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[Sensei]

Dunno if it belongs in this forum, but nobody ever looks at creative projects.

So, I have an idea for a DnD class (I suppose it could be applied to any magic system or fiction, but I want to talk rule specifics). Specifically that's DnD 3.5, just to be clear.

This class can cast spells without preparing them in the morning, and can cast any spell they know (so I would probably base this class off of Sorcerers). The catch? They must drink one shot of of whiskey, or equivalent alcohol content.

Of course, we need a system for drunkenness penalties- ideally one involving fortitude saves, making constitution useful to a WW. I'd like them to be able to cast about as many spells per level as normal mages, give or take one, without any serious risks. Going over that (or possibly before, somewhat), you're going to be getting drunk, and hilarity ensues.

There would probably be a few new spells too- something to summon booze and possibly a cure drunkenness spell (at the cost of not being able to cast until you rest).

Oh, and I need a better name for it. Possibly to horrendously misleading (although technically more accurate) 'Spirit Sorcerer'?

I'm busy with finals so I don't want to lay out much more at the moment, and this will be expanded.

[Heron TSG]

That's genius! What about a Keg-o-mancer?

[LeoLeonardoIII]

Problem 1: Neutralize Poison should cure drunkenness. If not, some other spell will.

Problem 2: What is the difference between him drinking 20-proof and 100-proof alcohol? He should always choose the lower alcohol content drink to maximize the number of spells he can cast.

My suggestion is that he can cast spells only while drunk. Create nine levels of drunkenness with varying penalties, and then say that he has to be at least Drunk 7 before he can cast Spell Level 7.

Furthermore, snap him to the Sorcerer spells per day chart. No sense making a second one. Same deal with which spells he can know, but give him bonus spells known (more variety in what he can cast, rather than how many per day) to counter the penalty of needing to be drunk and needing access to alcohol.

He can consume one drink of beer or wine per round, four of weak spirits, or eight of strong spirits. A certain number of drinks give you one Drunk level. Half your CON bonus counts as an extra buffer of Drunk level, so someone with 10 CON (+0) starts at Drunk level 0, while someone with 18 CON (+4) starts at Drunk level -2.

The Whiskey Wizard can make a CON check to reduce his Drunk level by one for up to 5 minutes, sort of like a reverse Barbarian Rage, clearing his head a bit. He gains an extra Clear Head and an extra -1 level of Drunk every fifth level. But like Barbarian Rage, they don't stack with each other, and it's impossible to have both Rage and Clear Head running at once.

By level 20 he would be able to drop his Drunk level as much as -5 for 5 minutes, 5 times a day.

The Clear Head ability is used so he can perform non-magical tasks reliably, then go back to being roaring drunk so he can do magical tasks.

Some feat ideas:

Beer Belly : Your prodigious belly makes it harder to get a grapple hold on you, giving you a +4 Dodge bonus against grapplers. Your body weight is +20% normal. (This would be hilarious on an Elven chick)

Fire Breather : If you hold two drinks of strong spirits in your mouth, and a flame in your hand, you can blow a cone of fire. The damage is 1d6, Reflex DC 10 negates, in a 10' long line. It takes one round to quaff the drink and a second round to breathe. The drink does not contribute to Drunk level.

Iron Gullet : You can make a CON check at DC 15 to ignore the alcoholic effects of each drink. You can voluntarily fail this roll.

Sour Stomach : You're able to puke on demand, which immediately reduces your Drunk level by one. You cannot puke again until you eat a full meal. Your skilled puking also gives you a second save at a -4 penalty against ingested poisons.

Thunderous Belch : If you prepare for one round by swallowing air or drinking quickly, or incidentally if you're already eating or drinking, you can belch very loudly on the following round. Everyone within 30' must make a Concentration DC 10 check or be startled and distracted until the end of his next action (-1 to attack and saves, 3% chance to drop held items). You cannot be startled by your own belch, but your friends can be.

Some spell ideas:

Inebriate (makes target very drunk, but not for purposes of Whiskey Wizardry)
Sobriety (cures a couple Drunk levels)
Identify Liquids
Distill Liquids
Harmony / Brawl (mass area emotion type spells)
Beer Goggles (ugly people look prettier)
Power Word: Forget
Blackout (more powerful sleep effect plus some Forget)
Curse of the Thirsty Throat (target must drink anything at hand, the liquids vanish as he consumes them, at the end he is dehydrated as if he's gone days without water)
Curse of the Teetotaler (target degenerates -1 Drunk level per minute, preventing him from getting drunk)

[mainiac]

I prefer the idea of the caster must quaff a drink each time she casts myself.  Obviously, the drink must need a certain alcoholic content to count and sobering up the caster would negate casting until they re-attain that level of drunkenness.

Maybe you could consider a psion like thing where the caster gains points to her mana reserve as she drinks and points are lost, down to negatives even, for magical sobriety.  As mages gain levels they would either reduce the mana costs of spells or increase the mana gains from drinking.

Thus fights between these mages would have the funny result of them drinking like mad and casting sobriety on each other to render the other helpless!

[Virex]

I prefer the idea of the caster must quaff a drink each time she casts myself.  Obviously, the drink must need a certain alcoholic content to count and sobering up the caster would negate casting until they re-attain that level of drunkenness.

Maybe you could consider a psion like thing where the caster gains points to her mana reserve as she drinks and points are lost, down to negatives even, for magical sobriety.  As mages gain levels they would either reduce the mana costs of spells or increase the mana gains from drinking.

Thus fights between these mages would have the funny result of them drinking like mad and casting sobriety on each other to render the other helpless!

Would be easier to convert the alcohol content to the power of the spell. So a light beer could be enough for a simple missile, but to cast a fireball you'll need something that's quite strong. Bonus points if you can get it so that quaffing a whiskey to cast magic missiles makes your magic missile spell much more powerfull (and potentialy also much less predictable? )

[Jetsquirrel]

if that idea would happen and you would drink a very strong drink you would spew out everything out of your mouth

[Myroc]

I prefer the idea of the caster must quaff a drink each time she casts myself.  Obviously, the drink must need a certain alcoholic content to count and sobering up the caster would negate casting until they re-attain that level of drunkenness.

Maybe you could consider a psion like thing where the caster gains points to her mana reserve as she drinks and points are lost, down to negatives even, for magical sobriety.  As mages gain levels they would either reduce the mana costs of spells or increase the mana gains from drinking.

Thus fights between these mages would have the funny result of them drinking like mad and casting sobriety on each other to render the other helpless!

Would be easier to convert the alcohol content to the power of the spell. So a light beer could be enough for a simple missile, but to cast a fireball you'll need something that's quite strong. Bonus points if you can get it so that quaffing a whiskey to cast magic missiles makes your magic missile spell much more powerfull (and potentialy also much less predictable? )

That's an idea. We could sort drinks by level of strength, and whenever you want to cast a spell you need to consume a drink of equal level or higher. If you have metamagic feats, you can instantly incorporate them with higher lever drinks. (So you can, for instance, consume a level 3 drink to cast a level 1 spell with a metamagic feat that requires a spell slot of two levels higher.)

Edit: This also limits your spellcasting to:

A: How much of your hard earned money you are willing to spend on booze.
B: How much booze you can lug around.

[mainiac]

That system works just fine, but it doesn't address magical sobriety.  Magical sobriety was why I suggested the mana reserve idea.

[Virex]

I prefer the idea of the caster must quaff a drink each time she casts myself.  Obviously, the drink must need a certain alcoholic content to count and sobering up the caster would negate casting until they re-attain that level of drunkenness.

Maybe you could consider a psion like thing where the caster gains points to her mana reserve as she drinks and points are lost, down to negatives even, for magical sobriety.  As mages gain levels they would either reduce the mana costs of spells or increase the mana gains from drinking.

Thus fights between these mages would have the funny result of them drinking like mad and casting sobriety on each other to render the other helpless!

Would be easier to convert the alcohol content to the power of the spell. So a light beer could be enough for a simple missile, but to cast a fireball you'll need something that's quite strong. Bonus points if you can get it so that quaffing a whiskey to cast magic missiles makes your magic missile spell much more powerfull (and potentialy also much less predictable? )

That's an idea. We could sort drinks by level of strength, and whenever you want to cast a spell you need to consume a drink of equal level or higher. If you have metamagic feats, you can instantly incorporate them with higher lever drinks. (So you can, for instance, consume a level 3 drink to cast a level 1 spell with a metamagic feat that requires a spell slot of two levels higher.)

Edit: This also limits your spellcasting to:

A: How much of your hard earned money you are willing to spend on booze.
B: How much booze you can lug around.

and of course
C: How much can you cast before you pass out. Or more importantly, how much can you cast before you start flinging spells in random directions?

[mainiac]

Of course, there's nothing stopping us from dreaming up two classes, the Whiskey Wizard could drink as he casts while the Drunken Spirits Master could channel drunkenness into a mana pool.

I kinda want to do a bar fight themed DnD campaign now.  We could have the Whiskey Wizard and Drunken Spirits Master for starters then make the Barfly (rogue), Troubadour (bard), Barroom Brawler (barbarian) and an as yet unnamed healer class and we've got enough for a rollicking good party.  Would anyone else be interested in this?

[Sensei]

I can't address everything ATM, what with studying, -you'll notice I'm not answering the biggest issues, as they require some serious thought and research- but here's some notes.

A great many words.

I love the spells and feats! And I've been thinking about Problem 1... not sure what to do about that. As for problem number 2, when I said alcohol content, I mean alcohol. He would have to drink five times as much 20 proof to get the same effect as so-much 100 proof. Checks might be easier on less strong drinks, allowing him to potentially handle a little more, but it would take longer to drink.

Not as many words, but hey, you can still just read the post.

I don't like drinking when you cast a spell, because that means juggling booze in combat. Which, while awesome, should not be required every time you want to cast something. And what are these mana points you speak of? For the purposes of this thread, it's a 3.5 class. A 4.0 version belongs somewhere else, discussing both in one thread will get confusing fast.

Would be easier to convert the alcohol content to the power of the spell. So a light beer could be enough for a simple missile, but to cast a fireball you'll need something that's quite strong. Bonus points if you can get it so that quaffing a whiskey to cast magic missiles makes your magic missile spell much more powerfull (and potentialy also much less predictable? )

I was thinking it would be total drunk, not per-drink, with more volatile drinks being more difficult to quaff without getting all dizzy. Then when you cast, that much alcohol is 'expended' for magic purposes, but you don't get any less drunk. However, I like the idea of having 'wild magic' effects associated with being really drunk. That would be both kinds of fun.

Edit: This also limits your spellcasting to:

A: How much of your hard earned money you are willing to spend on booze.
B: How much booze you can lug around.

Yeah, I would imagine a 'Water to Wine' spell being useful. I don't want booze to become ammunition, also embodied in my unwillingness to have you drink every time AS you cast. Anyway, Wine because it would be the weakest stuff- maybe get better spells later on, or have to buy strong drinks for when you need them (mainly time-critical situations). But I'd like neither A or B to be major components of the class.

...an as yet unnamed healer class...

Heh, makes me think of those dogs that carry brandy.

[SHAD0Wdump]

Thunderous Belch : ... You cannot be startled by your own belch, but your friends can be.

Bull... I've startled myself a number of times... 0P

[mainiac]

As far as I'm aware mana points dont exist in DnD, I was just suggesting a term that I figured people would be familiar with.

Spoiler: rough draft of the class (click to show/hide)

Drunken Spirits Master

Base Attack bonus: caster
Saves: Good Fortitude, poor reflex, will
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: simple weapons, sap, no armor

Spellcasting:
A Drunken Spirits Master casts magical spells by channeling mana through inebriation.
In order to cast spells, the Master must be at a level of inebriation equal to or higher
then the spell's level.  When the Drunken Spirits Master consumes alchohol, they add points to their mana pool.
Before consuming alchohol, this pool has no mana in it. 
An inebriation level is gained for every one "drink" worth of alchohol a Master consumes.
A drink is one mug of beer, a glass of wine or a shot of whiskey.  The mana gains and
maximums per drink consumed depend on the level of the Master:

Class Level/Mana Gain/Mana Max:
1/+2/+1
2/+3/+1
3/+4/+2
4/+5/+2
5/+6/+3
6/+7/+3
etc...

Example: A level 1 Master is dead sober when she downs a shot of whiskey from her trusty hip
flask.  She is lightly buzzed and her inebriation increases to 1.  She gains 1 mana because that
is her maximum mana pool at inebriation of 1.  She then casts a spell and uses up 1 mana, then
grabs a mug of ale from a bar and chugs it for another drink of alchohol.  He inebriation increases to
2, and she gains 2 mana from the drink, at inebriation of two her mana pool is now two.  She depletes
this mana as well before snatching a bottle of wine off the bar and chugging a glasses worth.  This drink
gives her another two mana, although her mana pool can hold three mana after three drinks, the drink is only good for
two mana at her current level.

If the Master is sobered by magical means, their mana pool is depleted a corresponding amount, possibly into negative
territory.  Natural sobering does not drain a Master's mana unless their mana is above the
maximum pool they can have at a given level of intoxication, in which case excess mana is lost.

The cost of a spell in mana points is equal to it's effective spellcasting level +1

Natural sobering:
Every hour a character is drunk, they make a sobering role of reduce inebriation level by one.
This roll is DC 15.  If a character fails this roll, they DC drops by 5 each successive failure until
they pass a check, which resets the DC to 15.  This check may not be voluntarily failed.

Drunken coherance:
When intoxicated, a character must pass a concentration check every time they attempt several
kinds of actions or when making a reflex or will save against mind controlling effects.  If they fail,
the concentration check for a save, they fail the save.  If they fail the check for an action, the
action is wasted by their incoherant actions.  A character can always take 10 on a coherance check:

Saves:
Reflex save: DC 0 + 2*(inebriation level)
Will saves against mind controlling effects: DC 0 + 2*(IL)

Actions:
Drinking: DC 10 + IL
Walking: DC 5 + IL
Running: DC 10 + IL
Attacking (one check per round): DC 10 + 2*(IL)
Staying concious (must be made every round): DC 0 + 2*(IL)
Regain conciousness: DC 0 + 2*(IL)

After failing a staying concious roll, a character can make a regain concious roll one round later.
If they fail this roll, they remain unconcious until disturbed or they can attempt a reroll every half hour.

Abilities: To do

Not finished and needs to be toned down a bit, but that's the general gist of how I envision it.

[LeoLeonardoIII]

The healer class should just outright be a St Bernard with a little booze keg around his neck (screw humanocentric roleplaying!) or perhaps a grizzled Fight Doctor?

Or maybe just a regular old doctor who is simply a booze-hound?

A better fit in the milieu would be a priest of Dionysus or Bacchus, or for Forgotten Realms Sharess (sex and partying), or Sune (love and beauty) or perhaps Chauntea (agriculture).

EDIT: Guys the main reason why I didn't suggest that the Drinkomancer should cast spells just because he takes a drink, is because he could get a magic item that would sober him up at the end of every round and avoid all the drunkenness penalties.

EDIT2: I got two people to say "quaff" ;P