Item curses

[weckar]

My players are about to arrive in a vault that contains about 600 years of royally confiscated magical items. To temper their greed, I want at least 40% of these items to be cursed in some way. To that end, I am compiling a list of random curses; split up into minor, medium and major curses that I can roll on as they acquire items. Now I am calling in the help of the playground to help me come up with interesting curses that are generally applicable (although curses specific to certain item types are certainly welcome).

[Cerefel]

I'd really only go through with this if your players have been warned that taking a lot of treasure could have negative consequences.

[weckar]

That's rather off-topic. The fact that these items were confiscated by the kingdom as potentially harmful to public safety should be enough of a warning.

[AMX]

I assume you've already gone through the list in the SRD?

[weckar]

I have. I'm looking for more exotic effects, basically. Stuff they would not have come across before.

[Calthropstu]

I like to uses standard curses.

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You know, the normal everyday ones people use.

[weckar]

... See, this was not a topic I'd ever have expected this much resistance on...

[Zakier]

A. Custom item in one of my DM's campaigns might give you some inspiration.

Berserker armor.

+5 enhancement bonus.

This ebony full plate is as light as mithril full plate and confers the benefits as if it where full plate made of mithril.


Curse* when equipped the armor bonds with the wearer permanently as such it does not confer the penalty of sleeping in armor and it's max Dex bonus is +4.

This armor when activated doubles the wearers base strength. (This effect applies before all other calculations) however each round the armor is active the wearer takes 1d10 points of damage that cannot be healed until the effect is deactivated.

The armor is a symbiotic creature that feed upon its wearers life force and substance. Literally tearing into wearers flesh while active.

As an intelligent creature the armor has a chance to activate any time the wearer takes damage. 35% chance to activate.


Other items are ones with hidden effects like an intelligent item that if the holder fails a will save against its ego the item takes over until the save is succeeded.

Maybe a sword that if it rolls a critical it cast chain lightning on the weilder and spreads to the allies.

Items that are all bad like bonding items that lower a score.

Boots that jingle when the wearer attempts to sneak

[FearlessGnome]

I came across one a while back, although it's a trap rather than a curse. A pair of opera binoculars, the shell made of mother of pearl. When you look into them there is an out of focus picture overlayed, resembing a naked (whatever race) woman, but she's out of focus. If you try to adjust the focus while looking through the binoculars, two metal spikes shoot out into your eyes. Reflex save or permanently blinded. Remove Blindness/Deafness is a third level spell, so don't spring this on a party that doesn't have access to the spell, even if just through an NPC back in the village. Forcing them to cut short the day's exploration on a failed save is fine, but leaving a party member blind for a significant amount of time isn't.

I gave it to a party as loot they found on the corpse of a Paladin of Slaughter. They didn't bother trying to use it (since I had it radiate Illusion magic, although you could get away with saying it's entirely mundane, I think.) until they found a scroll in a treasure chest and wanted to try standing far, far away when reading it, in case it was an explosive rune.

Then of course there's the good old -2 Longsword from the SRD. It's cursed, but if you know what you're getting yourself in for it can be an excellent weapon. Even if you're disarmed, just try to draw a backup dagger and it's back in your hand.

[ExLibrisMortis]

"Ring of infinite wishes. This item can only be used by a raging frenzied berserker"

...

Yeah.

How about a curse like the Fiend of Corruption (I think) uses, where you get a +2 bonus on days you use the item, but a -4 penalty if you don't continue the next day? Make sure it overrides the use of other items, for example by taking up an important body slot.

[Wombatant]

I came up with a few random curses and some random flavor items with my last campaign as DM.

One or two of my ideas came from taking funny characters from movies and turning their armor into 'cursed' items. some weren't so much 'cursed' as they were different, but maybe it will get some ideas flowing.

Fail Mail: (this one was based on Sir Robin from Monty Python, who had nearly fought the Dragon of Agnor, who had nearly stood up to the vicious chicken of Bristol, and who had personally wet himself at the battle of Baden Hill.)

This armor appears to be an extraordinary set of +4 Mithral Banded Mail offering +10 AC - if the armor is handled, inspected, or detect magic is cast on the armor, nothing appears odd about the armor at all. If true seeing is cast and the object is inspected, you understand the true nature of the armor. On top of the normal bonuses from being Mithral, the armor has an additional +1 to dex, an additional +1 to your skill checks, and 5% less arcane spell failure and appears to be extremely well made.

If the armor is donned, make a sense motive vs the armor's bluff check (+12 bluff), receiving a +10 bonus if you had previously cast true seeing and inspected the armor, or a +5 bonus if you had found out some other way that the armor is not as it appears (someone else wore it and told you, etc). You only have to make a passing check once in a lifetime, and may don the armor as normal after. Check can be remade every 24 hours, with a +3 bonus if the armor was worn in battle that day.

If you make the check, the curse of the Mail does not come into play. However, should you fail the check (no matter the bonus added), you become afraid to take off the armor, even if it fatigues you. You sleep in the armor and make the check every morning to see if you still believe the armor to be extraordinarily important to keeping you alive.

Once the check is made, you see the armor's true stats. You receive a +5 bonus to bluff checks and realize the armor only gives you 3 AC, although it does truly provide the extra dex, skill check bonus, and % less arcane spell failure.

True Stats (Treated as Medium Armor)
Speed: 30ft -> 20ft, 20ft -> 15ft
AC Bonus: 3
Maximum Dex Bonus: 3
Armor Check Penalty: -2
Arcane Spell Failure Chance: 20%
Bonus to Bluff: +5

Cursed table of teleporting
Any items placed on the table are subject to a planeshift spell 1d3 rounds later. Anyone still touching or holding the object (if you are resting on the table) is teleported with the object. DC20 Will save to resist teleporting. Unattended, non-magical objects get no save. Held objects (resting on table) get same save as person. If person fails save, both item and owner are teleported. Roll for 1d3 rounds each time you place a new item on the table, items teleport individually not all at the same time.

Cursed Coat Rack of Mending (this one was hilarious. At the time, we had a performing rogue in the party that had many costumes in his bag of holding. I put two coat racks out, both appeared to be Coat Racks of Mending, but one was cursed - The party ended up taking both of them. It wasn't until a year later that the curse came into place, since no one was using the second rack)

Appears to be a normal, 4 foot tall coat rack with 4 arms for holding 4 hangers. Any non magical items hung on the rack repairs itself after 2d4 hours. Re-roll the time for each item placed on the rack.

(The cursed one had this as well)
After any non magical item is repaired, it is cursed with a disintegrate spell. after 2d4 hours (rolled separately from the repair time) the clothes will simply disintegrate, whether they are being worn or not.

(Needless to say, right in the middle of a performance, the female rogue's costume simply disintegrated. She wasn't happy that her reputation in that area went south fast!)

Instead of just curses, you can think of things that can add flavor - it doesn't necessarily have to be overpowered or cursed.

[OldTrees1]

Thirsty:
Drains 1hp when grabbed/donned and an additional 1hp every hour thereafter.

Bloody:
Constantly drips drops of what looks like blood.

Heavy:
Unusually heavy. Your load increases from light to medium, or medium to heavy. If you were already at a heavy load you become over encumbered.

Buoyant:
This object is unusually buoyant in the air. If let go it will float upwards until 10,000 feet.
[Escalation] If the object is worn then the wearer has greater difficulty making contact with the ground. -5ft movement & -2 on all checks related to contact with the ground.

[Calthropstu]

Curses should be debilitating.

Curses in my world come about because someone wants something. Whether it is to keep an item in their tomb forevermore, or to cause harm to others, or just to annoy the living pants off someone.

My curses feature powerful items, silly items and harmful items.

Backbite: When in combat, you take 20% of all damage you deal.
Open defenses: creatures recieve +2 to hit you.
Deceptive blade: you can never score a critical (weapon only)
Sacrifice: A personal favorite of mine, +4 to one stat, -2 to 2 others.
Blurred vision:All enemies recieve the effect of blur against you.
Annoying follower: Constantly keeps by your side a quickling brownie that cannot be killed and exists only to make your life miserable.

[Nubsternator]

Curses can also show a degrade in the magic of said item.

Just a little example, a ring of featherfall, but it only prevents half the fall (100 ft drop is treated as 50 ft).

[Afgncaap5]

Gauntlets/Gloves of Emases: Stylized spiked steel gauntlets or fine white gloves with a crest representative of local nobility (or other power group/power figure) that give a +2 circumstance bonus to Diplomacy checks, and a +4 to anyone familiar with the symbol who is well disposed to the group or figure in question. Every time you open a door while wearing them, the revealed doorway has a solid brick wall behind it, even in instances where the wall should have been visible (such as with a glass door or portcullis). The gauntlets/gloves cannot be removed, and simply closing the door and allowing someone else to open the door does nothing to remove the brick wall once it is established. The doors only seem to generate the brick walls when the wearer of the Gloves of Emases truly wishes to go back through the door, as attempts to create brick walls in the route of pursuing enemies have historically led to adventurers who had solid leads being devoured by monsters or impaled with weapons. Seemingly inconsistent reports about how the gloves function lead some to suspect that the gloves are not truly magical, but are instead haunted by a capricious spirit who causes the walls to exist (or not exist) at the most inopportune times. Clerics of Janus have been contacted to answer questions about the gloves, but have refused to comment.

Drossman's Cauldron: A small cauldron of Tumbaga with silver etchings in sylvan that, to the trained eye, explains the alchemical process for using the enchanted cauldron to turn base metals into gold. Due to a typo, or possibly a malicious misrepresentation, or even just the degrading of magical energies over time, the process (only achievable with a Craft (Alchemy) check of 30 over the course of three hours with an expensive expenditure of material components) merely turns base metals into Glod, a reddish-greenish sort of metal generally regarded as useless by most metalworkers, treasure seekers, and laborers. Treasures turned into Glod lose their magical properties (barring artifacts) and become worth less than their weight in copper. Tools or devices with a numerical value affixed to their function take a negative equal to 1d12 every time they are used.

Dreamsnatcher: This charm appears to ward against ghosts, outsiders, and other spirits who might attack during sleep. Instead, the charm launches the dreams of others within thirty feet into the mind of any sleeping or trancing individuals (causing unsettling hallucinations in the latter sense) that result in them being fatigued when they wake.

Secrecy's Boast: this elegantly crafted +3 sword grants a bonus to Initiative and intimidation. The wielder of this sword triumphantly shouts an embarrassing secret every time they draw it for combat (no save).

Book Wyrm: Allegedly an incorporeal, dragon-like being despite never being seen, the Book Wyrm appears to be a sentient magical ritual in a spell book. Seemingly a fourth-level illusion spell with no spell school that sits in a mostly empty spell book, a successful spellcraft check (as if deciphering a 4th level spell) makes the one attempting to decipher it make a DC 17 Will save. Passing the save makes the caster believe the spell to just be meaningless, if poetic or conceptually-intriguing, gibberish. Failing the save makes the caster believe they have deciphered a spell of between 4th and 7th level (1d4 to determine) with a strange name ("Adol's Thought-Hammer", "Deathstone", "Corwynn's Djinn-Finder", "Frotz Ozmoo", and the like). Whether deciphered or not, the spell will begin copying versions of itself over existing copies of other spells in whatever spell-book it occupies, seemingly generating weaker or greater versions of itself to fit the levels of any spells it replaces.

If the caster failed the check, there are three primary effects. First: The caster must pass a DC 17 Will save every day when they prepare spells, or be compelled to prepare the Book Wyrm as one of its spells (at a randomly chosen level, if the Book Wyrm exists in the spell book as different levels of spel.) Second: the caster must pass a DC 17 Will save every day if it has a spell book that does not have the Book Wyrm within it; upon a failure, it must copy the Book Wyrm spell into the uncorrupted spellbook at the nearest opportunity. Third: if the caster realizes they are combating another spellcaster when they have the Book Wyrm memorized, they must pass a DC 14 Will save or cast the "spell" at the enemy spellcaster. If said spellcaster is a wizard or similar spellbook user, the target will themselves need to pass a DC 14 Will save or, when next they copy a spell into the spell book, copy the Book Wyrm instead and forget what they meant to copy into the book.

[Ken Murikumo]

My personal favorite:
Curse of riverdancing - When the character draws a weapon and readies himself for combat, their feet begin to bounce and swing with increasing speed and vigor. A riverdancing character is flat-footed and can only move at 5ft.

This was a fun curve-ball i threw at my players. The look on his face was priceless when his disgustingly manly female half-orc with a 5 charisma began shrieking in fear while dancing because she wasn't smart enough to understand what she was doing.

[elonin]

Items of confusion (self only) are always fun.
Once found myself wearing a set of full plate that couldn't be taken off, not cursed.
At a powers and perils game one of my mates had a suite of armor that had a % chance to shift you to a specific plane (depending on where it deemed user to be "safer")
weapon of life feeding (reverse vampiric blade- or storm blade from elric in reverse)
An item that will deal extra damage or have extra effect powered by spell slots (with horrible conversion rate)
An item that draws the ire of specific race/monster

[Telonius]

Band of Remembrance. Functions as a Headband of Intellect. If you slay an enemy while wearing this item, you must make a Will Save (DC = 10 plus the slain enemy's hit dice) the next time you sleep (or Trance, if you are an elf). If you slay multiple enemies, use the one with the highest Hit Dice. Success means that you get a good night's sleep, and can sleep normally until the next time you slay an enemy. Failure means that your sleep is disturbed. In a dream or vision more vivid than any you can remember, you seem to experience the enemy's death from their perspective, feeling the pain your enemy felt as intensely as they did. You regain no hit points from your slumber, you do not count as having rested for purposes of recovering spells, and you count as Fatigued until you receive 8 hours of uninterrupted rest (or four hours of trance, if an Elf). You must continue to make Will Saves before bed for a number of days equal to the slain enemy's hit dice, or until you pass a Will Save, whichever comes first. (Only one curse is active at a time; slaying subsequent enemies while under the effects of the initial curse does not have any additional effect).

(This curse can also come in the form of a Periapt of Wisdom, or a magic weapon).

[Calthropstu]

Book Wyrm: Allegedly an incorporeal, dragon-like being despite never being seen, the Book Wyrm appears to be a sentient magical ritual in a spell book. Seemingly a fourth-level illusion spell with no spell school that sits in a mostly empty spell book, a successful spellcraft check (as if deciphering a 4th level spell) makes the one attempting to decipher it make a DC 17 Will save. Passing the save makes the caster believe the spell to just be meaningless, if poetic or conceptually-intriguing, gibberish. Failing the save makes the caster believe they have deciphered a spell of between 4th and 7th level (1d4 to determine) with a strange name ("Adol's Thought-Hammer", "Deathstone", "Corwynn's Djinn-Finder", "Frotz Ozmoo", and the like). Whether deciphered or not, the spell will begin copying versions of itself over existing copies of other spells in whatever spell-book it occupies, seemingly generating weaker or greater versions of itself to fit the levels of any spells it replaces.

If the caster failed the check, there are three primary effects. First: The caster must pass a DC 17 Will save every day when they prepare spells, or be compelled to prepare the Book Wyrm as one of its spells (at a randomly chosen level, if the Book Wyrm exists in the spell book as different levels of spel.) Second: the caster must pass a DC 17 Will save every day if it has a spell book that does not have the Book Wyrm within it; upon a failure, it must copy the Book Wyrm spell into the uncorrupted spellbook at the nearest opportunity. Third: if the caster realizes they are combating another spellcaster when they have the Book Wyrm memorized, they must pass a DC 14 Will save or cast the "spell" at the enemy spellcaster. If said spellcaster is a wizard or similar spellbook user, the target will themselves need to pass a DC 14 Will save or, when next they copy a spell into the spell book, copy the Book Wyrm instead and forget what they meant to copy into the book.

Consider this stolen.