Just posting to hopefully solicit some ideas for a semi-curse one of my players has. Some background is that this player picked up an object that has marked him by a bad guy. This bad guy, however, is not the BBEG but sort of a side character that is somewhat working in opposition of the main villain of the campaign. As of right now (still new into having the Mark) it has only manifested itself in some bad dreams and in this other antagonist speaking in the players mind when they reached their last boss.
Now the motivations of this other villain are to gather as much information about the BBEG and their organization as possible in order to figure out how she can use the situation to her best advantage and to learn how to spread her influence more (and ultimately to spread her influence) so she is currently using her mark to essentially spy and gather information through the character.
I have been thinking about making this mark manifest itself a little bit more negatively on the player. Nothing too bad (since he will have the mark for awhile so I dont want this to be something debilitating or even all the time) but enough that when he meets this other villain and interacts with her he wants to break this curse. I have been thinking about having her exert a little control over him (through a charisma saving throw or similar) and making him do small things to help grow her sphere of influence but that sis about as far as I have gotten.
I'm not sure you need to make it have negative effects. If the goal is to gather information through the player, then handicapping the player will do no good. If the player dies because of a handicap, you no longer have your unwilling spy. Control is a different thing. If she wants him to go somewhere or do something, he should have to make wis/cha save and feel compelled to do the thing if he fails. Essentially, she now gets to guide her little spy around.
If you do something like taking control of the character, which I like the idea of in theory, you may want to approach the player about this beforehand unless you are very familiar with this person and have a mutual trust. It may be more of a surprise for the OTHER players and how they react when their friend loses control and how to win the battle without killing their party member.
but I like the idea above, the character is essentially an unintentional mole for the villain. They can’t hide from them, they know their plans, and is difficult to gain the upper hand on the villain and must find a way to rid the curse.
the mark could be an enchantment/curse based on the mind spike spell:
"Whilst marked their location is always known to the caster, but only while the two of you are on the same plane of existence. While they have this knowledge, the marked target can’t become hidden from them, and if it’s invisible, it gains no benefit from that condition against them".
That way the marked target can always be scry'd on and the bad guy that placed the mark always knows when the marked person is nearby, until such time as the either get a amulet of proof against location and detection or get affected by a Nondetection spell.
You could then have things like Dominate Person cast through a scry to effect the marked person for a turn or two if you need something to happen.
A semi curse I have used in a campaign was the minute alteration of skill modifiers and role playing hurdles. For example, a Dragonborn received a semi curse, and while cursed, he had a bonus +1 in Intimidation checks, but a -2 to Persuasion. Additionally, with this character, any time he wanted to speak in a language other than Draconic he would roll an ability check (WIS in this case) and have to beat a DC that grew as the curse did.
In your instance you could give your afflicted character the ability to spontaneously comprehend a new language (that this...regular bad evil lady: RBEL knows other than Common) but they need to roll History often to recall even mundane details. Or your afflicted character could suffer from night terrors or restlessness causing their sleep/trance to be less effective (short rest they can only roll 1 hit die to recover HP, and long rest they roll 1 hit die and reduce their current HP, not total, by that amount after resetting).
Whatever you decide, I would highly encourage you to get feedback from the player of the afflicted character a session or two after you've implemented the semi curse. If the impact is causing the player you not have fun it might not be worth keeping in play. I think the idea has a lot of potential, though!
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Happy hunting, fellow adventurers.
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Hey all,
Just posting to hopefully solicit some ideas for a semi-curse one of my players has. Some background is that this player picked up an object that has marked him by a bad guy. This bad guy, however, is not the BBEG but sort of a side character that is somewhat working in opposition of the main villain of the campaign. As of right now (still new into having the Mark) it has only manifested itself in some bad dreams and in this other antagonist speaking in the players mind when they reached their last boss.
Now the motivations of this other villain are to gather as much information about the BBEG and their organization as possible in order to figure out how she can use the situation to her best advantage and to learn how to spread her influence more (and ultimately to spread her influence) so she is currently using her mark to essentially spy and gather information through the character.
I have been thinking about making this mark manifest itself a little bit more negatively on the player. Nothing too bad (since he will have the mark for awhile so I dont want this to be something debilitating or even all the time) but enough that when he meets this other villain and interacts with her he wants to break this curse. I have been thinking about having her exert a little control over him (through a charisma saving throw or similar) and making him do small things to help grow her sphere of influence but that sis about as far as I have gotten.
I'm not sure you need to make it have negative effects. If the goal is to gather information through the player, then handicapping the player will do no good. If the player dies because of a handicap, you no longer have your unwilling spy. Control is a different thing. If she wants him to go somewhere or do something, he should have to make wis/cha save and feel compelled to do the thing if he fails. Essentially, she now gets to guide her little spy around.
"Ignorance is bliss, and you look absolutely miserable."
If you do something like taking control of the character, which I like the idea of in theory, you may want to approach the player about this beforehand unless you are very familiar with this person and have a mutual trust. It may be more of a surprise for the OTHER players and how they react when their friend loses control and how to win the battle without killing their party member.
but I like the idea above, the character is essentially an unintentional mole for the villain. They can’t hide from them, they know their plans, and is difficult to gain the upper hand on the villain and must find a way to rid the curse.
Mind control is harsh. Not a small thing at all.
There are a lot of conditions that make people FREAKING HATE, but you can still do without significantly affecting game play.
the mark could be an enchantment/curse based on the mind spike spell:
"Whilst marked their location is always known to the caster, but only while the two of you are on the same plane of existence. While they have this knowledge, the marked target can’t become hidden from them, and if it’s invisible, it gains no benefit from that condition against them".
That way the marked target can always be scry'd on and the bad guy that placed the mark always knows when the marked person is nearby, until such time as the either get a amulet of proof against location and detection or get affected by a Nondetection spell.
You could then have things like Dominate Person cast through a scry to effect the marked person for a turn or two if you need something to happen.
A semi curse I have used in a campaign was the minute alteration of skill modifiers and role playing hurdles. For example, a Dragonborn received a semi curse, and while cursed, he had a bonus +1 in Intimidation checks, but a -2 to Persuasion. Additionally, with this character, any time he wanted to speak in a language other than Draconic he would roll an ability check (WIS in this case) and have to beat a DC that grew as the curse did.
In your instance you could give your afflicted character the ability to spontaneously comprehend a new language (that this...regular bad evil lady: RBEL knows other than Common) but they need to roll History often to recall even mundane details. Or your afflicted character could suffer from night terrors or restlessness causing their sleep/trance to be less effective (short rest they can only roll 1 hit die to recover HP, and long rest they roll 1 hit die and reduce their current HP, not total, by that amount after resetting).
Whatever you decide, I would highly encourage you to get feedback from the player of the afflicted character a session or two after you've implemented the semi curse. If the impact is causing the player you not have fun it might not be worth keeping in play. I think the idea has a lot of potential, though!
Happy hunting, fellow adventurers.