To start this off I am the DM of this particular campaign. As a DM I like to have my own full characters among the rest of the party as combat assist and story line flavour. I have a character that I have become particularly fond of playing and would like to continue playing into the future of other possible branch campaigns. The only problem is that I may have already killed her. As per her backstory I added the addiction mechanic from the EotE book and made her heavily addicted to Glitterstim, Ryll, and Deathsticks. The Deathsticks are what i'm worried about. She usually uses them twice daily now and has been doing so with a steady increase for the past 9 years or so. Deathstick addiction can reduce the users lifespan by half as it destroys your body and there is no way around that that I know of. She is Mirialan and currently 29 years old and I would imagine she won't make it to 32 at this rate, unless she should already be dead. The question I have is how can I make this a bit more realistic, add in some great roleplaying, and fix this realistically so that she may live for future campaigns.

Science!

Would replacement lungs work? Maybe illegal cloned lungs? (A quest to find the last of the cloners, you say?)

Or some even more elaborate medical procedure that's risky and will force her to owe someone dangerous for the rest of her life, as they're the only ones with the resources to effect it (effectively giving her a worse obligation than she already had).

Magic! The Force!

Some non-Jedi-but-still-very-much-hunted-Force-Sensitive-hermit/healer who lives somewhere remote and dangerous and who'll test her and her friends before helping. Maybe they're not what they seem. Maybe their process taps into the Dark Side. Even if not, perhaps Inquisitors finally track the healer down, just as he's beginning the lengthy process of "renewing" her body (something that is dangerous to interrupt).

Either way make it something she can't do by herself - she needs help and the PCs are her friends. How afraid of death is she? Would she risk them saying no? Would she trick them into helping her?

Other than a permanent medical procedure, you could use a chemical compound from a difficult to acquire plant, which could also be an adventure (Finding a scientist that's aware of the plant, convincing him to help, finding the plant, etc).

Moving beyond that, the character's addiction obligation can be replaced with obligation to the scientist cultivating the necessary plants. In time, the character could some how "buy off" the obligation because the plants not only sate the addition, but help to heal it as well.

As the Colonel pointed out, you can totally make up "magical" reasons to solve this kind of problem, since Star Wars is more "Science Fantasy" than "Science Fiction". Making it difficult to get the mcguffin, though, lets you explain why everyone in the galaxy doesn't have access to the solution, helping to maintain the immersion.

Addictions, even severe ones, are things you can take care of yourself with sufficient strength of will. Without the decision to quit for yourself, nothing anyone says or does can or will make an addict stop for long. As it is, I'd look into cold withdrawal with an MD droid at hand, and then bacta therapy and possible cybernetic replacement of damaged organs.

Withdrawal itself goes from simple things like headaches, double vision and increased bloodpressure all the way to full seizures and terminal breakdowns. She will want the substance and will have to fight her body's need for the drug at every waking moment. She's going to have to police herself with great self discipline not to relapse. Given deathsticks are smoked, passive inhalement might even be a problem. Realistically, I'd subtract a considerable amount of dice from her pools until her body is fully off the drug, which shouldn't take more than 2-3 ingame weeks. After that, she's going to have to put herself back together by whatever means possible, both physically and mentally. The mental bit, the underlaying urge for her fix, well, that might linger for years to come. Or she could funnel that obsession into something else. Many former addicts latch on to a new hobby to fill the void left by the absence of the drug.

Play Fallout 4 and take Cait as a companion. Do her personal side quest when it comes up. Use this as inspiration.

Addictions, even severe ones, are things you can take care of yourself with sufficient strength of will.

As a RN, I've seen some patients try DIY de-tox and end up dead. Sufficient will is not enough with some substances as withdrawal can be deadly.

These are all some fantastic ideas. I thank you all for the help. I was at a loss for the longest time with this dilemma.

A little more in short about her. She managed to escape the sacking of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant when she was 8 years old. Unfortunately witnessing some of the events that transpired there including the murder of her friends at the hands of the 501st. This left her scarred as she escaped into the depths of the undercity. She turned her back on the force forever and lived off the streets for a time before being taken in by a type of youth center until she was about 18. Afterwards she tried to make a legitimate life for herself, but failed and rose as a prominent freelance computer slicer. She worked with the likes of Blacksun among others. During this time the scars of her life took hold and she became more and more unstable. She turned to drugs to ease the pain, but they ate at her more and more. bringing the darkness closer.

So I always saw her as pretty cyberpunk. I have a side campaign planned for my group that takes place on Coruscant involving her. So I like Col. Orange's idea of the illegal replacement body parts leading to a severe debt obligation. I think it's quite fitting of her. Maybe bring in some of the other ideas in the beginning of her trying to find an alternate fix as an alternative and have nothing really work out as her body continues to degrade.

This sounds like a really good lead in for a story or several sessions even. Play this up over the next few games. Mention to the PCs that this character is suffering and declining. If she has been a close contact of the group they may care about her well being, stage an intervention be willing to go out of their way to find the "cure" for her condition. I like the idea of a ticking clock with this character in a med station somewhere slowly dieing while the PCs are racing to find the plant(s) or scientist in hiding or whatever. Give the situation some weight even if you don't plan on her actually passing the PCs don't have to know that!

This sounds like a really good lead in for a story or several sessions even. Play this up over the next few games. Mention to the PCs that this character is suffering and declining. If she has been a close contact of the group they may care about her well being, stage an intervention be willing to go out of their way to find the "cure" for her condition. I like the idea of a ticking clock with this character in a med station somewhere slowly dieing while the PCs are racing to find the plant(s) or scientist in hiding or whatever. Give the situation some weight even if you don't plan on her actually passing the PCs don't have to know that!

I'd make sure that whether the character lives or dies really is in the PCs' hands. Don't decide ahead of time, and let the players feel the weight of their success or failure.

I think at least part of the process should involve addressing the underlying trauma that seems to have contributed to her addiction. Replacing her lungs with cybernetics isn't going to help if she switches to a different drug or other risky behaviors because the root cause hasn't been addressed. This might involve "counseling" from a Force Sensitive, or taking steps to create a sense of stability in her life by creating a safe haven or safety net.