Great uses for cursed items ...

One of the PCs in my game seriously considered stuffing this one particular Dust Mephit NPC into a bag of devouring.

I had a PC (amnesiac at the start of the campaign) literally wake up to start the game with nothing but clothes, a sword, and a blue-black gemstone embedded into their left ankle. It ended up being an artifact level object, one of several, that allowed the owner of a companion stone to control the person the first was stuck within. Something like a cross planar magic jar effect, plus being the scry focus from hell. Unbeknownst to the PC however, and even the fiend who was using it on him originally, the artifact's creator had included a number of rather hefty contingent effects on all of the stones. Hardly any of them were beneficial to the PC, but simply there to further the aims of the stone's creator if opportunity dictated.

One of the PCs (same one as before actually) used a cursed crystal ball and ended up with the unwelcome presence of an archfiend in his head. Which was actually a mixed blessing and curse all at once since at times the PC's goals roughly mixed with the yugoloth in question, given the bloody ugly tangle of give and take within yugoloth internal politics.

Altalazar said:

I think the classic use of a simple, cursed item was the good ole trusty Sword -1 that couldn't be gotten rid of. Great for situations where you've been captured and disarmed. Oops, now you have a sword again and your captor is dead.

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That's beautiful

KRT said:

all over the place, kuo-toa lairs, underdark, I'm sure I used it in an otyugh lair. Never once cleaned it. Found a bag of holding and thought great I'll put my cool stuff in it. It ate the stuff and now its working off it's debt so to speak.

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When I read this, I almost burst into laughter. Oh so close...

Fact is, I don't think the BoD cares what it eats. It just likes to eat. My mother used to call me the human garbage disposal... well, the bag of devouring is a magical garbage disposal, plain and simple. It'll eat anything put into its mouth, including plastic, styrofoam, sharp pieces of steel, flasks of acid...

Then again, about 1% of magic items are intelligent, right? Hmm... [gears whirling...]

Conaill said:

Then again, about 1% of magic items are intelligent, right? Hmm... [gears whirling...]

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Well, no real need there as the Bags are already a creature rather than a magic item. They probably are intelligent in some way, it's just that where ever that intelligence is housed is very alien and very far away.


They're sorta like the Orz, but for eatting instead of being Happy Campers.

In Cooperative Dungeon 04 - Tomb of Chaos, there's a tomb of one who was cursed by the ruler's priests in as many ways imaginable, then laden with a multitude of cursed items for good measure.

May be a bit excessive, but a snazed up bag of devouring is the perfect anti purse snatcher device. The owner just has to remember not to use it, :\

Jeez, how weird would that look. Your on the street and someone just suddenly gets eaten by their handbag!

...which just lays on the floor for the currious bystander to come over...oh dear...

Sejs said:

Well, no real need there as the Bags are already a creature rather than a magic item. They probably are intelligent in some way, it's just that where ever that intelligence is housed is very alien and very far away.

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Sure there's a need!

Let's see... an intelligent magic item knows Common, can communicate through empathy, speech or telepathy, has vision, hearing, skills and/or spells, and when wielded by a weak-willed individual may even be able to tell that individual what to do. (Little Shop of Horros, anyone?)

Heck, since it's a creature, add some class levels to it and go wild!

Sejs said:

They're sorta like the Orz, but for eatting instead of being Happy Campers.

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Wow, that brings me back. That was a fun game.

One of my players is determined to create a monk whose fighting style is based around shoving his enemies into a bag of devouring. He hasn't done it yet, sadly...

Demiurge out.