In my new campaign the players are going to have to go up against waves of demons and eventually take on the demon lord, while going up against demons is challenging in its own way depending on the encounter, as it is going to be more story based I would like to implement demonic curses, and was curious to see if any of you had some homebrew curses of your own that I might be able to pull inspiration from
Research mythology. There are all sorts of ideas there, though they may not all be super fun for the players.
Maybe a character fights a demon and strikes out its right eye. With its dying breath, the demon curses the player and they go blind in their right eye. (Disadvantage on perception and investigation checks.)
A curse of nightmares. The players anger a fiend and now they can't sleep without having horrible night terrors. They don't get benefits from long rests. Or, have the player experience episodes of sleep paralysis. They killed a demon, but now when they wake up from being asleep they find that they are paralyzed. The demon they killed is grinning at them, standing nearby, or even sitting on their chest. Maybe throw in some symbolism to foreshadow events you have planned in the future. Terrifying ones.
Crows, ravens, and vultures flock above them. Townsfolk won't allow them to stay near their homes because they fear that they are a bad omen.
Maybe a character is caught lying to a devil and it curses them with truthfulness. They take 1d6 psychic damage whenever they tell a lie. Or, to make it more fun, their nose grows an extra inch and they take the damage. The nose resets at the end of the day.
Horses, dogs, cats, and other domestic animals go wild in the cursed one's presence. They can't ride horses because they buck them off and bolt away. Dogs and cats go vicious and wild, snarling and trying to go for their throats. Cows milk might sour in their presence as well.
Plants wilt and fruits and vegetables rot in their presence.
They gain a horrible appearance. Their despicable visage gives them disadvantage on persuasion checks.
A Demonic Curse could turn you into a some lowkey fiend such as lemure, mane, dretch or wretch, or corrupt you and change your alignment to evil, reduce one of your ability score, hit point, Hit Dice, Spell Slot or other ressources. It could give disadvantage to some saving throw, ability check or attack rolls from physical or mental enfeeblement, permanent level of exhaustion, unable to maintain concentration, reduce speed, loose memory and proficiency or even level reduction.
Tanari are chaotic destruction, so curses that cause destruction seem right up their ally.
The PC who likes to drink is cursed to break their beer mug after a drink. If they don't chug the whole thing in one go they end up dumping the rest of the beer when the glass breaks.
A high chance whatever chair they sit in breaks, including sitting in a wagon, or breaking the saddle when riding a mount.
When they close a door they slam it making a noise and often breaking the door.
If a week passes without drinking a shot of still warm blood, they suffer one level of exhaustion that doesn't go away until they drink. This can be animal blood, but no reason to specify what specific blood they are hungering for.
They have to succeed on a Wisdom save to allow an enemy to live. Enemy can be a vague term. At first it might just mean to stop fighting after a fight has begun, but the more times they fail the save, the broader the definition of enemy.
They are so filled with rage that they keep attacking a fallen enemy until they make an Int save. Even if there is a dangerous boss still attacking the party they keep focusing on the dead minion.
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In my new campaign the players are going to have to go up against waves of demons and eventually take on the demon lord, while going up against demons is challenging in its own way depending on the encounter, as it is going to be more story based I would like to implement demonic curses, and was curious to see if any of you had some homebrew curses of your own that I might be able to pull inspiration from
Research mythology. There are all sorts of ideas there, though they may not all be super fun for the players.
Maybe a character fights a demon and strikes out its right eye. With its dying breath, the demon curses the player and they go blind in their right eye. (Disadvantage on perception and investigation checks.)
A curse of nightmares. The players anger a fiend and now they can't sleep without having horrible night terrors. They don't get benefits from long rests. Or, have the player experience episodes of sleep paralysis. They killed a demon, but now when they wake up from being asleep they find that they are paralyzed. The demon they killed is grinning at them, standing nearby, or even sitting on their chest. Maybe throw in some symbolism to foreshadow events you have planned in the future. Terrifying ones.
Crows, ravens, and vultures flock above them. Townsfolk won't allow them to stay near their homes because they fear that they are a bad omen.
Maybe a character is caught lying to a devil and it curses them with truthfulness. They take 1d6 psychic damage whenever they tell a lie. Or, to make it more fun, their nose grows an extra inch and they take the damage. The nose resets at the end of the day.
Horses, dogs, cats, and other domestic animals go wild in the cursed one's presence. They can't ride horses because they buck them off and bolt away. Dogs and cats go vicious and wild, snarling and trying to go for their throats. Cows milk might sour in their presence as well.
Plants wilt and fruits and vegetables rot in their presence.
They gain a horrible appearance. Their despicable visage gives them disadvantage on persuasion checks.
A Demonic Curse could turn you into a some lowkey fiend such as lemure, mane, dretch or wretch, or corrupt you and change your alignment to evil, reduce one of your ability score, hit point, Hit Dice, Spell Slot or other ressources. It could give disadvantage to some saving throw, ability check or attack rolls from physical or mental enfeeblement, permanent level of exhaustion, unable to maintain concentration, reduce speed, loose memory and proficiency or even level reduction.
Tanari are chaotic destruction, so curses that cause destruction seem right up their ally.
The PC who likes to drink is cursed to break their beer mug after a drink. If they don't chug the whole thing in one go they end up dumping the rest of the beer when the glass breaks.
A high chance whatever chair they sit in breaks, including sitting in a wagon, or breaking the saddle when riding a mount.
When they close a door they slam it making a noise and often breaking the door.
If a week passes without drinking a shot of still warm blood, they suffer one level of exhaustion that doesn't go away until they drink. This can be animal blood, but no reason to specify what specific blood they are hungering for.
They have to succeed on a Wisdom save to allow an enemy to live. Enemy can be a vague term. At first it might just mean to stop fighting after a fight has begun, but the more times they fail the save, the broader the definition of enemy.
They are so filled with rage that they keep attacking a fallen enemy until they make an Int save. Even if there is a dangerous boss still attacking the party they keep focusing on the dead minion.