Catnip — Feline Stimulant
Catnip, also called catswort or catmint, is a flowering mint whose scent and taste can send feline creatures into a short-lived burst of alertness and speed. In adventures it works best as animal-handling colour, an unusual lure, a complication involving great cats, or a small but useful consumable for feline companions.
At a Glance
- Category: Botanical feline stimulant
- Delivery: Ingested
- Users: Feline creatures only
- Campaign role: Animal lure, companion consumable, jungle herb and minor trade good
- Rules provenance: The mechanics below are Pathfinder 1e material.
Edition Mechanics
Pathfinder 1e
Price: 5 gp; Addiction: minor; Fortitude: DC 11.
For 1d6 minutes a feline gains a +1 alchemical bonus on initiative checks and a +2 alchemical bonus on Reflex saves. Afterwards it is fatigued for 1d3 hours and takes 1 Wisdom damage. The creature cannot benefit from another dose until that sluggishness ends. Catnip has no effect on non-feline creatures.
5.5e / 2024, 5e / 2014 and 3.5e
No mechanics are presented here as official rules for these editions. Any conversion should preserve the defining rhythm: a brief increase in feline reactions followed by fatigue, with no benefit to non-felines.
What Happens in Play?
The useful effect is short enough to matter immediately. A feline companion may become quicker in an encounter, but the party then has to deal with hours of fatigue. Large cats such as lions and tigers are affected as well.
Where Is It Found?
Catnip grows as a mint-like plant and is particularly associated here with warm, lush country. Herbalists, animal handlers and travellers familiar with great cats may recognise it even where it is not sold as a formal drug.
Encounters & Adventure Use
- A handler uses catnip to distract a dangerous great cat without harming it.
- A feline companion gains an edge before a chase but becomes fatigued afterwards.
- A merchant’s herb sacks attract every cat in a crowded district.
- A jungle camp is surrounded by unusually excitable predators.
- A supposed monster bait works perfectly—on the wrong feline.
Related Rules
See the Drugs hub, Addiction, Wisdom, Lion and Tiger.
Sources & Licensing
Pathfinder Player Companion: Familiar Folio, © 2015 Paizo Inc.; authors Will McCardell, Philip Minchin, Mark Seifter and Jerome Virnich. PF1e mechanics and the core substance concept derive from the cited source; campaign-use material and edition guidance are original site material.