I am planning my first campaign as a DM and have thought of a trick/ trap for the players. Lvl 4-5 party, up to 7 members with one of us rotating as the DM (Rogue, warlock, paladin, 2 clerics, bard, monk).The premise is that they encounter a mage as part of a bandit group. The mage claims that he is being held hostage and working for the bandits against his will. He offers 2 magical items that he has made for the BBE to help the players get rid of the bandits. If they don't believe him and end up killing him, I was planning on putting them in a chest with a note directed to the BBE with the descriptions.
1. A magic ring that adds an extra attack die to any spell.
2. A bow of elemental magic. Player rolls a 1d6 to determine what element the arrow takes before firing (1-3 normal arrow, 4 fire, 5 frost, 6 acid). Might make it a +1 to make it more enticing.
However, this is only what the secret bad guy tells them, and not what they actually are. First, the ring is really the cursed ring of endless bubbles. Negates any spell or cantrip and instead shoots a harmless stream of bubbles from the caster's hand. Great for parties!
Second (and the more evil one), the cursed bow of friendly fire. The 1d6 really determines the target (1-4 party members (DM rolls a second die to determine who), 5 self, 6 intended target) player rolls his attack roll based on the real target's AC and damages as normal. My main concern is a TPK from them not figuring it out in time. Best case scenario, the one player who will use this will miss and they figure it out, get a laugh/ groan and move along. Worst case is he crits on one of the more squishy characters and takes him out. He has several multipliers and deals damage in the high 20's on a regular basis.
They CAN find out the true nature of the items if they take the time to identify, but this is unlikely since none of the characters has high Int.
I am wondering how to balance the risk since I do not want to actually kill them off. This is the first campaign for all of us and many are NOT interested in re-rolling character.
I'm keen to add some cursed items into my own game, so I do find this scenario interesting. I'd say the ring you have made is much worse than the bow, however.. if you play it as you've written it, you've basically killed off one of your caster characters by reducing them to melee combat (assuming you haven't planned for a simple way for them to remove these cursed items).
I'd say go ahead if you either rework the items so they nerf the players rather than making them useless, or adding an 'instructions for removal' to the letter the the BBE, but have it written in veiled euphemism so they don't find it a red flag out of the gate.
My understanding is it’s just the items themselves that are cursed, right? And if they just unequip them they’ll go back to normal? If so, these don’t seem too devastating.
My worst DM moments with traps/puzzles have been falling in love with the idea too much and forcing the players to grind through a solution. If a suspicious player decides they want to detect magic and it turns out the school of magic in the item doesn’t match the description, or they get upset because a detect good and evil didn’t detect a curse that hits friendly players, just roll with it and don’t worry too much. They may test out the bubble ring outside of combat and reveal that’s its worthless, if so don’t bear yourself up for the wasted effort, hopefully they still get a laugh out of it!
My understanding is it’s just the items themselves that are cursed, right? And if they just unequip them they’ll go back to normal? If so, these don’t seem too devastating.
If they are attuned to the item they won't be able to "just unequip" them. Per the DMG, "Attunement to a cursed item can’t be ended voluntarily unless the curse is broken first, such as with the remove curse spell." That means for the person who put the ring on, no spell-casting till the curse is removed, assuming it has to be attuned.
For the crossbow, it's a little more ambiguous. You don't technically have to use an attuned item, so the bearer could get a normal crossbow and use that instead. However, as a DM when I used to run cursed items in AD&D (and I can't remember if this was a houserule or it was stated somewhere in the rules, but either way I like it), the nature of the curse made you want to use the cursed item. So if you had a cursed sword and a regular war hammer, you couldn't just "draw the warhammer instead." You would have to exert a serious act of will not to draw the sword, and I think there was a roll but I don't remember what we did. Maybe something like, roll 1d6, on a 5 or 6 you can pull the weapon you want. Otherwise, you pull the sword -- the curse makes you like an addict and the using it is your next fix.
Without something like that, then the crossbow just burns an attunement slot (if it even needs to be attuned). The ring, though, if attuned, will hose the caster who wears it until the curse is lifted.
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WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
My understanding is it’s just the items themselves that are cursed, right? And if they just unequip them they’ll go back to normal? If so, these don’t seem too devastating.
If they are attuned to the item they won't be able to "just unequip" them. Per the DMG, "Attunement to a cursed item can’t be ended voluntarily unless the curse is broken first, such as with the remove curse spell." That means for the person who put the ring on, no spell-casting till the curse is removed, assuming it has to be attuned.
For the crossbow, it's a little more ambiguous. You don't technically have to use an attuned item, so the bearer could get a normal crossbow and use that instead. However, as a DM when I used to run cursed items in AD&D (and I can't remember if this was a houserule or it was stated somewhere in the rules, but either way I like it), the nature of the curse made you want to use the cursed item. So if you had a cursed sword and a regular war hammer, you couldn't just "draw the warhammer instead." You would have to exert a serious act of will not to draw the sword, and I think there was a roll but I don't remember what we did. Maybe something like, roll 1d6, on a 5 or 6 you can pull the weapon you want. Otherwise, you pull the sword -- the curse makes you like an addict and the using it is your next fix.
Without something like that, then the crossbow just burns an attunement slot (if it even needs to be attuned). The ring, though, if attuned, will hose the caster who wears it until the curse is lifted.
Ohh, one of those classic "I must have read this once and never thought of it again" things. I definitely hadn't remembered this rule. I think in that case, it would be cool to play up the "unreliable narration" aspect of the cursed item ( the other players see the harmless bubbles, but the caster thinks their powers now have devastating new effects, or the player with the friendly fire bow is beset with paranoia and conspiracy) to help explain why the players mechanically can't unequip it.
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Hello,
I am planning my first campaign as a DM and have thought of a trick/ trap for the players. Lvl 4-5 party, up to 7 members with one of us rotating as the DM (Rogue, warlock, paladin, 2 clerics, bard, monk).The premise is that they encounter a mage as part of a bandit group. The mage claims that he is being held hostage and working for the bandits against his will. He offers 2 magical items that he has made for the BBE to help the players get rid of the bandits. If they don't believe him and end up killing him, I was planning on putting them in a chest with a note directed to the BBE with the descriptions.
1. A magic ring that adds an extra attack die to any spell.
2. A bow of elemental magic. Player rolls a 1d6 to determine what element the arrow takes before firing (1-3 normal arrow, 4 fire, 5 frost, 6 acid). Might make it a +1 to make it more enticing.
However, this is only what the secret bad guy tells them, and not what they actually are. First, the ring is really the cursed ring of endless bubbles. Negates any spell or cantrip and instead shoots a harmless stream of bubbles from the caster's hand. Great for parties!
Second (and the more evil one), the cursed bow of friendly fire. The 1d6 really determines the target (1-4 party members (DM rolls a second die to determine who), 5 self, 6 intended target) player rolls his attack roll based on the real target's AC and damages as normal. My main concern is a TPK from them not figuring it out in time. Best case scenario, the one player who will use this will miss and they figure it out, get a laugh/ groan and move along. Worst case is he crits on one of the more squishy characters and takes him out. He has several multipliers and deals damage in the high 20's on a regular basis.
They CAN find out the true nature of the items if they take the time to identify, but this is unlikely since none of the characters has high Int.
I am wondering how to balance the risk since I do not want to actually kill them off. This is the first campaign for all of us and many are NOT interested in re-rolling character.
Thanks in advance.
I'm keen to add some cursed items into my own game, so I do find this scenario interesting. I'd say the ring you have made is much worse than the bow, however.. if you play it as you've written it, you've basically killed off one of your caster characters by reducing them to melee combat (assuming you haven't planned for a simple way for them to remove these cursed items).
I'd say go ahead if you either rework the items so they nerf the players rather than making them useless, or adding an 'instructions for removal' to the letter the the BBE, but have it written in veiled euphemism so they don't find it a red flag out of the gate.
My understanding is it’s just the items themselves that are cursed, right? And if they just unequip them they’ll go back to normal? If so, these don’t seem too devastating.
My worst DM moments with traps/puzzles have been falling in love with the idea too much and forcing the players to grind through a solution. If a suspicious player decides they want to detect magic and it turns out the school of magic in the item doesn’t match the description, or they get upset because a detect good and evil didn’t detect a curse that hits friendly players, just roll with it and don’t worry too much. They may test out the bubble ring outside of combat and reveal that’s its worthless, if so don’t bear yourself up for the wasted effort, hopefully they still get a laugh out of it!
If they are attuned to the item they won't be able to "just unequip" them. Per the DMG, "Attunement to a cursed item can’t be ended voluntarily unless the curse is broken first, such as with the remove curse spell." That means for the person who put the ring on, no spell-casting till the curse is removed, assuming it has to be attuned.
For the crossbow, it's a little more ambiguous. You don't technically have to use an attuned item, so the bearer could get a normal crossbow and use that instead. However, as a DM when I used to run cursed items in AD&D (and I can't remember if this was a houserule or it was stated somewhere in the rules, but either way I like it), the nature of the curse made you want to use the cursed item. So if you had a cursed sword and a regular war hammer, you couldn't just "draw the warhammer instead." You would have to exert a serious act of will not to draw the sword, and I think there was a roll but I don't remember what we did. Maybe something like, roll 1d6, on a 5 or 6 you can pull the weapon you want. Otherwise, you pull the sword -- the curse makes you like an addict and the using it is your next fix.
Without something like that, then the crossbow just burns an attunement slot (if it even needs to be attuned). The ring, though, if attuned, will hose the caster who wears it until the curse is lifted.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Ohh, one of those classic "I must have read this once and never thought of it again" things. I definitely hadn't remembered this rule. I think in that case, it would be cool to play up the "unreliable narration" aspect of the cursed item ( the other players see the harmless bubbles, but the caster thinks their powers now have devastating new effects, or the player with the friendly fire bow is beset with paranoia and conspiracy) to help explain why the players mechanically can't unequip it.