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Chernobyl
2014-06-07, 01:23 AM
Hi there.

I'm interested in throwing a cursed item into a Pathfinder campaign I'm running, and I need some advice. The goal is to appear to be one of the standard magic items, yet impose a penalty to all of the user's Reflex Saves.

Perhaps something like this:

Bracers of Hesitation
Aura strong conjuration; CL 16th

Slot arms; Weight 1 lb.

Description

These items appear to be wrist or arm guards. They surround the wearer with an invisible but tangible field of force, granting him an armor bonus of +5, just as though he were wearing armor. Both bracers must be worn for the magic to be effective.

However, wearing the bracers activates the curse, which is twofold. First, the wearer will hesitate indecisively at crucial moments, imposing a -5 penalty to all Reflex Saves as long as the bracers are worn. Second, the wearer is completely convinced that these are Bracers of Armor +5, and will not remove or part with them under any circumstances. Only a remove curse spell will break the curse.

Creation
Magic Items bracers of armor +5

Thoughts? Is -5 too much, or could I go higher? Is this reasonable? Will it work?

Thanks,
Chernobyl

BWR
2014-06-07, 01:58 AM
Cursed items aren't really bound by the rules in the same way other items are. The most important thing to remember is that they should not auto-kill the PC and they should not remove it from the player's control (ignoring those who complain that things like Helm of Opposite Alignment etc. are removing from control).
Apart from that, do whatever you feel like. A -5 to the weakest ST is hardly a major problem, imo. You could probably go higher, but how much do you really need to? Personally, I'd probably cap any ST penalty at -10 unless we are talking epic or artifact level curses.

Erik Vale
2014-06-07, 03:34 AM
I'd say make it a deflection bonus from the description, and the description could also extend to a initiative penalty, make them both smaller and that way the curse is major still but it shouldn't be too lethal if that's your fear.

Edit: For Creation, you need to add in Bestow Curse.

Spore
2014-06-07, 04:03 AM
While your item is creative I find it gives an advantage too large. It's free armor bracers giving a character an edge who will most likely fail Reflex saves anyway. If your players are smart they will break the curse and equip those onto the party's wizard. It's not that important if he goes from Reflex +4 to -1 imho.

I would impose a flat -3 penalty on all Dex based rolls (including AC, skills, reflex, init and possibly attacks).

Chernobyl
2014-06-07, 10:33 AM
I'd say make it a deflection bonus from the description, and the description could also extend to a initiative penalty, make them both smaller and that way the curse is major still but it shouldn't be too lethal if that's your fear.

Well, I probably should've mentioned this in my earlier post, but there's a reason that I'm penalizing the Reflex Save. One of my players is sort of a treasure-grabber, and I want to teach him a little lesson. So I'm sending the party off to a trap-laden dungeon where they'll need to use their brains instead of their fighting skills. I know he'll call dibs on these bracers, and since most of the traps in the dungeon allow a Reflex Save to halve the damage, his greediness will cost him a lot of hit points. I'm also giving another player a Staff of Life to ensure that he lives through the experience. Hopefully he'll get the message and not be such a dweeb in the future.

It sounds like I can up the penalty to -10 and reduce the AC bonus to +4, and it'll still be okay, right?

One other thing: how do you destroy cursed items in Pathfinder? I just want to be ready if the other players try to swipe the bracers and toss them in the campfire or something.

Thanks for all the advice!

Regards,
Chernobyl

Angelalex242
2014-06-07, 01:53 PM
Cursed items can be sundered just like any other magic item.

So you might want to beware of, say, the fighter just swinging his sword hard at the cursed item, declaring a sunder attempt.

To prevent this, you might make the bracers of adamant, so their hardness can't be breached like that.

ReaderAt2046
2014-06-07, 03:49 PM
Cursed items can be sundered just like any other magic item.

So you might want to beware of, say, the fighter just swinging his sword hard at the cursed item, declaring a sunder attempt.

To prevent this, you might make the bracers of adamant, so their hardness can't be breached like that.

Or just rule that if he successfully sunders the things while the victim is wearing them, he also sunders the victim's arms.

Jay R
2014-06-08, 11:59 AM
My experience is that players get far more annoyed at homebrew rules that work against them than by written rules that work against them. So all custom items I create are positive ones. Curses are always items I can point to in the books.

CombatOwl
2014-06-08, 03:52 PM
Cursed items can be sundered just like any other magic item.

So you might want to beware of, say, the fighter just swinging his sword hard at the cursed item, declaring a sunder attempt.

To prevent this, you might make the bracers of adamant, so their hardness can't be breached like that.

I've never known a DM to have the curse part fail when the item gains the broken condition.

imaloony
2014-06-08, 06:08 PM
Honestly, that doesn't seem too bad for a cursed item; you should try pushing up the negative effects some. Not enough that they'll notice, of course. One thing you could try is that if an enemy manages to match the PCs AC with their attack roll, their attack hit instead of being deflected and will deal extra damage. Call them the "Bracers of False Security"