Bestow Curse: Alternative Use

[Oerlaf]

Would you as a DM allow the following effect of Bestow Curse: the affected creature must roll on the Wild Magic Surge table at the start of each of its turns and resolve the rolled effect.

[Jacquerel]

As roughly 60-70% of the results of the wild magic table are either beneficial or of null value, I'd probably be ok with that.
It's interesting but probably less of a drawback for the cursed character than some of the baseline options. Requires a fair amount of rolling though.
You may end up with the weird situation where the curse actually does nothing but help the cursed target, but that's your fault for choosing that kind of curse.

[NecroDancer]

How is that a curse? Shouldn't curses be bad? I'm super biased towards the WMT and foolishly see it as a good thing.

[Jacquerel]

As roughly 60-70% of the results of the wild magic table are either beneficial or of null value, I'd probably be ok with that.
It's interesting but probably less of a drawback for the cursed character than some of the baseline options. Requires a fair amount of rolling though.
You may end up with the weird situation where the curse actually does nothing but help the cursed target, but that's your fault for choosing that kind of curse.

As a corollary to this post I should add that I would only allow it if you were cursing a hostile enemy. If you're going to "curse" your enemy with something that has a good chance of being a net benefit then that's fine, but not if you then use it on your friend :P

[GPS]

As a corollary to this post I should add that I would only allow it if you were cursing a hostile enemy. If you're going to "curse" your enemy with something that has a good chance of being a net benefit then that's fine, but not if you then use it on your friend :P
PC 1: "Hit me bro!"
PC 2: "Why?"
PC 1: "So you can get those sweet surge benefits!"

(This, of course, being an unlikely scenario, I just enjoy the image)

[JobsforFun]

I mean I would personally allow it because most things on the table are beneficial or just fluff (FLUMPH!). But i'd imagine you'd want to roll on the wild magic table to somehow buff people in your party. ;)

[Joe the Rat]

I'd say yes, but only on the short duration casting. One minute of constant surging is only about a 18% chance of the target fireballing at least once. You get into the longer durations and the "baleful enchantment" becomes a death sentence. You can survive being hex+'d or randomly space out. It would be impossible to live with a wild surge firing off ten times a minute.

Now if you went for a longer time between surges, or set a specific trigger (saying a certain word, engaging in a specific act, casting a spell, sneezing, etc.), you've got a whimsical balement. And now I have an origin for a Wild Sorcerer.

[Pex]

As a corollary to this post I should add that I would only allow it if you were cursing a hostile enemy. If you're going to "curse" your enemy with something that has a good chance of being a net benefit then that's fine, but not if you then use it on your friend :P

Granted a Pathfinder game, but should I then presume if you were the DM I would have been denied the ability to Bestow Curse my party members to lose their sense of smell so as to avoid the nausea caused by enhanced troglodytes we knew we'd be fighting?

While I could accept the notion that it might be problematic if one spell creates a permanent boon for the rest of the campaign far beyond its intended use, out of the box thinking that provides an advantageous result should be encouraged.

[Oerlaf]

As a corollary to this post I should add that I would only allow it if you were cursing a hostile enemy. If you're going to "curse" your enemy with something that has a good chance of being a net benefit then that's fine, but not if you then use it on your friend :P

I was planning to try using it in a boss fight. Sometimes when I am in a proper mood, I play with a difficult DM where it is easy to get killed. I intended to curse the monster with incontrollable wild surges while I am concentrating.

If he benefits from the rolls - it will be a very funny death for both DM and players.
If he rolls bad enough - the random values has been on my side.

The fun of the situation is that formally this "curse" does not impose a direct harm.

[Jacquerel]

Granted a Pathfinder game, but should I then presume if you were the DM I would have been denied the ability to Bestow Curse my party members to lose their sense of smell so as to avoid the nausea caused by enhanced troglodytes we knew we'd be fighting?

While I could accept the notion that it might be problematic if one spell creates a permanent boon for the rest of the campaign far beyond its intended use, out of the box thinking that provides an advantageous result should be encouraged.

The two situations aren't analogous.
Cursing someone with losing their sense of smell (and accompanying reduction to perception) is in most circumstances a negative.
Cursing someone to roll periodically on the wild magic table is in most circumstances either not a negative, or a positive (unless you have to do it every 6 seconds for the rest of your life at least).

I would allow you to curse your ally with a usually negative effect. I would allow you to, if for some reason you wanted to, curse an enemy with a usually positive effect. I wouldn't allow you to curse an ally with a usually positive effect.

[furby076]

As a corollary to this post I should add that I would only allow it if you were cursing a hostile enemy. If you're going to "curse" your enemy with something that has a good chance of being a net benefit then that's fine, but not if you then use it on your friend :P

Explain why it works on enemy but not your friend?

[Drackolus]

I would take the idea, but it happens every other round (because gimme a freakin break that's a metric ton of rolls) and I (DM) roll twice and take the least beneficial one (so it's y'know, a real curse).

[Dappershire]

Explain why it works on enemy but not your friend?

Because it's a curse. If you, as a DM, are going to allow curses as party buffs, then you might as well make "Bestow Wild Surge" a new spell, of the same level as Bestow Curse. Make the wizard decide which one he has studied.