Great uses for cursed items ...

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Inspired by Order of the Stick ... anyone come up with / have great stories about cursed items?

My group had a lot of fun destroying evil artifacts using a bag of devouring, until it imploded.

Haven't seen a girdle of f/m in a long time, though.

 

[VirgilCaine]

Use a robe of powerlessness to partially disable powerful individuals.

 

[Saeviomagy]

A scarab of death in a ceramic box, and a high sleight of hand skill can be a nasty combination.

 

[Jondor_Battlehammer]

I love Elan.



I have had a pc dump a lodestone in someones backpack.

 

[Steverooo]

Once Upon A Time...

...we KRANG!ed a Mind Flayer over the head with a 1e Helm of Opposite Alignment, and got a new CG Henchman, IIRC. That was fun!

Another time, we took apart a trap, and got the vial of Sleep gas out of it, and used it to Sleep a bunch of Orcs in the room down the hall!

Cursed magical jewelry can't be told from normal, of course, and sells just as well... At least until the jeweller tells you "No thanks, you've sold me too much cursed stuff!"

I forget what its name was, but there was a 1e gem that attracted monsters, and couldn't be gotten rid of, without Remove Curse, or somesuch... Anyway, it was a joke with one of the PCs in our group to take it around and sell it to every jeweller in every town we came to, and then it would always reappear in his pocket, later on! (The weird thing was, he played a very selfish Paladin, too!)

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

I figure they're a good way to dump an ingame partner: "I've bought you this lovely valentines gift?"

Worst use I've seen was a party deciding to gift a nasty cursed dagger to an npc paladin... on the grounds that 'it probably won't affect him'. Then getting suprised when, a few game months later, they came back to the town to find it ruled by a blackguard.

In fairness, I think that was the players plan to begin with!

 

[Shadowslayer]

Heh. There's an encounter in a module I've got where an ettin has donned a helm of opposite alignment on one of his heads, and its a crapshoot as to which personality the PCs have to deal with. I won't say too much more. Those that have the module know it. For everyone else its a spoiler.

 

[Altalazar]

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.

 

[Sejs]

You know, Bags of Devouring make great garbage disposals.

And of course let's not forget the self-applying garotte that is the Necklace of Strangulation. It was more practical before they added the clause about it staying in place until the victim has skeletalized, though.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

In the original Baldur's Gate game, you could use the +3 Cursed Berzerking sword to defeat the sirines. You'd give the sword to one guy, a tough fighter, and have him encounter the sirines. The sirines would try to charm the fighter and have him attack the rest of the party, but the sword would force him into a berzerk rage and the sirines were easy pickings. You sat back, watched the slaughter from afar, and when he camled down, you would go in and cast remove curse.

Love that tactic.