Help With Poisons

[MesiDoomstalker]

More specifically, drugs. I'm making a character with a drug problem he is actively fighting. Does 4e have any rules or examples of drugs that I can use or base a custom drug off of? I know BoVD in 3.5 has some drugs, but I'd rather find something in 4e books before trying to convert, and make it easier on my DM.

[Akodo Makama]

For addictive drugs, make them as a disease.

I made an addictive healing salve for one of my campaigns. Each application healed 1 surge+5d6, and you could apply as many doses in a single short rest as you wanted.

As long as you didn't go a day without taking at least one dose, the disease symptoms didn't show (you stayed in stage 1). However, the salves seemed to loose efficiency as they were used (they lost 1d6 every 10 doses, even going into the negatives).

Once you stopped using it for a day, the fun started.

The disease was countered by DC 25 endurance checks (or heal checks from others just like a normal disease), but with -1 penalty for each salve taken, ever. You did get a +1 bonus for each day since your last dose, however. Failure moved you one stage higher on the track, success got you one stage lower. You didn't fully recover until you had as big a bonus as your penalty (as many days since the last dose as the total doses you'd taken).

Taking a dose resets you back to the first stage in five minutes, eliminating all bad effects (except surges, which come back in the next extended rest). But, doing so increases your penalty when you finally stop, and is less and less effective (even to the point of being worse than not healing at all).

The disease track was:

Stage 1: No effects (starting stage)
Stage 2: Character starts noticing small hallucinations, such as 'someone following us'. Start the day with 2 fewer surges (feels weak).
Stage 3: Nervous Wreck (-5 to all charisma or Wisdom based skills) -4 surges, hallucinations continue
Stage 4: The Shakes (-5 to all skill checks) -4 surges
Stage 5: Character is dazed. -6 surges
Stage 6: Character is incapacitated. no surges

My players bought the salves (they were cheap and took little room). They tested it (seemed too good a thing to be true), but didn't get past stage 1, so they thought it was safe . They didn't really use them until they were deep in a dungeon. There was constant danger of ambush so taking as little time as possible to rest and recover was quite appealing. Then they started to run out, (and it effects were dropping) so they started rationing it (and doubting it's efficacy). That was when they discovered it's addictive properties.