Thanks to the holiday brouhaha I’ve managed to miss two days of my meds in the last three. Not good. So right now concentrating is a pain, and I get discouraged easily. Yargh.



Technically speaking, this is not withdrawal. Paxil is, officially speaking, not addictive. But there are serious consequences for not taking it. I’m suffering the consequences right now.



Now for the RPG tie in.



A PC has a helm of brilliance. He loses it. What are the consequences? Obviously he loses the extra smarts, but what about additional consequences? A temporary drop in Charisma because he’s no longer as glib in speech or as confident in his manner? Maybe a loss of Dexterity because he is now unsure just how to move to do certain things. Or a penalty to actions because of that same uncertainty.



Or a wizard has a staff of the magi. The staff is turned into a stick of charcoal by a red dragon’s flame. What could the consequences be? The wizard has been using the staff for some time, has come to rely on it. Wouldn’t that alone lead to trouble with spell casting? A concentration check because he’s used to having the staff in hand while casting. The loss of certain spells because he was used to casting them from the staff. Maybe even the loss of a casting level or two because the wizard is unsure about his abilities sans staff.



I’m sure you can come up with other scenarios, even if your game of choice is not DnD.



*****



Until I’m stable on my meds again I’ll be restricting myself to small tidbits in this column. What’s next? Danged if I know, but I’ll think of something. Till then.



Alan