Curses for a Curse Dungeon

[Burley]

So, my party is made of three 5th level PCs who are, generally, mechanically strong. I'm routinely throwing something a one or two CR higher than their level, and they dominate it in a couple of turns.

They're about to go into this tower of this slumbering evil deity. Each floor, as they open the door to the staircase, they'll be subject to a random (d6 or d8) curse. I've found lots of curses (including pages like this (https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/40_Curses_(3.5e_Other)).

But, GitP usually has better ideas than half-the-rest of the internet, so, I'd love some more curse ideas. (It's an Oz-themed campaign, if you care to think of on-brand curses.)


Edit: I also found this thread (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?126056-1-001-Curses-3-5), so, I'll be looking and refluffing stuff from there, as well.

[GreatDane]

It's not mechanically threatening, but Mummy's Mask had a tomb curse that would brand an intruder's forehead with the word "THIEF" when they looked into the wrong mirror. Just make the brand something relevant to your campaign/the evil deity. (I see your Oz theme, maybe it dyes their skin green?)

For a little more oomph, have the brand manifest painfully or inflict a penalty on Charisma-based checks.

[False God]

Oz themed huh?

Well, I suppose there's the obvious of being turned into a Tin-Man or a Scarecrow or a Flying Monkey, playing off your 40 curses list I'd just use it as a variant of "Minor Lycanthropy" or "Random Body Part Petrification".

Cursed to take damage from water seems on-brand, maybe even death depending on how harshly you want to run it (what does a Witch drink anyway? Do they even need to drink? Maybe curse with useful tradeoffs! No need to drink, but getting wet means death!).

Cowardice seems to be only thing not on your curse list. Seems like a fair addition.

I vaguely remember the sequel books being fairly horrifying in comparison to the Wizard of Oz, but I don't recall them super well.

[Burley]

This is the tower of Nerosa the Wicked Witch of the East. The Kansas House fell out of the sky, landing right on top of Nerosa's tower, driving it like a nail into the ground. The party is entering it from below, the underside of Oz.

"Green" is the curse of Emerald, the human threat. Nerosa was a ruthless tyrant who ruled over the terrorized Munkin. Her curses would be enough to bring misery, but not enough to kill.

[Beni-Kujaku]

You can look at all the effects of the Taint of Evil as described in Heroes of Horror. They have both physical and mental alterations that make for decent curses. The mechanical effects go from "-2 to Listen checks" to "Must coup-de-grace any fallen creature, ally or foe", or "-2 to Con".

[Telonius]

How about summoning something that would be dangerous to each of the classic three Oz companions. A trap of Rusting Grasp; something that can Cause Fear; a Fireball.

Curse of the Witch: water deals damage to you as though it were Acid (or Holy Water for undead, or the like).

Poppy curse: sleep-related curse. (Need an extra hour each night, will save to wake up, something like that)

Chromatic Realignment: your skin changes color based on your alignment.

[Silly Name]

1. Curse of Courage. The character finds themselves terrorised, and their courage sapped. Whenever they roll initiative, they must also succeed on a DC 15 Will save. On a failure, they become shaken for the next minute.

You may decide whether Fear immunity is enough to surpass this curse, or whether the curse supersedes it.

2. Curse of the Mind. Knowledge and ingenuity seem to escape from the character's mind. Whenever they attempt a Knowledge check, they take a -5 penalty. Furthermore, if they try to cast a spell, they must pass a caster check (DC = 10 + the spell level). If they fail, they fail to cast the spell, but don't waste any slot or materials, just the action.

3. Curse of the Heart. Affection and love abandon the character. They take a -5 penalty on all Charisma-related checks, as they become aloof and stand-offish towards everyone else until the curse is lifted.

4. Curse of the Witch. The character becomes deathly affected by clean water. Whenever they come into contact with water, they feel their skin start to boil, and they take 2d4 damage. If they are ever fully submerged into clean water, they take 6d6 damage for each round they spend in the water.

This curse may have the curious side effect of making the character no longer need to drink to survive - or it may be all that more dangerous, as it makes hydration impossible. Your call.

5. Curse of Emerald. The character's eyes become the same colour as emerald, and they see everything in shades of bright green. They take a -5 penalty to all Spot checks as a consequence, and cannot distinguish colours.

6. Curse of the Red Slippers. The character's current footwear becomes bright red, and the character can cast the Teleport spell through them (Caster Level 10) once per day. However, the character doesn't know the activation word (and, no, it's not "there's no place like home"!), and they are unable to remove their footwear. Furthermore, when one character becomes affected by this curse, all doors and passages leading out of the dungeon become sealed with 5-inch thick lead sheets.

You can tie all those curses to some challenge or danger in the dungeon - for example, since the Curse of the Witch makes water quite dangerous for the characters, maybe there's a few watery sections to swim though. There could be colour-based puzzles, making the Curse of Emerald all the more difficult to deal with, and so on.

[OracleofWuffing]

Cursed with a small dog that runs around you incessantly yapping and occasionally tripping you up.

A curse that makes you unable to walk on brick roads (or makes you exclusively walk on brick roads whichever works better for you).

Snow inflicts poison damage. (If you know... You know.)

[SangoProduction]

There are a couple varieties of curses.
RP-Oriented, and Combat-Oriented. (And a good combat curse will have RP implications, even if that's not their main goal.)
Then the actual strength of the curse can fall on the spectrum of Annoying to Crippling. Annoying is generally where I land for fey creatures that get ticked at the party. Like always stubbing one's toe on furniture, or consistently finding the only muddy puddle in every area they go in.

But you've got a curse dragon, in an evil god's lair. Sounds like it would be on the higher end of things, and probably trends toward combat-oriented debuffs. But at CR 5, it can't be too incredible, as far as the numbers go, because the numbers aren't that high yet. (Honestly, a good argument for 5e's design. Too bad the rest of it is boring.)

So here are some good ones:
Shriveled [Limb]: Roll 1d4, left arm, right arm, left leg, right leg. Target limb becomes shriveled. Although structurally sound, it lacks functionality. For legs, movement speed is cut by 10 ft, and for arms, they can't be used for more than holding an item. Checks that utilize the limb are made with disadvantage.

Drying Curse: Target is exhausted, and spells with verbal components suffer a 25% Spell failure chance. This is temporarily suppressed by drinking at least a quart of water. After 10 minutes, they return to being fatigued, and in 30 they are exhausted.

Mark of the Betrayer: No one ever considers you an ally for any purpose, regardless attitude. Harmless spells must be saved against. (Pity Rule: By making a diplomacy check as a full round action, they can suppress this effect for 2 rounds.)

Visions of the Dark One: The target is always considered flanked, as his attention is drawn away by horrors that he considers to be a true threat.

Lasting Agony: Whenever the target suffers hit point damage, they also suffer 1 hit point drain. This drain can only be recovered at a rate of 1 per full day's rest. Automatically fail all pain-related saves. Being subject to such saves count as suffering hit point damage.

[ShurikVch]

From the published examples:

Book of Vile Darkness
Target is rendered sterile.
The next person introduced to the target for the first time will hate him or her uncontrollably forever. Even if this curse is removed, the person still hates the victim of the curse, but the victim can improve the person's attitude normally after the curse is gone.
Each time the target attempts to help a friend or ally, there is a 50% chance the attempt fails and causes the ally to fail at the task.
Target is struck blind and deaf.
Each round in combat, there is a 25% chance that the target will attack the nearest creature rather than choosing an opponent normally.
Every time the victim makes a d20 roll, a roll of 20 counts as a 1.
The victim effectively ages, moving him or her to the beginning of the next age category. See Chapter 6 of the Player's Handbook for the effects of aging.
At some point within the next week (or whenever it is feasible), thieves are able to steal all monetary wealth the victim has.
Animals refuse to be within 5 feet of the target and do not respond to the target’s commands or requests.
Each time the target meets someone for the first time, there is a 50% chance that the new person will confuse the target with a hated enemy, a well-known criminal, or a raving lunatic.
All creatures of a specific kind (such as orcs, owlbears, or black dragons) are permanently invisible to the sight of the victim (invisibility purge does not help, but see invisibility and true seeing do). The spellcaster chooses the kind of creature. A random friend or family member of the target contracts a disease. If the disease is magically cured or runs its course (regardless of the outcome), another loved one contracts a new disease.
The target's most powerful and/or cherished item falls apart, becoming forever useless.
Valuable metals (such as platinum, gold, silver, and copper) turn to lead in the target’s possession, even if they are in a bag of holding or stored away from the target. The target's touch transmutes valuable metals (including coins) into lead as well.
1d4+1 of the target's loved ones or allies are affected by a curse chosen from the bestow curse list above.
All of the target's loved ones and allies suddenly despise him and are considered to have unfriendly attitudes. See NPC Attitudes in Chapter 5 of the Dungeon Master's Guide for actions former allies might take.
The target cannot cast spells, use spell-like abilities, or activate spell completion or spell trigger items.
The "Bestowed Curses" article (Dragon #348):
The target takes a -8 penalty on all checks made using one skill, such as Climb or Spell craft.
The target's Strength score counts as 10 less (minimum 1) for the purposes of carrying capacity. This might cause some individuals to suddenly take encumbrance penalties while others collapse under the weight of their own equipment.
The target's armor falls into disrepair, halving its hit points and hardness while decreasing the armor bonus it grants by -4 (to a minimum of 1) and doubling the armor check penalty. This effect shifts to any new armor donned, while the armor removed returns to normal (although any damage it might have taken remains).
The target must carry something designated by the caster or suffer a -5 penalty on all saves. The item can be vague (such as a holy symbol of Vecna) or specific (such as the Helm of King Aramil), but it cannot be something dangerous or deadly for the target to carry (a massive boulder or burning coals). The caster must give the object to the target when casting the spell.
One of the target's limbs ceases to function. A nonfunctional arm cannot hold or wield any item and cannot be used to perform somatic spell components, while a nonfunctional leg prevents the target from walking properly without a crutch (and even then the target can only move at half speed). A nonfunctional wing prevents the target from flying if it uses wings to fly.
The target loses all weapon and armor proficiencies, other than simple weapons, natural weapons, and unarmed strikes. If the target has feats for which the lost proficiencies are prerequisites (such as Weapon Focus), he loses the use of these as well.
The target becomes completely socially inept. He takes -6 penalties on Bluff, Diplomacy, Gather Information, Intimidate, and Sense Motive checks, on Charisma checks to influence someone, and on Disguise checks when attempting to act as someone else.
The target's armor, shield, or one of his weapons (caster's choice) becomes cursed. Its enhancement bonus is reversed and it loses any other special abilities, so a +4 flaming longsword becomes a -4 longsword. If nonmagical, the weapon, shield, or armor instead becomes a -1 weapon, shield, or armor.
The target is stricken with cowardice. Each time the character rolls for initiative, he must immediately make a Will save (with the same DC as the curse) or become shaken for the duration of the combat. The first time the character takes damage in the combat, he must save again or become shaken for 1d4 rounds (if already shaken, instead treat as panicked for 1d4 rounds).
The target appears to be a different alignment (caster's choice) for the purpose of divination spells and spell-like abilities such as detect evil.
The target's damage reduction, spell resistance, or elemental resistance of one type is reduced by 5, to a minimum of 0.
The target immediately becomes fatigued until he has consumed 1 pint of blood. Thereafter, he gains a thirst for blood and normal food and drink no longer nourish him. He awakens fatigued each morning and must drink 1 pint of blood to stave off this fatigue for the day.
Everyone who knows the target no longer recognizes him, except for the caster. Even the target's allies do not recognize him and those who come to know him again forget knowing him each morning.
The target gains a susceptibility to damage from a certain source (caster's choice). All damage taken from this source is increased by 5 points. The source must be either a specific element, such as fire, or weapons made of a specified uncommon material such as mithral, silver, or bone.
The target loses the ability to heal naturally (although he docs not lose innate healing abilities such fast healing or regeneration). In addition, spells of the conjuration (healing) subschool only heal the target for half as much as normal. Such spells that cause damage are unaffected by this curse. For example, a cure light wounds spell cast upon an undead creature is unaffected, while an inflict light wounds spell cast on the same creature would be halved.
The target's sight is reduced to 20 feet, even with natural abilities and spells such as darkvision.
The target must roll a Fortitude save (with the same DC as the curse) each time he commits an evil or illegal act to avoid becoming nauseated for 2d4 rounds. Alternatively, the caster may use this curse to affect those committing acts of kindness and generosity.
The target loses the use of one of his feats. If this feat is a prerequisite for other feats, the target loses the use of those feats as well.
One of the target's minor racial abilities is disabled. Minor abilities include darkvision, low-light vision, racial save bonuses, racial skill bonuses, racial weapon proficiency or familiarity, or stability. The DM has the final word as to what other racial abilities qualify as minor.
The target immediately becomes fatigued, and henceforth requires 12 hours of sleep each time he rests or else is fatigued for the remainder of the day.
The target becomes a disease carrier. Anyone the target touches or who touches the target must roll a DC 16 Fortitude save or else contract blinding sickness or cackle fever (Dungeon Master's Guide, 292). The target is immune to the selected disease.
The target has uncontrollable shakes, imposing a -4 penalty on ranged attacks and a 20% spell failure chance for spells with somatic components.
The target becomes unable to tell a lie. He may, however, choose to avoid answering a question in order to avoid telling the truth.
The target fears killing and must attempt to deal nonlethal damage whenever possible, taking a penalty of -4 on attack rolls with most weapons to do so. The target loses a class ability, such as spellcasting, sneak attack damage, or barbarian rage. If this class ability is a prerequisite for other abilities or feats, the target loses the use of those feats as well.
The target gains a susceptibility to a one energy type (such as fire or electricity) or to weapons made of a specified rare or unusual material (such as adamantine or silver) of the caster's choice. The target takes an additional +50% extra damage from this source. This effect does not stack with any other weaknesses the target might already possess.
The target's alignment gradually moves toward another of the caster's choice. For example, a lawful good paladin might be cursed to become chaotic evil, losing access to all of his paladin spells and abilities. There is no immediate effect, but the target must make a Will save each day thereafter or his alignment shifts one step toward the chosen alignment.
The target takes damage equal to the damage he deals to others. Only damage dealt with weapons is affected, not ability damage or spell effects.
One of the target's attack options is lost (such as a dragon's breath weapon or a medusa's petrifying gaze attack).
The target can no longer sleep soundly, perhaps wracked by nightmares or guilt over past evil deeds (caster's choice). He wakes fatigued each morning and cannot perform tasks that require him to be well-rested, such as a wizard preparing spells.
The target's most powerful or cherished possession (DM's discretion) is drawn by fate to fall into the hands of a hated enemy or rival.
The target is completely unable to use any three skills of the caster's choosing. Knowledge skills must be chosen separately.
Everyone the target sees appears to be undead, their flesh rotting from their bones and their voices reduced to hollow rasps.
All critical threats made against the target automatically confirm without requiring the attacker to reroll.
A noisy spirit haunts the target. Aside from unnerving those around the target, the spirit prevents him from using the Hide or Move Silently abilities, becoming invisible, disguising himself, or otherwise altering his appearance. A manifestation of the curse, the spirit is not actually undead and cannot be turned, rebuked, or destroyed.
All new creatures and NPCs the target encounters treat him with an initial attitude of hostile. Allies and current acquaintances do not change their attitudes toward the target.