Keif — Strength-Boosting Fantasy Drug
Keif is an ingested or inhaled fantasy drug that temporarily increases physical strength while making the user more susceptible to illusion and mental influence. When the initial effect fades, fatigue follows, alongside potentially serious physical and mental harm.
At a Glance
- Category: Fictional alchemical drug
- Delivery: Ingested or inhaled
- Campaign role: Performance enhancer, criminal commodity, dangerous temptation and gateway to stronger keif variants
- Rules provenance: The established mechanics below are Pathfinder 1e material.
Edition Mechanics
Pathfinder 1e
Type: ingested or inhaled; Addiction: moderate; Fortitude: DC 20; Price: 15 gp.
Effect: for 1 hour, the user gains a +1d2 alchemical bonus to Strength and takes a –2 penalty on saves against illusions and mind-affecting effects. After that hour the user is fatigued for 1d2 hours. Damage: 1d2 Constitution and 1d2 Wisdom.
5.5e / 2024, 5e / 2014 and 3.5e
No mechanics are presented here as official rules for these editions. A conversion should retain the defining trade: increased physical power paired with weakened mental defences, followed by fatigue and harmful after-effects.
What Happens When You Take It?
Keif makes the user physically stronger but mentally easier to deceive or control. That combination gives it more adventure value than a simple stimulant: somebody may deliberately dose guards, fighters or labourers because the apparent benefit conceals a vulnerability.
Addiction & After-effects
Its PF1e rules combine moderate addiction with Constitution and Wisdom damage. The fatigue after the initial hour creates a predictable window in which a previously formidable user becomes less capable.
Variants
Keif belongs to a family of related substances. See Black Keif, Golden Keif and Wyrm Keif for specialised forms.
Encounters & Adventure Use
- A fighting pit keeps its champions supplied with keif, then exploits their weakened minds.
- Guards appear unusually strong but are dangerously vulnerable to magical deception.
- A cheap shipment is actually a more dangerous variant sold under the ordinary name.
- An exhausted suspect insists they were powerful enough to commit a crime an hour earlier.
- A dealer offers the party ordinary keif as a sample before revealing rarer versions.
Related Rules
See the Drugs hub, Addiction, Strength, Constitution and Wisdom.
Sources & Licensing
Pathfinder RPG GameMastery Guide, © 2010 Paizo Publishing, LLC. The PF1e mechanics and core substance concept are derived from the cited source; campaign-use material and edition guidance are original site material.