I have a couple of memories from my highschool days and DM. We fought what we thought was the BBE Wizard, only for him to turn to snow when defeated, of his equipment left behind, there was a magic necklace... i threw it on... Strangulation!
Another time he ran us through the double Ravenloft adventure: House on Griffon Hill. Strahd would periodically taunt us, once he showed up, joked how we needed help, then tossed a scarab on the floor and left. My PC rationalized that it WOULN'T be cursed because it would be too obvious, so he really was throwing us a bone due to overconfidance... wrong. Dang beetle almost cost me my arm!
Silly greedy me.
As a DM, i rarely use them. In that vein I'm more apt to use an item with drawbacks, or in and of itself is EVIL and I try and creep the PC's out of wanting to even touch it.
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