Cursed Items

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I never made them so common that they where everywhere, but I could definitely see one being wielded by an enemy who has no choice.

That's what I mean by not liking "sticky" McGuffins.

IMHO, cursed items were one of the few things that made magic in D&D dangerous and unpredictable. I often pictured them as the items created by those whose goals far exceeded their actual skill, or, like Stormbringer, sentient and malevolent on a certain level. I mean the one ring was found in mud by hobbits, because it that location served it's purposes.

I don't see why screwing up the creation of an item should make it sticky. Malfunction, yes, but not sticky. It doesn't make sense for a malfunctioning Ring of Protection equivalent to either teleport onto someone's finger, charm them into not wanting to get rid of it (despite what might be obvious penalties), or literally stick to their finger. (See Imaro's post, above.)

As for the One Ring, that was a semi-sentient artifact that you could take off. It didn't "stick", it warped the mind of the wearer instead, making them want to wear it, and (to the fuzzy mind of the wearer) had no obvious penalties. Even then, the messed up Smeagol didn't wear it all the time, which is how he lost it.

 

[WalterKovacs]

I think the problem is that all you have to do to determine what a magical item does is examine it for a few minutes. Once you know the item is cursed why on earth would you use it? I guess a DM could lie to their players, but I'm not sure how well that will go over... unless you state it at the beginning of a game. Of course at this point your basically rewriting the rules of magic items.

The write up in the PHB specifically refers to cursed items in it's description, saying that while most items will reveal themselves in a short rest, some may be harder to identify. They mention artifacts, cursed items and nonstandard items. They say an arcana check may be required, or perhaps a special quest to find a ritual to identify the item, or unlock it's potential, is necessary.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

I like & miss cursed items.

I don't mean "screw you" cursed items, where you don't know what they do until you use them, then you get whacked with a penalty you can't get rid of (though those items are nice for making players very cautious about magic).

I like cursed items that either:

- have in game story meaning: the cursed plate armor worn by the bloody baron, that causes its wearer to be haunted by murdered souls, or
- items where the player might choose to accept a curse in conjunction with a benefit: the +2 "to hit" item that also gives a -1 to defenses, say; or a weapon that causes its bearer to fly into a fury when bloodied, increasing combat capability but unable to stop until all opponents are dead, or
- items that are cursed just to be strange, but have a use for clever players. The bag of devouring is a good example. Another was a bag of tricks I once gave out that only ever spit out flesh-eating slugs.

 

[Mystical Forest]

I hope not...

...cursed items were never fun. I've never been a fan of "gotcha" things in RPGs. Silly.

 

[Contents May Vary]

I think the problem is that all you have to do to determine what a magical item does is examine it for a few minutes.

That's only true for non-cursed items.

As it says in the PHB, page 223: "Some magic items might be a bit harder to identify, such as cursed or nonstandard items, or powerful magical artifacts."

So it actually does specifically mention cursed items.

 

[Contents May Vary]

@Olgar:

Yes, but those kinds of RP items are *exactly* the kind that you're going to want to make up yourself, tailored to the player to provide maximum fun.

I have never used a predefined cursed item (although I admit I have plundered the predefined ones for ideas).

 

[WalterKovacs]

Cursed items I've dealt with:

(a) A "rain" bow. It was actually a normal magic bow, but caused it to rain on you when it was used. The party ended up using it to increase the damage on call lightning spells

(b) A belt of gender changing ... it's a purely rp based cursed item. If you are attached to the character, you still want the curse 'removed' ... but it isn't going to really hurt your character in combat, etc ... it can even provide some alternate uses for diplomacy/bluff/etc in roleplaying situations

(c) Intelligent items. Not exactly cursed, but it does give a nice "pro/con" effect. My intelligent item was "Screamer" ... a +5 longsword, that required succesful will saves to actually use, as it talked a good game, but didn't really want to fight. It was 'bonded' to me ... and I happened to have the lowest will save of the party. Similarly, I had a mask of deceit that was bumped up to an intelligent item. The item was a curse in that it effectively made the character evil. Even after the character was able to rid herself of it it pretty much informed the rest of her adventuring career. She was slowly being brought to the good side, as one of the PCs was a half-fiend that was denying it's evil nature. She was effectively neutral until that same half-fiend character triggered her slide back into darkness.

Cursed items can be just as useful as rp hooks as artifacts ... but they need to be done appropriately to really work well. Just having booby traps to make players afraid of using items isn't exactly the best way of using them.

The artifacts are an interesting way to go with them. Perhaps the cursed items might "hate" certain creatures more than others, and will actually protect other types. For example a powerful wand that belonged to a necromancer does very little damage to undead, or perhaps even heals them. [and perhaps harms the caster if used against undead].

 

[Ashenboychild]

As for the One Ring, that was a semi-sentient artifact that you could take off. It didn't "stick", it warped the mind of the wearer instead, making them want to wear it, and (to the fuzzy mind of the wearer) had no obvious penalties. Even then, the messed up Smeagol didn't wear it all the time, which is how he lost it.

That's always how i interpreted cursed items in my games. The player knew the item was cursed, but either the character didn't, or they were somehow so addicted to it that they couldn't bare to be seperated from it. Heck, even the older editions mentioned people losing cursed weapons being overcome with a desire to get the weapon back.

In game terms that just means telling the player "sure, you could throw it away if you wanted to, but you don't want to"

 

[icarusfallz]

As a DM, I have often used cursed items. My players never thought that they were "not fun". It's like playing roulette. Is a game fun if you can't lose?

 

[Contents May Vary]

If I wanted to play roulette, I'd play roulette, not D&D...

However, my players have indeed ended up with cursed items.

They are all items I made up myself though.

I'm interested, however, how you define "losing" in D&D? I'd say it would be irrevokable character death. That's definitely NOT fun.