How should I resolve this cursed item?

[Typewriter]

So, I've been DMing for about 11 years now and I've never used that many cursed items. Just something I rarely brought up, and most of the time I did it was something straight-forward and/or directly from the book.

But in my current campaign I introduced a cursed item - a mask that has both good and evil qualities that burns itself on the wearers face. If you do good things the good powers get stronger and the darkness fades, vice-versa for evil. The lore behind the mask is that it is the result of a union between an angel and a demon and it is relying on the guidance of the player on how to develop. The player was originally trying not to engage the mask at all but has started to enjoy the evil powers it provides.

As the mask gets more powerful it was supposed to 'grow' and attaches itself to the players armor. My original idea was that eventually the curse would be 'broken' and become either a set of demon armor or some sort of angelic equivalent. But the armor that the player is wearing was, at one point, an animated set of armor. When he first started wearing it I told him that it would twitch or move occasionally, but this was just something stylish - there was no mechanical effect.

By pure happenstance the player with that armor got this mask, and as the mask is starting to grow I'm thinking that, because of the suits properties, it would make more sense for the mask and the armor to fuse into a being and run off - possibly by stealing some of the players life essence along the way to fuel itself. If the player ever hunts down and defeats the demon/mask/armor thing he would get back his life essence, and the armor.

But I don't know how exactly to do this. Should the life essence be -2 CON, should it be negative toughness (-2 HP per level), should it be something else? I don't want to completely screw over the player, but on the other hand cursed items should be a big deal, especially since I use them so rarely. Should the mask run off to somewhere nearby or should it be something that is gone, but maybe the party will hear about it in the future and they can pursue it then? Or maybe I should just keep the thing the way I'd originally planned - just becoming a set of armor and that being the end of it.

[TeaBeforeWar]

If you make the effect temporary, but hard to remove, you could cause the damage without permanently gimping the character, so that might work as a compromise. For instance, deal the -2 to CON, but have it restore over time, only curable by Wish or similar, or have them go on some form of quest to restore it, such as destroying the armor.

[ImSAMazing]

Well,

a creature only needs 1 CON to live, so why doesn't the armor steal 1 CON? It should be enough for the armor/devil/living being and it won't be such a penalty for a player if he has a oneven score in CON...

[Shining Wrath]

He loses the ability to gain XP until he regains his life essence.

The newly animated armor and mask, being evil, do terrible things and give his name when asked to identify themselves, since in a sense they are he.

Somewhat like the one ST:TOS episode with two Kirks, your PC has lost his evil side and has an alignment change to [CNL] Very Good, retaining [CNL] from his old alignment.

[mr_odd]

The idea is great. Make it a whole quest arc. Just be careful to not screw your player over too badly. The no new xp until he regains the armor back is a good idea, or you could start him with one level of exhaustion every day. As time goes on, his starting exhaustion could get worse, spurring the need to reunite him with his demon armor. I think you should allow the player to gain back the armor and mask as a full set of demon armor, but if he wants them back instead of simply destroying it, you could have a contest of who is in control or an alignment shift.

[Typewriter]

Well,

a creature only needs 1 CON to live, so why doesn't the armor steal 1 CON? It should be enough for the armor/devil/living being and it won't be such a penalty for a player if he has a oneven score in CON...


He loses the ability to gain XP until he regains his life essence.

The newly animated armor and mask, being evil, do terrible things and give his name when asked to identify themselves, since in a sense they are he.

Somewhat like the one ST:TOS episode with two Kirks, your PC has lost his evil side and has an alignment change to [CNL] Very Good, retaining [CNL] from his old alignment.


The idea is great. Make it a whole quest arc. Just be careful to not screw your player over too badly. The no new xp until he regains the armor back is a good idea, or you could start him with one level of exhaustion every day. As time goes on, his starting exhaustion could get worse, spurring the need to reunite him with his demon armor. I think you should allow the player to gain back the armor and mask as a full set of demon armor, but if he wants them back instead of simply destroying it, you could have a contest of who is in control or an alignment shift.

I may do a mix of these three things. One CON for a life force, exhaustion at the beginning of the day, and something with XP - but not a completely limiting factor. I want this to be something that doesn't have to take over the campaign with its urgency, and a player losing all XP would definitely suck quite a bit more than I'd prefer. Maybe every level 10% of his XP goes 'away' but he'll get it all back if he ever defeats the demon.

[Ninja_Prawn]

I may do a mix of these three things. One CON for a life force, exhaustion at the beginning of the day, and something with XP - but not a completely limiting factor. I want this to be something that doesn't have to take over the campaign with its urgency, and a player losing all XP would definitely suck quite a bit more than I'd prefer. Maybe every level 10% of his XP goes 'away' but he'll get it all back if he ever defeats the demon.

This sounds like a fabulous idea, but it's quite a stiff penalty for the player...

I would consider offsetting it with a boon - something like "you are fueled by a righteous drive to defeat this evil you have unleashed on the world" and let them have some kind of boost. I don't know what exactly, but some kind of bonus to activate a few times per session, that goes away when they defeat the demon.

[TeaBeforeWar]

This sounds like a fabulous idea, but it's quite a stiff penalty for the player...

I would consider offsetting it with a boon - something like "you are fueled by a righteous drive to defeat this evil you have unleashed on the world" and let them have some kind of boost. I don't know what exactly, but some kind of bonus to activate a few times per session, that goes away when they defeat the demon.

Yeah, it's pretty painful for the player. Another option if you want to go that route is to have two separate afflictions. One seriously hurts the player - maybe the no XP - and the other's still painful, but less so. The less painful one can't be removed until the armor is destroyed, but the former is easier to fix, maybe by finding an expert on the armor who knows how to remove the curse. So they're pushed into doing the quest, but you can drag the quest out longer without having one of the players miss out.

[Slipperychicken]

It becomes a sentient suit of armor which drinks the PC's blood (hit points) in exchange for power*. The tradeoff is necessary because the suit needs its hosts blood to be active, and falls dormant if it goes too long without blood.

*perhaps an enhanced version of whatever properties it had before, or it could give an enhance ability effect in exchange for blood?

[Elbeyon]

Did the group know it was a cursed mask?

[Ninja_Prawn]

It becomes a sentient suit of armor which drinks the PC's blood (hit points) in exchange for power

Like Senketsu from Kill La Kill?

[Slipperychicken]

Like Senketsu from Kill La Kill?

Yes. Precisely. I didn't want to name him exactly because I only watched a few episodes so far, so I wasn't sure if he (it?) changed somehow later in the series.

[ChubbyRain]

Disadvantage on hit dice healing until the life force is back. Long rests restore half the number of HP they normally do.

This way the player is cursed in a way that will come up a lot but not in a way that may make the player mad.

Taking away xp and ability scores is outdated, find a new way to screw with your players. :smallwink:

[Lolzyking]

Or you could make the player slowly transform into a revenant, unless he get the armor back within a year, and give him the bonuses that being a revenant entails,

Stage 1 armor escapes
Stage 2 Gains dark vision
Stage 3 gains Revenant immunities
Stage 4 You ping as undead
Stage 5 you gain the Revenants ability to track down your wrong doer (the armor)
Stage 6 Regeneration
Stage 7 Its permanent, and when you slay the armor, you die, atleast your vengeance is satisfied

[Madeiner]

Instead of removing something from the character, how about adding some roleplaying opportunities?

The armor departs and steals some of the life essence of the character -- good.
Now, the character is somehow still connected to his old life essence.
He gets to experience some facets of the armor as it "lives".
Maybe he experiences visions, or dreams, or memories that are not his, but of the armor's/magic item's.

Some of those experiences might be of the item's past -- allowing the character insight into what is happening, or into things that happened very long ago -- but might still be relevant.

Some of those are happening right now, as the now sentient armor does things. This is an excuse for penalties.
Say, the character has a vision of the armor falling into acid, and he himself takes some acid damage.
Or the sentient armor enters combat and the character can catch a glimpse of it taking a heavy blow from a mace, and the character itself falls prone (maybe during combat, aswell)
Maybe he can experience visions that can help the party -- say, the armor is sneaking somewhere and the character now knows there's a secret entrance to somewhere he needs to go.

All of these things also provide clues to the armor's location, and can help the character to track and recover it.

If it was me, that's how i would run it.
Except, when the PC finally finds the armor and can take it back, he should discover that it has become a creature, a full living creature that wants to live on, not just be brought back to be a magic item.
It could become an ally, or an enemy. Or maybe it reveals it has a great fate in front of it, and that the party must do something, like a quest, where the armor eventually has the option of performing a great evil or a great good deed, impacting something very significant.
The armor will be influenced by the player -- if he chooses the good path, the armor decides to immolate itself as a sacrifice to prevent the great evil from happening. If he chooses the evil path, the armor either joins him giving some evil power (you decide consequences...) or becomes an enemy villain.

Even better: if the player chooses the good path, have the armor choose the evil one and fight the PC. As the armor is defeated, it tries to reedem itself just before its sad death.