Secrets of Xendrik Curses for Bestow Curse

[Jowgen]

The BoVD and Dragon 348 curses are quite well known, but secrets of Xendrik also has this table of curses


A ghostly choir constantly follows the character, imposi ng a - 10 penalty on Move Silently checks and a -5 penalty on Listen checks
The character's size fluctuates slightly. As a result, no piece of equipment quite fits. Increase all armor check penalties by 2. Any weapon the character wields is treated as being one size category too large or too small.
Anything the afflicted character carries seems to weigh more than it should. Decrease the character's carrying capacity by half.
The character is suddenly allergic to either metal or wood and becomes fatigued while carrying items made of that material. A critical hit from such a weapon causes the character to become exhausted
The character is surrounded by an unnerving aura of menace. Lower the starting attitude of NPCs and animals towards this PC by one step. If a creature is already hostile, it attacks this character in preference to any others.
The character's belongings begin to disappear, one by one. Small things at first, but eventually major piece of equipment. No one witnesses these odd disappearances. Only when the curse is removed do its items return.
Bad weather follows the character everywhere. Within 1 mile of the character, increase the severity of the weather by one step.
The character's health becomes fragile. Any nonlethal damage becomes lethal damage, and the cursed character cannot stabilize without assistance if below 0 hit points. A cursed character who contracts a disease cannot heal it naturally.
For every week that passes, the character ages one year. This supernatural aging does not grant any bonus mental attributes for reaching a new age category, but the penalties to physical attributes still apply.
The character is an Icon of bad luck. Three times per day, the cursed character must reroll any check or attack roll and take the worse result. The DM decides when these additional rolls must be made.


It doesn't say that these can be chosen for bestow curse, but they are curses and it looks to me like they are well in line with the power limit of the spell.

Just thought I'd get a second opinion, do people think these are fine options for regular Bestow Curse?

[Arcanist]

The character's belongings begin to disappear, one by one. Small things at first, but eventually major piece of equipment. No one witnesses these odd disappearances. Only when the curse is removed do its items return.

This one seems especially brutal. Kind of makes me grateful that Remove Curse is only a 3rd level spell.

[Troacctid]

Looks fine to me, as long as you don't mind increasing the severity of the weather being potentially more of a boon than a curse for some characters.

[Falontani]

Adding these to my curse list, thank you!

[WhamBamSam]

Looks fine to me, as long as you don't mind increasing the severity of the weather being potentially more of a boon than a curse for some characters.Also the one that makes hostile creatures target the cursed character in preference over other targets.

[Thurbane]

Nice! I was completely unaware of this list. Always good to find new official uses of core spells.

[Palanan]

For every week that passes, the character ages one year. This supernatural aging does not grant any bonus mental attributes for reaching a new age category, but the penalties to physical attributes still apply.

This also seems a little harsh, since presumably this can't be reversed.

[Hackulator]

This also seems a little harsh, since presumably this can't be reversed.

I would probably say it reverts when the curse is removed, especially since I don't want to have to keep track of a character's physical age and mental age separately.

[daremetoidareyo]

Looks fine to me, as long as you don't mind increasing the severity of the weather being potentially more of a boon than a curse for some characters.

Windsinger in the house

[Thurbane]

This also seems a little harsh, since presumably this can't be reversed.

I would probably say it reverts when the curse is removed, especially since I don't want to have to keep track of a character's physical age and mental age separately.

Imagine dragons...

[WhamBamSam]

Imagine dragons...I guess it might have some advantages over the BoVD age curse since it can theoretically age the dragon further, but only calling out physical ability score penalties and at least one other thing that itspecifically doesn't grant rather than just saying that it effectively ages the creature one category makes it a bit sketchier.

[Zaq]

I was going to comment about how one or two of those curses seemed unreasonable, but then I remembered that one of the basic, canonical, out-of-the-box uses for bestow curse is "lose fully half of your turns for the rest of your life," and these don't seem that unreasonable anymore in that context. Okay, fine, the rest of your life until you get the curse lifted, but still, that's a long time if you don't have the spell in the party. Or if you aren't an adventurer.

I mean, seriously, a 50% chance of just plain losing your turn (basically being dazed, without the keyword) until you get the curse lifted is a pretty intense consequence of failing a Will save against a single 3rd level spell, so you have to work harder than it seems at first blush to come up with a curse that's wildly out of line with that.

How would the "nonlethal damage becomes lethal" one work on a critter with regeneration? Would it break the regeneration with any type of damage? Get stuck in an infinite loop of flipping back and forth between lethal and nonlethal? Something else entirely? Yeah, it's an obvious case of rubbing together two rules that clearly were not written with each other in mind, but what else is new?

[Hackulator]

Imagine dragons...

The band? :smallbiggrin:

[Kelb_Panthera]

I might put a couple of the more vicious ones on bestow greater curse but they look good otherwise. Good find. :smallsmile:

[Arcanist]

A thought occurs to me:

1. Can you have multiple curses and if so;

2. How can we exploit the crap out of it?

Obviously this one:


The character is surrounded by an unnerving aura of menace. Lower the starting attitude of NPCs and animals towards this PC by one step. If a creature is already hostile, it attacks this character in preference to any others.

Is the best one for playing a Tank character. Just throw this on your local tank, make them as bulky as humanly possible, have them dump charisma, start every encounter with a diplomacy check they will fail, and you're good to go :smallcool:

[Uncle Pine]

First of all, a great finding as usual Jowgen! I'd say these are rather in line with the alternative of having your main score decreased by -6 (which could very well strip you of a few feats and/or making you lose a bunch of spell slots on the spot), taking a -4 penalty on attack rolls, saves, ability checks, and skill checks, or straight up losing half of your turns (notably stackable with the confused condition). They're also much more flavourful and interesting, so it's a win-win scenario.


A thought occurs to me:

1. Can you have multiple curses and if so;
Yes, as long as it's a different curse (you could curse someone twice and decrease Strength and Constitution by 6, but not Constitution by 12).


2. How can we exploit the crap out of it?
#1:

A ghostly choir constantly follows the character, imposing a - 10 penalty on Move Silently checks and a -5 penalty on Listen checks
Supernatural comical relief (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZvWvfCSZ8M) (warning: youtube link). Or combine with #5 to make a particularly conspicuous tank/scapegoat (using Fell Conspiracy to sidestep the Listen penalty, if necessary).

#2:

The character's size fluctuates slightly. As a result, no piece of equipment quite fits. Increase all armor check penalties by 2. Any weapon the character wields is treated as being one size category too large or too small.
Should it be (oddly) ruled that the curse also alters weapon damage instead of simply imposing a -2 penalty on attack rolls and depending on when it's determined whether the weapon you're wielding is one size larger or smaller and for how long it stays that way, you could potentially drop and pick up your weapon until it becomes bigger for a pseudo Monkey Grip effect. It's not that great though, even if it works (and I don't think it should work).

#3:

Anything the afflicted character carries seems to weigh more than it should. Decrease the character's carrying capacity by half.
The weight of your bonded pig is reduced by half.

#4:

The character is suddenly allergic to either metal or wood and becomes fatigued while carrying items made of that material. A critical hit from such a weapon causes the character to become exhausted.
Likely not abusable from the recipient's end.

#5:

The character is surrounded by an unnerving aura of menace. Lower the starting attitude of NPCs and animals towards this PC by one step. If a creature is already hostile, it attacks this character in preference to any others.
After all these years, finally an answer to all the threads about creating a tank character! Also potentially helpful if you want to run for it and you can't outrun neither the enemies nor your psicrystal/replaceable henchman of choice.

#6:

The character's belongings begin to disappear, one by one. Small things at first, but eventually major piece of equipment. No one witnesses these odd disappearances. Only when the curse is removed do its items return.
Since the curse doesn't mention that the character needs to be kept alive to retrieve the items: strip a random Joe naked, curse him, hand him the powerful McGuffin that needs to be protected until you're deep into the enemy lines and have it disappear, then kill him. Once you reach your destination, remove the curse and bring the McGuffin back to existence.
The same method can be used to store loot or other items.

#7:

Bad weather follows the character everywhere. Within 1 mile of the character, increase the severity of the weather by one step.
Weather chart (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/weather.htm) from the SRD.
At best a small boon to a weather-focused character (i.e. Halfling Whistler). At worst, a recipe for a doomsday scenario in which someone curses 4 individuals close to each other forcing perpetual storms, blizzards, hurricanes and tornadoes in a 1 mile radius using only 3rd level slots.

#8:

The character's health becomes fragile. Any nonlethal damage becomes lethal damage, and the cursed character cannot stabilize without assistance if below 0 hit points. A cursed character who contracts a disease cannot heal it naturally.
Likely not abusable from the recipient's end.

#9

For every week that passes, the character ages one year. This supernatural aging does not grant any bonus mental attributes for reaching a new age category, but the penalties to physical attributes still apply.
As mentioned, this possibly helps dragon aging shenanigans. However, even if it is ruled to work it's strictly worse than the already known aging curses (1 year/week versus 1 or 2 age categories instantly).

#10:

The character is an Icon of bad luck. Three times per day, the cursed character must reroll any check or attack roll and take the worse result. The DM decides when these additional rolls must be made.
Likely not abusable from the recipient's end, particularly because the timing of the rerolls are explicitly under the control of the DM.

[Jowgen]

Adding these to my curse list, thank you!

Nice!

Good find. :smallsmile:

First of all, a great finding as usual Jowgen!

https://media1.tenor.com/images/063523b3c23f65a013323c1bf42b05f9/tenor.gif



After all these years, finally an answer to all the threads about creating a tank character! Also potentially helpful if you want to run for it and you can't outrun neither the enemies nor your psicrystal/replaceable henchman of choice.

What I personally like about this one is that it's still quite the curse even if you're looking to take advantage of it for tanking. Unless you go through the trouble of remove cursing and re-cursing all the time, you're basically sacrificing any shot at successful social interaction, are always going to be the one in most danger when faced with enemies, and have to deal with every unfriendly creature going immediately hostile to you. It's a considerable commitment to the murder-hobo lifestyle.

The more practical thing is probably to put it on minions designed to be damage sponges, like bloodhulks. It'll probably make you go through minons quicker, but at least you aren't running around with party member that inadvertedly sours any shot at successful negotiation.


Since the curse doesn't mention that the character needs to be kept alive to retrieve the items: strip a random Joe naked, curse him, hand him the powerful McGuffin that needs to be protected until you're deep into the enemy lines and have it disappear, then kill him. Once you reach your destination, remove the curse and bring the McGuffin back to existence.
The same method can be used to store loot or other items.

The practical utility a bit dependent on how the question of where the items go is ruled. Could be judged to be like a thieving hoard-gullet, drawing items into an extradimensional-space, or the items might literally be temporarily blanked from existence (existing only as 1s&0s in the curse), or they might go into that "lost forever" corner of the astral where nothing comes back from.

Now as to whether a curse persists on a corpse, I was doubtful but upon checking think the RAW is in favour of this. Curses are explicitly stated to not be undone by being brought back to life, so I guess it follows that the curse is technically still active on the corpse (as long as there is enough for a raise dead I'd guess), although it might be "on pause" maybe depending on its exact nature?

Even if it is ruled that you can't use this to do the skyrim trick of using corpses to lug around massive amounts of loot, there are still applications though. Like, if the "curse space" the items go to is ruled to be sufficiently secure, a Lich's familiar might suddenly make a great place to store a phylactery.


Weather chart (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/weather.htm) from the SRD.
At best a small boon to a weather-focused character (i.e. Halfling Whistler). At worst, a recipe for a doomsday scenario in which someone curses 4 individuals close to each other forcing perpetual storms, blizzards, hurricanes and tornadoes in a 1 mile radius using only 3rd level slots.

Pandemonic Silver comes to mind as well. Also, letting the bad weather effect stack would just be ludicrous, turning 6th level warlock with the Bestow Curse invocation into extinction level threats to nations.


As mentioned, this possibly helps dragon aging shenanigans. However, even if it is ruled to work it's strictly worse than the already known aging curses (1 year/week versus 1 or 2 age categories instantly).

On the other hand, it's more likely to be accepted at a table than the usual aging curse, since its gradual and you can't use it to cheese your way into ability bonuses.

Where I see the utility is actually in bringing sub-adult creatures who's mental stats don't matter into adulthood, letting you farm an army of mounts or masses of livestock in record time. Or speeding up your Emerald Legion creation.

[Rijan_Sai]

How would the "nonlethal damage becomes lethal" one work on a critter with regeneration? Would it break the regeneration with any type of damage? Get stuck in an infinite loop of flipping back and forth between lethal and nonlethal? Something else entirely? Yeah, it's an obvious case of rubbing together two rules that clearly were not written with each other in mind, but what else is new?

Personally, I would rule this to "effectively" turn the Regeneration into Fast Healing; the creature still recovers the same amount of HP per round, and it would still be overcome by what ever weakness it has, (i.e. a Troll being hit with fire/acid would not recover that specific damage without "normal" healing: 8 hours rest or magic,), but they could otherwise be killed if the damage received was greater then the healed amount (and the one(s) attacking could bring it down to -10).



Aside from the "age 1 year/week" one, I agree that those are very nice additions to Bestow Curse!! (That one I would allow for Bestow Curse, Greater though :smallamused: Also, from the DM side I would not allow the "weather up/down one step" to stack. Too powerful, and close enough to a form of bonus/penalty coming from the same source (even if different casters used it on different people, it's still BC.)

[Jowgen]

Personally, I would rule this to "effectively" turn the Regeneration into Fast Healing; the creature still recovers the same amount of HP per round, and it would still be overcome by what ever weakness it has, (i.e. a Troll being hit with fire/acid would not recover that specific damage without "normal" healing: 8 hours rest or magic,), but they could otherwise be killed if the damage received was greater then the healed amount (and the one(s) attacking could bring it down to -10).

Actually, I think as written this curse would negate regeneration period, with the exception of regrowing limbs.

Regen turns damage dealt into nonlethal damage, but the Curse turns all non-lethal damage present into lethal, i.e. if a target already had nonlethal damage when the curse was cast, that would become lethal. And since regneraiton only heals non-lethal damage (of which there is none) the creature doesn't heal.

[Endarire]

For combat purposes, losing half of one's actions seem better than a buncha the curses listed here.

[Anthrowhale]

After all these years, finally an answer to all the threads about creating a tank character!

Enrage Enemies (Divine Prankster 5) is marginally better than this, as it forces the enemy spellcaster to melee you.

[Thurbane]

Enrage Enemies (Divine Prankster 5) is marginally better than this, as it forces the enemy spellcaster to melee you.

Has anyone made a tanking/ "drawing aggro" handbook?

[daremetoidareyo]

Has anyone made a tanking/ "drawing aggro" handbook?

If they do, i want to submit my jester 3/fighter 2/swordsage 1 with combat reflexes, dragonsong, pike hedge, and hold the line, and sidestep charge. deft reflexes if you have a flaw. There is simply no better taunt in the game.

[Anthrowhale]

Has anyone made a tanking/ "drawing aggro" handbook?

Not that I know of. It sounds like a fun topic.

[Uncle Pine]

Enrage Enemies (Divine Prankster 5) is marginally better than this, as it forces the enemy spellcaster to melee you.
It also requires five levels in a prestige class that requires you to be a divine spellcaster gnome with quite a few ranks in very specific skills, is only usable a certain numbers every day, requires concentration to be kept active and only works on a failed Will save. The novelty of this curse is that it works for everyone, all the time, without a save and with zero build investment. And while it's true that it comes with a couple downsides, I believe the benefits and applications of such a curse to outweigh the risks even before taking into account reasonable precautions.

[Anthrowhale]

It also requires five levels in a prestige class that requires you to be a divine spellcaster gnome with quite a few ranks in very specific skills, is only usable a certain numbers every day, requires concentration to be kept active and only works on a failed Will save. The novelty of this curse is that it works for everyone, all the time, without a save and with zero build investment. And while it's true that it comes with a couple downsides, I believe the benefits and applications of such a curse to outweigh the risks even before taking into account reasonable precautions.

Oh, don't get me wrong: the curse is great.

Enrage Enemies has a save DC set by a skill check, which means it's effectively a no-save effect.