Creative curses and hexes

[LVOD]

So there's a topic up now called "creative curses", and i was disappointed to find that it was about fantasy-themed swearing and not about unique ways to mess with your players.

So anyway, let's put together a list of creative curses and hexes to dole out to players for their mistakes. I'll start us off with a couple:

- I fondly remember the incurable hiccups curse from planescape: torment. Didn't mechanically affect much, but was annoying as hell
- I've cursed a player so that they couldn't see certain amounts of treasure. If he was the one doing the looting, he'd end up leaving half the loot and having no idea. Eventually someone else noticed and they got him fixed up.

[Stealth Marmot]

I heard of a great curse that can cause people to inexplicably forget what they walked into a room to do.

[Freed]

-What about a hex that makes a player magnetic? That's be fun.

[LibraryOgre]

Upon von Spielburg and all his clan,
This the curse I now demand.
What I will shall come full measure,
So shall ye lose all that ye treasure.

[inuyasha]

If you're really into this sort of thing, I'd highly recommend playing a D&D game in the Ravenloft setting, where anyone can lay curses given enough effort, and those who do bad things can have curses fall upon them.

For instance, I have a player currently playing an evoker wizard, prone to fireballing, chaotic neutral, the whole nine yards. In Ravenloft, doing evil actions provokes powers checks that both grant you boons and horrific curses. He made a pact with a quasit to become his familiar, which is a powers check with 100% chance of failure, immediately granting a boon and a curse. Because of what he did, his quasit familiar taught him about forbidden lore in magic, granting him a +2 to intelligence (the skill points going into Use Magic Device), but the curse that affected him was one I found appropriate due to his penchant for fire magic, his gums constantly exude ash.

[Braininthejar2]

a curse causing the body to produce pheromones of a different species.

Imagine cursing a pompous noble lady to small like a bitch in heat, attracting dogs from all over the neighbourhood.

[LVOD]

-What about a hex that makes a player magnetic? That's be fun.

Hopefully they realize whats going on before attempting to use throwing knives.

[Freed]

-A hex that switches a character's highest and lowest stat!

[Freed]

-Hex that switches healing and damage spells.
Ex. Eldritch bolt heals the target for 1d10 health

[Freed]

-Hex that makes you unable to speak a word containing the letter e

[Braininthejar2]

People around the cursed randomly hear snippets of his internal monologue

[Frozen_Feet]

Name magic:

- no-one is able to remember the character's name, not even they themself. All attempts to refer to the person are limited to "that person".
- the character is unable to speak the name of a villain/rival/etc. without that person instantly knowing where they are, who they are speaking with etc., forcing the use of euphenisms.
- anyone who knows the character's name can magically compel them to do certain things, like prevent them from entering a building, or lying to them etc.
- the character is given a new name, and acquires traits of what they're named after. F.ex. someone named Tiny Black Ant becomes insignificant and non-descriptive as an ant.

Symbolic magic:

- a voodoo doll and variations: an object is made in the image of the person, and what happens to the object is reflected by their body.
- or, the other way around: say a white canvas is symbolic of the purity of their soul, and gets increasingly stained as they lie or commit other wicked acts. Bonus points if they're forced to wear the canvas as their clothes.

Sensory distortions:

- the character is forced to hear their own thoughts as if spoken to them by an external, invisible voice.
- the character is forced to see friendly people as frightening or ugly, while wicked people look more beautiful the worse they are.
- all water smells and tastes like blood of the people the character has slain.
- for each moment that no-one speaks good of the character, the air feels colder and colder.
- every time the character stops, they hear one extra step just behind themselves
- where ever a character goes, they cannot rid themselves of the sound of dripping water.
- the character loses ability to perceive faces.

Mental:

- the character's dreams become plagued by an invincible demon who they have to combat each night.
- the character becomes unable to dream of anything beyond rolling in bed, unable to get sleep.
- the character's grasp of ontological inertia starts slipping: they no longer can believe things continue to exist while they can't be observed, such as when they're in the dark. Every night feels like the world is destroyed, only to be recreated at dawn.

[Braininthejar2]

Name magic:

- no-one is able to remember the character's name, not even they themself. All attempts to refer to the person are limited to "that person".
- the character is unable to speak the name of a villain/rival/etc. without that person instantly knowing where they are, who they are speaking with etc., forcing the use of euphenisms.
- anyone who knows the character's name can magically compel them to do certain things, like prevent them from entering a building, or lying to them etc.
- the character is given a new name, and acquires traits of what they're named after. F.ex. someone named Tiny Black Ant becomes insignificant and non-descriptive as an ant.

Reminds me of Legend of the Five Rings, where truenaming magic could really boop you over: If a nezumi shaman stole your true name, you would be physically unharmed, but the reality itself would edit itself around you as if you never existed, not just making everybody forget you, but to the point of making your wife and children someone else's.

[the OOD]

ill fortune: slightly weight a set of dice, all weighted gently in favor of the lowest value(1). the cursed player(or NPC) must now use these dice for all rolls.

[AlmaPenzare]

My witch cursed a devil-bound dire wolf so that whenever it tried to bite a living thing, it's saliva would turn into a vomit inducing poison and it would have to roll a fort save to not vomit and lose the attack

[TheCountAlucard]

The PCs in my game have experienced a handful of curses; one received the death-curse of a frog-spirit, basically warning other frog-spirits who see him that he's killed one of their kind. He's still under this one.

Another had his name placed on the list of Enemies to Sharkkind by the goddess of war and sharks; sharks that perceive him try their damnedest to kill him. He resolved this by getting another potent magic placed on him that rendered him imperceptible to sharks.

Then there's a curse on their very atman from having waged war on the very authors of the Universe in a previous lifetime; the curse is essentially making them a little more prone to extreme behaviors when they get overly stressed.

There are a few more, but I've got other things I've gotta be doing.

[Freed]

Curse that lets you breathe in water but not in air. Vice versa on water-breathers.