Price of a "cursed" item

[Thuphinlok]

So my DM instituted a new loot system where we win our fight and then pick a card from the appropriate pile (small, medium, large). The small and medium piles are things like +1 weapons, or potions and gems. The large pile is a nicer item (last night I picked up an amulet othe planes), but it carries a catch. In order to draw from the 'large' pile you must also take a 'chance' card. Chance can range anywhere from a leather boot (just one, and non magical), to a gender swap(my brothers Githzerai won that lottery), or any number of random effects/item, I picked up a +1 dagger, which is the reason for the post. My character is a druid with a penchant for avoiding combat when it is possible (he likes to keep everything neutral), and so te weapon is not much use to me. If it were a standard +1 dagger I would be peachy and just sell or barter it off, but it came from the chance pile and so it had a catch, namely, 'the dagger must draw blood if it is drawn'. In combat or out of combat, if the bloody thing come out if the sheath. . . well. . . bloody. . . My question is, what would you do with this 'enchantment/curse'? Would it add to the value or detract? How would I price it out, or pitch the sale to a potential buyer? (Character really should avoid lying, he has done very poorly with bluff checks so far). What say the almighty playgrounders?

[OldTrees1]

Restrictions (like needing to draw blood before being sheathed) would lower the resale value (although I am not sure I would allow players to seek such discounted items from merchants). How much depends on the cost to work around the restriction.

In this case it costs a mere 1hp or something similar to sheathe the dagger so it would not reduce the resale value by much. Maybe 5% just to have an easy to calculate value.

As for how to RP the resale: Do you know why it has the restriction? If not then give its restriction a purpose. Is it a hungry blade or is it a reminder that the most important lesson about power is when not to use it*? If you roll well enough/speak convincing enough you might make it more valuable in the eyes of the buyer.

*Ever see a character fight with their blade still in its sheathe because the fight did not call for removing the sheathe?

[ZamielVanWeber]

A weapon that must draw blood upon being drawn may be of interest of evil persons. Cursed items in general may be of interest to evil persons come to think of it, so you may not suffer a price reduction in that case.

[Telonius]

I suppose an Artificer with Retain Essence might be willing to pay slightly more than the average buyer - they can scavenge the XP used in creating the item.

[Thuphinlok]

Just as a point of interest, I am not entirely sure the item is technically cursed, in the RAW of it all. I think this is more a situation of a weapon with a slight quirk. I agree that it should normally warrant a reduction if sale price, because who wants to buy a tv with the stipulation that you have to watch ESPN for 30mins every day. My DM is usually pretty open to us fluffing things out when they are vague like this, so should I go all out and make this a pseudo legendary blade and make a whole backstory for it? My character in this game did just defeat a lich (my druid/runecaster (12) and a warmage (12), which I feel is pretty badass!) and crushed it's phylactery, so I kind of want to make this akin to the lich's final attack on me (I did also get Gaes'd to find and kill the thief who had stolen the phylactery in the first place too, so this knife may have been an extra insurance policy or something? Thoughts?

[Flickerdart]

What does "it must draw blood" actually mean though? It could range from "this dagger won't fit into any sheath unless it's bloodied" to "you can't let go of the dagger until it's bloodied."

[torrasque666]

And even then, who says it has to be an opponent's blood? "Oh, combat's over? I guess I'll just knick myself with this dagger then. 5 damage? meh."

[Telonius]

If the curse is particularly literal-minded, you could even carry around a can of paint...

[Thuphinlok]

Telonius, you are brilliant! Now I just have to find out if I need to draw a picture of blood (ala a pool of red goop) or draw the word 'blood'!

[Flickerdart]

Telonius, you are brilliant! Now I just have to find out if I need to draw a picture of blood (ala a pool of red goop) or draw the word 'blood'!
Carry around a deck of cards; each card should be blank except for the word "blood" written on it.

[OldTrees1]

Telonius, you are brilliant! Now I just have to find out if I need to draw a picture of blood (ala a pool of red goop) or draw the word 'blood'!


Carry around a deck of cards; each card should be blank except for the word "blood" written on it.

All that effort just to avoid pricking your finger? You crazy.

[Flickerdart]

All that effort just to avoid pricking your finger? You crazy.
Infection is a serious concern in the Middle Ages! I don't want to have to pay for a remove disease just because I got hepatitis from pricking myself with the same dagger I used to do in that succubus.

[Cicciograna]

On a completely unrelated note, would it be possible to obtain the cards used by your DM?

[elonin]

I'm curious what the penalty for trying to sheathe it without drawing blood is. Seems it is less a cursed item and more like an intelligent (evil) item to me. Have you asked your DM what happens if you use it to fight an enemy that doesn't bleed? Also, if you run into problems you could just use it to cut the already dead, as at that point it has "tasted" blood.

[Jormengand]

Check out the penultimate bullet point here (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/cursedItems.htm#requirement) if you think it's not cursed. Cursed items, apart from named ones, have the same price as their normal counterparts so it has the same price as any other dagger of the same type.

[Thuphinlok]

Cicciograna - I probably could, but all that is on the card is "+1 dagger, must draw blood if it is unsheathed"

Elonin - I'm not sure what would happen, though I will probably find out when I have my swordsage cohort try to ID it. The knowledge of the items are all OOC just for the sake of the DM remembering what he gave us, that way he doesn't have to worry about remembering each item while we find time during the war to prepare and cast spells.

The end of the fight was the end of the night, so we got our loot with little explanation IG as to what we can discern. There are several weapons that my cohort can ID as well as a set or two of armor. And then there are things like the Amulet of the planes that we will have to find time for.

[Jack_Simth]

Way I've always viewed it as a DM:
The majority of curses are put in as security measures (the rest being schmuck bait) and so do not decrease the construction costs at all.

They do, however, hurt the resale value. Not because the merchant won't sell it for full price, but because it's going to stick around in the stockroom for a very long time until the merchant finds someone for whom the curse is meaningless or even useful.

Suppose, for instance, a Cleric of Pelor is outfitting acrolytes to stop an orcish invasion. It may very well behoove the Cleric to make the weapons include "must worship Pelor" on their restriction list (standard curse option, even). That way, if one does fall into orcish hands, it's a loss, but it doesn't help the enemy any.

Suppose, for instance, a king wants his Queen to be better protected... but doesn't quite trust her not to hand off her lesser enchanted jewelry to a suitor. So he commissions a Ring of Protection for her ... and quietly has the enchanter add "turns the wearer female" into the mix. His queen won't notice (doesn't impact her at all; she's already female)... unless she gives it up.

Suppose, for instance, a Noble is worried about a spy in the ranks "Character must swear fealty to a particular noble or to his entire family" (again standard list) makes perfect sense for any equipment he commissions for his bodyguards.

And so on. Most curses are useful to the right person under the right circumstances.

[Saintheart]

Isn't there some weapon quality out there that actually makes a weapon continually bleed, or am I getting it mixed up with Baldur's Gate 2 or something...?

Also:


Infection is a serious concern in the Middle Ages! I don't want to have to pay for a remove disease just because I got hepatitis from pricking myself with the same dagger I used to do in that succubus.

Now that is just defamatory to succubi. They virtually all use protection*



*from good