JellyPooga
2016-09-11, 06:21 PM
Curses are a prevalent theme in many media, but outside of a couple of spells and plot-devices, at first glance they appear to be pretty thin on the ground in D&D. I just wanted to open some discussion on the subject.
Stating the Obvious
The Bestow Curse spell is our go-to on this topic, I suppose. It outlines some "standard" effects, gives the option of allowing some Player-GM discussion on alternative effects of an appropriate power level and it gives us some nice scaling from the short term to permanent. Nice. Let's look at the basics;
1) Availability
- Bard, Cleric and Wizard are the only Classes that directly have it on their Spell Lists. Being a Necromancy spell, it's not available (except as one of their "free picks") to Arcane Tricksters or Eldritch Knights. Warlocks can also access it 1/long rest through the Invocation Sign of Ill Omen. Oathbreaker Paladins get access to it through their Oath Spells feature (but it's very much GM dependent on whether you can play an Oathbreaker).
- It's a 3rd level spell, which means Character Level 5 minimum (9th for Oathbreaker, 14th for AT/EK).
This means that about half the Classes available have easy access to it, but only half again of those get it from a relatively low level. Either way it's far enough in that you'll need to do some serious multiclassing to get access to it for Classes that don't.
That rules out the Barbarian, Druid, Monk, Ranger and Sorcerer as ever getting an efficient character with this spell. Thematically, I don't see the Barbarian, Monk or Ranger wanting Bestow Curse (though I could be persuaded with a Long Death Monk; I'm open to opinions on that one). Mechanically, Monk would probably enjoy having it the most; with their slew of extra attacks from a relatively early level, they could make best use of the +1d8 damage option and with several status effects they can inflict, the disadvantage on Saving Throws could be devastating. Giving up 5 levels of Monk to get it makes this a low-priority consideration, however.
For Druids and Sorcerers, on the other hand, I'm seeing some missed opportunities.
Druids fill many of the archetypal Witch niches; changing shape, charming animals and people, healing and manipulation of the natural order. Without Bestow Curse, however, it appears that they can't quite fully realise the goal of being a stereotypical Witch. This is a missed opportunity, I think. As a GM, I could definitely be persuaded to replace Water Walk on the Land Druids Circle Spells for Swamp Druids with Bestow Curse.
Sorcerers have a different problem; not so much thematic, that aspect I can see going either way. Distant Spell Metamagic, however, extends the normal Range:Touch to 30ft...something many potential casters of this spell would give their right arm for. More on this below.
2) The Crunch
- A Casting Time of 1 action makes this a relatively quick-fire spell. No warm up needed and only a Counterspell is going to interrupt you getting this bad boy off. Nice.
- Range: Touch. Ouch! This hurts. A lot. Most guys wanting to cast this spell don't want to be that close, especially when casting it out of a 3rd or 4th lvl. slot. A Familiar can help ameliorate this somewhat, or 3 level dip into Sorcerer for Distant Spell Metamagic could be invaluable (and is certainly better than the 5 level Bard/Cleric/Wizard "dip" you'd need to go the other way and get Bestow Curse on a Sorcerers Spells Known list). EK's probably don't care too much about this limitation, being the front-liners that they are and AT's have enough mobility to get in and out without taking a hit too. It's a shame neither gets access to it until the late game.
- With only Verbal and Somatic components, Bestow Curse is prison friendly; no worries about having your gear confiscated, you can always throw some Curses around!
- The base duration of 1 minute is pretty poor for anything except combat application. Once we start casting out of 5th level or higher slots, however, the duration is measured in hours. This is where we really start seeing potential e.g. laying down your curse, bogging off to (short) rest, then coming back full-throttle with the curse still active. Those longer durations also give us some non-combat potential; 8 hours is enough time to let someone stew on some warts or wracking pain to get some serious intimidation and interrogation done. It's also long enough to get someone worried it might be permanent with some insidious persuasion. That's all sorts of manipulative. 8 hours is also long enough to let someone go do whatever it is they do after you've cursed them; giving you some potential with a curse that has some kind of time delay or trigger on it, or that might somehow affect someone else (e.g. a "curse of dyslexia" causing a scribe to delay getting a missive off or making a crucial mistake during a dictation, or perhaps a "curse of innumeracy" causing an accountant to lose his job over a series of botched money transfers).
Whenever it's cast from a 5th lvl or higher slot, we also don't need Concentration; very nice for stacking some debuffs/buffs (e.g. Bestow Curse:Cha Saves + Bane, BC:Wis Saves + Hold Person, BC:Bonus Damage + Haste). Also nice because you can fire and forget; leave the home-Curse running while you go fight some bad-guys whilst you wait.
3) The Effects
Ah, the fun bit! Bestow Curse has four effects outlined for us and almost a "minor Wish" clause with the caveat of "no more powerful than the given effects at the GMs discretion". I've discussed some of the applications of the given effects and a couple of ideas for alternative effects, but let's look more closely.
The Curse of...
...Disadvantage on Saves and Checks for one ability score. Solid debuff. Use to cripple and lock down a grappler, stack a bunch of debuffs on one guy, or generally give someone a bad day by targeting their professional skills (e.g. targeting Charisma on an Actor or Musician). Some GM's may allow multiple instances of Bestow Curse on one target (one per ability score) to really ruin someones afternoon/day/life.
...Disadvantage to hit me. This is one of the two weaker effects. Can be replicated much easier through a personal buff (e.g. Greater Invisibility, Blur) or AoE (e.g. Darkness). Only advantage this has is the massive duration potential and no concentration. It could be situationally useful, but I can't see it coming up often.
...Wis Save or drool. Kind of like Confusion on a good day, but without the chance of the target getting to do what it wants anyway. Hold Person, again excepting the duration/concentration thing, is just better. Like the previous entry, we can probably ignore this effect, by and large.
...Mmmmmoar Damaage!!1! Very nice if you can somehow orchestrate a heap of attacks against the victim. Valour Bards with Swift Quiver, a Fighter dip for Action Surge plus Archery Fighting Style and a friend to cast Haste on them will think this is the bees knees. Scorching Ray abuse should also work (check with your GM first on interpretation).
...whatever you want (within reason). This is where we can get creative. This explicitly cannot exceed the power level of the other curses and I think we can take it as read that we shouldn't be able to duplicate the effects of other spells (e.g. no "Curse of Fatal Attraction" to duplicate the effects of Dominate Monster on the cheap). We can however, let our imaginations run riot.
For instance, how about a "Curse of Foetid Food" that turns all foodstuffs the victim touches to his lips putrid and rotten? Or the "Babble-tongue Curse", forcing the victim to speak unintelligibly (unless someone uses Tongues or Comprehend Languages, I suppose...a variation on this might be a "Vocalization Inverse of Curse", forcing the victim to speak backwards).
Most applications of this aspect of Bestow Curse are probably going to be non-combat or at least of limited use in combat, but are also the most interesting. Don't push your GM too far though; abusing the spell may ruin his plot and could potentially lead to some backlash on you (either by direct GM retribution or just not having as much fun because you drove the campaign off the rails and it crashed). The more amusing and/or disgusting the Curses you come up with, the greater chance you have of getting them ratified by your GM.
4) A couple of things to note...
- Sorcerers don't only get Distant Spell to make that 3 lvl dip worthwhile; Twin, Quicken and Heighten Spell are all solidly applicable to Bestow Curse.
- Arcane Tricksters have Magical Ambush and Eldritch Knights have Eldritch Strike, which impose Disadvantage on Saving Throws against spell. Nice for getting your Curse to stick.
- Necromancers get no boons for Bestow Curse, but Diviners do; Portent is great for making sure your Curse will stick.
- Death Clerics get Improved Reaper, allowing them to effectively Twin Bestow Curse up to 5th level. Doesn't come online until 17th level though, which is very late game.
So there's the Bestow Curse spell. It does pretty much what it says on the tin, with a few annoying limitations, only minor/niche combat power, but its non-combat utility is a varied as your imagination. Any comments on my critique here? Anything I've missed or got wrong? Any suggestions for your own non-listed Curses that you'd either like to see or have seen in play?
I was going to go into some more detail on other curse-like spells, but it's getting late, so I'll open the floor to anyone else who wants to tackle them or has any of their own ideas for spells that could also be "curses". Here's some spells I was thinking of hitting;
Bane (Curse of Misfortune)
Charm Person (Curse of Attraction)
Enthrall (Curse of Distraction)
Hex (Minor Curse)
Phantasmal Force (Curse of Hallucination)
Suggestion (Curse of Compulsion)
I was hitting these because I think they either have some interesting applications when considered as curses or are so obviously in the "curse" basket that they need discussing in relation to Bestow Curse itself (e.g. Hex vs. the increased damage aspect of BC). Some other spells, such as Blight, Contagion, Hold Person and Insect Plague, among others could obviously also be seen as curses, but I don't think they change much for the name change.
Any commentary or discussion on the subject of curses welcome!
Stating the Obvious
The Bestow Curse spell is our go-to on this topic, I suppose. It outlines some "standard" effects, gives the option of allowing some Player-GM discussion on alternative effects of an appropriate power level and it gives us some nice scaling from the short term to permanent. Nice. Let's look at the basics;
1) Availability
- Bard, Cleric and Wizard are the only Classes that directly have it on their Spell Lists. Being a Necromancy spell, it's not available (except as one of their "free picks") to Arcane Tricksters or Eldritch Knights. Warlocks can also access it 1/long rest through the Invocation Sign of Ill Omen. Oathbreaker Paladins get access to it through their Oath Spells feature (but it's very much GM dependent on whether you can play an Oathbreaker).
- It's a 3rd level spell, which means Character Level 5 minimum (9th for Oathbreaker, 14th for AT/EK).
This means that about half the Classes available have easy access to it, but only half again of those get it from a relatively low level. Either way it's far enough in that you'll need to do some serious multiclassing to get access to it for Classes that don't.
That rules out the Barbarian, Druid, Monk, Ranger and Sorcerer as ever getting an efficient character with this spell. Thematically, I don't see the Barbarian, Monk or Ranger wanting Bestow Curse (though I could be persuaded with a Long Death Monk; I'm open to opinions on that one). Mechanically, Monk would probably enjoy having it the most; with their slew of extra attacks from a relatively early level, they could make best use of the +1d8 damage option and with several status effects they can inflict, the disadvantage on Saving Throws could be devastating. Giving up 5 levels of Monk to get it makes this a low-priority consideration, however.
For Druids and Sorcerers, on the other hand, I'm seeing some missed opportunities.
Druids fill many of the archetypal Witch niches; changing shape, charming animals and people, healing and manipulation of the natural order. Without Bestow Curse, however, it appears that they can't quite fully realise the goal of being a stereotypical Witch. This is a missed opportunity, I think. As a GM, I could definitely be persuaded to replace Water Walk on the Land Druids Circle Spells for Swamp Druids with Bestow Curse.
Sorcerers have a different problem; not so much thematic, that aspect I can see going either way. Distant Spell Metamagic, however, extends the normal Range:Touch to 30ft...something many potential casters of this spell would give their right arm for. More on this below.
2) The Crunch
- A Casting Time of 1 action makes this a relatively quick-fire spell. No warm up needed and only a Counterspell is going to interrupt you getting this bad boy off. Nice.
- Range: Touch. Ouch! This hurts. A lot. Most guys wanting to cast this spell don't want to be that close, especially when casting it out of a 3rd or 4th lvl. slot. A Familiar can help ameliorate this somewhat, or 3 level dip into Sorcerer for Distant Spell Metamagic could be invaluable (and is certainly better than the 5 level Bard/Cleric/Wizard "dip" you'd need to go the other way and get Bestow Curse on a Sorcerers Spells Known list). EK's probably don't care too much about this limitation, being the front-liners that they are and AT's have enough mobility to get in and out without taking a hit too. It's a shame neither gets access to it until the late game.
- With only Verbal and Somatic components, Bestow Curse is prison friendly; no worries about having your gear confiscated, you can always throw some Curses around!
- The base duration of 1 minute is pretty poor for anything except combat application. Once we start casting out of 5th level or higher slots, however, the duration is measured in hours. This is where we really start seeing potential e.g. laying down your curse, bogging off to (short) rest, then coming back full-throttle with the curse still active. Those longer durations also give us some non-combat potential; 8 hours is enough time to let someone stew on some warts or wracking pain to get some serious intimidation and interrogation done. It's also long enough to get someone worried it might be permanent with some insidious persuasion. That's all sorts of manipulative. 8 hours is also long enough to let someone go do whatever it is they do after you've cursed them; giving you some potential with a curse that has some kind of time delay or trigger on it, or that might somehow affect someone else (e.g. a "curse of dyslexia" causing a scribe to delay getting a missive off or making a crucial mistake during a dictation, or perhaps a "curse of innumeracy" causing an accountant to lose his job over a series of botched money transfers).
Whenever it's cast from a 5th lvl or higher slot, we also don't need Concentration; very nice for stacking some debuffs/buffs (e.g. Bestow Curse:Cha Saves + Bane, BC:Wis Saves + Hold Person, BC:Bonus Damage + Haste). Also nice because you can fire and forget; leave the home-Curse running while you go fight some bad-guys whilst you wait.
3) The Effects
Ah, the fun bit! Bestow Curse has four effects outlined for us and almost a "minor Wish" clause with the caveat of "no more powerful than the given effects at the GMs discretion". I've discussed some of the applications of the given effects and a couple of ideas for alternative effects, but let's look more closely.
The Curse of...
...Disadvantage on Saves and Checks for one ability score. Solid debuff. Use to cripple and lock down a grappler, stack a bunch of debuffs on one guy, or generally give someone a bad day by targeting their professional skills (e.g. targeting Charisma on an Actor or Musician). Some GM's may allow multiple instances of Bestow Curse on one target (one per ability score) to really ruin someones afternoon/day/life.
...Disadvantage to hit me. This is one of the two weaker effects. Can be replicated much easier through a personal buff (e.g. Greater Invisibility, Blur) or AoE (e.g. Darkness). Only advantage this has is the massive duration potential and no concentration. It could be situationally useful, but I can't see it coming up often.
...Wis Save or drool. Kind of like Confusion on a good day, but without the chance of the target getting to do what it wants anyway. Hold Person, again excepting the duration/concentration thing, is just better. Like the previous entry, we can probably ignore this effect, by and large.
...Mmmmmoar Damaage!!1! Very nice if you can somehow orchestrate a heap of attacks against the victim. Valour Bards with Swift Quiver, a Fighter dip for Action Surge plus Archery Fighting Style and a friend to cast Haste on them will think this is the bees knees. Scorching Ray abuse should also work (check with your GM first on interpretation).
...whatever you want (within reason). This is where we can get creative. This explicitly cannot exceed the power level of the other curses and I think we can take it as read that we shouldn't be able to duplicate the effects of other spells (e.g. no "Curse of Fatal Attraction" to duplicate the effects of Dominate Monster on the cheap). We can however, let our imaginations run riot.
For instance, how about a "Curse of Foetid Food" that turns all foodstuffs the victim touches to his lips putrid and rotten? Or the "Babble-tongue Curse", forcing the victim to speak unintelligibly (unless someone uses Tongues or Comprehend Languages, I suppose...a variation on this might be a "Vocalization Inverse of Curse", forcing the victim to speak backwards).
Most applications of this aspect of Bestow Curse are probably going to be non-combat or at least of limited use in combat, but are also the most interesting. Don't push your GM too far though; abusing the spell may ruin his plot and could potentially lead to some backlash on you (either by direct GM retribution or just not having as much fun because you drove the campaign off the rails and it crashed). The more amusing and/or disgusting the Curses you come up with, the greater chance you have of getting them ratified by your GM.
4) A couple of things to note...
- Sorcerers don't only get Distant Spell to make that 3 lvl dip worthwhile; Twin, Quicken and Heighten Spell are all solidly applicable to Bestow Curse.
- Arcane Tricksters have Magical Ambush and Eldritch Knights have Eldritch Strike, which impose Disadvantage on Saving Throws against spell. Nice for getting your Curse to stick.
- Necromancers get no boons for Bestow Curse, but Diviners do; Portent is great for making sure your Curse will stick.
- Death Clerics get Improved Reaper, allowing them to effectively Twin Bestow Curse up to 5th level. Doesn't come online until 17th level though, which is very late game.
So there's the Bestow Curse spell. It does pretty much what it says on the tin, with a few annoying limitations, only minor/niche combat power, but its non-combat utility is a varied as your imagination. Any comments on my critique here? Anything I've missed or got wrong? Any suggestions for your own non-listed Curses that you'd either like to see or have seen in play?
I was going to go into some more detail on other curse-like spells, but it's getting late, so I'll open the floor to anyone else who wants to tackle them or has any of their own ideas for spells that could also be "curses". Here's some spells I was thinking of hitting;
Bane (Curse of Misfortune)
Charm Person (Curse of Attraction)
Enthrall (Curse of Distraction)
Hex (Minor Curse)
Phantasmal Force (Curse of Hallucination)
Suggestion (Curse of Compulsion)
I was hitting these because I think they either have some interesting applications when considered as curses or are so obviously in the "curse" basket that they need discussing in relation to Bestow Curse itself (e.g. Hex vs. the increased damage aspect of BC). Some other spells, such as Blight, Contagion, Hold Person and Insect Plague, among others could obviously also be seen as curses, but I don't think they change much for the name change.
Any commentary or discussion on the subject of curses welcome!