The problem with cursed items (and how to fix it)
Вставка
- Опубліковано 28 вер 2024
- Pledge for your “Plain Terrain” on Kickstarter: www.kickstarte...
Thanks to Moonlight Maps for sponsoring this video!
► Get KNICK’S KNACKS (cursed items shop for 5e) on Patreon: / knick-knicks-knacks-bu...
Music from Epidemic Sound
Need music for your videos or streams? Here's my referral link: www.epidemicso...
► FIND ME ONLINE:
ginnydi.com
/ ginnydi
/ itsginnydi
/ itsginnydi
/ itsginnydi
In my game I make "Imperfect" magic items. So not cursed, but have a risk of backfiring or have some slight drawbacks. My players know this, and it is also encouraged that they can improve or even perfect these items. It seems less malevolent and more sloppy. They do use the items more willingly.
Once gave out a senile sword the user periodically had to beat it on the wall to wake it up.
I'm reminded of an optional rules thing in Pathfinder which features a number of curses you can intentionally add to magic items while crafting to reduce the cost a bit. The intent, I believe, is to feel like you crafted it while cutting corners.
Of course, the curses on the list are so minor that most of them could even be perks. A king handing out magic items to a party may *want* to ensure those items are cursed with "only functions if you swear fealty to a specific person", as an example.
I've had some items come from "Uncle Joe's Discount Magic Emporium" which are generally good items with a weird drawback. Also, when identify is cast on one of these items it triggers a giant illusion of an advertisement for his shop.
Agreed. I like those. The maker tried to do this but... um... failed. Instead the power does this other thing. 💘
This reminds me of the 7 year old DM meme about the "boots of leaping" that let you jump 20ft in the air, the boots do not reduce fall damage because they aren't "boots of landing".
My favorite character arc I've ever played through was thanks to a cursed dagger. It was a classic curse: I couldn't use other weapons, and I occasionally stabbed things without realizing I was doing it.
What made it cool was that I decided to lean into it and multiclassing into warlock to ask the entity which had cursed the dagger for more power. Then a magical trap took the dagger away, my mind cleared, and now my kobold paladin suddenly realized that he was bound by oath to two very different entities. My DM was great and worked out a redemption sidequest we could do in the metals dungeon we were playing in to break my pact and transfer it to my deity, and every step of the way there I lived in terror that we would encounter the evil cultists that I was pact bound to assist, forcing me to betray the party. We were able to complete the redemption ritual before that happened though, and it was one of the best feelings I've ever had in an RPG.
I remember a cursed suit of armor. It was incredible suit of armor, but if you were wearing it you were compelled to jump into any body of water you saw and dispelled any waterwalk on you. It was good enough that the player eventually managed to get a water breathing and swim speed items, but he was forever jumping into monster infested waters.
I learned the lesson the hard way in our first adventure in a series of connecter one shots, by unknowingly picking up a cursed dagger... I was told I couldn't play my character anymore because they has been possessed by the darkness and lost their mind... My character is now a big bad running around the world and to this day the DM still refuses to "give them back" to me because "well, you could have not picked up the dagger :)"
Yup. Had a succession of GMs like that back in the 90s. They sucked, the concept sucked, and whenever people my age (or older) badmouth younger gamers I feel obligated to rip the complainers to shreds, because the kids are okay, despite the abuse the older generations thought was normal.
That would have been pretty normal in AD&D, because the assumption was that PCs would die regularly. All sorts of "guess what the DM is thinking" gotchas were pretty standard (e.g. do you turn the key left or right?).
But in today's era that's just crappy DMing, unless the DM clearly lampshades that you really shouldn't pick up the item.
Bro “to this day?” I wouldn’t play with them if they think taking your character away for picking up an item is a great idea
@@RumpusImperator It was crappy GMing back then, too. Most RPGs grew beyond that sort of thing in the 80s. D&D... at least under TSR and while Gygax was alive? Not so much.
Your DM should be asking if you’re okay with your character being ripped from you as a NPC. I got given a very big bad cursed item (Book of Vile Darkness) and the dm immediately after the session clarified EVERYTHING with me, I mentioned that I’d be fine if it turned out I would become a BBEG but I want some time to develop the change that was happening now in the story, before handing the reins. DMs always need to establish with players expectations and what’s okay/not okay - “are we playing with the risk of death? Or are we waiving those stakes and instead just having penalties or consequences in place of a permadeath?” “Are you happy for your characters to show up in other campaigns/as npcs should you change your character/you move on?” That kind of thing. A good dm won’t just do shit and let you figure out the free fall and rule “because I can”. If you’re playing with a hard, gritty “everything can kill you” type guy, then at least you know to expect it and to play accordingly, but if you’re under the impression you’re going to play your same character unless they die or you want to reroll, (as in a normal game), then you shouldn’t be trying to guess if the dm is sabotaging your character!
I’m a fan of low level cursed items where the solution is role play and not saving throws. Like the leather pants of tightening. You can wear them for advantage on charisma throws… but they will get tighter every time you use them. You can eventually cut them off this ruining them but people will go to great lengths for some sexy pants.
Ooh! Kind of like the choker in an episode of Konosuba!
I have the Flame Tongue. It's a flametongue (y'know, the fire swords,) but the blade looks like a photorealistic tongue. Because of this, it deals bludgeoning instead of slashing and... That's it.
Except, the sword is immune to transmutation and breaks any illusion that is placed on it.
It literally just looks weird and that's it.
I didn't consider it a cursed item exactly, but the sword "Eveready" caused some amusement in my campaign. It did the normal damage of a smallsword in our rules but did an additional
D4 _squared_ damage to the target. However, it did the same D4 roll, but not squared, to the wielder.
Let me guess; a blood hunter got one.
@@unevennoble9363 i would know what a blood hunter was. I haven't run any edition of D & D since 1978. Is that a 5e thing?
@@willinnewhaven3285As far as I’m aware it’s unofficial content from the critical role live play show that’s really popular and it’s basically your average monster hunter but they use their own blood for some magical powers if I recall correctly.
As you make your way through the dungeon, you find a surprising, almost disturbing lack of monsters and traps. You do, however, find many, MANY skeletons clad in armor bearing the crest of a yellow sun on an azure field. Many of the skeletons are positioned as if they died fighting, one is hanging on to its sword, stabbed through what used to be the chest of its colleague, some even have completely pulverised hands...
At the end of the dungeon, you find no boss. No final challenge, just the item you came for lying there on an altar, for the taking.
As your fighter takes it, they feel an incredible surge of power rippling through them, and along with the extasy of this strength, they hear a voice: *"what have* they *ever done for you?"*
You must be the coolest DM 🤩
Excellent advice! I once gave my barbarian player who was on a quest to avenge his murdered parents a sword called the Arm of Bhal. The sword could only be attuned by speaking the name of the person you wished to murder. It was a +3 greatsword with an expanded crit range, but it became the only weapon you could use in combat (aside from unarmed) and if you were hit, you had to make a wisdom save or everyone around you appeared to be the person you were sworn to kill and you had to attack the nearest person until you couldn't see anyone alive within 30 feet.
The group found all sorts of creative ways to evade the barbarian once his murder curse was activated (his eyes became red and pupils replaced with the symbol of Bhal, so it was easy to tell when it was happening). The player had many chances to unattune the weapon through curse removal, but his character really liked the sword and the bonuses were too great to pass up!
When they finally killed the vampire who was responsible for the murders, he left the sword in the lair and sealed the entrance so no one else could ever find the cursed weapon again.
Defense options against it... stay more than 30 feet away at all times, use invisbility or blindness,deafness to remove things from sight... I wonder if Otelucs resilient sphere would help as it doesn't technically hit the barb but it does mean they can't do anything to anyone around them for a while and they also can't get hit.
@@RogueWraith909 The monk in their party also had a great performance check and often played dead. The barb with bad wisdom didn't register him as alive, so it worked every time.
@@alkemyst337 ROFL! That's BRILLIANT!
I know it doesn’t exactly qualify, but I really love this cursed shortsword our DM gave us in my current game! It constantly implores whoever holds it to kill; problem is, it doesn’t seem to have any real ability to make you obey, so now its just our rogue’s mean, slightly needy roommate.
this is hilarious. useless cursed items are JUST as fun as useless magic items!
Subversions of horror tropes are my favorite... especially when the GM can provide the setup, and the players provide the subversion just by thinking like real people.
for these types of items, they can be awesome. Were you engage in a conversation with the cursed sword, as it tries to convince you to murder that person. And then you make a wisdom save. no DC needed. how you do on the save determines the outcome. If you do really well, your hands just gripped tight on the sword. You do poorly, and your standing over them, swordpoint at their throat. All it takes a push..and just leave it up to the players to take that final step.
That way you can still have a 'compelled' intelligent item, that doesnt remove player agency.
@@jamesmartin8005 I'd think it'd be more entertaining on the Wis save to be about distraction. It's a fairly basic DC 10 check, but if you fail it you were so invested in mentally telling the damn sword to SHUT UP that you failed to notice your mark ducking into an alley and ditching you.
This is pretty much exactly what my DM did with a cursed sword we found. The real tricky part is, she has a reputation of secretly revealing things to individual players via Discord messages, so none of the rest of us know if the sword is compelling behavior or merely encouraging it. Only the player who is actually attuned to the sword knows for sure, and she's not telling. All we know is it talks and really likes the taste of blood.
My favorite cursed items I've given my players they actually liked.
They "won" a set of 6 "Potions of Healing," from a Leprechaun. Except instead of being Red like in the book description, each was a different color. The colors were Pink, Blue, Green, Purple, Orange, and Turquoise.
When asked why they were different colors, the Leprechaun explained. "The potions were made by the fey, and we like bright colors."
They were indeed "Potions of Healing." Except when the rogue drank the Turquoise one her hair turned a vibrant Turquoise color.
The Leprechaun could be heard laughing at the prank.
Instead of getting mad the rogue thanked the Leprechaun and asked if he had any other potions she could buy.
The Leprechaun revealed himself clearly confused. He had never seen a human enjoy his pranks and agreed to meet her with more "Fey Potions of Healing" at a location outside of town in a few days.
The original potions were a "Potion of Healing" as described in the Player's Handbook or DMG with the added feature of changing the user's hair color to match the potion's color for 1d4 hours.
I have since made different variations of the "Fey Potions of Healing." They all work as the normal potions, but give a temporary cosmetic change. Some change the user's hair color like the original. Others will change the eyes, or skin tone. Some others will give the user animal ears or a tail.
The cosmetic changes are always temporary. But temporary can be a few hours or a few days. Some like animal ears I've given a bonus to listening based perception checks.
I have so far been straight forward with the potions. They are usually obtained from a fey or bought or found in the Feywild. But I have thought about having Fey potions make their way into magic shops and temples.
One that makes the drinker grow facial (or other) hair could be friggin' hilarious, especially if drunk by a female character and/or member of a hairless species (when's the last time you saw a bearded elf?). 😆
@@Harrowed2TheMind My trans Bard: 3 years of horse urine for this?!! (horse urine was the medieval way for people to get estrogen if they wanted to trans their gender in a fem way.
My Dm did something quite similar too. Our Paladin found this sword clutches tightly in the hand of a skeleton. As soon as he touched it, the ghost resides within the sword came out and tell him that he can take it and receive the ghost’s aid as well but there will be draw backs: the sword give you advantage and an extra 1d4 damage on attacks against spiders, drows, and driders. However, once you have saw any of the creature mentioned above, you have to attack them no matter what. This curse has cause some problems for our group but the benefits out weights the drawbacks. The ghost sometimes drops hints to point us in the right direction, we even ended befriend it, try to give it therapy and do some of help it do some of the things it couldn’t do before.
My old DM gave the paladin a set of plate armor that would not allow him to wear other armors. The plate armor would "get jealous" and swap places with the other armor he was wearing.
In my campaign I had this group of 'sisters' who wanted you to deliver their cursed items, and if you did would reward you with gold. They would always give every detail of the item, and the gold earned would be dependant on how risky it was.
One currently has an item they chose themself, which has put them on 5hp would with an incredible dodging ability. Im very excited to see how they cope. and so are they!
bring the ring to the orodruin?
I swear you always release videos when I have a certain topic on my mind. I've been wanting to add a cursed item to my party, but I was having trouble making it seem fair. Now I see that there are some good ways to balance this and have it work for my group
The fundamental question is how will the cursed item improve the gameplay experience for the players.
It could be that its a tempting item, either the downside doesn't seem like a downside or it is about as negative as the good is good.
Or it could be purely for world building, in which case it could be purely negative, but only if you properly telegraph that the thing is cursed. (It could be a lore dump from an NPC like Gandalf explaining the One Ring, or it could be found in a sketchy place and you should really know better than to use the Vampire's obsidian blade with demonic runes inlaid in gold on it, even if it perfectly matches your aesthetic)
A trap is only fun to walk into if you know its a trap, and you know there is a reward worth the pain. (Even if the reward is out of game laughter)
I've been pondering the challenge of adding a cursed item to my current 'mostly sci-fi with some fantasy elements' campaign.
It's made tougher in that two characters are almost completely non-combat, and the ones who are built for combat use things like a sniper rifle or an assault blaster.
@@MonkeyJedi99 depending on how scifi you run the game, you could always make it more along the lines of a parasite as opposed to a "magic curse" and you could always make it an item that isn't necessarily combat oriented
@@TheGameRonin0619 Parasite! Thanks!
The player characters LOVE to pick up local food from planets they visit, and they have high-tech onboard medicine.
So I could "infect" them with a boon + bane parasite and let them decide on whether to keep it or cure it.
Please accept my sincere wishes for you to have a fantastic day as my payment for your help.
One of my most memorable characters ever, was a fighter cursed three times over. She was chaotic good. At one point, an NPC tried to take the final part of the curse, and she threw him off the dais to take it for herself. The curses had drawbacks and boons to them. Like, each third of the curse gave 5 damage reduction, but one of them made it so if she hit 0hp, she just died with no saves. Morte shouted “Not if I kill them first!” and activated that portion, gleefully. One third lowered the number required for a critical hit, making it so she crit on 17-20. The third part of the curse made it so Morte rolled an extra damage die (which was 2d4, because this was back in 3.5 and she as a scythe fighter) with her crits, but she had to take that damage herself, but with 15 damage reduction, she only took damage from herself on crits. Some of the drawbacks included : demon names in infernal tattooed all over her that moved and crawled like spiders, giving her a hefty detriment to Charisma (as a fighter, she truly didn’t care), she could not close her eyes to trance, her god would not talk to her, she had a situational detriment to intelligence checks, she had a “looming stench of dread and death” that one of my party members cast prestidigitation on at the beginning of each play session to “take the edge off the smell.” It was fun as hell, and the people I gamed with at that time still talk about Morte once in a while with delight so I was for sure not ruining everyone else’s time with my cursed death obsessed edgelord scythe fighter shenanigans. There were a fair few combats where she had to disengage and flee because she was at fewer that 10hp. I still chase how I felt swinging a masterwork scythe as Triple Cursed Morte.
Morte’s curses had an effect that made combat more challenging, but also more rewarding; they had aspects that directly effected role play as well as combat encounters; they had interactive but not frustrating ways for party members to choose to engage with them, but didn’t need to be the focus of any sessions aside from the ones where they were picked up.
So recently my Druid found a magic ring that gives her the power to use wild for free, but later I found out the cures. While in animal form, she retains her personality and memories, but she takes on all of the beast’s attributes, including intelligence.
On occasion she has forgotten to change back until the wilds shape duration expired.
I'm playing a Minotaur, In the setting my game is taking place in Minotaurs are a 'cursed race' which means they were originally brought about by a magical curse. Just hit lvl 5 and now I can invoke the true strength of the curse and transform into a full empowered bull once per long rest, but only under the rules of a *Polymorph* spell without concentration. It can also proc outside of my control if he's under duress or if he's over exposed to the color red, triggering the bull inside him.
So at any point I can transform into a large creature with 40 extra hit points at lvl 5, but I'm essentially stuck there for an hour with my intelligence dropping from 19 all the way to 4. Fun times!
@@seasnaill2589what class? Sounds like a good match for a barbarian 😈
@@peterbillings3276 Nah, our barbarian is a demigod son of Pythor, the god of battle. He's basically Heracles, my guy is a Battlemaster.
Ah, Animorphs as a cursed item
I think the birb may just be a crappy artist.
If she's going to work professionally she has a doody to work to improve
Standards are dropping(s)
why don't you try drawing a map with no opposable thumbs before you talk shit! 💩
"It was a dead drop."
"Oh, dear lord."
Great video. Superb advice.
I feel like the cursed amulet you mentioned can have some utility (mainly using strong support spells that you would otherwise only be able to use on others) BUT that is something the player must be actually willing to do and be prepared for.
An offensive spellcaster will just be needlessly screwed over by it
Could be very funny on a healer
So one of my DMs really loves handing out magic items with minor but fun effects that they either make up or find online and out of the 14 magic items they've handed out so far, I managed to get the only one that's cursed. But it was funny as heck. It was a cowboy hat that gave +1 to persuasion rolls but had the associated curse that it can't be removed outside of magical means, compels its wearer to speak in a southern accent, and quote "may cause delusions of rugged outlaw grandeur, regardless of whether or not you are a rugged outlaw". It turned out really funny on my character because he's like a fortune teller little kobold with major self-esteem issues and now suddenly he's speaking and acting like a cowboy, suggesting they steal horses to get to where they're going faster purely for the sake of being an outlaw, and referring to the BBEG's pet beholder as a "varmint". It's actually been a ton of fun
Come for the DnD advice, stay for the ad sponsors. Seriously I wish I saw some much creativity and puns in any other channel sponsors. Love you Ginny! =)
I love to see what Ginny comes up with! Best ads in the biz! 🌙
Ideas:
Definitely foreshadow!
Instead of just allowing Identify to discover the curse, put an appropriate DC on the discovery of the curse (make them roll for every cast to disguise what you're doing?)
Choose the curse wisely.
Lots of good advice here.
and if all else fails: "There is something about the item that seems off. The enchantment is powerful but something about it sends a cold shiver down your spine...."
Foreshadowing/telegraphing is definitely one of the most important things for cursed items that you are stuck with once revealed, or that have a very hefty downside that could suck if you weren't expecting it.
It has many forms including:
- NPC tells you its cursed
- its found somewhere that its obviously a bad idea to use
- the DM tells the player their character is getting bad vibes from it
I also generally recommend that the DM ask themselves if they would be willing to use the weapon based if they were the player recieving it, and its balanced when the answer is a strong maybe. (Unless its super important somebody uses the item, then the answer should probably be yes)
When designing a cursed item, I always try to include something that makes the curse interesting instead of just bad. Most of my curses involved a change in personality to the character that attuned, and characters could unattune without issue. Here's an example of one of my favorites:
Heartseeker - Very Rare Dagger
Heartseeker is a cruel black dagger decorated with golden serpents slithering across its blade. It is obviously ceremonial, and while sharpened to a deadly edge, it looks fragile. Blood gutters run along either side of the wicked blade.
Once attuned to this weapon, the user gains the following flaw: “My only joys in life are causing others pain and being in pain myself.” Whenever the user takes damage, they also take 1d4 necrotic damage. This damage cannot be reduced or redirected to temporary hit points. Once unattuned, the flaw fades over 1d4 days.
Heartseeker is a +2 weapon that deals an extra 1d12 necrotic damage on hit. Whenever the user reduces a creature to 0 hit points with Heartseeker, they may use their bonus action and all of their remaining movement to eviscerate that creature, regaining 1d12 hitpoints.
In a campaign, my Warlock found a staff that ended up being cursed...somewhat un-beknownst to us....that slowly shifted his alignment to evil. He loved the staff and did not consider his actions evil, even in a few situations where it harmed the party. They tried to remove the curse, but he would not allow it...and eventually swore to the party that he would stop using the more power features of the staff....so we soldiered on. At the end of the campaign, we ended up failing to stop the big bad, and things went all pear-shaped. At the very last minute, in order to save himself (and the staff), he teleported away and the campaign ended. Still felt very satisfying.
I tend to use cursed items very sparingly, sometimes going a given campaign without one appearing. When I do have them appear, it's not random loot, it's something that has a story connected to it (which usually ties into how to break the curse, and can result in the character ending up with a cool item as a reward for enduring the curse and going through the adventure to break the curse).
Our paladin attuned to a cursed axe that was strong, but when he got a crit, he'd go into a blood frenzy and attack the closest creature to him indescriminantly. Our DM let him know, so he could rp his character feeling unatturatly angry and bloodthirsty. And when he suddenly snapped in battle and turned on us, the DM didn't have to explain and we were all as shocked as our characters were. But it worked and was amazing and terrifying.
I like to make cursed items where the curse doesn't really have a mechanical effect. Like, a Ring of Protection that changes the wearer's hair color randomly at dawn. Even have a d10 table for colors.
I have a flametongue that looks like a tongue
Our entire party got cursed items early in the campaign, but we didn't realize they were cursed for literally over 2 rl years of regular playing. No wonder the BBEG was always two steps ahead of us. She could spy on us at any time.
That's actually awesome!
The berserkers axe, the cursed +1 weapon that forces you to attack whatevers closest to you that I think Ginny was referring to, is one of my favorite cursed weapons in the dmg. I recently took it as my free magic item of choice during a one shot, its a fun curse when you buy in to it. Also it adds to your max HP as a small way to counter the no retreat issue.
A cursed item shouldn’t be the cause of someone’s downfall, merely the tool. If you follow Behavior X, cursed item deals out Negative Consequence Y
Edit: Also yeah, the coolest thing about a curse is when someone chooses to use it anyway
Unless the curse is "If you activate the dagger that grants a +15 strength modifier & second attack a turn, but only works if you slaughter innocents with it to charge it before your next combat," & the negative consequence is, "by killing innocents your character is slowly becoming an evil monster," because with such "power at a price" items the option is always "or he stays good by not using the Demon Dagger's power."
No yeah, I mean the “this sword is draining your life force everytime you use it” kind of stuff. Or even a “your character is physically changed every time you use this magic staff”
@@bananabanana484 Wabbajack!
ya my players, one of them, used a powerful cursed item (ie. it was powerful but it also drained their stats as they used it). but it was so powerful for what abilities they happened to use, it worked for them. And they ended up destroying it anyways. not exactly what i expected but they had fun with it. And the insane mind of the item, the player just messed around with it to make the sword angrier heheh
@@victorvaldez8869 I think your beef with the item is that here you have a magic item that simply doesn't get used (save if someone wants to be a monster). The problem is that a bit more thought need to be put into it. Who or what is the demon inside the dagger, and why does it require the slaying of innocents? What happens if it doesn't get the blood of innocents?
E.g. the demon needs the blood of innocents to fuel it's demonic power in order to contain two beings - a powerful destructive monster and an angelic being. Indeed, when it grants the character the power to destroy it allows the character to channel a bit of the destructive monsters power, which counter-productively is slowly turning the wielder into the monster - however, it's a demon and used to rotten deals. If the demon doesn't get the blood of innocents eventually both the monster and the angelic being will be freed. In this most extreme situation, the angel and the demon is willing to work together to contain the monster if the character will instead grant power to the angelic being, allowing the angel to contain the demon and the monster. However - this requires sacrifice on the part of the player (numerous options) in order to fuel the angelic beings barrier. The character can of course decide not to help either the angel or the demon resulting in the rampaging monster becoming free, which might cause the death of even more innocents. This story means that the character may get a choice of a demonic bonus, an angelic bonus or a monstrous bonus - but with power at a price either way. Most importantly - it adds story and dilemmas to your adventure which tend to make it fun. An unresolved question I think the DM should consider is why the demon want to contain the monster? Perhaps it is a creature that has the power to somehow escape from the Abyss itself. This might come in handy in a later adventure where a character or NPC needs to somehow be freed from the Abyss.
When making cursed magic items it always pays to think a bit deeper about them, because it's so easy to uncover a hidden storyline based on why the item is cursed in the first place.
I once ran a game where every magic item was cursed, just part of the world was that permanent enchantments always came with a downside. Anyway I offered to let players start with a cursed item if they wanted to, and every single player did. It was fun.
Hell Yeah! This advice is D&D gold! I made a pair of magic vampire daggers, each +1 necrotic damage, with 1HP Lifesteal (i.e. regain 1 lost HP if the target is a living thing with blood) with the curse that once drawn, they must be fed before they can be put away. i.e. you have to successfully stab something and get them bloodied, or you just have to hold on to them, or stab yourself, before you can put them down.
A couple years back, in a Pathfinder game I ran, I included a cursed ring of regeneration which was powered by a gluttony daemon. When the character slept, the daemon possessed him and went out to sate it's hunger on innocent townsfolk. It ended up with a great month long side quest while they investigated the bizarre "cannibal murders". Once they realized what was happening it was simple to get the ring removed. A simple solve but it led some great role-playing.
I like curses that return the item to the location they were found, or only work against a certain group of NPCs who of course gain possession of the cursed item in some fashion. Then we have time curses, which essentially force the party to relive the most recent scene, (sometimes to their advantage), or cursed pairs where the curse doesn't start until both items are in proximity. Mated cursed items that nullify each other's curse work, too.
(:
I did one that was a sword that couldn't be dropped out out away, making anything but combat interesting and comical. It also was something like on crit you'd hit yourself instead, but it was like a 2d8, so it was pretty helpful, too.
Reminds me of a particularly interesting "cursed" weapon, which was a brace of vampiric daggers. Of course, when thrown they return to their brace, so long as the brace exists and they’re both on the same plane of existence, but their thing was that you could "wager" health on an attack. Before attacking with the knife, you could put up to twice your level in health into the blade; on a hit it dealt that much extra necrotic damage and you got the health back, but if you missed you'd simply be out that much health. Was a nice risk/reward weapon to give out at pretty much any level, so you could watch it grow with your party.
One concept I was toying with was a cursed item requiring conditions to be met in order to uncurse it, which I think could also make for great roleplay opportunity.
For instance, say you have a player wanting to shift the direction of their noble sorcerer from a DpT build to a battlefield control build; you could just hand-wave it, or you could give them the Cursed Ring of Spell Turning (that you mentionned) to envoke a reason for the paradigm shift, having "admitting one needs the strength of their allies" as the means to break the curse and envoke that change in the character sheet.
I'd also make the uncused ring, in this case, into a Ring of Spell Turning that grants a +1 or +2 to the caster's Spell save DC as an in-game acknowledgement of that growth.
In one of our games, there was a cursed item that allowed a player to see into the future, but also the past and present and he doesn’t really know when he is half the time. We have dubbed it “timentia”, and tho it sometimes involves history checks, the player will also just randomly start acting like the party is doing something they did 10 sessions ago. At this point, the party is in no rush to cure him (one of the bosses i intended them to fight has the cure), and just treat him either like a senile old man, or play along and pretend they ARE prepping to go across the dessert, yep, that’s why they need this boat😂
Yeah, we had a DM like that of your friend's once. In our group he'd have tried that once or twice with the cursed items and then the group would've had it and would conspire to derail his plot. In our particular situation, one of the players waited until the DM went to the bathroom to check out his campaign folder behind his "master's screen". Which then led to weeks of gameplay in which we killed, robbed, betrayed or failed to help any of the key NPCs in his story that he spent weeks in advance to prepare. Obviously we had loads of backup characters to counter DM-Anger. His face when his vengeful killing of a player character resulted in just "Eh, good thing I brought spares. Oh! How about we ditch the quest for a week and vacay in Candlekeep? :D" was priceless.
Shout out to my DM for making a fantastic cursed sword that missed most of these pitfalls! It was a semi- sentient sword who dreams of slaying evil BUT it was trapped in the same room since it's creation and knew nothing of the world. Once drawn it got cooler and cooler buffs each round but gave a level of exhaustion each turn consuming your energy. You had to make a save to put the sword away once drawn so it was always a gamble to have it out too long. Great for players who love tracking a lot of moving parts.
I was in a mini series (4 sessions) pre COVID. I was a melee paladin, protector to three spell casters. We were all level 3.
I had a cursed great club, that made me always attack as if “Bane” was cast upon me.
Everyone else had daggers and slings.
In the epilogue my (5th level) big sister came along to remove the curse.
The club ignited like a Roman candle.
I liked it since it aesthetically looked like a Louisville Slugger.
I really like how cursed items are handled in Shadowdark from Kelsey Dionne. The curses are rarely crippling, but are often embarrassing and even sometimes useful! What they mainly do is make magic items unpredictable and interesting.
For example, I rolled a +2 crossbow with some really cool effects. Unfortunately the owner turns into a rat for 1 hour every midnight...but a clever PC could find dozens of uses for such an interesting effect!
Great video!
I gave the mage a wand of "lightning" but everytime she used it, it poured foth a stream of flowers 🌺
Did the flowers deal damage?
And if so was it piercing (the thorns), bludgeoning (the weight), or actually a wall of thorns spell?
@@jasonreed7522 they were fragrant it possible a few goblins might have had allergic reactions
I do my best to make sure that there are some benefits to the cursed item's I hand out. One item I have is The Amulet Of Pride. While attuned to the item, you cannot be frightened, but have disadvantage on saving throws to resist being charmed. While above half your max HP you can add you character level to the damage rolls with melee attacks and unarmed strikes, but when below half your max HP, attack rolls against you have advantage as your unfounded confidence begins to waver.
You also have a superiority complex while wearing the item, compelling you to accept challenges regardless of your actual ability to complete them being viable or not.
Typical can't remove the item or give it away unless they are hit by a remove curse spell.
Great summary! I think the major problem with cursed items in the rules is that they really haven't changed much (except for the attunement part) from their origins in BECMI/AD&D, where they were basically obstacles/traps for the PCs to overcome, in the kind of gaming environment where spheres of annihilation used as architecture were legitimate (and indeed brilliant) aspects of dungeon design and first level thieves routinely faced save-or-die poison needles on half the chests in a dungeon. And curses that make major, permanent changes in a character sound great for storytelling, but they're ultimately an author's tool, not a gamemaster's. Your sorcerer friend's character's curse would have been a great subplot in a fantasy novel, but not at the table. Ironically, video games have been making effective curses for years with items that raise stat A by some amount but lower stat B by some other amount, like the clutch rings in Dark Souls. You get the benefit of the item, but have to take the down side with the good. (Indeed, one could make it so such "flawed" items were cursed, not to glue themselves to their user, but in their backstory so that the flaw was caused by the curse and removing the curse would remove the flaw, with the item's history being tied into the campaign storyline or a character backstory.)
I introduced a cursed item that gives hp to our monk (he originally had 4 hp). The party found a ring on a necromancer that they beat they then gave to the squishy monk, the curse is simple to circumvent if he remembers to take it off before resting, if he doesn’t remove before sleeping the ring will give him a point of exhaustion.
That is COOL!
As long as the player doesn't have ADHD, bc I would never remember (*chemically*) and get so fed up with it
One source for good Cursed Items: the Pathfinder 2E Oracle!
If you dont know that class, its literally an entire class who has a 'curse' as a main mechanic.
It works as a good source because generally, the boons you get are REALLY good that it makes the curse feel worth taking (risk/reward), and the Curses are scaling. So instead of a binary all or nothing, it ramps up. The more the player uses the reward, the MORE risk they take.
I've started using a scaling curse system in my campaign, and I feel like it has made the items feel slightly better
The "Hey Fiends" at the beginning -- what an absolute perfect opening. 10/10 no notes.
I like "blursed" items. Or items that have a tradeoff but are "cursed" because they require a spell to remove them.
An example, Amulet of Temperance, on any D20 roll you gain advantage when you roll 5 or less, or disadvantage when you roll 15 or more.
D&D used to assume that there were always higher level spellcaster NPCs available. Wizard PCs had to bargain for spells and were taught by their master, clerics had churches with varying degrees of higher level clerics, and *any* druid was a minimum 10th level caster. AD&D followed a similar pattern (except druids could start at 1st level), with the addition of requiring training from a higher level character of the same class to reach the next level after having gained enough XP. That means there should be at minimum one 20th level wizard and cleric in the world. All that to say "you can remove the curse for gold or a quest at the next town"
It can also be fun to make an item that is powerful, but at a cost.
The blood shield gives the user 5 temporary hp on command, but reduces max hp by the same amount. Each short rest restores 1 max hp and each long rest restores 3. Also each day that max hp is reduced, roll a d20. On a 1, one point of max hp is permanently lost, and on a 20, the player gains 1 vampirism token if 3 are gained, the character becomes a vampire.
Or see if you recognize this one. A ring of invisibility, but each time you use it it gains a small amount of power over you, and also alerts the big bad to your general location.
My favorite cursed item is a Longbow of Blasting. On a Nat 20, a 3rd level fireball spell goes off centered on the archer's target (so melee allies who are in the way). On a Nat 1, the fireball goes of centered on the archer instead.
Giving the items up and down sides and being up front about it is actually the best advice i heard on this.
Another couple of fun things to do with curses: 1) make it a conditional. The haunted sword is AMAZING (and has no drawbacks) if it's used in the tomb of it's owner or against the enemy type he hated. If you try to use against any other enemy type, though, some drawbacks kick in.
2) Purely rp curses, e.g. "so long as you are attuned to the item, your hands always appear to be covered in blood" or "what appears to be the ghost of anybody slain with the sword follows you around. Nobody else can see them." Up to the DM whether something bad happens when enough of them have been accumulated.
And that amulet sounds TERRIBLE. Depowering a character should be extremely rare, and shouldn't last long. Even if the player thinks a depowered story arc could be a fun RP, they are going to be bored any time the fighting starts.
In my current campaign, XP is earned by absorbing souls from cursed creatures (to sum it up roughly).
So if the party finds a cursed item (like they did in the latest session as of this post's writing), if the cons are too much for them or if they want to get rid of it after equipping it carelessly... They can absorb it for XP!
They seem to love the idea, it makes even a very shady item that might be too dangerous for them to want at least some XP while still having the option of using them if they consider the drawback acceptable for the sheer power of the item itself. More importantly, they can get rid of the item anytime by just absorbing it if and destroying it for XP.
To make curses not too hard to figure out too, I make magic items identified by default, and only curses are hidden. However, the "Identify" spell is therefore used to detect curses on items. It removes the "Identify" spam from the game while making it worthwhile if an item looks suspicious to them :D
"Remove Curse" is then only used in that situation if they want to remove but keep a cursed item without destroying it for XP.
It's a very simple rule, but it made cursed item so much less of a problem and more of a tool for the campaign.
The trick with curses is to attach them to several useful powers so that not only do the players not immediately want to get rid of them, but that they try to find a way to mitigate it. Remove Curse exists to let you drop an item (which is boring), but quests to get rid of curses not only match stories, but make for better new stories. As such, ALL permanent magical items in my games have drawbacks, some of which might be seen as curses. This might be best addressed during the session 0.
Thank you for your videos.
Point 2 reminds me of the Magic Sword Makoto from Demon's Souls, which the game just outright tells you that it'll drain your health over time just by having it equipped. However, it's also an extremely strong weapon, so you have to make the choice between missing out on crazy damage or finding a way to deal with that constant health drain.
My group does world building on occasion and we created new items during one session. I made an amulet that is basically an emergency escape. You perform a ritual to bind it to a location and so long as you are on that plane, you can teleport to safety. It creates sonic booms at the start and end locations (helpful to find as it will be held by a PC turned NPC). The specific method of travel causes motion sickness and basically paralyzed the traveler for 24 hours.
I talked with DM later to add a curse that when broken, will allow up to 8 people to be teleported when activated rather than one but still imposes the travel effects on all travelers.
The world would be a better place if companies would make their ADs as fun and unique and entertaining as the ADs from Ginny Di.
100% she's the best! 🌙
I'm the DM for our game, and our party barbarian picked up and attuned to a cursed greatsword which was originally owned by an undead goblin knight the party had to fight in the underdark.
The sword was known to be magical, because it was doing a bunch of extra necrotic damage when the undead knight was using it. But I also made sure that the players knew this thing looked creepy af and had an unsettling aura to it.
The barbarian attuned to it anyway and is now cursed with Sunlight Sensitivity. It's not causing them any issues right now, in the underdark, but might be a problem when they get back to the surface. At least for now there's all that sweet bonus necrotic damage...
First off I have to say that I love your makeup. The yellow eye shadow looks amazing on you.
There is also the thing about how things are treated as cursed.
With 3.5, there was an adventure that included a dragon who was leaving cursed items around...the curse was simply one that let the dragon track exactly where the item was and listen/see through the item.
Having an enemy who knows how to make those to deal with, either handing it to the boss of an adventure (or modifying their loot to include it) or having that enemy find a way to get it into the hands of the party could be a very interesting thing in and of itself.
I made a cursed "Expedition Pavillion" (a "Bigger on the inside" tent for travel shelter) and the curse was that everyone who's ever made a cursed one goes to the same pocket dimension so it gives you the guaranteed shelter but it's basically a big crowded multidimensional hostel.
I've seen it mentioned a few times, but I'm a fan of the "flawed" magic item approach. Not specifically cursed, just weird downsides. I handed out a suit of heavy plate armor. It was a very strong armor, but couldn't be covered for most of the armor's effects to take effect as clockwork creatures maintaining (from the inside) it had to see the outside world. And while uncovered, it was glowing when the armor, or wearer, was aware of nearby enemies, making it impossible to hide from sight. The armor was called "Visible Crusade" and it wanted to be seen.
I also handed out counterfeit magic items. Disposable wands with charges that don't recover, and other wands that might explode when they run out of charges. Also flying carriages that will stop flying after 2d6 hours.
I think another fun thing you could do, if you wanted to include cursed items in a way that rewards the players well for their troubles - float the idea of the characters having a form of legacy weapon in their background while you're planning characters in session 0 - if they take the cursed item, it then offers increasing bonuses as the characters level up, with the catch being the curse, which could interlink with bad things that have happened in the character's family history.
my cursed item experiment that we had some fun with. A very expensive looking golden and bejeweled amulet, when the player first put it on they initially feel a tingle in their the throat but no immediate side effect. The full effects of the curse don't become apparent until the next social encounter. When the now cursed player attempted to convince a merchant to sell at a cheaper price the amulet caused the players voice to suddenly become very high pitched and prevented them from rolling at their normal advantage. Our now Alvin the chipmunk sounding bard was now causing npcs to laugh at them rather then being intrigued by their normal reaction.
I personally think that some of the DMG cursed times are underrated. I especially love the berserker axe.
My favorite cursed item is a sword I stole and reworked from Baldur's Gate, the first one. The Vampire's Revenge is a simple weapon, a +1 longsword (or in my campaign, rapier) that gives you resistance to Necrotic damage. The curse is, on a hit, you heal the target for the amount your rolled, *you* take that amount of Necrotic damage (that can't be reduced), and in the vein of most curses you have disadvantage with any other weapon while attuned.
The Fighter was later shocked to find that the Troll he was fighting was unharmed by his attacks and taking damage at the same time, and so he ended up drowning it in the swamp with a bunch of amazing Athletics rolls that the Troll never beat without Athletics proficiency. After the fight, the party was wondering what the heck was going on, rolling Nature checks and Arcana checks to figure out what was so special about the troll, to which I kept responding "it's an ordinary troll." Eventually they figured it out, the Cleric had to wait until a Long Rest to get it taken off, and he kept using it as an otherwise normal +1 weapon with no resistance until very recently.
The funny thing is, it's basically infinite Cure Wounds that can crit, but it's an actual trade-off by having to choose that alongside disadvantage on attacking normally and losing your own HP with each heal.
In my TOA game I had a character that had like 2 curses that lasted like a year of the two year campaign. It ended up making that character one of the most memorable characters I ever played.
Honestly... One of the things that I started to like about cursed items was a Manhwa video about a Cursificer (Artificer specializing in cursed items)
Having them give a big boost for a corresponding penalty that makes them a risk vs reward system. The guy also had a sense of style that made every item look super evil because he would use powerful monster bits to make the items. It was a really cool story and I actually have been thinking about implementing something similar.
My group had a lot of fun with some specific magic items in a campaign. There were some magic items the party needs to collect, but using them isn't important. They are however strong artifacts, so naturally alluring. After some time of using them, the players gain a flaw, that doesn't take over them but will amplify specific, negative parts of their character.
So after they find the first one has it, and they get the rest, they need to balance risk and reward. The first is a surprise that creates roleplay, and the remaining ones now come with a warning.
One of my worst experiences in D&D is when my DM "cursed" my Warlock without attuning to a cursed item. He said that an evil deity tainted the connection I had with my celestial patron. As a result, my spell slots were one level lower than they should have been and any damage (or healing) I did with a spell was one die lower (a d4 instead of a d6 for example). This lasted for MONTHS until the DM just hand waved it away. There was no known (to us) way of ending it. It was awful. I was very close to just rolling a new character.
I actually got rid of a cursed item by finding a loophole in the dm's description of said cursed item. It was a ring with a chain devil bound to it given to my character for backstory reasons. Once put on the ring cannot be removed and I had to make wisdom saves to avoid the devil taking control. So rather than removing the ring I took the easy solution and sacrificed a finger instead. Definitely caught the dm by surprise as he didn't expect my character to hack off their finger and have the thing incinerated in holy fire at a temple.
Ha take that DM! That's awesome
@@yugoprowers The thing is devils have regenerative abilities so the finger had grown into a hand and tried to claw my face off as I was dragging it into the temple.
Nearly clawed its way out of my bag but failed it’s roll.
The ironic thing is chain devils are the primary torturers of the 9 hells and what my bard did to it was far worse.
I remember a cursed sword that actually was a boon for the party, way back in 2nd edition. It was a +1 sword that was cursed to be the only weapon you could use. The party ended up being captured, the warrior that was cursed with the weapon grabs a stick to beat the guard over the head with, and it suddenly morphs into the sword. It was a great weapon for a low level campaign, if a little frustrating for the warrior when he wanted to use a blunt weapon or a bow.
The Dwarf PC in my game pick up a bag of rocks from the corps of a would be bandit. It is a modified bag of holding. Only “rocks” can enter the extra dimensional space inside the bag. It is becoming increasingly more difficult for the dwarf to give away any “rock” that has been inside the bag.
- Side note. Because the dwarf failed their wis saves, they don’t realize that the bag holds more than it should. “It’s just a bag of rocks. What’s the big deal?”
No attunement required so the PC can still have their magic items. My players love this magic item.
Grab your ketchup and crunch away my friends.
I stumbled upon this video through YTs recommendations, and it's basically irrelevant to me. But, I gotta say, I can tell you put a large amount of effort, care, and thought into the video. Keep being awesome!
There's one in Strahd, an armor (I don't recall its name) that turns you into an undead and if removed causes a ton of damage, but the benefits it gives (turning you into an undead, half-time long rest, healing and free temporary hit points) were so good, our sorcerer unknowingly attuned to it, got it removed by a foe and then attuned to it again.
Yeah, Cursed Items have always been a bit of a headache/ challenge. And old edition items were absolute KILLERS! (often literally)
Excellent video on a rather difficult topic.
A bit unrelated to the content, but I love your makeup! I never thought of using yellow eyeshadow myself, but it really fits your top perfectly and the red accent blends really great with your lipstick!
😊
I have given 2 major cursed Items (I've given some non major ones as jokes like a rose that never wilts but you will always Rick your self when you try to grab it)and both times the same player took and attuned instantly (after I gave levels of warning that someone of his experience should be able to tell it's cursed)
I'm running a long term (2 years now) campaign and so far I've only introduced two cursed items, both of which my players can't stop talking about how much they love.
The first was a greatsword that the party looted off of an evil paladin after a super emotional battle. The sword allowed the wielder to basically deal divine smite damage (extra 2d8 radiant) on every swing, but whenever you make an attack with the sword it would gain a charge to a maximum of 13. Once combat ended, you would immediately take 1d8 radiant damage per charge the sword had, then it lost all charges. The sword went to the party's Fighter/Barbarian and it immediately introduced a cool dynamic for her since she would have to choose between doing more damage with the sword while taking more damage, or using one of her less damaging weapons instead to be safer.
The second is a legendary item that I made for the party sorcerer that buffs her spellcasting and gives her a bunch of necromancy spells (since her power comes from the goddess of death), but it gives a penalty to her Wis saves, and it destroys her soul if it's ever removed from her. I designed it to overall giver her upsides so out of game the players don't want to get rid of it, but it's just deadly enough to allow for some great RP moments talking about the morality of using it.
Overall, curses have the potential to be really great, you just have to use them sparingly and not make it actively unfun to use.
a few sessions ago, i picked up a fun cursed item. its name was something like "the ring of wanton hair growth." wearing it made some silly appearance changes, but the fun part was that it also made you fall in love with the ring. you basically became gollum. it gave me a chance to really ham it up in character, until my party held me down by force, and pulled the ring off to de-curse it.
our tank (a barbarian) also had a cursed item earlier in the campaign. it was something like a +2 warhammer that couldn't kill anything.
Don't forget that some "cursed" items can actually be fun and useful. Such as the shield of missile attraction. Put it on a tank, have them stay near the squishies, and any ranged attacks at them get redirected to the tank. Remember it gives the wielder resistance to the ranged attack's damage. A bag of devouring makes a great trashcan.
I ran a campaign a year or two ago that was *filled* with ridiculous and awful cursed items; the party was hired to track them all down and lock away safely.
Even with a full list of the items and what was wrong with them, the party still used them. But at least they made that choice themselves, the poor fools...
A+ video as always, but I need to take a second for the moment of delighted recognition I had upon seeing that skeleton cat on the bookshelf, when I have one of my own sitting not 3 ft away from me rn. Spooky season really is the best season lol.
Never thought about cursed items until now, these are fun ideas I'll have to use. Thanks for the video and cute eyeshadow!
"Ginny why would a player take an item if they know it is cursed?"
Meanwhile, my DM doesn't hide curses when the identify spell is used and our druid took THREE separate cursed items (and I took one too)
Just wrapped up a cursed item b-plot in my OSE game. I run cursed items in a few different brackets, but they all follow a through-line; using the item grants more and more power, with a ever-looming threat of inevitable narrative consequence.
In the above example, the cursed item was the Bone Karambit of the vampire Yuan-ti Queen, bathed in the blood of thousands of sacrifices. Every attack with the blade granted more and more temporary HP and attack/damage bonuses, but granted visions of past sacrifices that required saving throws to resist.
Greed and character development in this case led to the inevitable; the player pushed their luck too far, and was transformed into a hideous beast that the party had to put down. The important bit was this: the player and I had clear discussion both through in game descriptions of the consequences, and out- of game base-touching that this WOULD happen eventually if they kept pushing it. Despite knowing the consquences, the player chose this path, feeling the combat bonuses were necessary in the late- stages of their quest, and narratively fit their characters lack of judgement and impulsive, greedy nature.
Cursed items as gotchas are, at best, a tool in old-school gaming to diagetically reign-in greedy playstyles (a method better served by session 0's and out of game discussion) or a warning (made clear narratively beforehand) to the players to not mess with their owner. At worst, they are relics of early D&D game design, or novice GMing that remove player fun and engagement. You are not your players enemy, regardless of edition. Threats and consequences are much better manifest in other ways.
My favorite is the tattered bag of tricks. I made 2 of the summons hostile to the user, and one was a volatile goat that exploded a moment after being summoned. It ended up being a very fun item for the players.
I once had a game where there was this ruby crown of fireballs that was super OP but the thing was that it made you "evil" and would kill you within 3+ days due to it draining your life and actively aging you. It really changed how we dealt with a group of monsters with a dwarf (Dark Sun Setting) since the good Druid was the one with the crown on acting strange and end up casting a fireball all over us killing the Dwarf (And thus making it into a Shadow Monster that haunted us the entire campaign) and made my sketchy "Kind of evil but also resisting it" PC realize there was something off with the druid and saved them from the crown.
It was a really fun one of a kind way where the cursed object really changed things and added to the story. And only lasted about 2 session.
As a general rule, I really like cursed items like "Crownrend" from Campaign One of High Rollers.
A sentient magic item with its own goals, that can't meaningfully achieve them without help. It makes the wielder notably more powerful in combat, but is also a chaotic evil corrupting influence that represents a danger to the wielder and their friends. And each time you use its powers, it's strength and grip on the character grows
Love this video! It's nice to somehow suggest that there is something "wrong" with the item and also show in some way how it has affected others. Taking the One Ring as an example, everybody knows it's really bad but people still want it. OK they might not understand fully the effect it will have on them and be swayed by the potential for power but that's a really cool dynamic; they know something bad might happen but they want it!
I like rule 1! I think i may also let a player use a check (like history or arcana) to help them identify what a curse could possibly do, maybe with bonuses from an identify or a detect magic. That could give the PC a fun sliding scale of partial or partially correct/incorrect information based on the dice.
2 & 3 - making curses better written is the most crucial, and i like the examples you provided!
As someone who has never, in its entirety, read the DMG, I have never run into this problem. I introduced several cursed items into my game, and when people identify, I have allowed them to also roll a subsequent arcana check and if they pass that, they learn of the curse. I make the DC high for the level of the item, to make it harder to learn of, but yea, when they attune, they immediately learn. I have had a couple cursed items left by the wayside, or in some cases, stored in bags of holding to keep out of the hands of others. I even had one cursed item show up twice, because the players found it and literally just left it where it was. Then, a BBEG picked it up and went after them not caring about the curse.
These are definitely key things you're talking about here, and I agree with them, I just never experienced the bad counterpart to these situations. Thumbs up to you Ginny!
I love when a video gives you a blast of inspo for a game/one-shot. Thanks Ginny! One cursed hamlet is about to be imperiled.
I love your sponsor bits.😂
I was once making my system, but my friends asked for lots of worldbuilding that wasn't the focus of the system. I still secretly work on it.
I had a culture "cursed item" that was a bracer of haste, but it was made with the tail skin of a friendly magical species (created by a religious taught species who saw that species and all playable species/races as feral and they made some magical items using parts of those magical species)
The player could use it, but would suffer heavy interaction debuffs when interacting with that species, as that species has a keen sense of smell and would smell that bracer if worn.
I was hoping to create a dilemma, one that could be solved by removing the item if they knew they were entering that area where that species lives, and just reattune later. Or you know, they could play it up and feel angst from using it.
An alt ending would be to return that item to a living relative and receive a magical item, free from the stigma of the "cursed" item. (I would have told the player this via an NPC or if the phb section about these items )
This was beautifully explained! This is also a significant portion of all story writing. I bet your quests are amazing.
I found the commercial compelling, too! That's a rare accomplishment.
Excellent! So well summarized answer to a problem the community needed solved. Thanks Ginny.
These are some of my favorite videos that you've made!
I'm working on an idea for a cursed oracle of sorts. It contains vast knowledge and can impart it on request, but deep down it craves *experience* instead of knowledge, so receiving the requested information also receives a compulsion of some kind to go experience something. The compulsions are more extreme as the information requested is more obscure, or after repeated use.
My players are currently going through a dungeon where they found an Overcharged Staff of Lightning. It's very helpful against the various encounters, but depending on which spell they use it applies feedback to the caster or a nearby party member for some decent damage. I prefer utilizing cursed items with a risk-reward balance, and the player using the staff has done so with flying colors.