This has been a very good thread to read through, and certainly has given me some food for thought for making cursed items of my own!
I certainly like the idea of Curses having effects on the world which the players might not agree with, rather than having effects on the players. It also makes it harder for them to work out it's a curse than "you picked up a shield, and now you've used it, you cannot put it down!".
I've only made one so far, and it's a very silly one:
The Dadstache - a fake mustache which, when worn, allows the player to use dad jokes by means to cast Vicious Mockery. Curse: The player steadily becomes more inclined to wear socks and sandals, will always insist on knowing the best way to start the campfire, will opt for shorts with as many pockets as possible, will start wearing a fanny-pack, and will insist on extinguishing any torches in a room before they leave it.
In a pre-generated adventure, The Bilgewater / Runeterra, campaign setting that was briefly on DDB.
In the encounter module, there is a cursed item that comes into play once the BBEG is killed
Blade of Ledros Weapon (longsword), rare (requires attunement)
The jagged shards of this blade are bound together by sickly green energy. You gain a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon. When you hit a humanoid with this weapon, the humanoid takes an extra 3d6 damage.
Curse. This weapon is cursed, and becoming attuned to it extends the curse to you. Until the curse is broken with remove curse or similar magic, you are unwilling to part with the weapon, keeping it within reach at all times. In addition, you have disadvantage on attack rolls made with weapons other than this one.
While you are attuned to the sword, once a day at midnight, you must succeed on a DC 17 Constitution saving throw unless you are undead. On a failed save, your maximum hit points are reduced by 10. Hit points lost in this way can only be restored by a wish spell. If your maximum hit points are reduced to 0 in this way, you die and immediately rise as a wraith.
While I like the idea of the cursed item as a weapon that forces you to use it until the cursed is removed. What I do not care for, as it feels really harsh for low-level characters where this encounter is tailored to, and more likely I'll adjust, is the CON requirement and outcome on a failure. To me, a wish spell seems hard to come by let alone what the cost of to cast and I doubt a 5th level character could afford it.
If you want something more subtle I have a suggestion.
Commonly curses in stories won't have clear mechanical effects but are sort of fated to have things happen to them or simply have powers that are corrupting .
The classic is the ring of invisibility or the Ring of Gyges. It tends to finds itself favored by thieves and murderers and is cursed in the sense that it enables these bad behaviors. Another example.
Another one is the sword Tyrfing. Which is essentially fated to bring about the death of it's wielder and cause 3 evil deeds. Accidents and tragedies just tend to happen around it.
In this way an item can be cursed without actually having any down sides, essentially the DM just creates a story around it that acts as a curse. Things like people coming to try to get the sword or various bad things happening to the wielder.
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This has been a very good thread to read through, and certainly has given me some food for thought for making cursed items of my own!
I certainly like the idea of Curses having effects on the world which the players might not agree with, rather than having effects on the players. It also makes it harder for them to work out it's a curse than "you picked up a shield, and now you've used it, you cannot put it down!".
I've only made one so far, and it's a very silly one:
The Dadstache - a fake mustache which, when worn, allows the player to use dad jokes by means to cast Vicious Mockery. Curse: The player steadily becomes more inclined to wear socks and sandals, will always insist on knowing the best way to start the campfire, will opt for shorts with as many pockets as possible, will start wearing a fanny-pack, and will insist on extinguishing any torches in a room before they leave it.
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
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In a pre-generated adventure, The Bilgewater / Runeterra, campaign setting that was briefly on DDB.
In the encounter module, there is a cursed item that comes into play once the BBEG is killed
While I like the idea of the cursed item as a weapon that forces you to use it until the cursed is removed. What I do not care for, as it feels really harsh for low-level characters where this encounter is tailored to, and more likely I'll adjust, is the CON requirement and outcome on a failure. To me, a wish spell seems hard to come by let alone what the cost of to cast and I doubt a 5th level character could afford it.
That’s perfect. Just what I was looking for.
If you want something more subtle I have a suggestion.
Commonly curses in stories won't have clear mechanical effects but are sort of fated to have things happen to them or simply have powers that are corrupting .
In this way an item can be cursed without actually having any down sides, essentially the DM just creates a story around it that acts as a curse. Things like people coming to try to get the sword or various bad things happening to the wielder.