Cursed Items

[Messageboard Golem]

Many adventurers go through their careers without ever encountering a cursed magic item. Sages speculate that the appearance of cursed magic items is the result of random chance or a misstep in the delicate creation of a magic item. Many of these so-called mistakes are intentional, crafted for the express purpose of causing fear, uncertainty, dread, or vengeance.

Athenauem Arcane: Cursed Items is a 15-page PDF detailing 10 cursed items. Also included are creatures, creature templates, and spells. Written by Mark Gedak.

 

[Old Fezziwig]

Reviewer's Bias: I received a review copy of this product.

Athenaeum Arcane: Cursed Items is a short PDF written by Mark Gedak and released by Ronin Arts. It details ten cursed items and supplemental material for those items (new spells and psionic powers, new templates, and a new monster). Christopher Shy's cover, which uses the same design as the other Athenaeum Arcane products that I've bought and reviewed, depicts a sad young woman, framed in muted browns and blues. There is no other art in the product.

Like most Ronin Arts products, the layout is extremely clean and functional, with the emphasis on the latter — the interior is readable and professional looking without feeling plain. The editing, on the whole, is acceptable, although (and this is a matter of taste) I felt that parts of the text were unclear (for instance, "the wielder becomes the target of the guilt spell if he meets the alignment restriction with a Will save (DC 15) as well") or over-written ("Jerith Lars wanted to rise to power using his good looks, and why should he not?" — the rhetorical flourish at the end of the sentence is what I'm looking at here). As a gamer, the former concerns me far more than the latter — although I'm now familiar with the guilt spell and have figured out what the sentence means, before that I was completely out to sea when I read that sentence. In the end, if these are the greatest sins a product commits, it's doing pretty well.

As for the items themselves, I found that they ranged in quality from not bad to very cool. I particularly liked the Harp of Heroes, the Keeper's Toolbelt, and Winterscarred Silver. The first, which penalizes braggarts for boasting by creating a questing beast (a new template included in the book), struck me as something that could be involved in a neat little side-quest with, as Gedak notes, the overtones of faerie tales and legend (I'm a big King Pellinore fan, myself). The Keeper's Toolbelt gradually transforms the wearer into a keeper, a tiny construct native to the demiplane known as the Clockwork-Driven Lighthouse (from Ronin Arts's A DM's Directory of Demiplanes, although I could think of all sorts of cool extraplanar locations just based on the name itself, even if I didn't own that product) — it's a great item to hook the players into some planar adventuring, particularly if the campaign has a strong law vs. chaos theme. Finally, Winterscarred Silver reinforces the idea that tombraiding, as a rule, is generally frowned upon in civilized society, which could turn itself into a plot arc as well, especially given that all eight ingots need to be returned for the curse to be lifted (although this could really tick off some players).

There weren't, to be honest, any items I didn't like at all, although I should mention that I found Noble's Honour and the Elixer of Freedom less than useful, as they wouldn't fit into my campaign or play style. The former functions as a +4 cloak of charisma that causes grievous harm to the character for any hint of romantic or sexual infidelity (8d6 damage from a variant of the spell jealousy, which is included in the appendix and seems to be from the Valar Project's Book of Erotic Fantasy based on the OGL's section 15, although I could be wrong in this conjecture). The Elixer essentially works as a cure light wounds potion/severe laxative. I'm just not sure that explosive diarrhea is really in the cards for my game at any point. Aside from these two concerns, the only thing I thought the PDF lacked was sample monsters for the templates — a sample questing beast or a sample reverberant would both be nice and helpful, as I have a hard time imagining using a template if I can't see it working.

In the end, I really liked this product — it's a strong group of items and everything's put together well. I had initially thought of it as a 4, but thinking more about it and considering potential utility, I have to bump it up to a strong 4.5 — it's not perfect and everything won't be exactly right for everyone's game, but it's a really good product and a strong entry into d20 game design for Mr. Gedak.

Final Score: 4.5, rounded up to 5

 

[Man-thing]

From Mark Gedak:

Thanks for the review Nick. I'm glad you enjoyed the product as much as you did. I'm not sure why I didn't work up some creatures based on those templates as that's the norm for templates. If I get some time I run up a few and make them available to people who want them. If your interested in sample creatures or have questions about the product you can email me at mark_gedak@go4.it

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Admit it - as a DM you like inflicting cursed items on the party, not enough to become boring, but enough to make the hesitant about trying something out. But sometimes it seems as though the players have the cursed items section of the DMG memorized, so how to make them suffer in new and interesting ways?

Mark Gedak addresses that problem in Atheneum Arcane: Cursed Items, bringing several additional cursed items, mostly new, to the gaming table.

The book has 15 pages and is divided into four sections - the first being the cursed items themselves, the second a minuscule bestiary with a minuscule construct, the third consisting of spells and psionic abilities useful for bestowing curses, or avoiding their effect, and finally a pair of templates to apply to creatures that a character has been cursed with. This covering of multiple subjects is my only real fault with the product, it could better have been named Cursed! As not all the curses are on items. (Yes, I know that it is a quibble, but if you are hoping for 15 pages of cursed items it can be a minor annoyance.) That said, the contents are all useful, even if the title is slightly misleading. The only illustration is the cover, which is a shame, at least one of the items would have been the basis for a good picture.

Section 1 - Cursed Items:
The cursed items themselves are well described, handled as legendary items in their own rights, with the bardic knowledge roll needed to recognize the item, a brief history of how the item came to be crafted, and a description of the item, followed by the game effects and what detect magic will reveal . All are listed in alphabetical order, so finding an appropriately challenging item can require a bit of digging on the DMs part, a list of the items by something akin to a challenge rating would have been helpful.

The curses run from the merely annoying (Elixir of Freedom, a potion pf Cure Light Wounds that acts as an immediate laxative and emetic, and Steelmind Matrix, a Psi crystal that loses its charges, unless they are just right) to the potentially deadly (Druids Vengeance, a spear that causes hostility in animals, and enrages animals that it strikes, and the Harp of Heroes, a musical instrument that conjures up the combatants of any songs sung to its accompaniment ), and to the the truly lethal ( Beautiful Loneliness, a cold iron hand axe that inflicts guilt on anyone who uses it against the fey, and the curse kills his companions into the bargain), to a slow but certain doom. (Keepers Toolbelt, which slowly turns the user into a construct that will go to serve the creator once the curse is complete.)

The majority of these items are very powerful, with some bordering on being minor artifacts. As a result the only ones that I have used in game so far have been the Elixir of Freedom and the Bracelet of Weakness (a bracelet that detects disease, while lowering the users resistance to diseases... which I have inflicted on an NPC as part of a now finished plot for my game). Several would others would also work well as major plot points in their own rights. At least one is reward as well as punishment - the Harp of Heroes , after the quest the heroes deserve a happy ending, right? If I were running a slightly more light hearted campaign this would have been the first one I grabbed for use, as it is I will hold it till I am running a game that is a proper fit.

Section 2 - The Bestiary:
An entry for the construct that the user of Keepers Toolbelt is slowly transformed into. The item, these creatures, and their purpose could fuel a minor campaign if used correctly, given the game I am currently running these will see use later rather than sooner, but they will see use.

Section 3 - Psionic Powers and Spells:
Ranging from a psionic version of Bestow Curse, to Detect Disease, to minor curses (Vacate Bowels - the spell used to create the Elixir of Freedom). In all 5 spells or powers are described.

Section 4 - The Templates:
The first is the Questing Beast, those creatures summoned by the Harp of Heroes are beyond the normal ken of beasts, tougher, more lethal, and granted magical abilities. The second is the Reverberant, incorporeal revenants bound to seek vengeance against the one who wronged them and abusers of psionic powers.

The entire contents is Open Game, and in turn the book borrows from others Open Game Content, duly credited in the text as well as in the license. This has resulted in me adding several other books to my wish list.

Over all I would give this product either a 4 or a 5 out of 5 stars, depending more on my needs at the moment than the contents. A few illustrations, and a slightly more descriptive title would have pushed it to a clean 5 for my campaign.

The Auld Grump

 

[Crothian]

[imager]http://www.rpgnow.com/products/product_3979.jpg[/imager]



The thought of cursed items really brings emotion out in some people. Certain DMs just grin evilly and think of new and interesting ways to mess with the players. Some players hate them believing that all magical items should be beneficial. Other players secretly enjoy them as they present another type of challenge for their character. To some DMs though the items are more of a pain since the DM has to remember their abilities as the PCs will never be able to learn what the true item can do until its to late. Cursed items are not an easy thing to use and incorporate well in the game. Someone might want to just come up with a few of the more advanced concepts in the d20 game and write about those. But this is about the cursed items and about the fun they can lead a party to.

Athenaeum Arcane: Cursed Items is a PDF by Mark Gedak and published by Ronin Arts. Mark has had his hand writing for a few different companies I have noticed so he seems to be a writer on the rise. Ronin Arts is of course the PDF Company with over two hundred products out there covering a wide variety of topics and games. This fifteen page PDF is nicely laid out. The book is black and white and as long as one doe not print the cover it takes up very little ink. The cover is full color with mostly brown and a picture of a rather sad looking woman. It really fits for the topic of cursed items. The book is book marked and really easy to reference and use.

The book in concept is very simple. It lists new cursed magical items. Each is fully described and nicely detailed. None of the items are what may be referred to as campaign enders. The cursed items will be problematic and might take a while for the players to figure out. Those kinds of mysteries can really be something great in a campaign and create the type of stories that people talk about for years afterwards. Each item has a Bardic Knowledge DC associated with it as well as a very complete history and description that includes the false aura the cursed item provides. There are ten new cursed items in here along with a few extras at the end of the book that are referenced with the items like a template or a spells.

Druids Vengeance is one of my favorite items in the book. I like the history that allowed this weapon to become everything the owner once believed. This weapon is great for killing animals and at the same time the animals will be none to happy with the welder of the weapon. It is one of those cursed items that can easily and slowly be seen a she animals are just growling or react badly to the owner of the spear. Depending on how often normal animals are encountered, this item could be mildly annoying to down right deadly to the owner.

Harp of Heroes is another very interesting item and a lot different then the types usually found. This harp is of fine quality and has some magical abilities in it. However, when a past hero is spoken of, that hero is called back from the lands of the dead and wants to hunt down the person using the Harp. This is another item that the curse can slowly be realized over many sessions and the confusion of what is actually bringing these heroes of old back can make for a nice side adventure for the players.

Not all the items are things that I would use though. The Nobles Cloak is a Cloak of Charisma but if the user tries to woe the opposite sex they can get really damaged. It can offer some good role playing as the character may just stop talking to that one gender all together. So, like all things even ones I do not particularly like will have some good uses for people.

This collection of cursed items is really nice. It will offer a few good choices for someone wanting cursed items and will hopefully offer the game a new level of complexity and mystery. But as always know the people that might use these items for some people just react badly to any and all cursed items.

 

[prodigyxss]

So your players have just utterly destroyed a monster encounter that was thought by you to be challenging, yet they did it in just a few rounds.....so what do you do. You dont throw bigger and badder monsters at the moment, but instead have someone controlled by your BBEG give them a cursed item from this book. Expecially if your players memorized the DMG.

Cursed items is a 15 page pdf written by author Mark Gedak. All of the magic items contained in this pdf can easily be brought into any campaign, by just changing the names of the people and places contained in the history section of the magic item. For the most part as well, they are actually pretty well done and descriptive, but a few seem a little bland. In the 15 page pdf there are 4 different sections, with one on the cursed items, one on new creatures, one on psionic powers and spells, and a section on templates. All of which are connected to the cursed items.

Section 1:

In total there are 10 originally different magic items. They are well described for the most part and their histories are interesting to read. First it describes the Bardic Knowledge check required to recognize the items abilities and drawbacks for the items. Then comes the magic items history which was a joy for me to read at least. After that follows a brief description of the item. Lastly the game effects and what detect magic will reveal about the cursed items.

The cursed items range greatly from eachother and can easily be integrated into any ongoing or new campaign. The cursed items range from the Harp of Heroes which shows the tale of a song with illusions, but a certain number of days later they come to life and hunt the performer of the tale, to the Druid's Vengeance which causes rage against any animals attacked by the wielder of this cursed spear, to the Noble's Honour which causes damage when the wearer beds with a member of the opposite sex. This one I believe was the most interesting, but I bet would get the least use.

Section 2:

Section 2 describes the Keeper which is a tiny construct that is used in the Keeper's Toolbelt cursed item. Basically people who where it for too long turn into a keeper and construct something for their original master. This is the only new creature.

Section 3:

This section contains the psionic powers and spells that were used with some of the cursed items described in the book. 5 spells in all are described, and range from Detect Disease to Jealously.

Section 4:

This is the last section in this short pdf. It contains the two templates which are the Questing Beast and the Reverberant. Again these two templates are each connected to a cursed item in the book.

Overall I think this book definetly deserves a 4 at least, but would have gotten a 5 if they included some illustrations besides the cover, which does a good job of showing the atmosphere of cursed items. All of the cursed items in this book are original and can easily be put into any campaign. So if your looking for ways to destroy your players further...get this pdf. I definetly will be using this pdf in my upcoming FR campaign.