Cursed Masquerade Mask: Any suggestions?

[MonkeySage]

I'm wanting to throw in a cursed masquerade mask, but i'm hoping I can get some suggestions for a unique curse. I looked up suggestions on the srd, but I don't know if any of them really fit.

[Thurbane]

Maybe have the mask betray the character's emotions by having it change with his moods. Hefty penalty to Bluff checks, or maybe even acting as a Medallion of Thought Projection (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/cursedItems.htm#medallionofThoughtProjection).

[CombatOwl]

I'm wanting to throw in a cursed masquerade mask, but i'm hoping I can get some suggestions for a unique curse. I looked up suggestions on the srd, but I don't know if any of them really fit.

The best sort of unique curses are curses derived from fulfilling a (badly worded) purpose too well. So the point in a masquerade mask is to hide the wearer? Make it something related to identity or playful deception.

[Crake]

I'm wanting to throw in a cursed masquerade mask, but i'm hoping I can get some suggestions for a unique curse. I looked up suggestions on the srd, but I don't know if any of them really fit.

depending on how far you want to take the curse, since masquerade masks were meant to conceal someone's identity, perhaps have the mask strike someone from the memories of everyone who ever knew him ala the cowl of nocturnal from oblivion? It would act similar to vecna blooded i'd assume, and maybe on the plus side make the wearer immune to divinations as well, so it's not such a horrible item.

While some might like such a curse, others might not be so interested, so depending on your players, it could be interesting.

Oh also, same as the cowl of nocturnal, if you arent wearing it, people aren't able to remember you once you leave, so if you want to be able to communicate with people, you always need to be wearing the mask, as it is the only way to maintain an identity.... Although thinking now, such a thing might be abusable, you could commit crimes and the like, and people wouldnt be able to remember you.

[Prime32]

The best sort of unique curses are curses derived from fulfilling a (badly worded) purpose too well. So the point in a masquerade mask is to hide the wearer? Make it something related to identity or playful deception.The wearer becomes convinced that they are <insert colorful name and personality here>, and refuses to remove the mask.

The mask fuses with the wearer's face and disappears, permanently changing their appearance (possibly including race or gender). For plot potential they now look like a specific person, living or dead.

The wearer's perception of others' appearance, voice and mannerisms is altered (often in strange or monstrous ways), making it impossible to recognise people he's already met.

[CyberThread]

may I suggest the belt of genderswap?

[Segev]

Gilded Royal Masque of the Locked Heart

Legend has it that this Masquerade Masque of striking beauty and extravagant design will make its wearer the greatest sensation at any ball...and it's true. What is not realized is that this Masque of a great hero is so reknowned because it gives unearned repute to its wearer. Every deed and achievement, every glory and horror, ever done or earned by any who have ever worn it become rewritten in history and the minds of all as if the wearer had performed them. He recalls them as his own, and the tales of those grand events stand in his name - whatever name by which he calls himself while wearing the Masque.

However, the Masque has a price: in return for loaning this ever-growing reputation to its wearer, it claims from him, too, all his rightful accomplishments, and takes them for itself and its future bearers. When the Gilded Royal Masque of the Locked Heart is removed, its wearer has only simple recollection of the deeds the Masque contains. He temporarily recalls what he claimed to have done, but only as if having heard the tale. He knows it was all really done by prior owners of the Masque. He has never done anything of note on his own. (And if he had, that has now been stolen by the Masque.) The lucky ones might recall their own names.

The only deeds or accomplishments former wearers of the Masque recall performing, themselves, are those performed while wearing it. And even then, it is as if the Masque itself had enabled it. The sense of achievement, of import, is attributable to the Masque's influence. After all; they'd never done anything without wearing it, right?

[MonkeySage]

Based on the ideas that you guys have presented me with, and with a little inspiration from Psychonauts(why I haven't played this game till now is beyond me), I have come up with a rough idea of what I want the curse to be. :)

This mask is cursed so that the wearer takes on the identity of the previous owner(in this case, the cruel baron Theodor von Richter, a blind human aristocrat who had his enemies' eyes gouged out prior to execution). The wearer stays physically the same, but loses his/her spells/songs/etc and takes a charisma penalty(they genuinely believe they are Theodor, so others just think they are insane).

Assuming the identity of Theodor takes time, and at first the only changes are behavioral(cumulative behavior changes). After a few days(perhaps based on whether or not they fail a will save?) they are completely transformed. The character's alignment changes to that of theodor(LE) if it wasn't already.

I wonder what backstory i might write for the mask itself... how it came to be cursed, etc.

[Slipperychicken]

You could have it transform (and meld into) the wearer's face into the (usually bestial) form which the mask takes. For example, if it's a pig mask, then the wearer now has a pig snout and a Charisma penalty. If the curse isn't removed, it steadily transforms the rest of the character, turning hands into hooves, turning attempts at speech into squeals, adding a short curly tail, and so on. This continues until the wearer totally becomes that creature, at which point the wearer's mind is transformed too, and he believes he always was that creature.