Curse: Rusting Touch (good, bad or ugly?)

[Quartz]

The issue here is that unlike a Disjunction, this is a continuing effect. A character who's had his armour disjoined still has armour; with Rusting Touch, not only does he lose hs armour entirely, but he can't put on new armour (which takes a long time - go look it up) because he'd rust that! A character who has his weapon disjoined still has a weapon and can swap it for another weapon; with Rusting touch, he loses the weapon entirely, and if he swaps it for another weapon, that may well have to save against his Rusting Touch too! Disjunction causes a pause; Rusting Touch causes ruin.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Your effective caster level is your character level (or challenge rating if you are a monster).

Why challenge rating? HD is the universal factor in determining how spells and spell-like abilities work, so I am curious to know the reason behind the change.

 

[Nifft]

but he can't put on new armour ... if he swaps it for another weapon, that may well have to save against his Rusting Touch too! Disjunction causes a pause; Rusting Touch causes ruin.

So, Silver and Mithral and Adamantine are all prone to rust?

-- N

 

[Vrecknidj]

Why challenge rating? HD is the universal factor in determining how spells and spell-like abilities work, so I am curious to know the reason behind the change.

It was entirely ad hoc, I was too busy thinking about the rest of the curse to worry about the rest of what I was typing.

I'll change the original post as this is the second comment about this point.

Thanks.

Dave

 

[kinem]

Far too powerful for an effect of Bestow Curse. For combat types, it's pretty much a Disjuction, so I'd put it somewhere near the same level. I'd ballpark it as an 8th level spell, 9th if it lasts an extended time.

QFT.

Also, I'd say Bestow Curse should never affect anything obviously physical. Its effects are invisible, except to the extent that the target seems hampered.

Remember, BC may seem very powerful because it's duration is permanent, but in practice the PC will have it removed by a cleric very soon - it really has no long term effects on a PC. Rust would.

Otherwise, BC could be used as a super buff spell. Sure, Midas's golden touch was a curse, but not one that lowered his CR or ECL.

 

[Quartz]

So, Silver and Mithral and Adamantine are all prone to rust?

They're generally not present when Bestow Curse becomes available.

 

[Andre]

Edit: Some minor changes have been made, so a few of the following posts won't be entirely accurate regarding certain points.

How outrageous would this curse be? (As per the Bestow Curse spell.)

You have a rusting touch. Each iron (or iron-composed) item you own that you touch takes damage as per the Rust Ray spell (except that the range is personal and the effect is touch). This effect only applies to items that are owned by you (as per the discretion of the DM).

Dave

Another option is to eliminate the phrase "item you own", but make the effect unpredictable. It doesn't work 99% of the time, but will randomly kick in roughly once every few hours. As others have suggested, this can be used to good effect in limited situations (in jail, etc.), but it won't be something the victim can rely on to hurt an opponent. But if the victim handles or wears metal for any length of time, it's guaranteed to be destroyed. And the first time the victim accidentally destroys a party member's magical plate mail...

 

[Vrecknidj]

My intention with the phrase "items that are owned by you" was to eliminate things like accidentally rusting an ally's sword. Unless that ally gives the sword to the cursed individual, the sword isn't owned by the cursed individual and so won't be subjected to the curse.

And, my parenthetical reference to the DM's discretion was to give this a role playing boost rather than be just a way to eliminate iron items ad nauseum.

Dave

 

[DungeonMaester]

Fort Save nagates, Fort save: Object (Harmless)

Rusting Curse is a prossive curse that causes a single creature to turn any metal they touch to Rust. When the curse is intial casted on the target they must make a Fort save or have thier body be overcome with the curse. Each day after that, the target make make a save vrs. the curse every day after being cursed. When ever the Cursed person in question touches a metal object that has a hardness and hit points then it must make a fort save to nagate. A failed save reduces the objects hardness to o and it takes 1 point of damage for every day has been on the target.

Each day the curse go by, its harder for both objects and person to resist. The Dc for the fort save goes up by one each day, as the fort save for objects increases by 2.

Edited.

It gets better over time, so n/pc wound figure out to quickly whats what.

---Rusty