Sanity Points

Sanity Points, contrary to what their name might imply, are not good things. They represent, on a scale of zero to five, the mental stability of a given character. Sanity Points present a particularly difficult challenge for a player character, because these points, unlike ability damage or Hero Points, cannot be spent or removed. Once a character has one or more Sanity Points, they can never have less than one except through a Greater Wish. Two or more sanity points can be removed only through constant treatment with Restoration, or years of therapy.
== The Effects ==
=== Zero Points ===
A character with zero Sanity Points is as sane as reasonably possible. They will always be subject to reason and willpower and, to the best of their wisdom, they will act in a manner befitting a person of their race, class, alignment, and interest. A person on this level always feels remorse over performing deeds against their alignment, has an innate sense of justice (for better or worse), sleeps well, eats heartily, and has normative sexual relations according to their sexual orientation.
=== One Point ===
A character with one Sanity Point has seen things that he or she can never unsee. A person at this level has undergone and internalized something that has left them fundamentally unsure about their own purpose, identity, and relationship with the world. A person with one Sanity Point will often have nightmares and is sometimes subject to neurosis, paranoia, nightsweats, remorse, and mild depression, although rarely more than one at the same time. They will sometimes engage in compulsive, uncharacteristic behavior.
=== Two Points ===
A character with two Sanity Points is on a slippery slope. Often plagued by recurring nightmares and night-terrors, a character like this will never sleep much and will rarely find intimate contact with a comrade. Two Points sometimes means clinical depression or mania, in which the character will swing from powerful elation to unfathomable despair on a whim. The paranoia is obligatory at this point: the two point player trusts nobody and always takes a watch. Little things that remind them of the past can trigger powerful emotional responses.
=== Three Points ===
The three point player has completely internalized their traumas. The three pointer often appears better than two pointer: they operate with extreme regularity and will do anything to keep buried their emotions and personal background. They no longer dream. Their hallucinations are normative. Three pointers are invariably psychopathic. Their inner trauma has created a monster which must, as a matter of course, subvert the intentions, good or evil. People at this stage are subject to violent, dramatic breakdowns, unexplained crying, ennui, cold sweat, and extreme sexual behavior. 
=== Four Points ===
A player character with four Points has a severe, powerful mental illness. Plagued by day-terrors, hallucinations, voices, paranoia and powerful compulsions, the four point player is on the cusp of self-destruction. A four pointer might suffer from abject suicidal depression, multiple personality disorder, sexual mania, psychosis, murderous trances, or all of the above.
=== Five Points ===
Get a straightjacket. A person with five Sanity Points has lost any sense of personal control, personality, or humanity. He or she is permanently affected as if by the spell Insanity, and is as likely to murder and eat a friend as help them in battle.
Category:Game Mechanics