Wearing cursed armor...for too long?

[poolio]

First off, this may contain spoilers to the "Out of the abyss" campaign book, thank you.

Greetings, so i have a group running the out of the abyss campaign, i added some living armor to an encounter and after killing it one of my players wanted to wear it cause it was plate, so i decided sure, but made it the cursed demon armor from the dmg. And decided to change the disadvantage on attack rolls to be against anything evil, so he hasn't attached without disadvantage for like 10 games, he's had several chances to get the armor removed from several npc, but has decided to keep on wearing it,

Now after pretty much voluntary wearing it for so long, I'm trying to think of a way to utilize this situation for ether in game story, or just something interesting for this particular character, my current idea is if he does try to have it removed magically, it doesn't come off, and he is now slightly possessed by it? Possibly put him on a path to becoming a demon lord himself? I'm just not sure what to do with him, it's a situation that doesn't present itself all to offten and i really want to do something with it,

So any other dm's or maybe players have any ideas on what might be cool to do?
Thanks to anyone even bothering to read this wall of txt by the way lol

[nickl_2000]

First thing first. Talk to the Player about this before you do anything. If your player is on board, go nuts, if not make it a normal curse. It will keep everything better at your table in the long run.

[JeenLeen]

I agree to talk it over with the player if you decide to implement something, but I'm leaning towards nothing being needed to be done.

I don't know that campaign, so my ignorance could make me wrong about this, but this sorta seems like a non-issue. The player has some armor with a curse on it, but it is otherwise normal or slightly powerful (+1?) plate, right? That doesn't seem particularly overpowered.
To have the curse suddenly be revealed to be something worse seems unfair. This is especially true if the character has had it identified or by some means knows the nature of the curse. But even without that, the player likely has an understanding of how curses work in D&D, and he is working within that framework. Note that even if the player hasn't asked about how curses work, the game so far has implicitly reinforced the idea of curses working by the default rules, so the player has a reason to feel cheated if the rules are changed on him.

That said, if the player is on board for it, well, I guess it can be a fun story arch or side story. Just make sure the 'maybe becoming a demon' doesn't overshadow the other PCs.

[Unoriginal]

Do you have any idea why the player, or the PC, decided to keep wearing this cursed armor? Just because the 18 AC?

Because since it's magical plate you can probably sell it and get a normal plate armor.

[TheYell]

I would go with awakened sentient magical item before possessing a character. Leave him in control of his actions, but have a constant voice in his mind telling him what you want him to hear.

[Spamotron]

I second TheYell. Have the armor start talking to him telepathically and attempt to entice him into evil acts. But have no mechanical effects aside from the existing curse.

If he ignores the armor just roll with it and move on. If he starts doing what the armor wants possibly have it start "gifting," him with fiendish traits like fire resistance to further tempt him to evil.

[poolio]

Hmmm i guess i should have pointed this out a little more? Lol i don't intend to be malicious or mean or anything, and i usually try to keep this character growth things a little more of a surprise, I've had cool things happen to some of the other players, i would try to see what's different about them, what they want ect. And try to come up with something more personal for them, only asking just enough to get an idea or feel on if they would like what I'm coming up with.

So far i have a half-orc barbarian, path of the zealot, who's parents were killed in front of her, she fled and was taken in by a church, i asked the player if she was particularly attached to her deity, she said not really, just sorta picked one, so i decided to have her be contacted in a dream by Gruumsh, the one eyed orc god (being contacted by other planer beings can happen a lot cause of the setting of the campaign) he said he knew what happened to her family and if she would align herself with him, he would help her get revenge, he's kinda big on that, she agreed, got an orc name as well as a magic spear and helm, both things i homebrewed.

So i had asked her more about her background and all that before introducing gruumsh into her life.

I also had a Tiefling chainlock pact of the fiend, her fiend happens to be on this plain of existence so he was giving her direct commands to bring her party to him to be slaughtered (possibly) she agreed happily (she's kinda got a history of betraying the group from other games lol) but decided half way through the plan she didn't want to go through with it and told her patron she wouldn't do it, so he took her powers from her, so she spent about half a game spell less, and ended up getting killed right away in the first fight that session, and as her soul floated upward (which she thought was odd given all the evil she had been doing while alive she figured she'd be going somewhere lower and hotter when she died) she was greeted by a solar who told her it was not yet her time, and should she repent and devote herself to the defense of the weak and all that holy stuff, he would give her power and resurrect her, just this once though, bringing people back to life is hard, she agreed and was brought back as a bladelock pact of the celestial (i let her choose a new pack if she wanted as well as retool her evocations to better suit a new pact, she's still kinda new to d&d)

And i gave her the choice to betray her perty again, and she was all for it first but then felt bad, there had to be a penalty for a worlock going directly against her patron, but i didn't want to just kill her character, do i came up with all that, which she seems to enjoy.

So the only thing interesting about this guy is the armor, i never intended for him to hold onto it this long, so it's just regular plate with the 18ac that gives disadvantage when fighting evil, i want to try and do something cool for everyone so no one thinks I'm favoring anyone else, but all the other characters are so mid-maxy and have these Mery sure a** backgrounds that make it hard to come up with things,

He's a beast master ranger with a giant spider pet that he's always riding, and who happens to be a king of some place (i thought he just thought he was a king but i come to find out it's an actual place in the d&d world) so again i just don't know would be interesting here, i thought eventually becoming a demon lord would probably trump being a king, but don't know what that would actually Intel, so i don't know what to do with him.

So sorry if i came off as wanting to screw over this guy, that was not my intention.

[Unoriginal]

IMO I would have a demonic entity linked to greed show up to talk to him.

For example, Laogzed, demon-god of the Troglodytes, or Raxivort, creator of the Xvart and expert in valuable stuff.

The entity could offer to modify the armor in one way or another in exchange of something.



told her patron she wouldn't do it, so he took her powers from her

Well, you can rule it however you want in your campaign, but just to say that given the standard Warlock lore, the Patron would have been unable to do that.

One of the things that distinguish Warlocks from Clerics is that Warlocks are given a spark of magic as part of an one-time-deal, and then the Patron can't do anything about it.

[Lord8Ball]

It would be cool for the magic of the armor to act differently due to his perception of it. Since he believes wearing the armor is beneficial to him and even refused removing it with full knowledge of its effects it may cause the curse to go haywire. This could lead to multiple routes.
1. The magic of the armor's feelings get hurt and it gains sentience to find another way to torment the wearer.
2. Slowly demonic magic seeps into the body of the host due to prolonged exposure and acceptance of the dark energies. This may give the wearer improved darkvision, demonic traits, or physical cosmetic transformation such as a free 1/day alter self which would be amazing for rollplay (think of all the monstrosities you can make), skill proficiency etc.
3. An option to enter a warlock pact or have fiendish blood for sorcerer dip.
4. The advantage to hit or save from spells cast by divine beings or their subordinates.
5. Option to try and assimilate/dominate the soul of a recently deceased through a charisma save. If failed bad things can happen, but the more powerful a soul there is the bigger the save. This could be the start of a demonic transformation.

Ps. How can he do his business if he is in full plate all day. :smallfrown:

[poolio]

IMO I would have a demonic entity linked to greed show up to talk to him.

For example, Laogzed, demon-god of the Troglodytes, or Raxivort, creator of the Xvart and expert in valuable stuff.

The entity could offer to modify the armor in one way or another in exchange of something.



Well, you can rule it however you want in your campaign, but just to say that given the standard Warlock lore, the Patron would have been unable to do that.

One of the things that distinguish Warlocks from Clerics is that Warlocks are given a spark of magic as part of an one-time-deal, and then the Patron can't do anything about it.

I was unaware of that, i assumed it would be more like a cleric, but i guess it kinda works given the situation, i mean her patron is literally down the street, they were in his liar when this happened, and she wanted to try a more "good" type character so that's why i went with the whole death and rebirth thing :P

[poolio]

I would go with awakened sentient magical item before possessing a character. Leave him in control of his actions, but have a constant voice in his mind telling him what you want him to hear.

I really like this one, this campaign has a lot of voices in the head, and madness based visions so it fits in really well with the theme of the game