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Abstruse
2009-05-22, 07:17 AM
I was wondering what other possibilities there might be for Bestow Curse -- you know, creative stuff that doesn't strictly apply just to stats or saves or whatever.



Choose one of the following three effects.

* -6 decrease to an ability score (minimum 1).
* -4 penalty on attack rolls, saves, ability checks, and skill checks.
* Each turn, the target has a 50% chance to act normally; otherwise, it takes no action.

You may also invent your own curse, but it should be no more powerful than those described above.


The first thing that jumped into my head was:

* Sure the cleric can still cast healing spells. It's just that he takes half the damage he heals with his spellcasting or wands.

Anyone else have creative new ways to curse?

Adumbration
2009-05-22, 07:19 AM
- The subject can not be healed magically.

For a PC, that would suck, not to mention the BBEG.

Kaiyanwang
2009-05-22, 07:32 AM
Don't remember the issue, but shoud be there a Dragon Magazine with few pages of good suggestions for Bestow Curse and Greater Bestow Curse.

Nice ideas.

Crunch aside, If you go against a PC, strike him where hurts. As an example, a friend of mine has a Bard//Hexblade very good with ladies, we can say.

Once he had troubles in a town dues to his attitude, guess how the town cleric cursed him. :smallbiggrin:

With a lot of caster level increase cheese, BTW.

Epinephrine
2009-05-22, 08:03 AM
Curses affecting particular skills could be horrible for those depending on them - cursing a farmer to take a -20 on his Profession - farming would pretty much doom his crops, for example.

For PCs,

"Nobody will ever believe you, for you will be seen as a liar by all!" : -20 to Bluff checks

Dhavaer
2009-05-22, 08:08 AM
Don't remember the issue, but shoud be there a Dragon Magazine with few pages of good suggestions for Bestow Curse and Greater Bestow Curse.

Nice ideas.

Crunch aside, If you go against a PC, strike him where hurts. As an example, a friend of mine has a Bard//Hexblade very good with ladies, we can say.

Once he had troubles in a town dues to his attitude, guess how the town cleric cursed him. :smallbiggrin:

With a lot of caster level increase cheese, BTW.

The inverse, of course, would be a curse of infertility. Nasty on a monarch, very handy for a lascivious adventurer.

Mastikator
2009-05-22, 08:12 AM
The character must speak in a silly squeaky voice.

And you demand that he roleplays it.

Faleldir
2009-05-22, 08:14 AM
The cursed character may now only move diagonally.
Put a Bestow Curse trap in a dungeon and he's never getting out.

shadzar
2009-05-22, 08:19 AM
The character must speak in a silly squeaky voice.

And you demand that he roleplays it.

No that wasn't how it went.

The character always speaks gibberish when speaking to someone important to the characters goals. The other party members are not included in this for more comedic effect.

Example:

Cursed Bob: So we are meeting the mayor today?
Fred: Yes we are.
Mayor: Welcome gentlemen how are you today, welcome to my fine city.
Fred: My name is Fred.
Bob to mayor: FDdg kj adfh r wrtjsdg d
Bob to Fred: Tell him my name is Bob.
Mayor: Why do you speak at me in such a way and then ask your friend to speak to me instead and not directly talk with me! :smallfurious:

ocato
2009-05-22, 08:26 AM
The character will henceforth be treated as an NPC. None of his comrades will remember his name or care what he says, and his life is forfeit the second they get into a tight squeeze and/or bored.

Shinizak
2009-05-22, 08:26 AM
For a melee fighter: The fighter must always move his full movement speed, however by the end of the movement he must be somewhere within the 5 foot ring around where he started or take a 1d4 points of damage per 5 feet not moved. If done right it would open up loads of potential for AoO.

Kaiyanwang
2009-05-22, 08:33 AM
The inverse, of course, would be a curse of infertility. Nasty on a monarch, very handy for a lascivious adventurer.

Well, this gave me an idea.. Think about 3.5 orc fluff. They give a lot of value to the number of son.

Such curse to the orc warchief could be a way to blackmail him. Maybe

"Leave these lands and you will be able again to have children" :smallconfused:

Dhavaer
2009-05-22, 08:52 AM
Well, this gave me an idea.. Think about 3.5 orc fluff. They give a lot of value to the number of son.

Such curse to the orc warchief could be a way to blackmail him. Maybe

"Leave these lands and you will be able again to have children" :smallconfused:

That sounds a bit more like Mark of Justice or similar.

banjo1985
2009-05-22, 08:57 AM
For a rogue-like character:

- The characters slightest movement is heralded by the tinkling of bells, as if they're wearing the uniform of a court jester.

You could have them automatically fail Stealth Checks, or just give them a meaty penalty.

EDIT - I should also imagine its a bit of a bugger when the character tries to sleep.

Kaiyanwang
2009-05-22, 09:15 AM
That sounds a bit more like Mark of Justice or similar.

Well, yes, about purposes maybe. But MoJ, IIRC, avoids you do something because if the subject does that somehitng, the Mark triggers.

The curse (in this case) make you unable to something, period. The condition of removal is only role-played between the caster and the orc warchief.

The two spells are quite similar, anyway.

Keld Denar
2009-05-22, 12:42 PM
The two spells are quite similar, anyway.

Actually...MoJ CAUSES an unresistable Bestow Curse to hit the character when they violate the Mark.

So..."leave this region as fast as possible and never come back" might be the condition of the Mark, and the Curse is a -6 penalty to Str if he ever comes back.

Funny thing is, that as written, entering and leaving the area would cause the curse to trigger, but it would not be removed when he left.

As far as nasty curses, impose rhyming requirements on speech for an entire game session. See how long it takes the other PCs to kill the curse player's character to end the curse!

Bugbeartrap
2009-05-22, 12:53 PM
There is actually a list of suggested curses in BoVD. I didn't know about the dragon magazine one. They might be similiar.

Nero24200
2009-05-22, 02:04 PM
I'm always a big fan of curses you might see in fairy tales or somewhat childish fantasies.

Like a curse which makes you age faster
Or a curse which makes you unable to find a particular object you desire (for instance, if you spent you life trying to find a legendary sword, only to find it's invisable to your eyes)
A curse which makes a character unable to lie regarding a specific subject
Stereotypical Protagonist: "The king's dead...anyone have any idea who this assassin might be?"
Stereotypical Evil Advisor: "Probably that guy I hired behind that allyway"
Stereotypical Protagonist: "What did you say?"
Stereotypical Evil Advisor: "What did I say?"

shadzar
2009-05-22, 02:26 PM
-Uncontrollable Bowel Syndrome.

-Cursed with beauty....at least in your eyes. Every time you pas by a reflective surface you get hypnotized by your own visage, and don't want to be taken away so you cannot see your pretty self.

Roderick_BR
2009-05-22, 03:43 PM
"Women feel unconfortable at your presence, even if you still act as normal, and your appearance doesn't change. They just feel unease around you."
Any charisma-based check made against a female character takes a -10 penalty, if the character is around and/or interacting, even if he's not the one directly doing the checks. He'll be very unpopular at parties.

"The bottom of all your beer cups will fall off"
Everytime the character tries to drink any alchoolic beverage, any nonmagical wood/glass/whatever recipient will simply break in half, automatically spilling everything. If he tried to drink from the wineskin/bottle, they'll break as well. Only magical and/or very resistant cups will survive it (imagine trying to get a cold one in a reinforced steel cup that weights 4 or 5 times the liquid you are trying to drink, "this is my +1 cup of ale"). Non-alchoolical beverages (water, juice, magic potions) can be drunk normally.
For comedic purpose. Read that one in a comic once.

Set
2009-05-22, 11:21 PM
You could Bestow Curse on someone to 'suffer every pain that I suffer.' Everytime the caster takes lethal hit point damage, the curse recipient takes equal nonlethal damage. If the curse-caster dies, the curse-ee must make a 'massive damage save' or die also. The 'pain' would be less damaging than that suffered by the curse-caster (nonlethal instead of lethal, massive damage save instead of instant death), but might be extra painful, causing the victim to be sickened by pain when the curse-caster is below 50% and nauseated by pain when the curse-caster is at 0 or less hit points, or something creative like that.

It would be a great curse to caste on someone who is an enemy that you must leave alive for some reason, so that they can never betray you (without suffering pain, and possibly their own death!). Unlike a Shield Other sort of effect, the curse-caster gains no reduction in damage taken, as the damage is not shared, it is merely duplicated and sent along to afflict the curse-ee also.


For a more wicked curse that could be turned on at will, the curse-caster could pull an Emma Frost and decree that the victim will vomit uncontrollably everytime he hears word X, Y or Z, and then use that to keep the victim under control. Every time the caster says 'kumquat', the victim is nauseated for 1d4 rounds or something, and the caster might even word it so that other people can also trigger the gag reflex. (Since having it just be something the caster can do might encourage the curse-victim to 'remove the curse' by ramming something pointy through the curse-caster!) It needn't be a command word, either, but could be tied to some other action that the curse-caster performs (whenever I inflict wounds or channel negative energy on you) or the curse-victim performs (whenever you try to use your Rage or Ki powers or cast a spell of this or that sort, or, the old standby, whenever you try to tell anyone what you saw me do to those dirty peasants down by the old watering-hole, you'll begin choking and suffocating!).

Bayar
2009-05-23, 03:40 AM
There was a creative use on one of the CO boards (forgot which one) that used Bestow Curse to give a positive effect.

Something that involved an Ubercharger, -6 to AC that resulted in double that ammount to go into damage. Think it used Shock Trooper or something.

Talic
2009-05-23, 04:32 AM
"May your rage blind you!" - All attack rolls are made as if the target has concealment.

Also... - All healing effects you cast are delayed 1d4-1 rounds.

When raging, gain the penalties of a Frenzied Berserker, without the benefits.

20% spell failure chance. All the time.

Your bardic music affects foes and allies alike, equally. (an effect that normally provides a bonus to allies only also gives it to enemies, and an effect that normally penalizes enemies also does so to allies).

Mystic Muse
2009-05-23, 06:47 AM
when you equip this blade your maximum weight carry is automatically filled. equipping another item and de equipping this item won't prevent this from affecting you. dropping it or selling it just makes it worse because then the DM rules the item is gone forever and you can never ever get it back and never ever carry so much as another copper piece again.

Vorpal Soda
2009-05-23, 07:25 AM
Must end all sentances with "Bitch!"

Likely to cause problems with diplomacy.

Examples:

"We need the help of your armies if our kingdoms are to survive, Bitch!"
"I need healing, Bitch!"
"I love you, Bitch!"
"Please don't eat me, Bitch!"
"Lolth, I call upon your power to crush my enemies, Bitch!"

Likely to prove fatal rather quickly...

TheCountAlucard
2009-05-23, 07:45 AM
Good one, Vorpal!

Yehomer
2009-05-23, 08:07 AM
Who can forget the "Must speak in one word exclamations" curse from SOD :D

Bayar
2009-05-23, 08:38 AM
Who can forget the "Must speak in one word exclamations" curse from SOD :D

What ? :confused:

Shinizak
2009-05-23, 10:59 AM
HOW?:smalleek:

Ravens_cry
2009-05-23, 11:10 AM
NOOooooooooooooo

Zeta Kai
2009-05-23, 11:19 AM
The Build Team is working on a number of creative curses for the VUACS project. Many of them will prove even nastier than some here. A few examples:

Thunder Lure: your target becomes a magnet for lightning bolts
Touch of Flames: everything that the target touches with their hands takes 1d6 points of fire damage; this damage ignores Damage Reduction & Energy Resistance
Voice of Ruin: your target’s voice becomes a deadly weapon; their smallest whisper unleashes a cone of sonic damage

Kroy
2009-05-23, 07:08 PM
What ? :confused:

Start of Darkness, page 50.

Badgercloak
2009-05-23, 07:43 PM
Uncotrolable massively loud flatulence. Enough said. :smallbiggrin:

TheCountAlucard
2009-05-23, 08:06 PM
Rickroll them.

Repeatedly.

chiasaur11
2009-05-23, 08:18 PM
The Build Team is working on a number of creative curses for the VUACS project. Many of them will prove even nastier than some here. A few examples:

Touch of Flames: everything that the target touches with their hands takes 1d6 points of fire damage; this damage ignores Damage Reduction & Energy Resistance
Voice of Ruin: your target’s voice becomes a deadly weapon; their smallest whisper unleashes a cone of sonic damage


Been reading Fantastic Four lately?

Hmn. Maybe a curse giving irrational fear of ordinary objects?

"That Spatula... it's staring at me."

Logalmier
2009-05-23, 08:27 PM
From now on you can only eat extremely salty pickles. With chocolate and honey on them.

Set
2009-05-23, 11:49 PM
The Build Team is working on a number of creative curses for the VUACS project. Many of them will prove even nastier than some here. A few examples:

Thunder Lure: your target becomes a magnet for lightning bolts
Touch of Flames: everything that the target touches with their hands takes 1d6 points of fire damage; this damage ignores Damage Reduction & Energy Resistance
Voice of Ruin: your target’s voice becomes a deadly weapon; their smallest whisper unleashes a cone of sonic damage


Thunder Lure is a decent one, but the other two are free super-powers!

A cursy-er version of Touch of Flames would cause the curse victim to ignite anything that he touches with his hands *that he owns.* It's useless against other people's stuff. Or, perhaps he's cursed that the touch of other people burns him like acid, meaning that anyone who attacks him in unarmed combat has the Acidic Weapon property for free! (Monsters are not affected, only the touch of humanoids works. It would be a little *too good* of a curse if it caused the curse-victim to take +3d6 acid damage from a troll's claw/claw/bite routine...)

Similarly, a reversed version of Voice of Ruin would cause the character to take extra damage from any sonic effect, and 1d6 sonic damage from normally non-damaging sonic effects (such as a thunderstone detonation or the roar of a dragonne or the bay of a yeth hound). Normal sounds would be excessively loud to the character, and he would have a -4 to Listen checks, as background sounds (such as his own thunderous heartbeat, reverberating through his skull) would make it hard for him to focus and pick out specific sounds.

It's important, IMO, to make sure that none of the 'curses' turn out to be like a Midas Curse and grant super-powers to the curse victim. (Player response to the Midas Curse. "Woo-hoo! Free gold! Don't remove this curse, yet!") A Monk with Touch of Flames would be rocking, so long as he took special care to not handle things. A Fighter with Voice of Ruin would be able to function just fine (no spellcasting), and save his 'voice of ruin' as a secret weapon, while a spellcaster would just have to pay extra attention to his party members position when he casts spells, since each Verbal casting comes with a 'free' sonic cone attack.

In the vein of Thunder Lure, someone could be an Arrow Catcher. Any ranged missile attack that fails to hit them has a 50% chance of just automatically hitting them anyway, like Total Concealment in reverse! Someone could also be a Magic Missile Magnet, and any Magic Missile targetted at *anyone* within 30 ft. of the curse victim veers off course and hits the curse-victim instead.

Cursing someone to be Thin-Blooded could cause them to suffer 1 hit point of bleeding damage per round after suffering any Piercing or Slashing damage (bleeding will continue until they have suffered damage equal to the original blow, so a 12 pt. sword hit will bleed for 12 rounds, while a 1 hp housecat claw attack will only bleed for 1 round). Bleeding can be stopped by a full-round action Heal check (DC 10) or any magical curing.

Cursing someone to always 'Catch on Fire' when struck by a fire (or lightning) attack could also be an option, or cursing them to always suffer from Daylight Sensitivity like a Kobold or Dark Elf (particularly cruel in a desert campaign). Cursing someone to require twice as much water and 25% extra rations of food could be similarly brutal in an Al-Qadim type environment, and various other curses could be tailored to the local environment, such as cursing an aquatic creature to suffer much more extreme effects if it tries to leave the water, or cursing someone to have a -4 to Fortitude checks to avoid the effects of enviromental cold and suffer +1 hp / die from Cold damage in an arctic / Frostburn campaign.

Cursing someone to only be able to get sate their hunger by eating bugs or quench their thirst by drinking the blood of animals is just plain mean. :)

More role-playing sorts of curses might curse a gourmand to taste all food as ashes and all wines as stagnant water, or curse a 'sexual adventurer' with impotence, or cause a sensualist to experience pleasure as pain and pain as pleasure (same mechanical effects, a Symbol of Pain would still penalize or incapacitate the victim, but he'd be writhing in ecstasy instead of agony...). A greedy man who hoards gold might be cursed that gold turns to copper in his possession, and only turns back into gold an hour after he gives it away. A wrathful barbarian might be cursed to suffer from uncontrollable rage, so that he has to make a Will save during social encounters when subjected to bluff or intimidate or failed diplomacy rolls or expend one of his daily uses of barbarian rage and attack the offending person (minimum 1 round, can save again each remaining round of the rage to end it prematurely!), while also having to make a Will save to activate his barbarian rage when he wishes to use it in combat! A power-mad spellcaster might find himself saddled with a permanant 20% arcane spell failure chance, or prone to forgetting spells (Will save each time he wishes to cast a spell, with a higher DC for higher level spells. If he fails, he only then realizes that he's forgotten it!).

The spell is wide open for the creative player, and it only costs 150 gp to get a 5th level Cleric to cast it as a spellcasting service. (Getting the NPC Cleric in a position to touch the intended target without any risk to himself will be an issue, but not an insurmountable one to a clever PC who isn't above drugging his court rival / annoying sibling / inconvenient ex-girlfriend and sneaking the Cleric in to curse them while they are sleeping it off! Convincing the local clergy that the individual has done something appropriately blasphemous and *deserves* to be cursed could also be an issue, when dealing with lawful and / or good-aligned clergy, but that's what Diplomacy and / or Bluff is for...)