Hey Everyone,

So my players just rescued their favorite npc from a crime syndicate. They captured her and her partner to force her to make specific items for the group, specifically a pill that can turn people into werewolves without a full moon and a generator that can pump out the equivalent of 3 full moons out into an area. 

It took my players 10 in game days to save her so I would like there to be a punishment for my players for taking so long. One thing I wanted to do was they would crush her hand making her take longer to produce gear for the party if they asked. The other thing I was thinking about was a cursed tattoo that she would have to save against. If she failed it would apply a curse to the item she crafts. The more times she fails the more powerful the curse.

So I am looking for a list of curses I could possibly apply to items if she fails her saves.

This isn't so much a well rounded out idea, but I always liked the Wheel of Time trope, Re: Mat's dagger. It's a dagger recovered from a cursed city, where it saps the soul of the person who acquires it, and they in turn become more attached and fascinated with it, gradually becoming more twisted and evil in the process. In exchange... well the dagger will completely consume any human it slashes.

Quote from TheNamelessHawk >>

This isn't so much a well rounded out idea, but I always liked the Wheel of Time trope, Re: Mat's dagger. It's a dagger recovered from a cursed city, where it saps the soul of the person who acquires it, and they in turn become more attached and fascinated with it, gradually becoming more twisted and evil in the process. In exchange... well the dagger will completely consume any human it slashes.

 I think was one of the more basic ones I will put on the list

really, it depends on the item. It could make sense for the curses to be something to do with lycanthropy or werewolves in general. for instance, sharp canine teeth pierce the gums, dealing piercing damage, or bones twist and snap, forcing the skeleton into a shape similar to that of a wolf in an extremely painful way. Perhaps the curses could be more subtle, like the cursed individual finding themselves unable to stomach anything but raw meat. how about the cursed items seem to do nothing, but have the unintended side effect of turning users into those hideous tiny dogs that make awful noise.

Still looking for some fun curses that can be added to made items if this NPC fails checks!

take a look at two sections in the DMG:

• Diseases
• Conditions

Folks don' t think of them as distinct things in and of themselves, but they are actually really potent parts of the game mechanics that are woefully under-utilized. As a curse, having to deal with "every time you go into battle you feel fatigue" is rough, but every condition is a whole separate nightmare in and of itself.

A good curse has certain parts to it:

• A Triggering event (if you do X, then)
• An Effect (Curse)
• A way to side step the curse that is a pain in the ass (unless you Y first).

(this draws from traditional structures in southeast Europe -- Irish curses have a slightly different structure, and you want to avoid Basque curses).

What can be fun to do here, though, is to add silly, spiteful twists -- "if you don't yell out 'Heidegger did it' as your battle cry, you will grow painful warts on your palm". In this case, her trauma from captivity is coming out in her crafting, even though she isn't doing it on purpose -- these are the things she would have wished to do to her captors.

Another option might be to use the wild magic tables.

Quote from AEDorsay >>

take a look at two sections in the DMG:

• Diseases
• Conditions

Folks don' t think of them as distinct things in and of themselves, but they are actually really potent parts of the game mechanics that are woefully under-utilized. As a curse, having to deal with "every time you go into battle you feel fatigue" is rough, but every condition is a whole separate nightmare in and of itself.

A good curse has certain parts to it:

• A Triggering event (if you do X, then)
• An Effect (Curse)
• A way to side step the curse that is a pain in the ass (unless you Y first).

(this draws from traditional structures in southeast Europe -- Irish curses have a slightly different structure, and you want to avoid Basque curses).

What can be fun to do here, though, is to add silly, spiteful twists -- "if you don't yell out 'Heidegger did it' as your battle cry, you will grow painful warts on your palm". In this case, her trauma from captivity is coming out in her crafting, even though she isn't doing it on purpose -- these are the things she would have wished to do to her captors.

Another option might be to use the wild magic tables.

 

 I wanted to use a wild magic table like device but I needed curses to fill in the table

Well, now you can create them.

Keep in mind, I was giving "silly" saves -- dance a jig, call out some thing silly.  That's because the original stuff ws much, much darker (sacrifice a babe beneath a full moon type of stuff).

 The if-then, unless approach is used widely (hell, sleeping beauty uses it) throughout folklore and reaches back to at least 3500 BCE. 

Minor curses were always something akin to the conditions -- you get boils, you burn with fever, you fall unconscious, you will wander around dazed or blinded (another sleeping beauty reference, since the Prince was cursed blind).

THe thing to do to escape it need not be able to be accomplished, either -- it is a sort of "venting" of the idea called karma today; by giving an out, however unreasonable, it prevents the curse from folding back upon the person who did the cursing.

Once had a PC really upset an ancient Oracle in a campaign like 20 years ago. She cured him to always have flowers growing from his head instead of hair. he felt them if they were cut or picked, he felt them when they died, and he had to water his face and his head.

His escape was to climb to the top of the highest mountain in the land -- which he was never able to do because the top of the highest mountain was the home of the Gods, and no mortals could tread there and live.

he finally got free of it by dying -- remove curse and restoration and the like never worked. When they resurrected him, the curse was gone.

Quote from AEDorsay >>

Well, now you can create them.

Keep in mind, I was giving "silly" saves -- dance a jig, call out some thing silly.  That's because the original stuff ws much, much darker (sacrifice a babe beneath a full moon type of stuff).

 The if-then, unless approach is used widely (hell, sleeping beauty uses it) throughout folklore and reaches back to at least 3500 BCE. 

Minor curses were always something akin to the conditions -- you get boils, you burn with fever, you fall unconscious, you will wander around dazed or blinded (another sleeping beauty reference, since the Prince was cursed blind).

THe thing to do to escape it need not be able to be accomplished, either -- it is a sort of "venting" of the idea called karma today; by giving an out, however unreasonable, it prevents the curse from folding back upon the person who did the cursing.

Once had a PC really upset an ancient Oracle in a campaign like 20 years ago. She cured him to always have flowers growing from his head instead of hair. he felt them if they were cut or picked, he felt them when they died, and he had to water his face and his head.

His escape was to climb to the top of the highest mountain in the land -- which he was never able to do because the top of the highest mountain was the home of the Gods, and no mortals could tread there and live.

he finally got free of it by dying -- remove curse and restoration and the like never worked. When they resurrected him, the curse was gone.

 I get what you are saying.

Also when it comes to removing the curse the party will find that the item needed to remove it only grows in one place and that is in the land between the shadowfell and the fey wild (which I have other names for in my world and they are a little different too). In those between lands the magics of both of those magics swirl around and in it resides and item made up of both of them. If they can get their hands on it, they can help the NPC remove the curse and allow them to get back to working again. 

I recently created a spell, called Deadwood Curse, which might interest you :

https://www.dndbeyond.com/spells/2144194-deadwood-curse

That spell is crazy overpowered. It says that they are cursed for the spells duration, but the duration is instantaneous. The ninth level spell power word kill is less strong than this. That spell can only work on a creature with less than 100 hit points, while this one, (which is 5th level) can work on any creature just so long as they fail the save

So I should reworked it so it's better balanced. Thanks, I will look for this !

Deadwood Curse

LEVEL 5th

CASTING TIME 1 Action

RANGE/AREA 60 ft

COMPONENTS V, S, M * (a leaf from a dead tree)

DURATION Concentration, up to 1 minute

SCHOOL Necromancy

ATTACK/SAVE WIS Save

DAMAGE/EFFECT Shapechanging (…)

When you cast Deadwood Curse, choose a creature that you can see within range. The target must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or become cursed for the duration of the spell. If the creature dies while under the effect of this curse, its body immediately transforms into a lifeless tree. The size of the tree is proportional to the size of the creature, and it is devoid of any life force.

The tree created by this spell is mundane in all respects and can be chopped down, burned, or otherwise destroyed as normal. It does not possess any magical properties, nor does it retain any characteristics of the original creature.

The transformation caused by this spell is so thorough that it prevents the creature from being returned to life via spells like Raise Dead, Revivify or Resurrection. Only a Wish spell or similar level of magic can restore the cursed creature back to life.

The curse takes effect immediately upon a failed saving throw. However, the transformation into a tree only occurs if the creature dies while under the effect of this curse. The curse itself lasts for the duration of the spell or until the creature dies, whichever comes first.

The changes I made are:

• I added a concentration duration of up to 1 minute. This means the caster must maintain concentration on the spell for it to remain in effect. If the caster’s concentration is broken, the spell ends.
• I clarified that the curse lasts for the duration of the spell or until the creature dies, whichever comes first. This means if the spell ends before the creature dies, the creature will not transform into a tree upon death.
  
  Does it seem better balanced ?

Yes! 

Thanks !