[3.PF] Cheap Curses & Apotropaic Charms

[Palanan]

If you can buy cheap ale, cheap sex and cheap music in a fantasy setting, you should be able to buy cheap magic as well, since that’s a market and there should be a way to profit from the demand. In particular I’m thinking about curses, since most people know someone they’d like to curse, be it their neighbors, their in-laws, or the chariot team they love to hate.

Unfortunately the price for a casting of Bestow Curse is far beyond the reach of most people, and I’d like to find something lower-level and more appropriate for personal rivalries, something you can purchase from a back-alley witch for a few coins. Is there anything like this out there?

And naturally the prevalence of cheap curses will give rise to a corresponding demand for cheap protection. In terms of defensive charms, the closest I’ve found in Pathfinder is the hex nail, which at 20 gp is still quite steep for ordinary folk, but the +2 to a single save versus fey and witches feels appropriately apotropaic. Is there anything else available along these lines, either in Pathfinder or 3.X more generally?

[Metastachydium]

If you can buy cheap ale, cheap sex and cheap music in a fantasy setting,

That ale only comes at a fixed price and (presumably) one variant as per Core (I'm not sure where to even look for alternatives; all I know of is A&EG's Very Special Racial Drinks stuff which I'm not terribéy fond of either) is one of the few things I'll never forgive 3.5. PF1 has a much better selection of drinks – but I digress.



you should be able to buy cheap magic as well, since that’s a market and there should be a way to profit from the demand. In particular I’m thinking about curses, since most people know someone they’d like to curse, be it their neighbors, their in-laws, or the chariot team they love to hate.

Unfortunately the price for a casting of Bestow Curse is far beyond the reach of most people, and I’d like to find something lower-level and more appropriate for personal rivalries, something you can purchase from a back-alley witch for a few coins. Is there anything like this out there?

The simple answer is: not really, or at least, not to my knowledge. There are a lot of low-level spells that work well as minor curses (at level 1, we habe e.g. Angry AcheBoVD at level 1, giving a scaling penalty on attack rolls fluffed as minor muscle damage;
Doom, making one shaken (-2 to skills, ability checks, saves and attacks);
SorrowBoVD with a -3 morale penalty on the same fluffed as inexplicable sadness affecting performance;
DisquietudeMoF, instilling paranoia in the target and making them extremely defensive/averse to physical contact;
Distort SpeechSpC, messing up spellcasting and making the target spout gibberish half the time they try to speak;
Insidious RhythmSpC, a -4 for on INT-based and Concentration checks fluffed as a nasty, unending earworm…) but the vast majority of these spells has a minute/level duration at best.

The only outliers I can think of are Stupor and Addiction from BoVD; the one makes the target a salivating, helpless wreck for hours, while the other (level 1 for Assassin and with a drug component, so involving a minor extra cost) makes the target [drum roll] addicted to a drug and is Instantaneous.


And naturally the prevalence of cheap curses will give rise to a corresponding demand for cheap protection. In terms of defensive charms, the closest I’ve found in Pathfinder is the hex nail, which at 20 gp is still quite steep for ordinary folk, but the +2 to a single save versus fey and witches feels appropriately apotropaic. Is there anything else available along these lines, either in Pathfinder or 3.X more generally?

I'd have to take a better look on the item front, but I'd dare venture a guess that most of these would be based on Protection from [Alignment] and perhaps Sanctuary.

[tyckspoon]

Any magic that is cheap enough for a peasant to consider buying it just to satisfy a petty grudge against their neighbor probably doesn't do anything an adventurer cares about - it may exist in the world but it's below the level of anything a player character is expected to want to know about or need a price for.

I think what'd I'd go for is putting a bunch of restrictions on the items that would render them unattractive or irrelevant to most adventurers - basically ad-hoc'ing cost reductions similar to the 'can only be used by X level, Y race, needs a skill check, etc' options in the how to make items guidelines. Like maybe this cursed token needs to be buried in the center of your neighbor's chicken run, and if it's left alone for a week half their chickens will randomly not lay. The potion needs to be taken in multiple separate doses - if you pour it in your targets well or in their cistern they'll eventually drink enough, but you can't just slip the whole thing in their ale and watch them chug it. This charmed horseshoe will protect your home/barn from curses and the whims of the fairies, but it will lose all its power if you ever move it after it has been fixed in place. This blessed icon of the harvest goddess will ward the individual that carries it but has to be woven into a fresh ring of new-cut flowers every day.

Kind of lean hard into superstitions, basically, rather than the immediate, discrete and recognizable effects of magic adventurers employ. Would probably also have the effects be small enough that even if they work the person experiencing the curse or enjoying the benefits of the charm could reasonably attribute it to just an instance of good/bad luck, or if it doesn't work they can blame not following the instructions for usage correctly.

[Gruftzwerg]

How about renting an magic item that can be used 1/day?

A Drow House Insignia can hold a spell of up to 3rd lvl and doesn't need any magical skill to activate. Get one with the Cleric version of Bestow Curse.

[Telonius]

For any sort of magical shenanigans, you're probably going to want to keep it to zero-level spells to keep the prices down.

For petty vengeance in social situations, the Whoopee Cushion of cantrips: Ghost Sound.
Prestidigitation: Your rival is now wearing a horrible shade of green that absolutely doesn't go with the rest of their outfit. Alternately, grease stains everywhere.
Message: "This is the song that doesn't end ..."