What is a magical curse?

[Stabbald]

Raise Dead says that it doesn't cure magical curses or diseases, but I can't seem to find the definition for a magical curse. Can anyone help me out with that?

More specifically does a Sea Hag's gaze attack count as a magical curse?

[Humble Master]

Well Bestow Curse would count. Anything else is probably DM ruling.

[Asrrin]

Mummy rot is explicitly called out as a magical curse.

[CaladanMoonblad]

There is a great section on Curses in the Sword & Sorcery imprint of "Ravenloft" that talks about this very thing. Some of the highlights include;

1) The curse should fit the crime. A mob has staked a suspected witch and is in the process of burning him/her. The suspected witch curses the locals by promising to claim every firstborn child for the next 49 births among those in the community before being reborn to haunt them for real. This curse sure beats jock itch, or crabs.

Also, cursed items would still be doing their thing. Dying and using Raise Dead is no substitute for Remove Curse.

[Stabbald]

So there isn't a good definition? I guess I'll have to rule it as anything that specifically either says the word curse, or anything that is cured by the Remove Curse spell.

[Psyren]

Many curses from monsters are supernatural, therefore making them magical. So if you raise a werewolf from the dead he'll still be a werewolf, and the same with an Aboleth's slave.

[tyckspoon]

Any curse that does anything is magical, pretty much by definition. A non-magical curse is just somebody saying nasty things to you. IOW.. you're over-thinking it. 'Magical Curse' is just redundant phrasing, and all they mean is that Raise Dead won't remove curses. That's what Remove Curse and Break Enchantment are for.

[Psyren]

A non-magical curse is just somebody saying nasty things to you.

@!$#^**@$!!$! :smallbiggrin:

Note though that there is at least one explicitly non-magical curse in core (i.e. the Clay Golem's damage ability.) This is true for both 3.5 and PF.

[Stabbald]

Any curse that does anything is magical, pretty much by definition. A non-magical curse is just somebody saying nasty things to you. IOW.. you're over-thinking it. 'Magical Curse' is just redundant phrasing, and all they mean is that Raise Dead won't remove curses. That's what Remove Curse and Break Enchantment are for.


Not sure why I said magical curse, you're right, it's fairly redundant. I still can't find a clear definition for a curse though...

[Psyren]

Not sure why I said magical curse, you're right, it's fairly redundant. I still can't find a clear definition for a curse though...

A curse, like a poison or disease, is just something that says it is one.

[Fax Celestis]

What Psyren said. For the most part, curses are either permanent effects or have specific conditions for their removal. While not explicitly called out as such, I tend to treat these core spells as "curses":

antipathy, baleful polymorph, bestow curse, binding, blindness/deafness, contagion, forbiddance, magic jar, mark of justice, modify memory, polymorph any object, power word X, sequester, snare, soul bind, symbol of X, temporal stasis, trap the soul.

[Stabbald]

What Psyren said. For the most part, curses are either permanent effects or have specific conditions for their removal. While not explicitly called out as such, I tend to treat these core spells as "curses":

antipathy, baleful polymorph, bestow curse, binding, blindness/deafness, contagion, forbiddance, magic jar, mark of justice, modify memory, polymorph any object, power word X, sequester, snare, soul bind, symbol of X, temporal stasis, trap the soul.

Would you consider a Sea Hag's evil eye to be a curse? I'm personally thinking it is currently because while it's not normally permanent, one of the two removal spells is Remove Curse.

[Fax Celestis]

Definitely.

[Psyren]

Would you consider a Sea Hag's evil eye to be a curse? I'm personally thinking it is currently because while it's not normally permanent, one of the two removal spells is Remove Curse.

What Fax said, but I'd like to add...

Three days of daze on a failed save?? What the actual french were they thinking?

The PF version is a lot saner, and is incidentally more explicitly a curse there.

[Stabbald]

What Fax said, but I'd like to add...

Three days of daze on a failed save?? What the actual french were they thinking?

The PF version is a lot saner, and is incidentally more explicitly a curse there.

Yeah the Sea Hag has some nasty effects, but the DC's aren't all that high and other than the two supernatural abilities they have, they don't have a lot going for them. I don't think it's that bad.