When should the DM add in a cursed items

[Pugwampy]

Hello.

I dont often DM this particular aspect of looting . I love giving players awesome magic goodies or having my monsters equipped with such which eventually gets looted from their corpses .

I played a 14 session campaign last time and the only cursed artifact was a Helm Of opposite alignment and technically that came from a module . My campaign before that i had one dirty trick chest that held an angry Dire Rat instead of treasure and that idea came from my cousin . This is not really my style but i would like to incorporate it more often .

I enjoy being a random DM that rolls for everything for example i enjoy rolling for every chest or door is open , locked , trapped or both locked and trapped . As for treasure i like all players rolling to see who benefits directly from whatever is in a chest . But that gets predictable when player X after a few sessions knows he will score something if he rolled high . I would like to turn player Y ,s frown upside down when player X gets cursed instead. But how often ?

I dont want cursed items appearing so often that players will kill themselves to properly ID something which kinda spoils the fun and i will never see any cursed artifacts in action .

In your opinion whats a good percentage roll for a cursed goodie placement instead of a valuable treasure ?

[GrayDeath]

Depends on the players.

If they are overtly of the "I decide what happens to my character and when" type, never.

If they are mostly of the "I like lore and strange things and exploration" then always.

For the rest, somewhere in between. ^^


As from my personal experience: as long as the cursed Items are still INTERESTING (ergo their curse isnt their beallendall like the HooA) I like them. If it doesnt kill you, it offers a chance for fun.

And for one I really enjoyed finding out that the Evil Cursed FLamberge bathed in Archons Blood and forged by Aboleths we found had a curse that eacha ttack reduced the target by 2 levels, and the wielder by one (granted, my Construct Charater was immune to anything energy Drain/Negative Energy reliant, but still^^).

[Gruftzwerg]

Imho cursed items shouldn't be given randomly. This could lead to bad timing and much frustration on the player side. If you instead plan a cursed item into your adventure, it becomes a great tool for the DM to entertain EVERYONE (! important point^^).
You decide what cursed item you will give your players and a few jokes and/or scenarios you are going to pull out of it, including a happy end.

This way, it doesn't become "an annoying cursed item to deal with" and turns into a "memorable part of the big adventure".

[Kelb_Panthera]

DMG says about 5% of magic items should be cursed. When you're generating treasure and the result says to include magic items, roll a d20 and on a 1 make one of the items generated a cursed item instead of a normal one.

Note, this -can- change the tone of your game just a bit. Gonna see a -lot- less blind activation after you implement this and a lot more caution with the handling of items that haven't been IDed yet.

[Jack_Simth]

Cursed items should be in the game when it will enhance everyone's fun. If the curse is expected to prevent fun - for players or DM - then it shouldn't be there. If the curse is expected to increase fun, then put it in.

Where, exactly, you find the line between those two is table dependent.

[Khedrac]

DMG says about 5% of magic items should be cursed. When you're generating treasure and the result says to include magic items, roll a d20 and on a 1 make one of the items generated a cursed item instead of a normal one.

Note, this -can- change the tone of your game just a bit. Gonna see a -lot- less blind activation after you implement this and a lot more caution with the handling of items that haven't been IDed yet.

THIS, but remember, the same section of the DMG lists a wide range of suggested minor curses, the major cursed items that we all know and the optimizers try and game are not the common cursed items. For example, the item might need bathing in blood to work, or only work when the ambient temperature is below freezing.

I am now doing this, though my players haven't realised yet; mainly because I am also giving a chance for boosts to items as well. In fact the first item for the dice to say "non standard" the party got really lucky - and the character managed to buy an intelligent healing belt! (It can use cure moderate wounds on it's wearer 3 times per day - yes, I did fudge the dice for the ability so that it would make sense.) The merchant was very very annoyed when he realised what he had done, but more with himself than the party.

[Zarrgon]

You are talking about a couple things here....

First, make some more random roll tables. They are easy enough to make. A couple minutes and you can make a 1-100 table, and cut and paste and change and add things to make a dozen tables.

Next, you might not want ''cursed" items exactly. Odd, weird and funny items might work a lot better. You can have fun with unless items, all the way to items that might have a strange use once in a while.

Finally, when you get to real cursed items, they should be a bit rare.

[NotASpiderSwarm]

A good question to ask yourself is "What is this (cursed) item and why does it exist?" Possible answers:
1: Enchantment has decayed or was flawed in the first place. I like this on items with a small drawback for players to work around, that they discover through use. Can be good for giving players something early without it being broken, and makes sense given the item has probably sat in a chest covered in spider guano for the last millenia.
Example: Muscle Shirt of Charisma. Detects as a Vest of Charisma, +2 Cha for class abilities, -2 Cha for Skills, emits a foul odor when worn.
2: Enchantment that serves a purpose, just not for adventurers. This is good for when you want your players to really be creative.
Example: A pair of Rings of Child-Rearing. Gives Telepathy when both rings are within 100' of each other. When the Child ring gets more than 100' away from the Parent, the child's speed is cut in half, -5 to all Str and Dex skills, and glows as if subject to a Light spell. You can guess who made the Rings instantly, the real question is what Bloodaxe the Ever-Raging will do with them.
3: Actual curses. These should be rare(Seriously, who's spending 20k on making someone miserable, when you can probably hire an adventurer to kill them for half that). Either targeted attacks on the party or part of a story. Don't just toss a Backbiter Blade into a chest and leave it at that. Even if you only do a Bethesda story(your players enter a room with an ogre with a club, a dead body that's been slashed to pieces, and a +2 sword on the ground), give them some reason for it to exist in their path.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

I like "cursed (different/opposite effect)." You could get nearly anything; just make sure it's something that's potentially useful. For instance, a wand of plant growth shrinkage could be all sorts of things. It targets a 10' cube and shrinks all plants within it like a glove of storing.

If you give your players cursed items, try tossing in a few problems the items could potentially help with if the players think outside the box a bit. That helm of opposite alignment could be useful for getting a demon to help the party when they need to convince that nigh invulnerable devil door guardian (that essentially is a demonic head instead of a doorknob) to let them in so they can interrupt the sacrifice to a dark god on the other side.

Just don't be cruel about the cursed items you toss in. Instadeath isn't fun for anyone, especially if the curse is resistant to identification. If the party KNOWS it's a cursed item they're going after, they're a lot less likely to pull a Head of Vecna (https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Head_of_Vecna) on accident.

[Vander Nars]

im of the mindset that curse items should only be used if the storywise it makes sense and your players are the type that refuse to ID anything and just put it on right away and look at you with the expectation that you will tell them everything about the item since they equipped it. Id say be very careful tho when trying to correct this behavior so that you dont come off as punishing them. The goal isnt to create distrust between you and the players but to help them see that "yeah it was a bad idea to put on them bracers you found in the haunted house without properly iding it".