How common are your cursed items

[Man-thing]

Responses to the variety of ideas

To Darkness:

You know its funny how somethings are collective experiences. When I was younger and playing in a more chaotic group we at times would do the same sort of things to paladin's who over exerted their authority. Although we saw it more as a social service than an evil act.

We would similarily punish overly macho npcs with a girdle of femininity we found.

To Hand of Evil:

Do have you tainted items rules written up somewhere I'd love to have a look at them.

To Sammael:

You in my all my DM time I've never included a intelligent item. I always thought the old rules for such things were cumbersome and forgot about the conversation, debate and colour they could add. I better go back and look into that.

To Varlanor Abroad:

Venombrawn has got to be added to my game. It sound like a great trade off. It think we used a Staff of Curing like that before in on of my universitry games. One of my current PC's made a feat that allowed him to do spontaneous curing as an evil cleric that also did 1 point of wis damage per level of the spell to the recipient as a offering to the dark god.

To everyone:

I'm glad to see that many people still use cursed items. My player's hate getting but love when the other players get them so they are widely accepted at our table. I'm somewhat cautious to introduce them into my current campaign as I have a number of new players who are not used to this sort of danger yet so I'll probably start with some inconvient items (quirky).

One of the posters made a comment about where they fit into a game and how they can be left lying around. In my game, cursed items are often created on purpose and not simply by accident. I leave them on the bodies of unlucky adventures who have fallen to one threat or another. I place them in the hands of their opponents (why is that Troglodyte orange? Maybe he's a subspecies. Oh, great his magic necklace was cursed now I'm orange) I really if ever just leave one lie about because your right it doesn't make a lot of sense but as part of another equipment they work.

 

[Christopher Lambert]

IME I've only seen a curse magic item done good twice.

The One Ring and an item a DM gave me in a 1st-level campaign. (I guess intelligent cursed items that graft into you, like an intelligent Eye of Vecna, is ok, or that demonic armor that you can't ever take off.)

I got a cursed +2 sword... cursed in that I didn't want to use any other weapon (I was a lance-using fighter at the time, using Spirited Charge). Because I had a +2 weapon at 1st-level it wasn't like using the sword (x2 damage) was worse than using the normal lance (x3 damage) and hey, it was better when I wasn't mounted, too. In terms of game balance this wasn't too good - it would have worked better at, say, 7th-level or so. But it was the flavor that was important.

It had a reasonable restriction. My character didn't realize he was cursed so he wouldn't just go to the cleric and ask for a little help here. He could pull out a bow or even use his lance, but he would only do it "if he had to" rather than "can never do it". Nothing stupid like "you try to draw your dagger but end up with a 3 foot long sword in your hand" happened, or even stupider "my right-handed character puts his bow in his left hand, then he reaches for an arrow with his right... WTH, a 3 foot long sword!"

I guess the problem is that most of the DMG cursed magic items don't make much sense, and often there's no good reason for even an evil spellcaster to make one of these things.

 

[Sigurd]

The Logic of Cursed Items is important

Truly "cursed" items usually gained the notice of a power pure or powerful enough to curse them. They tend to be very significant items attached to courts or burried with notable people.

I'd consider Aragorn's broken sword a (potentially cursed) weapon. Before it was reforged there was no way of knowing if Sauron's dying breath cursed it.

Other cursed items have been in the hands of evil or the undead for too long. Some are made by evil forces and seek to do evil -- are these 'Cursed'? If a sacrificial blade has done such terrible deeds that it is favoured by a demon or diety with mana or essence and gains powers to do evil is it cursed???

Far more magic items are simply badly made or damaged. Potions go off. Auspicious conjunctions and favourable conditions end. Much more magic in my games simply becomes unreliable.


I've never really liked the potential of cursed items to be punishment from the Dungeon Master. Simply making an item undroppable seems like bad role playing. Items may be addictive, they may affect alignment, they may possess the character but I have trouble imagining a sword that can not be dropped. I find it far more interesting that an item might be cast away with the help of great will or party friends only to have withdrawal or symptoms of desease later. Who else is looking for the item you abhor but need so much?



Sigurd

 

[Orius]

As a DM, I love sticking in cursed items, because well, I'm just a sick, twisted, rat-bastard DM that loves to see the looks on my players' faces when they whip out that cursed item, and it starts messing with them.

One of my favorite old school cursed items was the bowl of watery death, that had great flavor, but the total death aspect of it was a bit over the top. Another long time favorite of mine is the infamous girdle of masculinity/femininity. It's really more or less harmless, it doesn't kill, smack the character with penalties to hit rolls, damage rolls, saves, etc., doesn't inflict damage. But I've found that a lot of players are really really bothered when you magically change the sex of their character.

In general, I like cursed items that inflict temporary problems on the users rather than the very powerful instant death items. THe instant death items can be a pretty cheap thing for DMs to do to the players, while stuff that just messes with them for a little while is much more fun.