoxication and Exhaustion. It goes Intoxication first, then Exhaustion levels as normal afterwords.
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Beg pardon, imma laugh at myself for a moment…
See, I looked it from a medical, physiological standpoint; thinking of known effects, body weight, role playing, levels of consumption, and even double checked with a co-worker on effects — all for a short post with something I have never used in game.
that was not the direction things went, lol.
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities
.-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-.
An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more.
Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
Maybe dwarven brandy is stronger? But yeah, I've used that section as a basis every time a PC in my group has gotten drunk. Somewhere down the line, I changed it to CON saves but the overall "drunkenness = poisoned" thing has stuck. Oh and characters who have advantage on saves against poison obviously have advantage.
[REDACTED]
I like the idea of an exhaustion-like system for inebriation, especially since it can take multiple days for it to wear off. Though I also like the simplicity of "if you are drunk, you are poisoned". I mostly play it by ear in my games; if a player chugs down a bottle of whiskey, they're probably down pretty bad, and might just fall unconscious or throw up.
[REDACTED]