When I gm I noticed I skimp out on magic items. But then when the party gets one oh boy usually it's a little more powerful then what is recommended. One time my party (around level 4) got hold of a +3 sentient shorts word. It was really stupid, but it wanted to be helpful (trying to discypher q scroll but cutting it to realizingit cant read), and was always loud and needed to be consistently entertained. The party generally didn't like this sword except the monk so the 2 became friends. During a chase scene one of tge other pc's took the sword and threw it away. The sword felt abandoned betrayed and he needed to save his friend the monk from these bad people. A few levels later after investigating why these people start attacking them only to find it was tge sword wanting to get his friend away from these bad people who were killing people. Most of the PC's started making fun of the monk. Normally I wouldn't allow PVP but I will say most of the party knows what a level 7 pure monk can do do a bunch of damaged squishy characters with a +3 shortsword.
I’ve had players ask me “why would anyone create a cursed item”. I explained to them that the time between the codification of any new programming language and the first virus written to exploit that language is measured in days, sometimes hours.
Because; 1.) its funny 2.) A good prevention against thieves (good luck stealing my magic items if you are turned into a sheep after picking up the scarf) 3.) To archive a goal (like...say....curse someone) 4.) To prove your skill 5.) Spite 6.) Boredom (the world is filled with immortals and near immortals beeings ....why wouldn't anyone just make something to see the world burn a little bit) 7.) Lack of Skill (curses as a unwanted side effect) 8.) Because balance reasons (can get more Ooommpf out of the wanted effect by adding something negative somehow) 9.) The curse is a boon in the eyes of the wearer 10.) Punishment / Enslavement of normal or superpowered beings 11.) Tax fraud 12.) for the evilz 13.) Safety measurements (eighter the "only one with x abilities would be able to wield it because for everyone else the curse is to strong", "I dont need to breath but others do, so my mighty magic ring will take away the ability to breath lets see how they like that" ,"only in the most desperate times anyone would ever dare to use its powers" or "only the chosen one will pick the right weapon while everyone else will fall for the cursed copies") 14.) Degradation over time (former beneficial effect gotten corrupted/reversed) 15.) Sabotage from another party 16.) the Wish Spell 17.) evil seeping into an former beneficial artifact (similar to degradation but with more evil choosing to actively do things) 18.) Gods or other mighty beings interfering and cursing an item for some reason ("f that sword that killed my champion, who ever picks that up stinks now") 19.) Incentive for someone to archiving a goal in time re-roll on a 20
especially if some noble tried to force some great magic craftsmen/blacksmith to make them something especially the more subtle curses also asassinations or national/diplomatic insults giving them a cursed item as a fuck u
The curse could also be the trap part of a mouse trap, and the beneficial boon is the bait. Then the curse maker takes their item back and takes the souls or whatever out the item as profit.
One I am using in a campaign is a ring of luck, that when worn the wearer is convinced it is a lucky ring and cannot be convinced otherwise. Anyone who touches the ring must make a wisdom saving throw or realize how “lucky” this ring is and be enamored by it. The ring realistically adds no buffs but the wearer refuses to believe it
I had a very similar idea but as well as the enamored effect I would have actually had the ring have a mechanical effect on their luck. I was thinking of making it so you roll 3 dice instead of 2 for when you roll with advantage or disadvantage. Making your luck and unluck both a lot more wild.
One of my best cursed items is "The Devil Axe" It's a +1 greataxe, on a crit you deal an extra 1d12 necrotic damage, but on a nat 1 you crit yourself... Our Barbarian had a lot of fun with this weapon
Just saw a +2 elven bow that was imbued with the spirit of a great elven bowmaster. +2 to hit +2 to damage. Once a day the character can brace themselves for half a combat round and then fire one arrow that they have advantage with and does normally double damage. They can see through illusory protections, like mirror image or cloak of displacement to hit at the actual target. Every time the PC misses with this bow they get harangued by a voice in their head. The voice gets louder and more intrusive and distracting and after three consecutive misses the PC must roll a 15 Wisdom check or suffer disadvantage while using this bow. They need to hit with the bow or not use the bow for an hour to remove the disadvantage and damp down the angry elvish voice in their head. The spirit of the elven bowmaker is in the bow and is not impressed with failure and incompetents who ruin the reputation of his fabulous bow. Probably will attempt to get the bow carrier to enter archery contests and heaven help the PC who loses.
One of my players bought a suspiciously-inexpensive suit of magical armor. It turned out to be cursed, not out of any sort of malice but simply out of the ineptitude of the one who'd forged it.
I think that it's important for the super cursed items to have a way for characters to escape it. That way you're not just killing a PC without them knowing. If it steals the user's soul, for example, then make it a slow process that can be noticed down the line.
Always remember to take into account player ingenuity. Our DM gave us a cursed item that was more of a trap - a cursed sphere of gold that would rapidly heat up when being moved by a willing creature. It would start dealing fire damage, which would rapidly increase over time. It also had other effects (like an alarm when placed in a bag of holding), but that was the main point. While another player wasn’t paying attention, my character quickly dropped it into their backpack. Because they weren’t ‘willing’ (they didn’t know it was in there), it didn’t heat up. My character later used this to self sacrifice nuke an entire kobold colony in one huge explosion, saving the party and our favourite NPC. One small trap turned into a *very* powerful weapon.
@@theuncalledfor kobolds can be antagonists if they aren't all naturally evil. Using any race as naturally evil is shit (unless the species is gnomes) but using any race for antagonists is something to be expected at some point.
@@somewhereelse1235 Well this was five months ago so I don't know exactly how I meant that back then. I agree that having antagonists that are kobolds is okay, but I hate it when all kobolds are treated as antagonists, or when the only kobolds you ever come across are antagonistic.
My favourite cursed item I’ve come up with has got to be a set of armour that doesn’t seem like much on the surface, gives better than average AC to the wearer but can’t be removed unless being specifically given to another character. Until the wearer rolls a natural 1, wherein the piece of armour will suddenly detach itself and jump onto the nearest object that can wear it. In combat, it usually attaches to the closest enemy, in a social situation, you have to explain why this barkeep is suddenly wearing your hat.
On plot idea I had was a classic cursed item destruction quest. You know the one, take the ring to murder and throw it into a volcano type deal. But there is a twist. See, the Tarrasque's digestive tract is the most destructive force in D&D, artifact level items and potentially even gods ce be digested and destroyed by the beast's gut. The Tarrasque is our volcano in this case. So the party has to find the Tarrasque, get to it, and throw the item down it's throat without getting eaten themselves, all while dealing with the villainous forces who are pursuing the item for their own nefarious ends.
I do like the idea of having an epic sword found under mysterious circumstances whose curse seems almost negligible until you come up against a baddie who just grins and says, "Sic'em, Harold," at which point the sword flies out of the wielder's hand and begins attacking the party. It had been a plant the whole time, and maybe even enchanted to let the baddie listen in on the heroes' plans.
In the campaign I played in, our DM gave my character a sentient sword who used to be human until he was betrayed by his wife by cursing him into the form of a sword forever. The sword kept in encouraging my character to hunt down his traitorous wife and kill her, while my character kept using it to save lives and talking to the sword about its old life, hoping to make friends with it and convert it to good.
My favourite homebrew cursed item: A fake holy avenger: The sword got an aura that if divination spells (like identified or Legend Lore) are used to identify it reveals it as being a holy avenger that only a lawful good paladin can attune to. When used by the player it does everything a holy avenger would do The curse: The sword was crafted and bound to a demon, banished to the abyss and whose only way to be released is by the hand of a lawful good paladin. (this is unknown to the player) For each creature with a soul (so undead and construct do not count) the soul is sent to the demon, and once the demon reach 100 souls, he'll be released (this is unknown to the player) Also whenever the paladin (or any other character) uses sense evil (or any similar effect to detect the presence of fiend/evil creature) the sword count as evil an evil creature (this the player realized it pretty quickly and they do suspect a cursed or something fishy, but they still use it since it's a freaking holy avenger, but they try lesser restoration, identified, legend lore, medicine check, augury, etc... to figure out what his happening and they are still searching what the curse do)
When do they get to find out? Is there a test that will show them, will they find out organically once the souls are collected? The dramatic irony is fun for you, but they need to find out too
Had a fun idea for "cursed" weapons, they're the classic type of weapon that could be seen as curse or blessing depending on who you are. They try to change your alignement, but they don't forcefully do it, instead they're alignement based curses that are just part of the weapon itself as normal magic, the weapon only works when wielded by someone of it's opposite alignement and it gains charges when said person commits acts that conform to it's alignement, those charges can be expended to increase things like AC or hit dice. The "cursed" aspect comes in when they amass too many charges then they start to ease into commiting acts based on that alignement, in terms , it slowly manipulates them into becoming that alignement for the sake of a reward. If they ever do completely turn then sadly the weapon becomes useless to them. Any voice or impulsions it was giving fades away, but they don't really notice it as they've just eased into it so much. Another short idea is a glass vorpal sword sold by a shady merhant, it breaks on crit sending glass shards into the wielder and has a higher crit window, it hides itself as a one time use vorpal, it's a troll item.
honestly having nearly every magic item have some minor curse could be a interesting way to spice up a campaign. things like the magic sword is bright pink or every time you use the ring you grow an inch of hair. a world where most items of power have strange side effects and players want to find out why some don't could be intriguing.
I use Elder Scrolls rules for magiclal enchanting in my campaign. Mortal souls are indestructible, so they can imbue the magic of the being into an object. The thing is, souls can be difficult to work with, and there is a cost when used. For example, an orc warlord volunteered to enchant the his sword, creating Elf Bane. In addition to being Greatsword +1, it has a bonus to hit and damage versus elves. But the hatred of the orc's soul in the blade makes it hated by elves. Attuning it gives a minus 2 Charisma modifier when dealing with elves and disadvantages on Charisma checks versus elves. Consumable magic items trap magical energy from The Weave. They don't require souls, but have limited usage. I use limited use wands like back in the day because I'm old.
Something to keep in mind, that it's a good idea to take the position that a curse can only be lifted as easily as it was placed. This way, even access to Remove Curse is useful for removing easily placed curses, such as mummies and 'one action' effects, but lingering curses such as those of a haunting ghost, hag, or magic item won't be casually removed by a mere long rest.
Another one I made: A necklace that absorbs ALL magic that would impact the wearer. Including healing magic. The curse? When you remove the necklace all the magic spells strike at once
Even if someone has done that before, its still a really cool idea for a magic item and its new to me. Especially if its not one of the cursed items that you can't remove. 1) It has a cool hook ability 2) It has two interesting drawbacks - (No beneficial magic, curse) 3) The curse drawback is an additional hook ability by itself - imagine queuing up a selection of spells to drop a ton of buffs or alpha strike when you take off the necklace in combat, but at the risk of being unable adapt if something goes wrong like getting hit with a teleport that'll waste your entire plan
I made a golden idol called the Gnome of Mischief that was made by an Arch Fey for their own amusement, once a player picked up the item they would randomly see doors every now and then, their minds would rationalize the existence of the door, and even be able to open it and see and beyond it but when they tried to walk through it they would walk into the wall which was immediately met with ethereal laughter. The effects can be removed with Remove Curse, or by convincing someone from stepping though the imaginary door, in the case of the latter the Gnome Idol would vanish and a random piece of treasure equal to the idol would appear in it's place.
Cursed items are definitely more fun when there's a risk/reward element to them. So many official items are just like "This appears to be a +1 longsword but when you attune to it... Surprise! It's actually a -1 longsword! And you can't use any other weapon until the cleric wastes a 3rd level spell slot at which point the item ceases to be a meaningful obstacle making the players feel like you just wasted their time and cheated them out of some cool treasure."
I think every magical item needs a risk/reward. (Insert Weapon) + (Insert Number) are boring. But let me tell of Shadow Blade. An enchanted blade that requires 3 hits in combat to attune. Each hit does 1d4 necrotic damage to the user. Once attuned, the users Max HP is lowered by the damage taken. But the blade becomes +1 magic sword. The user is also resistant to necrotic damage. When saving vs Necrotic damage, fails are 1/2 damage and successes are 0 damage.
We wouldn't say every item needs a risk/reward mechanic. Some minor magic items are fine being simple quality of life improvements. When you DO want to add a risk/reward mechanic to a non-cursed magic item, instead of attaching a drawback we find it more interesting to attach a benefit that only works sometimes. Maybe it's a sword that heals the user when they score a critical hit, or enemies it hits have to make a save or take extra damage, or it has a special effect that can be used once per day. What's important is that it creates interesting options.
@@trinitydalfae8478 except those options aren't interesting. From a meta standpoint, giving healing to a martial class is unbalanced. From an in game perspective, it works even less. Healing magic should not work through a weapon. Single use and recharge make no sense either. Magic is breaking the laws of science. There should be a price to use it.
@@lanefunai4714 Those examples are all canon examples that have been around for multiple editions. A vampiric sword deals an average of half a hit point per attack and heals the user by the same amount. That's not going to unbalance the game any more than a flat +1 damage, but a sporadic windfall of extra damage and more HP feels more interesting than consistently hitting for slightly more damage. Magic is as much a part of D&D as technology is the real world. For most the price is baked in in the form of a literal price in gold pieces based on the amount of training, resources, and crafting time needed to make the item. Cursed items are meant to be a notable exception to the norm. If you want a setting where power at a price is the default there's other systems actually made for that thing like Call of Cthulu or Shadowrun.
@@trinitydalfae8478 and there are dozens of videos and articles devoted to DMs who handed out those magical items, ruined their games with boring and repetitive combat via unbalanced power creep, and need to know how to fix it.
The party Rouge once got a cursed dagger that absorbed the life essence of those it stabbed, but from the secret curse, did a whole lot more to him. The first time he slept with it his entire essence was drained and while he didn’t immediately know, from that point on he was no longer playing his Rouge, he was playing the dagger that held is soul possessing the empty shell of his rouge. The possession only being able to connect to his body within 15ft. He learned that when he used it as a throwing knife, which as it passed 15ft he felt his consciousness slip away into the dagger as the rouge dropped. (He did after a few attempts learn he could and succeeded to possess the man he threw the dagger into, albeit much harder to control than his old empty husk.) He didn’t just get a cursed item, he BECAME a cursed item!
I like it how in the examples you gave, you didn't say "have pc use the remove curse spell." Using that spell once a pc can cast it, makes curse items at worse a minor nuisance. In your two articles on your website, there was no mention of crafting a curse item and having that item tailored to a pc flaw/weakness. Example. I have this pc who tends to be on the selfish side so I gave that pc this item that after attunement, anything that pc holds for at least one minute, would need to make a wisdom saving throw in order to drop or return said item.
Our players are generally all *very* willing to pick up a cursed item, so we rarely find a need to tailor make them for anyone in particular. But it's definitely a valid strategy, especially if you want to get a player more involved or challenge them in a different way.
The rules for the Remove Curse spell are a little too easy, especially for only a 3rd level spell. Cursed items (or curses in general) could have different difficulty levels which could require either the caster to have to beat some DC to free the person and/or it could require the caster use a higher level spell slot for the Remove Curse if it's a more powerful cursed item.
Curses should definitely exist on a spectrum of petty (may be cast on accident or by the untrained) to cosmic (you committed a crime against the universe itself, not even a god can fix this). And as the level of the curse increases the difficulty of removal also increases, a petty curse can be fixed by a simple casting of remove curse, a moderate one may need to be upcast multiple times a day to fully purge, and a high level one or sentient curse may need a major quest to resolve. (Gather exotic ingredients or information as knowledge of the origin of a curse helps address the root cause and makes removal easier) and of course a curse by a god requires you to get a god to fix it, probably by making ammends with the one you offended. I have put some thought into this as i wanted to make a character who starts with a very heavily curse object and their primary backstory quest is to tlremove the curse from the family heirloom. (Was a ring of fire protection + bonus to fire magic, now it sets you on fire and is hard to take off plus some RP flavor. Part of the lore is based on pointers in code, basically the ring itself isn't very powerful its just linked to a very large magic resevoir to fuel itself)
I had something like that @ 0:26 in my 4E variant campaign ... Chain Shirt of the Flawed Step +1 Property: has only a -1 armor check penalty; grants (mostly non-stacking) +1D6 to Stealth checks Encounter, minor, zone, close burst 5: creates a smoke cloud until the end of your next turn Smoke cloud is a lightly obscured zone that offers all within fully-stacking +1D6 Stealth checks Encounter, move, range 10, roll 1D6: line of sight teleport self to unoccupied square in range Roll 1D6: on 1, land prone with thump, suffer disadvantage & grant advantage until end of your next turn PS, there was an intentional anti-synergy to this item's two encounter powers (that was the curse) Landing prone with thump automatically breaks stealth, in additional to temporary combat problems
Ahoi! One of our players has a magical and intelligent dagger. He has a different attitude than the character and constantly tries to persuade her to behave differently or criticizes her. The Dungeon Master doesn't do that, he left it to another player at the table, which is very funny. Because the dagger does not know what is really appropriate or not and both have very entertaining wars of words.
Something I made my players love and hate. Longsword +3 of the mother in law. This attuned time is a normal +3 longsword until you miss. Then it cast Vicious Mockery on you (DC15) making it so you are more like to miss. Mind you we act out all Vicious Mockery so you see why it is funny. To remove it from your person you need a Mother in law (does not need to be yours) to give you a compliment. P.S. 3 of us are married in real life but I get along with my Mother in law lol.
Vorpal Necklase. This necklass gives you an AC of 22, but any critical hit instantly decapitates the wearer. Found on the body of a minibus who died surprisingly fast. Perfect for any Plasmoid.
Nice video, i just have some additional observations I would say The only reason players would keep a magic item that has greater cost than benefit is if they have to keep it. This comes usually because the item is kinda plot relevant (like the one ring), but can also be due to mind altering effects forcing the players to keep them like you mentioned. The only other reason to introduce a cursed item that isn't worth the benefit is as a tool to harm or injure someone. these are more like traps that look like magic items than actually useful stuff, but i would recommend using these extremely sparingly, since it can be annoying if every other magic item is a trap, and so the players just don't pick up magic items anymore, but it does keep players on their toes. Although keep in mind costs and risks can be different per player, depending on their willingness and their ability to circumvent items, curse or cost. A Ring that makes that the user cannot be targeted/cast or use any magic may be completely crippeling to a wizard or sorcerer, but can be a great benefit for non-magic user if they are willing to give up any buffs/heals cast on them, in exchange for getting magic immunity (Extreme example, but you get my point).
Sword of Compensation: Every time you successfully attack with this weapon, it grows larger, and adds an additional +1 to its damage rolls. Unfortunately, your intimate bits shrink relative to the growth of the weapon. The only way to undo the curse is to attune to a different weapon, and wait an equal amount of time you were attuned to the weapon for them to grow back to normal size.
@@saplingarcher7713 I would rule that this was a protection effect put on the weapon, to deter male users, or a prank. Some sorceress found it funny, because that oaf she gave it to, was always bragging about his sizes. Now, the item IS very useful in combat...
@@saplingarcher7713 well the sword may only attune to male or any being with compatible parts (any in betweens or maybe your like bender from Futurama and your antenna shrinks not to leave the warforged out)
@@saplingarcher7713 Intimate bits includes female intimate bits. It becomes tighter and smaller until only a urethra remains. Or worse: Even that shrinks away and you have to insert a metal tube to pee through.
One thing to think about is *why* an item is cursed, besides just being a trap for the unwary. A curse might be accidental - the result of an incompetent wizard, or the passage of time making the original magic fade. However, if the curse is deliberate, then the person who created the curse expects to get something out of it. A corrupt merchant cartel is selling cursed items that make their bearers hostile to their competitors. A hidden vampire is creating rings of protection that drain a few hit points worth of blood from the user each night and transfer it to the vampire's "wine" cellar. A knightly order is trying to gain influence by creating useful magical items that only work properly if you are sworn to their cause. What if magic rewards you for making tradeoffs? That means cursing your new magic item makes it more powerful than if you created it normally. Maybe strong magic naturally has a cost associated with it, so it's rare to find a powerful magic item that *doesn't* require you to make a ritual sacrifice to it every full moon. Or maybe it's just a quality issue - buying leftover student projects from the local Hogwarts is a great way to get a cheap magic item that might or might not work as advertised. Curses aside, I think "side effects" make things more interesting in general, especially if players are rewarded for their pains. Offer them cheap healing potions that heal just as effectively as their full-price counterparts, but they taste *awful* and give you nausea (and disadvantage on your rolls) for a couple rounds. Offer them magic items that require special conditions to be met before they work, like a magic sword that only activates if you shout "Praise Pelor!" at the top of your lungs (the rogue will love it, I promise). Perhaps the kingdom provides licensed adventurers with a free bag of holding - that automatically transfers 10% of their gold to the royal treasury. Smart adventurers just avoid putting gold in the bag, but that might get you nailed for tax evasion.
Based on recent internet shenanigans I've made a cursed item for a heist one shot. It's a bust statuette of an ape, with a plaque reading "Nathaniel Flemington Tender" at the base. Anyone who holds it has to pass a *very* easy wisdom save, or be charmed by the statuette. While charmed in this way they believe the statue to be one of a kind and immensely valuable, and will become obstinate and even violent to those who believe the bust to be anything but valuable. Anyone who passes the check sees it as a basic, mass produced plaster statue.
I made a Fiendish Ring of Mind Shielding that functioned more or less normally, save for the fact that the wearer could use Soul Cage instead of housing their own soul upon death. Soul Cage could only be used once every three days. Also when finished using a soul, the last bits of the essence would leave the ring and create a Spectre under the wearer's control, to a maximum of one. The item's curse applied to non-fiends when attuned. The wearer would have disadvantage on all saving throws against fiends, the rings benefits do not apply to fiendish magic or telepathy and they take a Long-Term Madness effect unless in the presence of a Demon Lord. In that circumstance, the cursed individual would roll for their madness effect on the Demon Lord's table, causing instant corruption. When the madness ran its course, a new effect is chosen immediately. The idea was to make an item of incredible power at incredible cost - the flipside is that Dispel Evil and Good's Break Enchantment removes the Fiendish influence and turns it into a normal Ring of Mind Shielding. So the players don't have to abide this if they don't want to, they just lose a lot of the ring's unique features. This is a long ass comment, I know, but I really like the potential this item has. An abyssal succubus could instantly make a new cult by charming a brothel owner and having them attune to this ring before showing them a Symbol of Malcanteth. That's just one example.
Had a MacGuffin Cursed Item a minor arc centered around: Hunger for Knowledge It looks like a regular belt, but behind it's buckle is a never satiated maw which eats books and other sorts of information. After a short while it excretes sustainable food equal to the value of information put into it. A small note with a secret would give a small snack, while a scientific book would yield entire feasts. The belt was given by Asmodeus himself to a Waterdeep community center to feed the poor, in exchange for the depletion of the Font of Knowledge (Temple of Oghma, one of the largest Library of the Sword Coast). Since the group I ran for consisted of a Cleric of Oghma and a Glutton it also served as a tool to pit them against each other. In the end the cleric destroyed the belt, but had to promise to feed the glutton meat every day.
Some of the most interesting curses are the ones where the curse is also its benefit. Ex: A Ring of Negligible Weight. The wearer weighs almost nothing. They don't sink into snow, can run across water (so long as they're constantly moving), take reduced falling damage, and don't trigger pressure plates. The downside is they weigh almost nothing, so they're trivially easy to drag around, and must make a strength save every time they're struck to avoid being moved by the force of that attack. Another example: An Earring of Gender Swap. For a cis person wearing it, being made to swap gender is, at best, inconvenient, and at worst traumatizing (gender dysphoria is real). To the earring's trans creator, though, it was a means of unlocking their true form. It's "cursed" to not be able to be removed, because the creator never considered removing it desirable. They had exactly what they wanted.
A good explanation for the presence of cursed items in a game is that the use of favors with evil beings could make making an item of a certain level of power much easier. Why spend 50 years and hundreds of thousands of gold to make a sword when you can ask a devil for help to cut it down to two months and a 100th of the gold. Of course, with that much time and money saved, the curse would be pretty strong.
Gary Gygax introduced cursed magic items in D&D as a way to lend uncertainty to the looting process. Though I am certain the concept came from his extensive familiarity with folklore and literature, the execution of introducing them (and I am not talking about Artifact level items) to the game left much to be desired. The creation of a magic item was described as difficult, lengthy, and costly, so without a VERY compelling reason, no one ought to be creating such baneful gear on a whim. It was implied that a botched item might have a baneful property attached to it (which still doesn't explain the "you're stuck with it until a sufficiently high level cleric casts Remove Curse on it" effect), or that something like a Necklace of Strangulation or a Cloak of Poisoning was intended as a deadly trap for someone specific (and seeking lore on who that might have been could add greatly to the plot). An item which was created as intended, but whose effects don't work so well for some random adventurer (like an item dedicated to Bubastis which attracts felines of ALL sizes) adds story appeal; a -2 sword, not so much. If it's just a handicap for a short while, it also handicaps the enjoyment of the game. Most of all, "cursed" items should be rare and impactful, not simply landmines for the players to avoid. ='[.]'=
I made the mistake of giving a cursed item to the least role-playing involved character hoping it would intice them to speak more. Instead, it only made them more nervous to speak and make choices in the group. I introduced a pool of curse removal, but now whenever the party becomes cursed, they just go back to the pool. I think I might make the pool dry up, but I'm worried they feel as if I am just punishing them.
That would be an incredibly valuable resource. Rather than take it away, have a rival faction take control of it and the area around it for their own motives.
Idea for Cursed Item: Cloak that makes you invisible and silent when worn but has a 10% chance of causing you to break wind each turn. There is a 90% chance that your exact location will be revealed and a 10% the fart with behave like a Cloudkill spell to everyone nearby and in the presence of open flame will produce a fireball centered around you :)
Reminds me a bit of the "Narrators invisibility cloak". It makes the wearer invisible but a spectral narrator voice loudly describes everything the wearer does 😁
I made a charm called the Lion's Pride Amulet. This gold amulet is the side profile of a roaring lion with ruby eyes. While attuned to the amulet, the wielder is filled with overwhelming confidence. You gain advantage on initiative rolls and attack rolls. You become immune to the frightened condition as nothing could possibly be threatening or frightening to one as mighty and glorious as you. However, your reckless confidence often puts you in harm's way and the words of others stroking your ego often lead to less than welcome situations. All attack rolls have advantage to hit you, you have disadvantage on insight checks and on saving throws to avoid being charmed. The only way to remove the amulet is by splashing the fresh blood of a lion on it
There are two cursed items that I thought of adding to my Inheritor, and each one has a fun benefit: The Black Bow: basically a moonblade in longbow form, but with a curse - when rolling a 19 or 20 on an attack roll, the wielder must make a Wisdom save as the bow taps into his rage, on a fail, the weapon crits with max damage, but the wielder alignment become more chaotic or lawfully evil. The Key of the Dark King: a sentient scythe that contains a corrupted celestial once tasked with leading redemption. Curse - Every dawn, the wielder must make a Wisdom Save as the angel tries to corrupt his mind. On a success, the DC lowers by 2 points, but on a fail, the DC raises by 3. When the DC save turns to 0, the angel's own curse is lifted, granting the weapon the properties of the Sword if Zariel, but if the DC turns to 20, the angel turns into an Enries, takes over the wielder and the weapon becomes a Mace of the Black Crown.
My favorite kind of cursed items that I like to make are the ones that are really strong but have huge downsides. For example my current favorite one is a revolver (was a sword. It’s an old west campaign) that slowly turns the user into a vampire as they use it. But it does the same amount of damage as a fireball spell with every attack when at full power and requires the target to make a save or take half damage
I had a Kobold NPC who was pumping out cursed bracers like mad, the party came across one, and when they used it (it improved their crit chance), it cut off their forearm! Fortunately they were in another plane, so the cursed bracer couldn’t do part 2 of the curse and teleport back to the Kobold, and they were able to reattach the limb the next time they leveled up. They later found the Kobold after several more levels of adventuring, and put a stop to his hand-lopping ways!
I remember one cursed item I made is directly tied to one of my characters The item is The Necklace of Zilryr, the necklace is a small one with a thin silver chain and a small little holding spot on it.. that little spot? It holds an eye, a piercing draconic eye that is blood red in coloration.. the eye belongs to an Ancient Black Dragon named Zilryr who was killed a good 1900 years ago and had his soul bound to this necklace, the eye acting as an anchor to keep him there. The current holder is a human named Isaac Howard, a barbarian who found it while exploring ancient ruins and thought it looked neat, so he started wearing it. A few years later he now wears a cloak over his left arm to hide the draconic scales and claws that are beginning to spread every time he experiences large amounts of stress. Zilryr can also be heard in Isaac's mind and anyone using a Detect Thoughts spell can actually hear him. Anyone who wears the necklace can also hear his voice but so far nobody has actually tried taking the necklace from him because its hella creepy and, as people have described it, "feels as though they're being watched". Also it has the distinct smell of a dragon and that's usually a smell that puts the fear of god into someone Edit: Forgot to actually. Explain why it's a good thing to wear the necklace- depending on the level of the wearer, they gain certain bonuses but it only works under certain conditions. Since I only ever intended for Isaac to wear it I haven't come up with what would happen if others wore it but.. Levels 1-5, it does literally nothing. Absolutely nothing. 6-10 however, on a d100 roll(determined by how much of the draconic curse is on Isaac's body, usually starts at 10% so a 10% chance of failing) as Isaac rages, there's that chance that instead *Zilryr* takes over, using the Young Black Dragon's variant of a Claw attack. 11-15 has the Adult Black Dragon claw attack, 16-20 has the Ancient Black Dragon claw attack. This may seem all well and good but if Isaac ever gets to 100% of the draconic curse then he completely succumbs to Zilryr's influence. Think of it like the lore behind Fatalis armor in Monster Hunter, if you wear it for too long theres the chance you'll be lost to Fatalis' influence and you go insane and potentially become a Fatalis.. in this case? Isaac would go insane and over a little while, become an Ancient Black Dragon.
That might actually be cool if you pull it off a npc that is just a creature covered in faces. I'd make the curse fairly easy to remove thiugh- and once gone, it's gone.
I just thought of a potently fun one. Basicly the ring of doom as a sword. "The sword of the barbarian king" The players find it in a cave where it lies cast down and scorched a troll or rat or something has gone mad with the presence of it and gained massive strength. One a player picks it up. it grants them power if the player is a barbarian they can rage more often. The player now has an extra +1 strength, advantage on strength checks, and disadvantge on wisdom checks and saves. The sword will slowly corrupt the player's trust of others. Over time the item will curse the player to strike out more, to kill, to become angry more. At some point the sword will begin emiting red lighting at the player's command. Not long after the sword will speak to the player driving him to conqure, to rule, and to destroy. If the player casts it down the curse will remain but lessen with absence until the sword is destroyed in some suitably epic way.
Well crap. You already suckered me with a cursed item in this video. The "Ring of the Emperor" came up 3:38 and I immediately went "oh so I can sneak armor into events past the guards just by intentionally triggering the curse?" and then I realized thats exactly the sort of thinking that would totally get me caught by any secret parts of the curse.
A magic necklace that turns health into spell slots, it only gives you spell slots not spells to use them with so if you use it to give yourself a 9th level spell slot and you don't have any9th level spells, like wish, then you can only really use it to upcast a spell you know. Also any spell slots you create with it disappear when you short rest of long rest. I'm not good with names so if anyone wants to come up with a name for this go ahead. 1st level = 5 HP 2nd level = 10 HP 3rd level = 15 HP 4th level = 20 HP 5th level = 25 HP 6th level = 30 HP 7th level = 35 HP 8th level = 40 HP 9th level = 45 HP
My favorite cursed item we ever received was a +3 invincible baguette. It was a +3 longsword, and a baguette that was so stale it could not be destroyed. Our fighter refused to use it. He eventually settled on a +3 sword that *reduced all death save rolls by 3* instead and that's so funny to me.
My favorite cursed item is the cursed ring of teleportation. The first time it is used, it works perfectly (as when the player tests it to make sure it isn't cursed). After that, each time it is used there is a cumulative 1 in 6 chance that it to teleport itself and all the user's clothing & equipment to the desired location, leaving the user behind to face the danger - naked.
Ah, see the trick to making them use the cursed item even if it's bad for them is to not give them the choice. Or at least, that was common in previous editions. Going on a quest to find a way to get rid of that cursed sword that was slowly killing the fighter the more he used it became a lot more important when the fighter was forced to draw that weapon and could not be parted with it. Many older cursed weapons especially had clauses that would state something like "If the character attempts to draw a different weapon, they find themselves drawing this weapon instead." Or "If they are parted from this weapon by any means, the next time they draw a weapon, it is somehow this weapon" A mean trick, to be sure, but it absolutely guarantees that the character cannot easily ignore the curse. Remove Curse was a terribly important spell to acquire ASAP.
Working on a magic item that has a minor curse, till it's United with another item. When both are used by the same PC the curse is negated and a more powerful effect is available to wearer.
I used a normal cursed item to create a backstory for a character that (DM-allowing, obviously) begins with it as part of her "inheritor" background. So a duchy badly wants their nobles killed off, since they are so insultable and boastful as to keep causing horrible wars with everyone. A rival kingdom heavy with archers approaches, and the people decide it a good idea to abandon the whole place to them and reapproach posing as refugees from elsewhere, for they'd probably do a better job of ruling it. So they pool together their collective wealth, selling off many of the arms and armor they were to enter battle with, to furnish the duchess (my character) with an "ancient magical family heirloom passed down for generations" that was conveniently "suddenly discovered", which is actually that shield that attracts all missiles. The plan is to use her "leading the charge" as a distraction so they can make it to the secret sewer passages and escape through them. So she charges out into the battle and quickly finds herself overwhelmed. Stuck in an entranceway with a bit of a roof to it, by a combination of physical pushback and the natural nerves of someone unused to battle, the townsfolks' plot begins to crumble as she doesn't advance forward like they'd hoped. Desperately they make a run for it but so out-of-range from the shield's magic, many get slaughtered. The conquerers engage in a wholesale slaughter and quickly make it through the front gates. Approaching the entranceway, they confront her. Dubious about her survival, this lower ranked front line (who were never expected to take the castle so easily) wrongly guess her to be an agent of theirs and allow her to pass on through their ranks toward the higher-ups. Doing so, she slips into an escape tunnel when momentarily unobservable, and crawls through the sewers to the outside. But, she still has a small farm village to get through on the other side. Only a small contingent has been sent to dispatch it - but still more than a match for them, given they are such a minor outlying hold. They are hit with a barrage of arrows as she emerges, all of which are magnetized to her shield. She observes for the first time in her life looks of genuine gratitude as villagers take shelter near her and escape with her. She's never seen such sincere emotion before and it melts her heart. Defeating the lowly cleanup squad with her standard nobility martial training, she walks the villagers on a trek to another place she knows from her map studies far enough away to be uninvolved in the conflict. There she bids them farewell and decides to keep the shield and actually use its curse to protect others, and heads to the nearest tavern newsboard to seek out an adventuring group.
I'd be a bit concerned if a sentient cursed item was able to alter the alignment of a player. Player character would make sense, but that'd be a really good DM if they were able to turn someone evil with an imaginary sword
I have a character that uses a sentient cursed sword, which is also their hexblade patron… …and the actual character. The sword takes over the mind of the wielder, so while the character is the wielder, I actually play the sword. Plus, easy way to explain a replacement character. Someone else just picked up the sword.
To be honest, I think all cursed items are "fair" only if all of their effects are revealed upon magical Identification. If you have the sword of Damocles over your head where the DM can fuck you over at any time, it ruins the trust between players and the game--even if a cursed item messing up your plans is entirely appropriate, one understands as a player that the DM is only as neutral as he wants to be at any given time, and if the weapon happens to do something completely unexpected at a give time, we *know* that the DM is behind this. I think a compromise where "This weapon has a hidden property which the Identify spell is not strong enough to reveal" might be fine. Also, I really like these items with completely predictable consequences like the Snail Boots and stuff like that, which feel more like downsides rather than punishments, which is probably the crux of the issue. Everyone likes to work around downsides, but no one likes to be punished.
A neclase that provides a restince to mental control spells but only becase the player is under the mental control of the item and the item is roling a contested chariama roll when ever somone trys to charm or otherwise control the player
Sword of the vampire king - the whole sword is made from blood, and can have it's shape change. However, it cannot be removed from the inventory, as it becomes a part of your soul, and all the blood that makes the sword is your own.
Something else to consider, is that if you try hard enough, you can make your PC a cursed item. Say, a short-sword with a mind and will of its own that was mistakenly picked up by a kenku, and now the player (who is a sword) has to keep switching wielders because their bodies aren't strong enough to contain it, and they keep dying of minor and major organ failure. Sort of like a Symbiote now that I think about it. (If the original creature's mind isn't completely overwritten anyway, but unless the player is a good actor, that would be hard to pull off, playing two characters at once with a relationship like that.)
Hmm, how aboouuuut.... a cursed sword that seems to possess you and steal your soul over time - but actually it's slowly swapping its soul for yours, and in time, when your soul is completely within the sword, you can perform the same trick on the next wielder. Could see that being a back-door resurrection into a body upgrade. Or downgrade. BWAHAHAHAHAAA
The Gem of Bee bop: a simple unassuming star-shaped aquamarine gem that fits into the palm of your hand. You are told that it's a good luck charm upon a History check. However, upon touching it the next time your character goes to speak they can nolonger talk normally instead they now can only communicate in "Beeps bops bo and boops". And have the voice of a child. And only when givin' a single kiss on the forehead by a hag or shattered. Will the curse be broken
Long ago I gave my players a cursed Scythe, though whether it actually counted as a curse or not was a matter of some debate. On a natural 20, or on a coup-de-gras, wielder and target both die without a save, ignoring any and all effects that might normally prevent this. Resurrecting _either_ requires resurrecting _both._ If either refuses to return, the other can't either. The BBEG had laid siege to the gates of the underworld, allowing him to use True Resurrection on his most powerful minions without the material cost. One by one, the original party all died to the scythe, souls locked in immortal combat with the souls of the BBEG's lieutenants, depriving him of their support. The players cycled out characters as they went, the new up-and-coming heroes learning from the experienced heroes and fighting alongside them. Then, finally, the last member of that original party used it on the BBEG himself.
I almost 1-for-1 copied this from the video game Dishonored, but I put a heart in a hag's lair that at first, just lore drops about people and things they point it at or ask it about. However, the longer it's in their possession, the more it will start to reveal secrets the other party members are keeping from them. Dark pasts, skeletons in their closet, etc. In addition, it will also randomly say creepy things offhand, such as "I'm so cold... will you hold me?" And "where's the rest of my body...?"
Keep in mind, don’t make every item you come across cursed. Sprinkle in a handful maybe 3 over the course of a campaign. And in general I prefer when my players are aware of the fact it’s cursed and let them choose if they want it. It encourages me to make items that have a substantial benefit.
My party has an alcoholic monk who loves to brew his own booze. I gave him a modified Amulet of the Drunkard. The base version of the amulet will heal the wearer 4d4 + 4 HP once per day when the wearer drinks a mug of beer or takes a swig of liquor. I added a curse to this, where every time he uses the amulet he has to roll a d20. If he rolls a 1, he becomes cursed. While cursed, he must use his action on each of his turns to take another drink until he either runs out of booze, passes out, or someone casts remove curse on him. He can still use his bonus action and movement as normal. He hasn't triggered the curse yet, but one of these days he's going to be low on health while fighting a dragon and it'll get him.
I tend to home brew all magic items (other than potions) in my games, and the idea of any magic item being a "mixed blessing" has always appealed to me. I have thrown sentient magic items at the party an they have altered the course of player arcs in the best ways. Sentient items are also a great way to build up a smaller party, adding an "unreliable narrator" to their discussions.
Recently grabbed two items with aging curses aged like 40 years good thing im a young elf lol Also found a tablet of petrifaction high dc save gonna smack the bbeg with it
It's interesting how some cursed items have changed over the years due to memes and more thoughtful examination. It used to be that the cursed girdle that turns your PC into the opposite sex was solely a tacky joke, but then our societal understanding of sex and gender became more nuanced and intricate and people started discussing things like "What does it say about the people who made this, because it's kinda misogynist to think a man becoming a woman is a curse? What if the PC is trans, then it's not really a curse at all? What if the PC is non-binary, there isn't really an opposite the curse can change them to? Knowing how rough gender dysphoria feels, isn't inflicting it on a PC as a joke kind of messed up?" and we started getting stories about PCs actively seeking the belt out or not breaking the "curse" because they felt more comfortable in their new form, and finally dispensing with the idea of it as a punitive curse entirely and just having magic items a PC (or NPC) can use to affirm their gender willingly. And honestly, I think the game is better for it in that particular regard.
If you want to give a cursed item to a player but also not reveal that there is a curse on it, just have a master thief give them a stolen magic item and have the owner recognize it sometime later and seek retaliation for the player "stealing it"
Normal sentient cursed items: "Devour... I demand blood! Sacrifices! Kill!!!" My sentient cursed items: "You're not really very talkative. I find that really boring about you. I once had a user, Geoff - spelled the weird way - who always included me in conversations and all. One time, we were on a meeting with th-" **rants for 50 minutes**
The Helm of Unyielding Protection: -Its a crusader style helmet that is 100% indestructible and its magic is completely unyielding in the goal of protecting the wearer. -It adds +1 to AC and its magic shields your mind granting you advantage on resisting mind control or mind tricks, be it zone of truth, calm person or some other mind affecting spell. -Since it is a full helmet it is hard to hear and see out of it and while wearing it you have disadvantage on all perception checks. -It doesn't require any armor proficiencies as it is only a simple metal helmet aside from its magic. -Speaking of which, the helms magic is UNYIELDING in its function. Whoever enchanted it did a poor job and because of that once it is equipped it cannot be removed. Even if the wearer is dead it will stay firmly attached unless whatever is inside is fully disintegrated. Parties Ranger: "Wow cool helmet!" _Foompf_ "Ew it smells." _tug_ "And its stuck!" Rangers high perception now crippled. lol
My favorite is making a ring that the player tries their hardest to figure out what it does, but then says "fuck it" and puts it on anyways. It then turns their hair a different color and the ring won't come off. It offers no benefit, and the curse isn't so bad that the player feels cheated.
The ring of night hag lust gives the player gives thieves skills at 4 levels higher than the player but the player must do a successful pick-pockets to use the other skills the curse is that it teleports a night hag to the players plane each time the rings powers are used, the hags will hunt down the player and force him to father children with her. I used the ring as GM every time the thief skipped the gaming session. By the time the players had caught on they had used he ring 30+ times/days I did not let the night hags catch up to the players till they were high enough level to fight the night hags. The ring of magic use summons dragons, The ring of clerical prayer summons demons or devil was a necessary evil as a GM and I was able to use the curses they had summoned when they were higher levels to put some teeth into play
TLDR: DM gave me a cursed ax and it's become a plot point for my character's arc. Playing a barbarian who is switching (and now in the campaign switched) to a Paladin of Redemption. His rage got the better of him and he killed innocent people during a mental breakdown. Through guilt and the party being mostly good/neutral aligned characters and a young child player (6-7) he began a redemption arc. Abandoning the survival of the fittest and might makes right attitude of tiamat in favor of Bahamut's justice. Anyways, the campaign is going on and we're starting to consider magic weapons. I find a +1 Greataxe which happens to also increase my hitpoints... DO a quest to make the price more affordable and pay like 300gp for it. First member of the party with a magic weapon. Great, gonna be able to bypass damage reduction now... Until I got smacked i the face by the next combat. DM asks me to make a wisdom save. fail. He tells me that the barbarian rage though repressed continues to be kindled by the pain of being struck, and reinforced by the burning rage i feel in the axe, and the laughter of Tiamat echoes in my mind. Berserker Greataxe was the magic weapon. The DM is using the DC to basically measure how closely I am following the Redemption paladins' oaths, and bahamut's ethics. We are now 13th level and I've nearly got the curse's challenge completed, just need to do an act which will reduce the DC 1 more time and it will remove the curse and I'll get a new magical artifact/boon (according to the dm.)
I like the idea of sentient cused items, but they're almost always evil. I like the idea of a cursed item that is absolutely good alined, but can't un-posses someone on their own. Having a really fancy looking sword screaming "Don't pick me up, don't pick me up!" Seems like a fun encounter/trap for reckless players.
Invisible isn't gone therefore if an exhibitionism the ring of the empower would just add shock to bad guys as to them some crazy naked persons fighting them and npcs a crazy nude shopping etc depending on moral dress codes in world this could be meh or call the guards level of dress.
Why the giant badass god-slaying sword always gotta make you do an Arthas? Also, I'm writing a book from the perspective of the sentient sword. ... It's really dumb... XD
A bracelet, which speaks out loud every time character shakes hands with someone, telling that person what was done by those hands 24 hours ago. Also cant be removed and handshakes are enforced by bracelet will - DC 14 wisdom save. As a benefit just measly +5 to any sleight of hands checks. Party rogue loved them and player went along with roleplaying when something dirty was told out. Party sorcereress... Wasnt a fan of item, especially after bracelet told everyone about their romance
P.S. Also we use a homerule about remove curse and other such spells - they dispel/weaken benefits of a cursed item too or may even fail if curse level is higher than spell used
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
I love the idea of sentient cursed items. It's a weapon, an NPC, and a plot device all in one simple package!
When I gm I noticed I skimp out on magic items. But then when the party gets one oh boy usually it's a little more powerful then what is recommended.
One time my party (around level 4) got hold of a +3 sentient shorts word. It was really stupid, but it wanted to be helpful (trying to discypher q scroll but cutting it to realizingit cant read), and was always loud and needed to be consistently entertained.
The party generally didn't like this sword except the monk so the 2 became friends. During a chase scene one of tge other pc's took the sword and threw it away. The sword felt abandoned betrayed and he needed to save his friend the monk from these bad people.
A few levels later after investigating why these people start attacking them only to find it was tge sword wanting to get his friend away from these bad people who were killing people. Most of the PC's started making fun of the monk. Normally I wouldn't allow PVP but I will say most of the party knows what a level 7 pure monk can do do a bunch of damaged squishy characters with a +3 shortsword.
Now imagine, an item that makes YOU the sentience in it, turning you into a cursed item yourself. That would probably suck for the pc tho...
I’ve had players ask me “why would anyone create a cursed item”. I explained to them that the time between the codification of any new programming language and the first virus written to exploit that language is measured in days, sometimes hours.
Because;
1.) its funny
2.) A good prevention against thieves (good luck stealing my magic items if you are turned into a sheep after picking up the scarf)
3.) To archive a goal (like...say....curse someone)
4.) To prove your skill
5.) Spite
6.) Boredom (the world is filled with immortals and near immortals beeings ....why wouldn't anyone just make something to see the world burn a little bit)
7.) Lack of Skill (curses as a unwanted side effect)
8.) Because balance reasons (can get more Ooommpf out of the wanted effect by adding something negative somehow)
9.) The curse is a boon in the eyes of the wearer
10.) Punishment / Enslavement of normal or superpowered beings
11.) Tax fraud
12.) for the evilz
13.) Safety measurements (eighter the "only one with x abilities would be able to wield it because for everyone else the curse is to strong", "I dont need to breath but others do, so my mighty magic ring will take away the ability to breath lets see how they like that" ,"only in the most desperate times anyone would ever dare to use its powers" or "only the chosen one will pick the right weapon while everyone else will fall for the cursed copies")
14.) Degradation over time (former beneficial effect gotten corrupted/reversed)
15.) Sabotage from another party
16.) the Wish Spell
17.) evil seeping into an former beneficial artifact (similar to degradation but with more evil choosing to actively do things)
18.) Gods or other mighty beings interfering and cursing an item for some reason ("f that sword that killed my champion, who ever picks that up stinks now")
19.) Incentive for someone to archiving a goal in time
re-roll on a 20
@@azurblau4144 Nice analysis!
especially if some noble tried to force some great magic craftsmen/blacksmith to make them something especially the more subtle curses
also asassinations
or national/diplomatic insults giving them a cursed item as a fuck u
@@kellynolen498 That’s excellent reasoning.
The curse could also be the trap part of a mouse trap, and the beneficial boon is the bait. Then the curse maker takes their item back and takes the souls or whatever out the item as profit.
One I am using in a campaign is a ring of luck, that when worn the wearer is convinced it is a lucky ring and cannot be convinced otherwise. Anyone who touches the ring must make a wisdom saving throw or realize how “lucky” this ring is and be enamored by it. The ring realistically adds no buffs but the wearer refuses to believe it
Ring of Macguffin
Ring of Obecalp (placebo spelled backwards)
(additionally confers to the user an inability to spell things backwards)
I had a very similar idea but as well as the enamored effect I would have actually had the ring have a mechanical effect on their luck. I was thinking of making it so you roll 3 dice instead of 2 for when you roll with advantage or disadvantage. Making your luck and unluck both a lot more wild.
One of my best cursed items is "The Devil Axe"
It's a +1 greataxe, on a crit you deal an extra 1d12 necrotic damage, but on a nat 1 you crit yourself...
Our Barbarian had a lot of fun with this weapon
DND x Fire Emblem
Meet The Scout
Just saw a +2 elven bow that was imbued with the spirit of a great elven bowmaster. +2 to hit +2 to damage. Once a day the character can brace themselves for half a combat round and then fire one arrow that they have advantage with and does normally double damage. They can see through illusory protections, like mirror image or cloak of displacement to hit at the actual target.
Every time the PC misses with this bow they get harangued by a voice in their head. The voice gets louder and more intrusive and distracting and after three consecutive misses the PC must roll a 15 Wisdom check or suffer disadvantage while using this bow. They need to hit with the bow or not use the bow for an hour to remove the disadvantage and damp down the angry elvish voice in their head. The spirit of the elven bowmaker is in the bow and is not impressed with failure and incompetents who ruin the reputation of his fabulous bow.
Probably will attempt to get the bow carrier to enter archery contests and heaven help the PC who loses.
Sentient weapons are so much fun, and I love using them. Especially giving a weapon with amazing bonuses to the Barbarian and see what happens.
You know Barbarians can't say no to something that hits harder.
@@masterthedungeon Exactly!
One of my players bought a suspiciously-inexpensive suit of magical armor. It turned out to be cursed, not out of any sort of malice but simply out of the ineptitude of the one who'd forged it.
That's actually really funny, what was the curse?
@@charliesnark6535 Vulnerability to two damage types. I forget which. Bludgeoning and piercing, maybe?
That's an Armor of Vulnerability; *chef kiss
@@InquisitorThorn Yes, yes it is.
@@kyleward3914 man what type of insecurity, inexperience and level of bad luck let's you make some armor of vulnerability
I think that it's important for the super cursed items to have a way for characters to escape it. That way you're not just killing a PC without them knowing. If it steals the user's soul, for example, then make it a slow process that can be noticed down the line.
Always remember to take into account player ingenuity.
Our DM gave us a cursed item that was more of a trap - a cursed sphere of gold that would rapidly heat up when being moved by a willing creature.
It would start dealing fire damage, which would rapidly increase over time. It also had other effects (like an alarm when placed in a bag of holding), but that was the main point.
While another player wasn’t paying attention, my character quickly dropped it into their backpack. Because they weren’t ‘willing’ (they didn’t know it was in there), it didn’t heat up. My character later used this to self sacrifice nuke an entire kobold colony in one huge explosion, saving the party and our favourite NPC.
One small trap turned into a *very* powerful weapon.
DM's that use kobolds as antagonists are evil-aligned IRL.
@@theuncalledfor kobolds can be antagonists if they aren't all naturally evil.
Using any race as naturally evil is shit (unless the species is gnomes) but using any race for antagonists is something to be expected at some point.
@@somewhereelse1235
Well this was five months ago so I don't know exactly how I meant that back then.
I agree that having antagonists that are kobolds is okay, but I hate it when all kobolds are treated as antagonists, or when the only kobolds you ever come across are antagonistic.
My favourite cursed item I’ve come up with has got to be a set of armour that doesn’t seem like much on the surface, gives better than average AC to the wearer but can’t be removed unless being specifically given to another character.
Until the wearer rolls a natural 1, wherein the piece of armour will suddenly detach itself and jump onto the nearest object that can wear it. In combat, it usually attaches to the closest enemy, in a social situation, you have to explain why this barkeep is suddenly wearing your hat.
On plot idea I had was a classic cursed item destruction quest. You know the one, take the ring to murder and throw it into a volcano type deal. But there is a twist.
See, the Tarrasque's digestive tract is the most destructive force in D&D, artifact level items and potentially even gods ce be digested and destroyed by the beast's gut.
The Tarrasque is our volcano in this case. So the party has to find the Tarrasque, get to it, and throw the item down it's throat without getting eaten themselves, all while dealing with the villainous forces who are pursuing the item for their own nefarious ends.
An idea that crossed my mind is a blessed item that curses those who use it (may be sentient) for evil, and vice versa.
It might be a good redemption catalyst for any players who aren't necessarily good aligned.
I do like the idea of having an epic sword found under mysterious circumstances whose curse seems almost negligible until you come up against a baddie who just grins and says, "Sic'em, Harold," at which point the sword flies out of the wielder's hand and begins attacking the party. It had been a plant the whole time, and maybe even enchanted to let the baddie listen in on the heroes' plans.
Thanks for making these. been watching and learning quite a bit lately!
Thank you!
We've been a fan of your Dwarf Fortress content over the years as well! From one content creator to another, keep up the good work!
In the campaign I played in, our DM gave my character a sentient sword who used to be human until he was betrayed by his wife by cursing him into the form of a sword forever.
The sword kept in encouraging my character to hunt down his traitorous wife and kill her, while my character kept using it to save lives and talking to the sword about its old life, hoping to make friends with it and convert it to good.
What if his wife was some powerful demon the PCs had to fight to save the world??
@@hothog8261 While that would be interesting, sadly it wasn't it. She was just human woman who knew magic and wanted to leave him for another man.
My favourite homebrew cursed item:
A fake holy avenger:
The sword got an aura that if divination spells (like identified or Legend Lore) are used to identify it reveals it as being a holy avenger that only a lawful good paladin can attune to.
When used by the player it does everything a holy avenger would do
The curse:
The sword was crafted and bound to a demon, banished to the abyss and whose only way to be released is by the hand of a lawful good paladin. (this is unknown to the player)
For each creature with a soul (so undead and construct do not count) the soul is sent to the demon, and once the demon reach 100 souls, he'll be released (this is unknown to the player)
Also whenever the paladin (or any other character) uses sense evil (or any similar effect to detect the presence of fiend/evil creature) the sword count as evil an evil creature (this the player realized it pretty quickly and they do suspect a cursed or something fishy, but they still use it since it's a freaking holy avenger, but they try lesser restoration, identified, legend lore, medicine check, augury, etc... to figure out what his happening and they are still searching what the curse do)
Great idea
When do they get to find out? Is there a test that will show them, will they find out organically once the souls are collected? The dramatic irony is fun for you, but they need to find out too
Had a fun idea for "cursed" weapons, they're the classic type of weapon that could be seen as curse or blessing depending on who you are. They try to change your alignement, but they don't forcefully do it, instead they're alignement based curses that are just part of the weapon itself as normal magic, the weapon only works when wielded by someone of it's opposite alignement and it gains charges when said person commits acts that conform to it's alignement, those charges can be expended to increase things like AC or hit dice. The "cursed" aspect comes in when they amass too many charges then they start to ease into commiting acts based on that alignement, in terms , it slowly manipulates them into becoming that alignement for the sake of a reward. If they ever do completely turn then sadly the weapon becomes useless to them. Any voice or impulsions it was giving fades away, but they don't really notice it as they've just eased into it so much.
Another short idea is a glass vorpal sword sold by a shady merhant, it breaks on crit sending glass shards into the wielder and has a higher crit window, it hides itself as a one time use vorpal, it's a troll item.
honestly having nearly every magic item have some minor curse could be a interesting way to spice up a campaign. things like the magic sword is bright pink or every time you use the ring you grow an inch of hair. a world where most items of power have strange side effects and players want to find out why some don't could be intriguing.
I use Elder Scrolls rules for magiclal enchanting in my campaign. Mortal souls are indestructible, so they can imbue the magic of the being into an object. The thing is, souls can be difficult to work with, and there is a cost when used.
For example, an orc warlord volunteered to enchant the his sword, creating Elf Bane. In addition to being Greatsword +1, it has a bonus to hit and damage versus elves. But the hatred of the orc's soul in the blade makes it hated by elves. Attuning it gives a minus 2 Charisma modifier when dealing with elves and disadvantages on Charisma checks versus elves.
Consumable magic items trap magical energy from The Weave. They don't require souls, but have limited usage. I use limited use wands like back in the day because I'm old.
Something to keep in mind, that it's a good idea to take the position that a curse can only be lifted as easily as it was placed. This way, even access to Remove Curse is useful for removing easily placed curses, such as mummies and 'one action' effects, but lingering curses such as those of a haunting ghost, hag, or magic item won't be casually removed by a mere long rest.
Another one I made:
A necklace that absorbs ALL magic that would impact the wearer.
Including healing magic.
The curse? When you remove the necklace all the magic spells strike at once
I’ve seen this before.
@@PleasentDddd :(
@@robertshort9487 I mean no offense. But I think someone else has come up with an item that works the same way,
@@PleasentDddd Ecclesiastes 1:9 shrug
Even if someone has done that before, its still a really cool idea for a magic item and its new to me. Especially if its not one of the cursed items that you can't remove.
1) It has a cool hook ability
2) It has two interesting drawbacks - (No beneficial magic, curse)
3) The curse drawback is an additional hook ability by itself - imagine queuing up a selection of spells to drop a ton of buffs or alpha strike when you take off the necklace in combat, but at the risk of being unable adapt if something goes wrong like getting hit with a teleport that'll waste your entire plan
Such an impressive job on this topic. I really liked the ideas presented and delivery.
Thanks so much!
I made a golden idol called the Gnome of Mischief that was made by an Arch Fey for their own amusement, once a player picked up the item they would randomly see doors every now and then, their minds would rationalize the existence of the door, and even be able to open it and see and beyond it but when they tried to walk through it they would walk into the wall which was immediately met with ethereal laughter.
The effects can be removed with Remove Curse, or by convincing someone from stepping though the imaginary door, in the case of the latter the Gnome Idol would vanish and a random piece of treasure equal to the idol would appear in it's place.
Cursed items are definitely more fun when there's a risk/reward element to them. So many official items are just like "This appears to be a +1 longsword but when you attune to it... Surprise! It's actually a -1 longsword! And you can't use any other weapon until the cleric wastes a 3rd level spell slot at which point the item ceases to be a meaningful obstacle making the players feel like you just wasted their time and cheated them out of some cool treasure."
I think every magical item needs a risk/reward. (Insert Weapon) + (Insert Number) are boring.
But let me tell of Shadow Blade. An enchanted blade that requires 3 hits in combat to attune. Each hit does 1d4 necrotic damage to the user. Once attuned, the users Max HP is lowered by the damage taken. But the blade becomes +1 magic sword. The user is also resistant to necrotic damage. When saving vs Necrotic damage, fails are 1/2 damage and successes are 0 damage.
We wouldn't say every item needs a risk/reward mechanic. Some minor magic items are fine being simple quality of life improvements.
When you DO want to add a risk/reward mechanic to a non-cursed magic item, instead of attaching a drawback we find it more interesting to attach a benefit that only works sometimes. Maybe it's a sword that heals the user when they score a critical hit, or enemies it hits have to make a save or take extra damage, or it has a special effect that can be used once per day. What's important is that it creates interesting options.
@@trinitydalfae8478 except those options aren't interesting. From a meta standpoint, giving healing to a martial class is unbalanced. From an in game perspective, it works even less. Healing magic should not work through a weapon. Single use and recharge make no sense either.
Magic is breaking the laws of science. There should be a price to use it.
@@lanefunai4714 Those examples are all canon examples that have been around for multiple editions. A vampiric sword deals an average of half a hit point per attack and heals the user by the same amount. That's not going to unbalance the game any more than a flat +1 damage, but a sporadic windfall of extra damage and more HP feels more interesting than consistently hitting for slightly more damage.
Magic is as much a part of D&D as technology is the real world. For most the price is baked in in the form of a literal price in gold pieces based on the amount of training, resources, and crafting time needed to make the item. Cursed items are meant to be a notable exception to the norm. If you want a setting where power at a price is the default there's other systems actually made for that thing like Call of Cthulu or Shadowrun.
@@trinitydalfae8478 and there are dozens of videos and articles devoted to DMs who handed out those magical items, ruined their games with boring and repetitive combat via unbalanced power creep, and need to know how to fix it.
The party Rouge once got a cursed dagger that absorbed the life essence of those it stabbed, but from the secret curse, did a whole lot more to him. The first time he slept with it his entire essence was drained and while he didn’t immediately know, from that point on he was no longer playing his Rouge, he was playing the dagger that held is soul possessing the empty shell of his rouge. The possession only being able to connect to his body within 15ft. He learned that when he used it as a throwing knife, which as it passed 15ft he felt his consciousness slip away into the dagger as the rouge dropped. (He did after a few attempts learn he could and succeeded to possess the man he threw the dagger into, albeit much harder to control than his old empty husk.)
He didn’t just get a cursed item, he BECAME a cursed item!
That's interesting, and could be considered a boon rather than a curse. Depending on the person.
Rogue*
I like it how in the examples you gave, you didn't say "have pc use the remove curse spell." Using that spell once a pc can cast it, makes curse items at worse a minor nuisance.
In your two articles on your website, there was no mention of crafting a curse item and having that item tailored to a pc flaw/weakness. Example. I have this pc who tends to be on the selfish side so I gave that pc this item that after attunement, anything that pc holds for at least one minute, would need to make a wisdom saving throw in order to drop or return said item.
Our players are generally all *very* willing to pick up a cursed item, so we rarely find a need to tailor make them for anyone in particular. But it's definitely a valid strategy, especially if you want to get a player more involved or challenge them in a different way.
The rules for the Remove Curse spell are a little too easy, especially for only a 3rd level spell. Cursed items (or curses in general) could have different difficulty levels which could require either the caster to have to beat some DC to free the person and/or it could require the caster use a higher level spell slot for the Remove Curse if it's a more powerful cursed item.
Curses should definitely exist on a spectrum of petty (may be cast on accident or by the untrained) to cosmic (you committed a crime against the universe itself, not even a god can fix this).
And as the level of the curse increases the difficulty of removal also increases, a petty curse can be fixed by a simple casting of remove curse, a moderate one may need to be upcast multiple times a day to fully purge, and a high level one or sentient curse may need a major quest to resolve. (Gather exotic ingredients or information as knowledge of the origin of a curse helps address the root cause and makes removal easier) and of course a curse by a god requires you to get a god to fix it, probably by making ammends with the one you offended.
I have put some thought into this as i wanted to make a character who starts with a very heavily curse object and their primary backstory quest is to tlremove the curse from the family heirloom. (Was a ring of fire protection + bonus to fire magic, now it sets you on fire and is hard to take off plus some RP flavor. Part of the lore is based on pointers in code, basically the ring itself isn't very powerful its just linked to a very large magic resevoir to fuel itself)
I had something like that @ 0:26 in my 4E variant campaign ... Chain Shirt of the Flawed Step +1
Property: has only a -1 armor check penalty; grants (mostly non-stacking) +1D6 to Stealth checks
Encounter, minor, zone, close burst 5: creates a smoke cloud until the end of your next turn
Smoke cloud is a lightly obscured zone that offers all within fully-stacking +1D6 Stealth checks
Encounter, move, range 10, roll 1D6: line of sight teleport self to unoccupied square in range
Roll 1D6: on 1, land prone with thump, suffer disadvantage & grant advantage until end of your next turn
PS, there was an intentional anti-synergy to this item's two encounter powers (that was the curse)
Landing prone with thump automatically breaks stealth, in additional to temporary combat problems
Ahoi! One of our players has a magical and intelligent dagger. He has a different attitude than the character and constantly tries to persuade her to behave differently or criticizes her. The Dungeon Master doesn't do that, he left it to another player at the table, which is very funny. Because the dagger does not know what is really appropriate or not and both have very entertaining wars of words.
Something I made my players love and hate. Longsword +3 of the mother in law. This attuned time is a normal +3 longsword until you miss. Then it cast Vicious Mockery on you (DC15) making it so you are more like to miss. Mind you we act out all Vicious Mockery so you see why it is funny. To remove it from your person you need a Mother in law (does not need to be yours) to give you a compliment.
P.S. 3 of us are married in real life but I get along with my Mother in law lol.
I know a player I could have given that to. He moved away after his divorce.
Vorpal Necklase. This necklass gives you an AC of 22, but any critical hit instantly decapitates the wearer. Found on the body of a minibus who died surprisingly fast. Perfect for any Plasmoid.
Leaving a comment for the algorithm. Great channel, great material, please continue
Nice video, i just have some additional observations
I would say The only reason players would keep a magic item that has greater cost than benefit is if they have to keep it.
This comes usually because the item is kinda plot relevant (like the one ring), but can also be due to mind altering effects forcing the players to keep them like you mentioned.
The only other reason to introduce a cursed item that isn't worth the benefit is as a tool to harm or injure someone. these are more like traps that look like magic items than actually useful stuff, but i would recommend using these extremely sparingly, since it can be annoying if every other magic item is a trap, and so the players just don't pick up magic items anymore, but it does keep players on their toes.
Although keep in mind costs and risks can be different per player, depending on their willingness and their ability to circumvent items, curse or cost.
A Ring that makes that the user cannot be targeted/cast or use any magic may be completely crippeling to a wizard or sorcerer, but can be a great benefit for
non-magic user if they are willing to give up any buffs/heals cast on them, in exchange for getting magic immunity (Extreme example, but you get my point).
Sword of Compensation: Every time you successfully attack with this weapon, it grows larger, and adds an additional +1 to its damage rolls. Unfortunately, your intimate bits shrink relative to the growth of the weapon. The only way to undo the curse is to attune to a different weapon, and wait an equal amount of time you were attuned to the weapon for them to grow back to normal size.
Be me, a woman: "I see this as an absolute win"
Well, unless having negative size becomes a detriment. Then we have a problem.
@@saplingarcher7713 I would rule that this was a protection effect put on the weapon, to deter male users, or a prank. Some sorceress found it funny, because that oaf she gave it to, was always bragging about his sizes. Now, the item IS very useful in combat...
@@saplingarcher7713 well the sword may only attune to male or any being with compatible parts (any in betweens or maybe your like bender from Futurama and your antenna shrinks not to leave the warforged out)
@@saplingarcher7713
Intimate bits includes female intimate bits. It becomes tighter and smaller until only a urethra remains.
Or worse: Even that shrinks away and you have to insert a metal tube to pee through.
PP is Cringe, Thing to large to be called a sword is based.
One thing to think about is *why* an item is cursed, besides just being a trap for the unwary. A curse might be accidental - the result of an incompetent wizard, or the passage of time making the original magic fade. However, if the curse is deliberate, then the person who created the curse expects to get something out of it. A corrupt merchant cartel is selling cursed items that make their bearers hostile to their competitors. A hidden vampire is creating rings of protection that drain a few hit points worth of blood from the user each night and transfer it to the vampire's "wine" cellar. A knightly order is trying to gain influence by creating useful magical items that only work properly if you are sworn to their cause.
What if magic rewards you for making tradeoffs? That means cursing your new magic item makes it more powerful than if you created it normally. Maybe strong magic naturally has a cost associated with it, so it's rare to find a powerful magic item that *doesn't* require you to make a ritual sacrifice to it every full moon. Or maybe it's just a quality issue - buying leftover student projects from the local Hogwarts is a great way to get a cheap magic item that might or might not work as advertised.
Curses aside, I think "side effects" make things more interesting in general, especially if players are rewarded for their pains. Offer them cheap healing potions that heal just as effectively as their full-price counterparts, but they taste *awful* and give you nausea (and disadvantage on your rolls) for a couple rounds. Offer them magic items that require special conditions to be met before they work, like a magic sword that only activates if you shout "Praise Pelor!" at the top of your lungs (the rogue will love it, I promise). Perhaps the kingdom provides licensed adventurers with a free bag of holding - that automatically transfers 10% of their gold to the royal treasury. Smart adventurers just avoid putting gold in the bag, but that might get you nailed for tax evasion.
Your work is amazing thank you.
Based on recent internet shenanigans I've made a cursed item for a heist one shot. It's a bust statuette of an ape, with a plaque reading "Nathaniel Flemington Tender" at the base. Anyone who holds it has to pass a *very* easy wisdom save, or be charmed by the statuette. While charmed in this way they believe the statue to be one of a kind and immensely valuable, and will become obstinate and even violent to those who believe the bust to be anything but valuable. Anyone who passes the check sees it as a basic, mass produced plaster statue.
I made a Fiendish Ring of Mind Shielding that functioned more or less normally, save for the fact that the wearer could use Soul Cage instead of housing their own soul upon death. Soul Cage could only be used once every three days. Also when finished using a soul, the last bits of the essence would leave the ring and create a Spectre under the wearer's control, to a maximum of one.
The item's curse applied to non-fiends when attuned. The wearer would have disadvantage on all saving throws against fiends, the rings benefits do not apply to fiendish magic or telepathy and they take a Long-Term Madness effect unless in the presence of a Demon Lord. In that circumstance, the cursed individual would roll for their madness effect on the Demon Lord's table, causing instant corruption. When the madness ran its course, a new effect is chosen immediately.
The idea was to make an item of incredible power at incredible cost - the flipside is that Dispel Evil and Good's Break Enchantment removes the Fiendish influence and turns it into a normal Ring of Mind Shielding. So the players don't have to abide this if they don't want to, they just lose a lot of the ring's unique features.
This is a long ass comment, I know, but I really like the potential this item has. An abyssal succubus could instantly make a new cult by charming a brothel owner and having them attune to this ring before showing them a Symbol of Malcanteth. That's just one example.
Had a MacGuffin Cursed Item a minor arc centered around:
Hunger for Knowledge
It looks like a regular belt, but behind it's buckle is a never satiated maw which eats books and other sorts of information. After a short while it excretes sustainable food equal to the value of information put into it. A small note with a secret would give a small snack, while a scientific book would yield entire feasts. The belt was given by Asmodeus himself to a Waterdeep community center to feed the poor, in exchange for the depletion of the Font of Knowledge (Temple of Oghma, one of the largest Library of the Sword Coast).
Since the group I ran for consisted of a Cleric of Oghma and a Glutton it also served as a tool to pit them against each other. In the end the cleric destroyed the belt, but had to promise to feed the glutton meat every day.
Some of the most interesting curses are the ones where the curse is also its benefit.
Ex: A Ring of Negligible Weight. The wearer weighs almost nothing. They don't sink into snow, can run across water (so long as they're constantly moving), take reduced falling damage, and don't trigger pressure plates. The downside is they weigh almost nothing, so they're trivially easy to drag around, and must make a strength save every time they're struck to avoid being moved by the force of that attack.
Another example: An Earring of Gender Swap. For a cis person wearing it, being made to swap gender is, at best, inconvenient, and at worst traumatizing (gender dysphoria is real). To the earring's trans creator, though, it was a means of unlocking their true form. It's "cursed" to not be able to be removed, because the creator never considered removing it desirable. They had exactly what they wanted.
I for real thought she was gonna say "cursed items are items that are cursed"
Technically correct.
A good explanation for the presence of cursed items in a game is that the use of favors with evil beings could make making an item of a certain level of power much easier. Why spend 50 years and hundreds of thousands of gold to make a sword when you can ask a devil for help to cut it down to two months and a 100th of the gold. Of course, with that much time and money saved, the curse would be pretty strong.
Gary Gygax introduced cursed magic items in D&D as a way to lend uncertainty to the looting process. Though I am certain the concept came from his extensive familiarity with folklore and literature, the execution of introducing them (and I am not talking about Artifact level items) to the game left much to be desired. The creation of a magic item was described as difficult, lengthy, and costly, so without a VERY compelling reason, no one ought to be creating such baneful gear on a whim. It was implied that a botched item might have a baneful property attached to it (which still doesn't explain the "you're stuck with it until a sufficiently high level cleric casts Remove Curse on it" effect), or that something like a Necklace of Strangulation or a Cloak of Poisoning was intended as a deadly trap for someone specific (and seeking lore on who that might have been could add greatly to the plot). An item which was created as intended, but whose effects don't work so well for some random adventurer (like an item dedicated to Bubastis which attracts felines of ALL sizes) adds story appeal; a -2 sword, not so much. If it's just a handicap for a short while, it also handicaps the enjoyment of the game. Most of all, "cursed" items should be rare and impactful, not simply landmines for the players to avoid. ='[.]'=
I made the mistake of giving a cursed item to the least role-playing involved character hoping it would intice them to speak more. Instead, it only made them more nervous to speak and make choices in the group. I introduced a pool of curse removal, but now whenever the party becomes cursed, they just go back to the pool. I think I might make the pool dry up, but I'm worried they feel as if I am just punishing them.
That would be an incredibly valuable resource. Rather than take it away, have a rival faction take control of it and the area around it for their own motives.
Idea for Cursed Item: Cloak that makes you invisible and silent when worn but has a 10% chance of causing you to break wind each turn. There is a 90% chance that your exact location will be revealed and a 10% the fart with behave like a Cloudkill spell to everyone nearby and in the presence of open flame will produce a fireball centered around you :)
Reminds me a bit of the "Narrators invisibility cloak". It makes the wearer invisible but a spectral narrator voice loudly describes everything the wearer does 😁
The Cloak Of Deadly Silence
4:02 i can see that wffect giving a circumstance bonus instead of a debuff for certian circumstances
I made a charm called the Lion's Pride Amulet. This gold amulet is the side profile of a roaring lion with ruby eyes. While attuned to the amulet, the wielder is filled with overwhelming confidence. You gain advantage on initiative rolls and attack rolls. You become immune to the frightened condition as nothing could possibly be threatening or frightening to one as mighty and glorious as you. However, your reckless confidence often puts you in harm's way and the words of others stroking your ego often lead to less than welcome situations. All attack rolls have advantage to hit you, you have disadvantage on insight checks and on saving throws to avoid being charmed. The only way to remove the amulet is by splashing the fresh blood of a lion on it
There are two cursed items that I thought of adding to my Inheritor, and each one has a fun benefit:
The Black Bow: basically a moonblade in longbow form, but with a curse - when rolling a 19 or 20 on an attack roll, the wielder must make a Wisdom save as the bow taps into his rage, on a fail, the weapon crits with max damage, but the wielder alignment become more chaotic or lawfully evil.
The Key of the Dark King: a sentient scythe that contains a corrupted celestial once tasked with leading redemption. Curse - Every dawn, the wielder must make a Wisdom Save as the angel tries to corrupt his mind. On a success, the DC lowers by 2 points, but on a fail, the DC raises by 3. When the DC save turns to 0, the angel's own curse is lifted, granting the weapon the properties of the Sword if Zariel, but if the DC turns to 20, the angel turns into an Enries, takes over the wielder and the weapon becomes a Mace of the Black Crown.
My favorite kind of cursed items that I like to make are the ones that are really strong but have huge downsides. For example my current favorite one is a revolver (was a sword. It’s an old west campaign) that slowly turns the user into a vampire as they use it. But it does the same amount of damage as a fireball spell with every attack when at full power and requires the target to make a save or take half damage
That is not a bug, but a feature.
I had a Kobold NPC who was pumping out cursed bracers like mad, the party came across one, and when they used it (it improved their crit chance), it cut off their forearm! Fortunately they were in another plane, so the cursed bracer couldn’t do part 2 of the curse and teleport back to the Kobold, and they were able to reattach the limb the next time they leveled up. They later found the Kobold after several more levels of adventuring, and put a stop to his hand-lopping ways!
I remember one cursed item I made is directly tied to one of my characters
The item is The Necklace of Zilryr, the necklace is a small one with a thin silver chain and a small little holding spot on it.. that little spot? It holds an eye, a piercing draconic eye that is blood red in coloration.. the eye belongs to an Ancient Black Dragon named Zilryr who was killed a good 1900 years ago and had his soul bound to this necklace, the eye acting as an anchor to keep him there. The current holder is a human named Isaac Howard, a barbarian who found it while exploring ancient ruins and thought it looked neat, so he started wearing it. A few years later he now wears a cloak over his left arm to hide the draconic scales and claws that are beginning to spread every time he experiences large amounts of stress. Zilryr can also be heard in Isaac's mind and anyone using a Detect Thoughts spell can actually hear him. Anyone who wears the necklace can also hear his voice but so far nobody has actually tried taking the necklace from him because its hella creepy and, as people have described it, "feels as though they're being watched". Also it has the distinct smell of a dragon and that's usually a smell that puts the fear of god into someone
Edit: Forgot to actually. Explain why it's a good thing to wear the necklace- depending on the level of the wearer, they gain certain bonuses but it only works under certain conditions. Since I only ever intended for Isaac to wear it I haven't come up with what would happen if others wore it but..
Levels 1-5, it does literally nothing. Absolutely nothing. 6-10 however, on a d100 roll(determined by how much of the draconic curse is on Isaac's body, usually starts at 10% so a 10% chance of failing) as Isaac rages, there's that chance that instead *Zilryr* takes over, using the Young Black Dragon's variant of a Claw attack. 11-15 has the Adult Black Dragon claw attack, 16-20 has the Ancient Black Dragon claw attack. This may seem all well and good but if Isaac ever gets to 100% of the draconic curse then he completely succumbs to Zilryr's influence. Think of it like the lore behind Fatalis armor in Monster Hunter, if you wear it for too long theres the chance you'll be lost to Fatalis' influence and you go insane and potentially become a Fatalis.. in this case? Isaac would go insane and over a little while, become an Ancient Black Dragon.
Axe of the murderer. +2 War Axe but the face of everyone you killed will grow on your skin. With the expression of the person dying.
That might actually be cool if you pull it off a npc that is just a creature covered in faces. I'd make the curse fairly easy to remove thiugh- and once gone, it's gone.
I just thought of a potently fun one. Basicly the ring of doom as a sword. "The sword of the barbarian king" The players find it in a cave where it lies cast down and scorched a troll or rat or something has gone mad with the presence of it and gained massive strength. One a player picks it up. it grants them power if the player is a barbarian they can rage more often. The player now has an extra +1 strength, advantage on strength checks, and disadvantge on wisdom checks and saves. The sword will slowly corrupt the player's trust of others. Over time the item will curse the player to strike out more, to kill, to become angry more. At some point the sword will begin emiting red lighting at the player's command. Not long after the sword will speak to the player driving him to conqure, to rule, and to destroy. If the player casts it down the curse will remain but lessen with absence until the sword is destroyed in some suitably epic way.
Well crap. You already suckered me with a cursed item in this video. The "Ring of the Emperor" came up 3:38 and I immediately went "oh so I can sneak armor into events past the guards just by intentionally triggering the curse?" and then I realized thats exactly the sort of thinking that would totally get me caught by any secret parts of the curse.
I came up with an idea: An amulet that enhances your strength to it's maximum, but bestows a curse of lycanthropy.
God my curse loving blood hunter would have no qualms with this!
A magic necklace that turns health into spell slots, it only gives you spell slots not spells to use them with so if you use it to give yourself a 9th level spell slot and you don't have any9th level spells, like wish, then you can only really use it to upcast a spell you know. Also any spell slots you create with it disappear when you short rest of long rest. I'm not good with names so if anyone wants to come up with a name for this go ahead.
1st level = 5 HP
2nd level = 10 HP
3rd level = 15 HP
4th level = 20 HP
5th level = 25 HP
6th level = 30 HP
7th level = 35 HP
8th level = 40 HP
9th level = 45 HP
My favorite cursed item we ever received was a +3 invincible baguette. It was a +3 longsword, and a baguette that was so stale it could not be destroyed. Our fighter refused to use it. He eventually settled on a +3 sword that *reduced all death save rolls by 3* instead and that's so funny to me.
My favorite cursed item is the cursed ring of teleportation. The first time it is used, it works perfectly (as when the player tests it to make sure it isn't cursed). After that, each time it is used there is a cumulative 1 in 6 chance that it to teleport itself and all the user's clothing & equipment to the desired location, leaving the user behind to face the danger - naked.
"How to TPK your party."
Ah, see the trick to making them use the cursed item even if it's bad for them is to not give them the choice.
Or at least, that was common in previous editions. Going on a quest to find a way to get rid of that cursed sword that was slowly killing the fighter the more he used it became a lot more important when the fighter was forced to draw that weapon and could not be parted with it.
Many older cursed weapons especially had clauses that would state something like "If the character attempts to draw a different weapon, they find themselves drawing this weapon instead." Or "If they are parted from this weapon by any means, the next time they draw a weapon, it is somehow this weapon"
A mean trick, to be sure, but it absolutely guarantees that the character cannot easily ignore the curse. Remove Curse was a terribly important spell to acquire ASAP.
Working on a magic item that has a minor curse, till it's United with another item. When both are used by the same PC the curse is negated and a more powerful effect is available to wearer.
I used a normal cursed item to create a backstory for a character that (DM-allowing, obviously) begins with it as part of her "inheritor" background. So a duchy badly wants their nobles killed off, since they are so insultable and boastful as to keep causing horrible wars with everyone. A rival kingdom heavy with archers approaches, and the people decide it a good idea to abandon the whole place to them and reapproach posing as refugees from elsewhere, for they'd probably do a better job of ruling it. So they pool together their collective wealth, selling off many of the arms and armor they were to enter battle with, to furnish the duchess (my character) with an "ancient magical family heirloom passed down for generations" that was conveniently "suddenly discovered", which is actually that shield that attracts all missiles. The plan is to use her "leading the charge" as a distraction so they can make it to the secret sewer passages and escape through them.
So she charges out into the battle and quickly finds herself overwhelmed. Stuck in an entranceway with a bit of a roof to it, by a combination of physical pushback and the natural nerves of someone unused to battle, the townsfolks' plot begins to crumble as she doesn't advance forward like they'd hoped. Desperately they make a run for it but so out-of-range from the shield's magic, many get slaughtered. The conquerers engage in a wholesale slaughter and quickly make it through the front gates. Approaching the entranceway, they confront her. Dubious about her survival, this lower ranked front line (who were never expected to take the castle so easily) wrongly guess her to be an agent of theirs and allow her to pass on through their ranks toward the higher-ups. Doing so, she slips into an escape tunnel when momentarily unobservable, and crawls through the sewers to the outside.
But, she still has a small farm village to get through on the other side. Only a small contingent has been sent to dispatch it - but still more than a match for them, given they are such a minor outlying hold. They are hit with a barrage of arrows as she emerges, all of which are magnetized to her shield. She observes for the first time in her life looks of genuine gratitude as villagers take shelter near her and escape with her. She's never seen such sincere emotion before and it melts her heart. Defeating the lowly cleanup squad with her standard nobility martial training, she walks the villagers on a trek to another place she knows from her map studies far enough away to be uninvolved in the conflict. There she bids them farewell and decides to keep the shield and actually use its curse to protect others, and heads to the nearest tavern newsboard to seek out an adventuring group.
I'd be a bit concerned if a sentient cursed item was able to alter the alignment of a player. Player character would make sense, but that'd be a really good DM if they were able to turn someone evil with an imaginary sword
"Kill the bastard!"
"He's in our team, and healing me"
"He said I looked rusty!"
I have a character that uses a sentient cursed sword, which is also their hexblade patron…
…and the actual character.
The sword takes over the mind of the wielder, so while the character is the wielder, I actually play the sword.
Plus, easy way to explain a replacement character. Someone else just picked up the sword.
To be honest, I think all cursed items are "fair" only if all of their effects are revealed upon magical Identification. If you have the sword of Damocles over your head where the DM can fuck you over at any time, it ruins the trust between players and the game--even if a cursed item messing up your plans is entirely appropriate, one understands as a player that the DM is only as neutral as he wants to be at any given time, and if the weapon happens to do something completely unexpected at a give time, we *know* that the DM is behind this. I think a compromise where "This weapon has a hidden property which the Identify spell is not strong enough to reveal" might be fine. Also, I really like these items with completely predictable consequences like the Snail Boots and stuff like that, which feel more like downsides rather than punishments, which is probably the crux of the issue. Everyone likes to work around downsides, but no one likes to be punished.
A neclase that provides a restince to mental control spells but only becase the player is under the mental control of the item and the item is roling a contested chariama roll when ever somone trys to charm or otherwise control the player
Sword of the vampire king - the whole sword is made from blood, and can have it's shape change. However, it cannot be removed from the inventory, as it becomes a part of your soul, and all the blood that makes the sword is your own.
Something else to consider, is that if you try hard enough, you can make your PC a cursed item. Say, a short-sword with a mind and will of its own that was mistakenly picked up by a kenku, and now the player (who is a sword) has to keep switching wielders because their bodies aren't strong enough to contain it, and they keep dying of minor and major organ failure.
Sort of like a Symbiote now that I think about it. (If the original creature's mind isn't completely overwritten anyway, but unless the player is a good actor, that would be hard to pull off, playing two characters at once with a relationship like that.)
Hmm, how aboouuuut....
a cursed sword that seems to possess you and steal your soul over time - but actually it's slowly swapping its soul for yours, and in time, when your soul is completely within the sword, you can perform the same trick on the next wielder. Could see that being a back-door resurrection into a body upgrade.
Or downgrade. BWAHAHAHAHAAA
The Gem of Bee bop: a simple unassuming star-shaped aquamarine gem that fits into the palm of your hand. You are told that it's a good luck charm upon a History check. However, upon touching it the next time your character goes to speak they can nolonger talk normally instead they now can only communicate in "Beeps bops bo and boops". And have the voice of a child. And only when givin' a single kiss on the forehead by a hag or shattered. Will the curse be broken
Yo… I’m using those snail boots. Lol couldn’t have found this at a better time.
0:45 a magic sword _that just won't shut up._
Long ago I gave my players a cursed Scythe, though whether it actually counted as a curse or not was a matter of some debate. On a natural 20, or on a coup-de-gras, wielder and target both die without a save, ignoring any and all effects that might normally prevent this. Resurrecting _either_ requires resurrecting _both._ If either refuses to return, the other can't either.
The BBEG had laid siege to the gates of the underworld, allowing him to use True Resurrection on his most powerful minions without the material cost. One by one, the original party all died to the scythe, souls locked in immortal combat with the souls of the BBEG's lieutenants, depriving him of their support. The players cycled out characters as they went, the new up-and-coming heroes learning from the experienced heroes and fighting alongside them. Then, finally, the last member of that original party used it on the BBEG himself.
The DM Wall (curse of forever DMing)
I imagined a beholder which hires people for stalking and would put rings on them so they can be its eyes and ears
I almost 1-for-1 copied this from the video game Dishonored, but I put a heart in a hag's lair that at first, just lore drops about people and things they point it at or ask it about. However, the longer it's in their possession, the more it will start to reveal secrets the other party members are keeping from them. Dark pasts, skeletons in their closet, etc. In addition, it will also randomly say creepy things offhand, such as "I'm so cold... will you hold me?" And "where's the rest of my body...?"
I created cursed ugly sweaters that went with a mirror bad. Which the players still have nightmares about...my bad.
Keep in mind, don’t make every item you come across cursed. Sprinkle in a handful maybe 3 over the course of a campaign.
And in general I prefer when my players are aware of the fact it’s cursed and let them choose if they want it. It encourages me to make items that have a substantial benefit.
My party has an alcoholic monk who loves to brew his own booze. I gave him a modified Amulet of the Drunkard. The base version of the amulet will heal the wearer 4d4 + 4 HP once per day when the wearer drinks a mug of beer or takes a swig of liquor. I added a curse to this, where every time he uses the amulet he has to roll a d20. If he rolls a 1, he becomes cursed. While cursed, he must use his action on each of his turns to take another drink until he either runs out of booze, passes out, or someone casts remove curse on him. He can still use his bonus action and movement as normal.
He hasn't triggered the curse yet, but one of these days he's going to be low on health while fighting a dragon and it'll get him.
I tend to home brew all magic items (other than potions) in my games, and the idea of any magic item being a "mixed blessing" has always appealed to me. I have thrown sentient magic items at the party an they have altered the course of player arcs in the best ways.
Sentient items are also a great way to build up a smaller party, adding an "unreliable narrator" to their discussions.
So cool
Recently grabbed two items with aging curses aged like 40 years good thing im a young elf lol
Also found a tablet of petrifaction high dc save gonna smack the bbeg with it
It's interesting how some cursed items have changed over the years due to memes and more thoughtful examination. It used to be that the cursed girdle that turns your PC into the opposite sex was solely a tacky joke, but then our societal understanding of sex and gender became more nuanced and intricate and people started discussing things like "What does it say about the people who made this, because it's kinda misogynist to think a man becoming a woman is a curse? What if the PC is trans, then it's not really a curse at all? What if the PC is non-binary, there isn't really an opposite the curse can change them to? Knowing how rough gender dysphoria feels, isn't inflicting it on a PC as a joke kind of messed up?" and we started getting stories about PCs actively seeking the belt out or not breaking the "curse" because they felt more comfortable in their new form, and finally dispensing with the idea of it as a punitive curse entirely and just having magic items a PC (or NPC) can use to affirm their gender willingly. And honestly, I think the game is better for it in that particular regard.
Time to make some Blursed items
If you want to give a cursed item to a player but also not reveal that there is a curse on it, just have a master thief give them a stolen magic item and have the owner recognize it sometime later and seek retaliation for the player "stealing it"
Normal sentient cursed items: "Devour... I demand blood! Sacrifices! Kill!!!"
My sentient cursed items: "You're not really very talkative. I find that really boring about you. I once had a user, Geoff - spelled the weird way - who always included me in conversations and all. One time, we were on a meeting with th-" **rants for 50 minutes**
Oh no, It’s been three weeks. they post videos every two weeks like clockwork!
Don't worry! We're having technical difficulties! We hope to have a new video up by the end of this week.
The Helm of Unyielding Protection:
-Its a crusader style helmet that is 100% indestructible and its magic is completely unyielding in the goal of protecting the wearer.
-It adds +1 to AC and its magic shields your mind granting you advantage on resisting mind control or mind tricks, be it zone of truth, calm person or some other mind affecting spell.
-Since it is a full helmet it is hard to hear and see out of it and while wearing it you have disadvantage on all perception checks.
-It doesn't require any armor proficiencies as it is only a simple metal helmet aside from its magic.
-Speaking of which, the helms magic is UNYIELDING in its function. Whoever enchanted it did a poor job and because of that once it is equipped it cannot be removed. Even if the wearer is dead it will stay firmly attached unless whatever is inside is fully disintegrated.
Parties Ranger: "Wow cool helmet!"
_Foompf_
"Ew it smells."
_tug_
"And its stuck!"
Rangers high perception now crippled. lol
My favorite is making a ring that the player tries their hardest to figure out what it does, but then says "fuck it" and puts it on anyways. It then turns their hair a different color and the ring won't come off. It offers no benefit, and the curse isn't so bad that the player feels cheated.
1:50 ring of hircine, skyrim... AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I JUST WANTED TO CARRY 40 MORE POUNDS, WHY?!
The ring of night hag lust gives the player gives thieves skills at 4 levels higher than the player but the player must do a successful pick-pockets to use the other skills the curse is that it teleports a night hag to the players plane each time the rings powers are used, the hags will hunt down the player and force him to father children with her. I used the ring as GM every time the thief skipped the gaming session. By the time the players had caught on they had used he ring 30+ times/days I did not let the night hags catch up to the players till they were high enough level to fight the night hags. The ring of magic use summons dragons, The ring of clerical prayer summons demons or devil was a necessary evil as a GM and I was able to use the curses they had summoned when they were higher levels to put some teeth into play
TLDR: DM gave me a cursed ax and it's become a plot point for my character's arc.
Playing a barbarian who is switching (and now in the campaign switched) to a Paladin of Redemption. His rage got the better of him and he killed innocent people during a mental breakdown. Through guilt and the party being mostly good/neutral aligned characters and a young child player (6-7) he began a redemption arc. Abandoning the survival of the fittest and might makes right attitude of tiamat in favor of Bahamut's justice. Anyways, the campaign is going on and we're starting to consider magic weapons. I find a +1 Greataxe which happens to also increase my hitpoints... DO a quest to make the price more affordable and pay like 300gp for it. First member of the party with a magic weapon. Great, gonna be able to bypass damage reduction now...
Until I got smacked i the face by the next combat. DM asks me to make a wisdom save. fail. He tells me that the barbarian rage though repressed continues to be kindled by the pain of being struck, and reinforced by the burning rage i feel in the axe, and the laughter of Tiamat echoes in my mind. Berserker Greataxe was the magic weapon. The DM is using the DC to basically measure how closely I am following the Redemption paladins' oaths, and bahamut's ethics. We are now 13th level and I've nearly got the curse's challenge completed, just need to do an act which will reduce the DC 1 more time and it will remove the curse and I'll get a new magical artifact/boon (according to the dm.)
Can you eat the McGuffin Muffin and if so, what effects does it have.
I like the idea of sentient cused items, but they're almost always evil. I like the idea of a cursed item that is absolutely good alined, but can't un-posses someone on their own. Having a really fancy looking sword screaming "Don't pick me up, don't pick me up!" Seems like a fun encounter/trap for reckless players.
You could also play a cursed weapon bound to a hapless peasant who is searching for a method to undo the curse and give this innocent back their life.
Nightmare from Soul Calibur!
Umbra from Elder Scrolls!
Invisible isn't gone therefore if an exhibitionism the ring of the empower would just add shock to bad guys as to them some crazy naked persons fighting them and npcs a crazy nude shopping etc depending on moral dress codes in world this could be meh or call the guards level of dress.
Boots of the Snail?
If you want a curse for that, look up “snail man” from Junji Ito ☝️☺️😈
Why the giant badass god-slaying sword always gotta make you do an Arthas?
Also, I'm writing a book from the perspective of the sentient sword.
... It's really dumb... XD
Do snail socks slide off when I sweat?
A bracelet, which speaks out loud every time character shakes hands with someone, telling that person what was done by those hands 24 hours ago. Also cant be removed and handshakes are enforced by bracelet will - DC 14 wisdom save. As a benefit just measly +5 to any sleight of hands checks. Party rogue loved them and player went along with roleplaying when something dirty was told out. Party sorcereress... Wasnt a fan of item, especially after bracelet told everyone about their romance
P.S. Also we use a homerule about remove curse and other such spells - they dispel/weaken benefits of a cursed item too or may even fail if curse level is higher than spell used
"I cast Remove Curse."
So cursed items are more like Lunar items from ROR2, rather than a pure detriment