Abnormal Character Weight

for Pathfinder and Other D20 Systems

Preface
The idea for this document started out with a conversation with one of my old GM’s with how
heavy Bloatmages weigh (also known as Hemothurges, as detailed in the Paizo product City of
Stranger). It’s an interesting class but thematically there’s very little detail on it other than the
basic mechanical aspects with limited NPC examples. We came up with some rudimentary
ideas, but we never got around to using them. Eventually I came back to the idea from my old
Reddit post, and borrowed some ideas from other game systems (mainly GURPS) and mixed
them together with the little bit of precedent that’s already established via the Bloatmage.

The rules I detail here are intended to be used with the Pathfinder roleplaying system, but can
be used with very little effort with other d20 systems, especially systems such as A&D 3.0 and
3.5. I’ve kept the introduction of new rules to a minimum, instead trying to use and expand the
existing rules as possible.

My goal with these rules is to take a somewhat more realistic approach to underweight and
overweight characters without going completely overboard. I’ve seen some other
player-created rules, but they either are written for other roleplaying systems, or tend to go
overboard and get into rather cheesy territory (which isn’t a criticism, some people like cheesy
rules afterall).

Suggestions, comments or ideas you can email me at [email protected]. Simple

grammar or spelling errors you catch you can also comment directly in this document, and I’ll
(eventually) see it and make the appropriate changes.

Finally, keep in mind that these rules are a work in Progress. There’s still material that could
stand to be added in, and I revisit sections to balance things better or to make things easier to
understand.
Core System and base mechanics
The core mechanic of these rules is the character’s Obesity Level, and is treated much like a
feat, trait, or drawback as per the official Paizo rules (traits were introduced in Advanced
Player’s Guide, while drawbacks were introduced in Ultimate Campaign).

Since an obesity level has more negative modifiers than positive, they’re generally considered a
drawback, but they are not all equal and higher levels of obesity have increasingly greater
drawbacks with little change to the positive.

Each character is assumed to be of Normal Weight to not warrant any modifiers. If a new
character starts with any level of obesity beyond Overweight, he or she qualifies for a single
bonus trait. Taking even higher levels of obesity will not grant any more bonus traits despite
having greater penalties, but may be necessary if the character wishes to benefit from both a
bonus trait and quality for a special ability, feat, or class.

If a character has an ability that requires that a character possesses a given level of Obesity
and still qualify for a bonus trait, the character's level of obesity must be one step greater than
the level required for the ability in question. For instance, a Bloatmage Initiate requires that the
character be at least Fat. To be able to qualify for an additional trait and the Bloatmage Initiate
feat, the character would need to be at least Obese.

If the character’s obesity level changes later, these bonuses may be lost (see “Changes in
Weight” for details.

All of these drawbacks are based on the character’s base weight. A character’s base weight is
simply the average weight for their height, as determined in the Core Rulebook. It’s best to
record this weight value if you take one of these drawbacks for your character, in case the
character’s weight changes in the future.
 Obese Strength Poison Swimming Natural
Weight Weight Encumbrance penalty to And Skill Armor
Category Modifier Level Checks
Carry Survival Bonus

-11%
Gaunt down to none -4 -4 0
-35%

Normal -10% up
none 0 0 0 0
Weight to 25%

25% up to
Overweight Light -2 +1† +1 0
50%

50% up to
Fat Medium -4 +2† +2 0
100%

100% up
Obese Heavy -6 +3† +3 +1
to 150%

Morbidly 150% up
Heavy* -10 +4† +3 +2
Obese to 200%

Grossly Extra
200%+ -15* +5† +3 +3
Obese Heavy*
*See Text for additional penalties and details.
†
All other Saving Throws are penalized by this amount instead. See text for details.
As per the core rules, a character’s Encumbrance comes in two parts - encumbrance by armor
and encumbrance by carried weight. These additional rules add a third encumbrance type -
encumbrance by obesity, or just simply, “Obese Encumbrance”. This obese encumbrance level
works just like other forms of encumbrance where the character’s movement and actions can be
hindered if the encumbrance to obesity is greater than that of his or her armor encumbrance or
carry encumbrance. The three encumbrance levels do not stack with one another - only the
largest penalties apply, although Obesity Encumbrance does modify a character’s Carry Weight.
Starting at Overweight, a character suffers a penalty to his or her strength score when
calculating how much weight they can carry. The exact penalty for each obesity level is listed in
the table above.

For example: A young sorceress by the name of Maicy studying the way of the bloatmage has
put on a considerable amount of weight and is currently Fat. Her normal strength is 10 but
being Fat she suffers a -4 Strength Penalty to her carrying capacity. This causes her carrying
capacity to be calculated as if she only had a 6 strength, considerably reducing the amount of
gear she can carry.

If a character’s effective strength score reaches 0, the character is effectively immobilized by his
or her own weight. Using Maicy as an example again, she’s had a run-in with a cursed item
that’s caused her weight to increase to the point where she’s now Morbidly Obese, which
penalizes her strength by 10 points! Since she only has a strength of 10, she finds herself
completely immobilized by her own weight. Luckily she can cast bull’s strength on herself. The
+4 bonus from bull’s strength is enough to make her mobile (although not by much). She won’t
move very fast due to the other penalties from that level of obesity, but hopefully it’s enough for
her to find help.

The penalties caused by a character’s obesity are always present and can never be eliminated
apart from removing the weight. However there are some situations that may mitigate some of
the penalties for being obese, and even situations where their extra weight is beneficial.

One of the best examples where being fat is beneficial is when dealing with large bodies of
water. Fat people float and can often handle watery situations a little easier than a normal
person. While trying to remain afloat on a body of water, all weight and encumbrance penalties
a character suffers due to his or her obesity are ignored. The character will also gain a small
bonus to his or her swim checks. However if the character attempts to dive or remain
underwater, his or her weight grants no bonus to their swim checks.

Fatter characters are also more resistant to poison and alcohol (there’s more body mass to
effect), they are also somewhat more resistant to cold weather (fat is an insulator), but are
likewise more vulnerable to warm weather.
At extreme levels of obesity the character’s significant layers of fat grant a bonus to his or her
Natural Armor, and well as being treated as one size category larger for various effects where
weight is a factor, such as Combat Maneuver Bonus and Defense, resisting Grab or Swallow
Whole attacks, size modifiers to Stealth and Fly checks, and so-on. This size bonus does not
affect attack or damage rolls, nor does it affect a character’s reach.

There are a variety of other effects a character can experience based on his or her weight.
Most effects are detrimental, but there are some benefits beyond what was already mentioned.
The GM is encouraged to come up with creative penalties and bonuses as situations arise
beyond the effects stated in the drawbacks themselves. For instance, fat characters generally
can't fit into normal clothes or gear and will likely need to pay extra for many such goods, and
such goods will weigh more. Magical items will resize as normal, although at extreme levels of
obesity they might not be able to resize (see the section on Magical Items for ideas).

Remember, many physical activities are already penalized via encumbrance penalties due to
their obesity level, so there’s usually no need to add extra penalties most of the time.

Detailed Obesity Traits

Gaunt
The character is exceptionally underweight, enough that his health suffers. He suffers a -4
penalty to all Strength and Constitution-based skill checks, -4 penalty to Fortitude saving throws,
and gains a +2 bonus Dexterity based skill checks and a +1 bonus to Reflex saves. He is
treated as one size category smaller for resisting effects where his weight or size is important,
such as resisting a bull-rush attempt or squeezing into a narrow place.

Skinny
The character is notably slender, but not enough to affect his health. He suffers a -1 penalty to
bull rush and overrun checks, but gains a +1 bonus to Escape Artist checks.

Normal Weight
A person of normal weight for her height, with no particular penalties or bonuses. This
obviously doesn't count as a drawback.

Overweight
The character is a bit chubby, but not excessively so and only suffers minor penalties. His
obesity encumbrance is equal to Light and suffers a -2 penalty to his strength when determining
his carry capacity. He has a +1 bonus to saving throws against poison and cold environment
saving throws, a -1 penalty to all other Fortitude and Reflex saving throws, and a +1 to
Swimming checks.
Fat
The character is noticeably fat. Her obesity encumbrance is equal to Medium and suffers a -4
penalty to her strength when determining her carrying capacity. She has a +2 bonus to saving
throws against poison and cold environment saving throws, but a -2 penalty to all other Fortitude
and Reflex saving throws, and a +2 to Swimming checks.

Obese
The character is exceptionally fat. His obesity encumbrance is equal to Heavy and suffers a -6
penalty to his strength when determining his carrying capacity. He has a +3 bonus to saving
throws against poison and cold environment saving throws, but a -3 penalty to all other Fortitude
and Reflex saving throws, and a +3 to Swimming checks. He is also considered to be one size
category larger for various effects, and gains a +1 Natural Armor bonus.

Morbidly Obese
The character is massively obese at this point. Her obesity encumbrance is equal to heavy and
her strength penalty to carry weight is -10. Furthermore, she suffers penalties as if she is lifting
or dragging an extra-heavy weight. Her maximum Dexterity bonus to AC is 0*, her armor check
penalty is -7, and her speed is reduced by 5 feet (minimum of 5). She has a +4 bonus saving
throws to resist poisons and surviving cold environments, but a -4 penalty to all other Fortitude
and Reflex saves, a +3 bonus to Swimming checks. She is also considered to be one size
category larger for various effects, and gains a +2 Natural Armor bonus.

Grossly Obese
Also known as Super Obese, this is the point where the character is so large he can barely
move. His strength penalty to carry weight is -15, decreasing by a further -1 for each extra 25%
his weight is beyond 200%. He is also considered to be Overloaded and beyond Heavy
Encumbrance and all of the penalties that come with it (he loses all Dexterity to his AC*, and can
only move 5 feet per round as a full-round action, assuming he can still move at all at this point).
He has a +5 bonus to saving throws to resist poisons and surviving cold environments, a -5
penalty to all other Fortitude and Reflex saves, a +3 bonus to Swimming checks. He is also
considered to be one size category larger for various effects, and gains a +3 Natural Armor
bonus.

*
A character that loses his or her Dexterity bonus also loses their dodge bonus (but are not considered flat-footed). This is different
from Morbidly Obese characters that have a Maximum Dex bonus of 0 - they still retain any dodge bonuses they might have.
Changes in Weight
Throughout an adventurer’s career, a character’s weight may go up or down from
overindulgence to magical curses. Unless otherwise stated, weight changes to a character are
based on a percentage of their base weight as determined above (not their current weight).
This avoids any need to convert any weights from Imperial to Metric, or to worry about size
adjustments for non-medium creatures.

On the rare occasion an absolute weight change is listed (instead of a percentage), you’ll need
to make the necessary adjustments as per the normal encumbrance rules (1 lb. gained for a
medium creature is .75 lbs for a small creature, and so-on).

If a character’s obesity level changes to a point where they no longer qualify for an ability, they
will lose that ability immediately unless otherwise stated. Similarly, a character can not qualify
for any ability requiring a certain level of obesity until they’ve maintained that weight for at least
24-hours (much like ability score increases).

At the GM’s discretion, if a character gains an obesity level and maintains it for a long-enough
time, and doesn’t already have a bonus trait from another drawback, they may choose an
additional trait. If a character loses his or her obesity drawback for long enough, he or she loses
access to this bonus trait until they can replace their obesity drawback with a new drawback, or
they regain enough obesity. It's recommended that the trait in question be one somehow
related to the character’s newfound obesity, and it ultimately is up to the GM.

Eating habits and weight gain and loss

It is assumed that a character eating standard rations will maintain his or her current weight.
Unless there are unusual circumstances or the character is actively trying to change their
weight, players don’t need to worry about tracking their character’s food intake. If a character
does change his or her eating habits (voluntarily or not), then use these guidelines to determine
how much weight he or she will lose or gain.,

A character that simply chooses to eat healthier is considered to be making a conscious effort to
avoid less fattening foods. Assuming such food can be found, this is the safest method of losing
weight, at a rate of 1% of his or her body mass per week. At the GM’s discretion, the necessary
food could be more expensive, or more difficult to obtain since the concept of “eating healthy” is
not a common concept in the traditional medieval-fantasy scenario. Slightly reducing their daily
rations to 90% of normal can give a very slow weight loss, at ½% without the need of special
foods.

Reducing food intake by more than 10% of normal rations falls into the realm of starvation,
which is much more strenuous on the body. Using normal Starvation rules, a character not
eating any food at all can lose 2%-5% (1d4+1) of his or her body weight per week while
suffering from all of the normal penalties for starvation. In the case of partial starvation, where
the character is able to eat some food, use the following modifications:

Rations DC Modification Weight Loss per Week

0 to 9% 0 1d4+1%

10% to 24% 1 1d4%

25% to 49% -2

50% to 90% -3

At 10%-24% Rations, the Con DC check is reduced by 1, and reduces the weight loss to
1d4%; 25% rations reduce the DC by 2 and reduces the weight loss to 1d3%; and 50% rations
reduces the DC by 3 and reduces the weight loss of 1d2%.

A gluttonous character (via a flaw or a magical effect) or a character that simply wishes to gain
weight either seeks out richer foods, increases his or her daily rations, or both. For simplicity’s
sake, increasing the weekly cost of the character’s rations by 50% will increase their weight by
2d4% per week. A 100% increase will double this weight gain, but the character will suffer a -1
to Fortitude and Reflex saving throws for that week as he or she is constantly oversatiated.

Sudden Weight Changes

A character that suddenly has his or her weight changed by a significant degree can potentially
be disadvantaged until they can acclimate to their new weight.

When a character gains (or loses) enough weight to change his or her obesity level in a short
amount of time (in a day or less) that character must make a Fortitude Saving throw, with a DC
of 10, +1 for every 25% the character’s weight changes. If failed, the character gains the
entangled condition. After an eight-hour rest, a character can attempt a new saving throw, with
the DC reduced by 1 for each previous failed attempt. On success he or she loses the
entangled condition. If the character later becomes entangled normally while already suffering
from the condition due to his or her sudden obesity, they become pinned for the duration of that
effect instead.

If the changes are very sudden (as in minutes or seconds), the character must also succeed a
Reflex save (with the twice DC as above) or be staggered. On each subsequent round, the
character may attempt another saving throw as an immediate action (reducing the DC by 2 each
round) or as a standard action (reducing the DC by an additional 2) to recover and partially
acclimate to their new weight. This can be particularly dangerous if the character is in a
precarious situation (as in climbing or balancing) and even if they succeed all previous saving
throws, they will need to make a new skill check to ensure they can maintain their hold, balance
etc.

Note: a character can be both entangled and stunned in this situation if they are unfortunate
enough to fail both saving throws.

There are also other problems a character can experience if their weight changes too quickly.
Worn clothes and armor might be damaged and/or cause harm to the wearer if the weight gain
is too great, especially in the case of fitted armor or tailored clothes, causing as much as 1d10
points of damage (less for clothes) before seams, buttons, and buckles burst and the apparel in
question gains the broken condition The GM is encouraged to be creative here.
Changes and Additions to Base Mechanics
Class Options and Changes

Bloatmage Initiate
Prerequisites: Spell Focus (any school), Fat drawback or greater (see text).
Author’s Note: This is a slight rework of the already-existing Bloatmage Initiate feat. Mechanically it’s little
different apart from the additional effects from being Fat. The extra flavor text is something I came up with a
while ago.

In the first steps of hemothurgy, prospective mages first increase their blood capacity via natural
means by gaining a considerable amount of adipose tissue. This avoids the perils of
overproduction and necessity of leach usage that full bloatmages must endure, but their obesity
still slows them down considerably.

To qualify for this feat a character must possess the Fat (or greater) drawback. If the character
does not have at least the Fat drawback, the GM can decide if the character automatically
becomes Fat on gaining this feat, or if the character must use some other means to gain the
necessary weight. Temporary weight gain effects (such as from a hat of disguise) do not allow a
character to qualify for this feat. Polymorph and similar effects with a “permanent” duration can
allow a character to qualify, but this is a risky method. Should the effect be dispelled (via a
dispel magic or similar) the character instantly loses the benefit of this feat (and any other feats
or classes that rely on this feat). It is generally recommended that the character uses either
traditional means to gain weight, or via undocumented magics that cause truly permanent
weight gain that can never be dispelled.

Advanced Bloatmage Training (New Feat)

Prerequisites: Bloatmage Initiate, Obese drawback or greater (see text), character can not
possess any levels in the Bloatmage prestige class.

Devised as a safer alternative to traditional Hemotheugery, this advanced training augments a

mage’s blood capacity through further weight gain instead of forcing their body to overproduce
blood. While this method is considerably safer, it is incompatible with traditional Hemotheurgery
and doesn’t carry the same raw power. Instead several alternative boons have been devised to
take advantage of a mage’s extra blood and lymph.

Benefit: For each additional level of abnormal weight the character possesses beyond Fat, he
or she may choose one of the following options.
●​ +1 to the Difficulty Class of spells cast from his or her selected school of magic
●​ +1 to the Caster Level of spells cast from his or her selected school of magic
 ●​ The character chooses an additional school with which he or she has Skill Focus as a
second Chosen school. She gains all of the benefits of this feat, and Bloodmage Initiate
feat for both schools of magic.
●​ The caster gains the effect of the Magical Lineage trait except it affects all spells of the
caster’s Chosen school(s), but no other spells he or she may know.
The character may not choose the same option twice. The character’s selected school is the
same as the school selected with bloatmage initiate, unless otherwise stated.

Bloatmage Prestige Class

A bloatmage follows any additional rules or effects for their current level of abnormal weight. As
the character gains the Corpulence class feature, her obesity drawback advances once step
(Fat becomes Obese, Obese becomes Morbidly Obese, etc). Because much of their extra girth
is due to blood overproduction and not more adipose tissue, a Bloatmage loses all swimming
bonuses due to his or her obesity once the first level of Corpulence is gained. A Bloatmage
may not take the Advanced Bloatmage Initiate feat.

Oracle Curse
The Fat drawback is mechanically very similar to the standard Lame Oracle curse, and can be
taken as an alternate version of Lame, using the same progression and bonuses as that curse,
but also suffering the standard penalties for being fat. Lesser versions of weight are not suitable
as a Curse, or are covered in other options. Greater weight could also be used, but is generally
not recommended.

I eventually will create an Oracle curse designed around an obese Oracle in the future.

Magical Spells & Effects

As per the standard rules, there are few abilities that modify a character’s ability to move or
reduce the effects of encumbrance.
●​ Freedom of Movement: This is a controversial spell even in the best circumstances on
what it can and can’t do. If your GM rules that this spell can allow the target to ignore his
or her Armor Encumbrance, then it can also allow a target to ignore Encumbrance due to
his or her obesity. It does not eliminate the strength penalty to the target’s carrying
capacity, however.
●​ Freedom: This high-level spell does not help with a character struggling with his or her
obese encumbrance in any way, just like it doesn’t help against regular armor or carry
encumbrance in any way.
●​ Effortless Armor: This spell also does not help against Obese encumbrance - it only
helps with armor the character is wearing. Instead see ant haul below.
●​ Ant Haul: Instead of its usual effects, this spell grants a +8 bonus to the target’s strength
score when determining his or her carrying capacity. This change allows the spell to
benefit obese characters with virtually no change to the spell’s overall effectiveness.
●​ Burdenless armor enchantment: Instead of its usual effects, this armor property grants a
+3 bonus to the user’s strength when determining his or her carrying capacity.
●​ Polymorph effects can be used to instantly change a target’s weight to whatever the
caster desires, but such effects are either of limited duration and/or vulnerable to
dispelling. If a character’s weight suddenly and unexpectedly changes reference the
section Sudden Weight Changes. If a character has a class feature that relies on a
certain level of obesity that the new form doesn’t have, he or she can’t use that feature
until they return to their normal weight.
●​ Bestow/Remove Curse: There are numerous options where this spell can be used to
cause temporary or permanent weight gain. Temporary weight gain disappears as soon
as the curse is removed, but permanent weight gained or lost from a curse requires a
restoration spell (see below). In either case, the user can’t be restored to normal until
the curse is removed. See the section on curses for some sample effects.
 ●​ Restoration: This spell (along with lesser and greater variants) can be used to restore a
person to their normal weight after suffering from various effects that magically (and
permanently) changed his or her weight. The time to restore a character’s original
weight is limited however, starting from the moment the character’s weight is changed.
More powerful restoration spells (with more expensive material components) grant a
longer timeframe in which to restore the character’s original weight. If there are ongoing
weight alteration effects (such as a curse) those effects generally need to be removed
first before any restoration effect can be used.
○​ Lesser Restoration: This spell can only be used to partially remove (or restore)
weight equal to 1d8%. This spell can be cast multiple times, but only can remove
weight changes within one hour of the initial weight gain (or loss).
○​ Restoration: Fully restoring a character’s original weight is possible with this
spell, but must be cast within 24-hours with a 100gp material component cost.
Alternatively, increasing the material cost to 1000gp allows the caster a one week
window to restore the target’s original weight.
○​ Greater Restoration: This works like restoration, but the caster can choose a
5000gp material component cost to increase the window of restoration to one
month

New Feats
Hale Adipose
Prerequisites: Toughness or Greater Fortitude.

For whatever reason, you find that your fattened body doesn’t hinder your health like most
obese individuals,

Benefit: You suffer none of the associated Fortitude penalties normally associated with your
level of obesity. Furthermore, depending on which prerequisite you have for this feat, you may
choose to gain an additional ½ Hit Point per level (for Toughness) or an additional +1 Fortitude
bonus (for Greater Fortitude). Fractions are rounded down as normal. You may only choose
one option, even if you possess both prerequisite feats.

Unhindered Adipose
Prerequisites: Acrobatic or Lightning Reflexes
​
Despite your added girth, you are able to move much more freely than what your size would
entail. In fact, you have learned to use your extra fleshy padding a little like armor.

Benefits: You suffer none of the associated Reflex penalties normally associated with your
level of obesity. Furthermore, you gain a natural armor bonus of +1.
New Spells
Baleful Body (School transmutation (polymorph); Level druid 5, magus 5, shaman 5,
sorcerer/wizard 5, summoner 4, unchained summoner 5, witch 5

Casting Time 1 standard action

Components V, S
Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Target one creature
Duration permanent
Saving Throw: Fortitude negates, Will partial, see text; Spell Resistance: yes

DESCRIPTION
As Baleful Polymorph, except instead of turning the target into a small creature, the caster
instead drastically changes their body weight. The caster may change the target's weight to
Gaunt, Obese, or Morbidly Obese (caster's choice). If the target fails their Will save, instead of
the normal effects, they will instead take no action nor seek to reverse the weight change,
believing they've always been like that, that there is no way to reverse their condition, or some
other delusion.

Curses
Curses as a whole give a lot of potential to inflict unwilling weight gain or loss onto a careless or
unlucky character. Generally these curses are the results of bestow curse or a cursed magical
item. Some of these effects can work well as magical item drawbacks - magical items that have
a beneficial effect but have unwanted drawbacks.

Weight gained (or lost) due to these curses is permanent and cannot be restored naturally nor
magically until the curse itself is removed. Unless otherwise stated, removing the curse will not
remove the weight gained. Restoration effects can restore the character’s original weight, but
only if used within the appropriate time frame from when the curse inflicted the weight gain or
loss (see restoration for details), or within 1 minute of the curse’s removal whichever is greater.

Some general guidelines based on the power of Bestow Curse and Major Bestow Curse.

●​ The character’s weight instantly increases by up to 75% (to a maximum of Fat), or by

50% if the character is already Fat or greater. Major Bestow Curse doubles this amount:
Up to a 150% weight increase up to Morbidly Obese, or 75% if already Morbidly Obese
or greater. These kinds of curses generally do not require a restoration spell after the
curse is removed.
 ●​ The character’s weight gradually increases each day regardless of his or her food intake
or activity levels. Each day, the character’s weight increases by up to 2%, plus an extra
1% for each Caster Level beyond 5. The character will stop gaining weight once their
obesity level increases by up to three levels (e.g. Normal to Obese) but remain cursed
and thus unable to loose any weight. The Major variant starts at 15% plus an extra 2%
per level beyond level 13, with no upper limit to how much he or she can gain.
●​ As the previous, gradual curse, the caster can instead curse the character to gain weight
whenever he or she performs a certain action or meets a certain condition. Maximum
weight gains should be similar to the previous curse, but how common (or uncommon)
the triggers are can make the curse harder to dispel. For instance, cursing a mage to
gain weight every time she swings a weapon would be very uncommon and can
increase the curse’s DC by 2. The same curse on a swordsman on the other hand
would make for a very common activity for him and wouldn’t grant any bonuses. It’s up
to the GM to determine what bonus a given trigger can give, but should add no more
than 5 points to the DC.
●​ Hmm, might tweak that some more...
●​ Item-based curses or item drawbacks or flaws (such as from the Unchained Magic Item
Creation rules).

Magical Items
This will be a section for how existing magical items can be adapted for weight gain, and to give
a few examples on creating new items specifically targeting a user’s weight. (This section is
mostly a WIP section, since I only have a single entry here.

Essence of the Glutton (Necrotoxin Poison):

Type: Ingested; Save: Fortitude DC 19*; Onset: 10 Minutes; Frequency: 1/hour for 8 hours;
Effect: 10% weight gain over the next hour; Cure 2 consecutive saves

Type: Injury; Save: Fortitude DC 16*; Onset: 1 Minute; Frequency: 1/minute for 4 minutes
Effect: 5% weight gain over the next minute; Cure 2 consecutive saves

While affected by this toxin, the victim also gains extra sensitivity to positive energy, especially
to magical healing (such as Cure Light Wounds or Restoration). Any magical healing received
by the victim will be increased by 50% while affected by this toxin, but will also increase the
efficacy of the toxin as if exposed to 1 extra dose equal to half of the spell’s level (or dice of
healing for effects such as Channel Positive Energy). This can be resisted as normal, but the
saving throws are made separately for each extra “dose”. Restoration or similar is needed to
remove the weight as normal but if the victim is still affected by the toxin, the restoration itself
will trigger this effect.
There’s some debate about the origins of this potent concoction. On one hand, it’s said that it
was an alchemical attempt to improve the effectiveness of magical healing during a time of war,
but the alchemist in question could never resolve the considerable side effect of weight gain,
and eventually abandoned the project. Others say that this necrotoxin, harkens back to an
earlier time in history when necromancy still included study of positive energy and was used as
a means to to disable or even humiliate opponents by flooding their body with excessive positive
energy and redirecting it to rapidly fatten a victim into obesity.

Weight Gain special equipment ability/curse (+1 to +5, or +0*)

This special item ability is usually the result of a cursed or botched enchantment, but
occasionally somebody will intentionally craft an item with this ability. It is found mostly on
armor, clothes, or other wearable items and is rarely found on weapons.

An item with this ability causes the wearer to slowly gain weight at a rate of 1 pound per day (for
a medium creature) for each total enhancement bonus on the armor (remember to count special
ability bonus values). Unlike normal cursed items, the item can be removed or even discarded
at will, but the wearer will remain cursed and continue to gain weight until a remove curse spell
is successfully cast on him or her. A restoration spell can then be used to restore his or her
weight to normal (as covered in Magical Spells and Effects chapter). Like any normal cursed
item, remove curse doesn’t permanently remove the curse from the armor (only the cursed
individual), and the next person that wears it (even the previous wearer) will start to gain weight.
In fact, because the can be removed at will, multiple people could be cursed simultaneously

* When a caster deliberately creates an item with this special ability, it is worth +1 or higher
when determining the final cost of creation. At +1, the caster may put certain criteria on the
curse’s activation, or diminish it to a lesser amount of weight.. At +2 or higher, he may also
increase the curse’s potency, increasing the weight gain to double the listed rate or increase the
DC to remove the curse to double the enhancement bonus. When deliberately using this
enchantment, generally it’s combined with various user criteria so the crafter and certain
individuals can use it without triggering the curse.

Optional Body Shapes

Different people gain weight differently from one to another, with their weight distributed
differently on their body. This not only affects how they look, but can slightly alter the penalties
for being overweight. The default system assumes a generic, “rectangular” shape with an even
distribution of fat on a person’s body

Apple
People with this body shape tend to gain most of their weight in their torso - their chest, belly
and breasts. Their limbs tend to remain a little more slender and can move around a little more
easily than their weight suggests. However with the extra weight on their vital organs, their
health is usually a little poorer.

Altered effects: Reduce reflex save penalties by 1, but increase fortitude save penalties by 1.
Starting at Fat, the character’s maximum HIt Points are reduced by 1 for every other Hit Die
possessed.
Pear
People with this body type tend to gain weight in the lower half of their body. Hips, thighs and
buttocks are where most of their weight goes, with only a little bit to their abdomen or the rest of
their body. They tend to be a little healthier since their excess weight doesn’t weigh down on
their vital organs as much, but they tend to have a harder time moving.

Altered effects: Reduce Fortitude penalties by 1, and increase reflex penalties by 1. Starting at
Fat, a character also suffers an additional 5’ movement penalty that stacks with other movement
penalties.

Extremely Topheavy
This represents a woman with a disproportionate amount of weight located in her breasts.
There are numerous medical definitions of this condition. Two of the most common terms are
macromastia (where a woman’s breasts exceed 3% of her body weight) and gigantomastia
(where a woman’s breasts exceed 6% of her total body weight). These values may not seem a
lot and such a woman isn’t necessarily overweight, but she can find herself similarly hindered as
a more obese person due to the excessive size of, and concentration of weight in her breasts.

For characters with macromastia the official drawback of Misbegotten is sufficient, while
characters with more extreme cases of gigantomastia instead have extremely topheavy trait. An
individual with this trait must be at least normal weight, She automatically suffers the effects of
the Misbegotten trait (as above), and her encumbrance penalty is the same as one obesity level
greater than her current level. All other modifiers (both bonuses and penalties) are the average
of her current obesity level and one level greater than her current level (rounding down). Unless
otherwise stated, the character also qualifies for feats or abilities that require a certain obesity
level.

This character can also take the Apple or Pear shapes (but not both) if her normal obesity level
is at Overweight or greater.

Overly Muscular
An angle not often thought of, these massive behemoths have muscles so large their dexterity
and mobility are negatively impacted, sometimes so much they can’t even bring their full
strength to bear. This stage of muscular development is very difficult for either man or woman
to reach naturally, thus this is usually the result of external factors, such as alchemical potions,
curses, or perverted wishes.

Any person with this alternate trait is similarly encumbered as if they had an appropriate level of
obesity, but with the following altered effects. The character suffers no penalties to his carry
weight, and fortitude penalties are halved (rounded down). Instead they receive a penalty to
their dexterity modifier equal to the bonus he receives to their Fortitude saves versus Poison,
and all swim bonuses for obesity are lost and instead count as penalties. The character may or
may not qualify for feats or abilities that require a certain level of obesity at the GM’s discretion
Generally speaking, this can not be combined with any other obesity trait.

Note: The character doesn’t necessarily have to have a high Strength score to take this trait.
Strength is just as much about physical power as it is knowing how to use it properly. Thus a
low-strength individual with this trait could be extremely muscular, but is unable to properly use
that strength due to their limited mobility.
Miscellaneous Junk
The leftovers in this section are rules or ideas I’ve come up with but either couldn’t find a
meaningful way to implement them, or I felt they were too complicated for very little gain.

Optional Rule for actively changing eating habits

Optional Rule: If the character drastically changes his or her eating habits (going from
overeating by 50% to starving himself) the GM can require a Will save from the character. The
DC for this check is 10 per “level” of change in the character’s eating habits. This continues for
a number of weeks equal to the same level of change in eating habits, but becomes 10 points
lower each week until the DC becomes 0. Failing this saving throw results in no progress that
week, and a critical failure (rolling 10 less on the saving throw) causing the character to regress
back a week in progress (and perhaps even gaining weight if food is available).

Types of Weight gain

Normal weight gain when experienced by most creatures consists of a mix of existing fat cells in
a body to expand in size, and the production of new fat cells, esp0ecially once the existing cells
reach their limit. When somebody loses weight, existing fat cells will shrink in size relatively
easily, but are very slow and difficult to disappear entirely. With magic in play, it’s very easy to
envision spells attempting to trigger one style of weight gain over the other, with certain tradeoffs
between them.

Extra Weight Gain

The effects of this weight gain target existing fat cells in a person to be able to expand
far more than they are normally able to. This allows for weight gain effects to operate much
more efficiently on a target, but on the flip side it also allows for the weight to be more easily
removed.
​ Any effect that causes a character to gain or lose weight is increased by up to 100% (i.e.
double effect). Any initial saving throws are unchanged, but the DC of saving throws to later
remove the weight loss or gain (such as a restoration spell) are reduced by 1 for each 25%
increase in effect, and any time limitations that may be present are also increased, giving a
target a larger window of time to remove the effects of a weight-gain curse, for instance.

Increased Difficulty of Removing Weight

​ The magic forces the target’s body to go into overdrive to produce additional fat cells
instead of utilizing its existing fat cells. This decreases the amount of weight the target will gain,
but will find that weight much more difficult to remove, either naturally or with magic.
​ The effects of this targeted weight gain work exactly the opposite of the previous entry.
Weight gain is diminished by up to 100%, saving throw DC’s are increased by +1 per 25%, and
any time restrictions for effects such a restoration_ are reduced by the same percentage of this
effect.
Thoughts, ideas, and to-do list
●​ Neverending spelling and grammar error removal
●​ Add some curse and other magical creation guidelines (In Progress)
●​ Add a section on Social interactions and disguise
●​ Add an Oracle curse that is more obesity-centric (had some ideas on that a while ago)
○​ Explore other class ideas or archetypes where obesity would be a logical
inclusion and not super-cheesy (sumo archetype, domain or worshipping rules for
followers of a hedonistic deity?)
●​ Add more unique magical items, spells, and/or curse ideas.
○​ Add mention or modification to any effect of “gluttony” in curses or items.
●​ Find some artwork that I can start putting into the document and improving the looks of it
○​ I don’t want to just grab random pieces of artwork without permission (that
happens depressingly often these days). I'd rather get pieces commissioned, or
at least find artwork in which the artist has given explicit permission to use.
●​ Add some more content for underweight characters (most current content is focused on
obese characters.
○​ Problem here is that there’s not as much you can do with skinny characters that's
meaningful. You can only get so thin before you’re dead after all.
●​ Feats that interact with a character’s weight. Maybe a feat or trait that decreases some
of the penalties like max dex penalty?
●​ Curse Symbiosis - accepting and absorbing a curse into the fabric of their being to try
and gain a degree of control over it.
Changelog
June 24th, 2021 Been tinkering with things off-and-on over the last month, not
Typed up some miscellaneous notes that have been in really focusing on any one thing. Mostly it’s just small
the back of my mind lately. I’m not sure where I’ll be grammer and spelling errors. I have gotten some recent
putting them into the main document yet - maybe as submissions that I’ll be adding in in the next few days (a
some spell effects, feats, or a little bit of both. cursed armor and something I am completely blanking out
on).
February 14th, 2021
Made some slight adjustments to the Overly Muscular January 7th, 2020
bodytype. First tweaks since last year. My how time flies! Corrected a
Completely changed the “Potion of Gluttony” into a magical couple spelling and grammar errors. Tweaked Morbidly
poison. I never was happy with it until I realized I was trying Obese a little bit, adding growing strength penalties as the
to reinvent the poison rules. So I rewrite it as a magical character goes beyond 200% of weight. Also adjusted the
poison, which I feel makes it much easier to understand. Curses section, modifying some of the curses there. Added
some ideas on, ‘Triggered” curses, but probably will clean
Jan 31st, 2021 that up later.
I just realized today my e-mail address wasn’t listed in the
preface anymore. I don’t know when I did that, but it’s back July 15th, 2019
now.. Made some adjustments to the Curses section, slightly
lowering the power on the sample curses. More editing,
Jan 29th, 2021 spelling and grammar changes throughout the document.
Finished some edits from yesterday. Cleaned up the preface Added the “Sudden Weight Changes” section. Edited
and intro paragraphs. restoration spell effects section for a little extra clarity, and
Finished merging weight gain & loss mechanics into a single changed the effects of Lesser Restoration. Added some
chapter. Natural weight loss from starvation nerfed a little bit long-missing effects to Gaunt, started adding effects to
and clarified. Skinny.

Jan. 28th, 2021 July 1st, 2019

Just missed my 2-year anniversary of my rules. Hard to Finally got some time this week to do some updates.
believe it’s been this long since I first uploaded this to the Expanded and clarified some additional effects for
Internet. restoration spells, and started a section on sample curses.
Made a bunch of format changes, grammar edits, and Also started a pass over the whole document for spelling and
spelling corrections. Some were pointed out to me by grammatical errors, and did some minor rewrites on a few
readers, some I actually managed to find myself. sections to improve clarity.
Moved the Changelog to the end of the document to clean
things up a bit. March 7th, 2019
Reworded the Extremely Topheavy trait. Adjusted the numbers on the weight categories. The
Added new content! Added the spell, Baleful Body. percentages for Overweight, Fat, etc. were simply too high
when comparing them to real-world weight categories.
June 16th, 2020
Adjusted the topheavy trait, added an option for Macromastia March 2th, 2019
and slightly increased the severity of topheavy itself. Completely changed the modifiers to CMB and CMD. They
were much too powerful before. Instead this is handled as a
June 5th-6th, 2020 smaller, but more diverse size bonus to various abilities.
New Item Enchantment Weight Gain item special ability. Further tweaks to the Potion of Gluttony. Deleted some
More grammar/typo fixes obsolete data from the main table.
Changed formatting on the changelog so it takes less room.
Moved my Ideas section to the Misc Junk section at the end. February 28th, 2019
Complete rework of the Sudden Weight Changes rules. Continuing the edits and changes started on the 27th.
Finished reworking and adding notes to existing spells.
May 17th, 2020 Reworked the Potion of Gluttony.
With all the stuff going on these last few months, I haven’t
worked a lot on the document.
Adding: Body Shape: Overly Muscular

February xx, 2020

February 27th, 2019
Accidently killed my Preface and retyped it up. Various
grammatical changes, corrections and improvements.
Increased Strength penalties for carry weight. Moved
“Optional Change to Eating Habits” to the “Junk” section.
Slightly reduced the weight loss for half rations “Starvation”
rules. Minor changes to the Oracle paragraph. Started
clarifying and changing various spells and effects.

January 22th, 2019

Added the “Body Types” section (moving it out of the ideas
section into the main section). Clarified dexterity penalties
for Morbidly and Grossly Obese. Rephrased ant haul to
make it easier to read.

January 13th, 2019

Updated the text in regards to ant haul and other
encumbrance-affecting magics. Some spelling and grammar
fixes. Fix to the “Overweight” entry on the chart (it listed no
saving throw penalty when there was supposed to be a -1).

January 11th, 2019

First public posting onto the Internet.