Cursed items

[Richards]

Ah, but my understanding is that many times a cursed item is created unintentionally. The wizard creating that -1 longsword may well have been trying to make a +1 longsword, and just strayed from the "formula" a bit.

Johnathan

 

[Deadguy]

Ah, but my understanding is that many times a cursed item is created unintentionally. The wizard creating that -1 longsword may well have been trying to make a +1 longsword, and just strayed from the "formula" a bit.

Johnathan

I agree - that's usually the rationale for the existence of certain cursed items. But I admit that I do prefer the "good" cursed items to a simple "bad" one. For example, the +2 sword that must drink blood before it can be relinquished and resheathed. Using it on things like elementals and oozes is asking for trouble - but it might still be worth using it, even knowing that it may be your own blood that gets drunk!

And these are the sort of drawbacks that can make creating magic items cheaper - which means that 'flawed' designs can be rediscovered and perpetuated. To me, that's more satisfying.

 

[ThirdWizard]

Ah, but my understanding is that many times a cursed item is created unintentionally. The wizard creating that -1 longsword may well have been trying to make a +1 longsword, and just strayed from the "formula" a bit.

Johnathan

Yeah, back in the day there was a % chance for mishap during creation. You know, I kinda miss it. It was fun when the party was short on time and the wizard decided to cut a few corners hoping for the best.

 

[DonTadow]

I love cursed items and usually like to stash them in a dragon's horde or treasure room. I figure out of 40 to 50 treasures in a room some have to be cursed because of the percentage.

 

[Warehouse23]

No one save evil tempters sets out to make a cursed item, but conisder this: weapons bring death and destruction. No one likes death and destruction. Imagine the powerful magic weapons and armors used in a devastatingly destructive war. Now imagine the clerics (or druids, if the land suffered) of the realm placing curses on these powerful artifacts so that they would never be used again.

That's how curses come to be. Over time, the horde is broken up, and the items find their ways to dungeons, etc.

 

[Man-thing]

My group runs mainly in Mystara with adaptations to many of the old B,E,C et cetra lines. They are littered with cursed items. It almost seems like 1 out of every 5 items was cursed. We enjoy them and they are a regular part of our game.

Of course that why I wrote Athenaeum Arcane: Cursed Items that Phil released for me.

 

[JacktheRabbit]

Do people still use these? I remeber them being a lot more common at least in modules in 1e. Nowe a days with the heavy reliance on magical items that game has I woulkd think that the introduction of cursed items would be even more fun for a DM but it just isn't something I see in campaigns or that I see people discussing on the boards.

Do you use cursed items? Do you like them as a player? Why or why not??

Cursed items far too often were just messy ways for a DM to kill a player and laugh about it later. I have always thought they were really lame.

But then again a huge portion of 1E was really lame since EGG seemed to instill the killer DM just a weee too much.

I also fail to see how they would exist logically. I can see magical boobytraps for lack of a better term but they would be very rare since they would be created with an intended purpose (IE kill a very specific person).

 

[Nightfall]

Doc,

Some times magical fluctions occur (Dead Magic zones, Wild Magic zones, random stray events) that during Item creation time DON'T show up. Some times it might just be some Chaotic god's idea of a "joke" Some times it's humorous, some times a little more mischievious, some times just plain mean.

But the point of cursed items ISN'T always to kill someone. Some times its to make humorous situations OR have a PC with a cursed item but with a nice upswing work. I mean look at Elric. Sure Stormbringer is evil but it gives him a good bit in exchange for other powers. Does that mean its an evil item or just a cursed one? Fine line if you ask me.

 

[BullMarkOne]

Some cursed items could resonably have thier curse as a desired effect. For example the amulet of inescapable location could be invaluable in keeping tabs on untrustworthy individuals.

 

[Lhorgrim]

My group encounters cursed items just often enough to make us paranoid .

When I DM I use cursed items as an adventure hook, or as a powerful item with nasty drawbacks. Some of my cursed weapons and armor were designed for a specific person or group, and were only "cursed" for someone not meant to possess them. I didn't do this with every weapon that the BBEGs had, but some of the (in)famous named items were designed with major drawbacks for the PCs. This usually lead to some great in game tension, when they were on the way to dispose of the thing, and they got into a tight spot and had to decide whether or not to use the cursed item.