Intentionally making cursed items

[Grogg of the North]

I marked this as 3.5 since that's the system where using but any edition free advice would be helpful too.

Anyhoo, in the campaign I'm in magic has been cursed. All the powerful mages have been driven mad and those of us that are left are starting to feel a little ... off. As one of the last remaining wizards I've had to under take the task of equipping my gang of meat shields ... er, traveling companions, with magical equipment. However, despite us traveling together we're not exactly friends. Our goals don't line up with regards to our magical macguffin and we've had a few IC conversations about my sanity and how to deal with "the wizard issue" when the time arises.

What I'd like to do, if it's at all possible, is to slip in some sort of curse into their gear. Make those magical bonuses turn into penalties with a word, render their magic suppressed, or even make the item unable to be used against me. My travelling companions are useful tools, not friends.

Unfortunately, I haven't found any good rules on custom cursed items. I've mostly been skimming through the DMG for info. And the DM's response was to ask the internet.

So if you were to intentionally add a curse to an item, how would you do it? Would you add it to the cost of the item? Would you cap it within the bounds of Bestow Curse? Thoughts?

 

[Umbran]

It doesn't sound like a curse, so much as an undocumented feature. "This item has the properties X, Y, and Z, that you requested. It also has Q, but I won't tell you about that...."

I'd then price it out like any other similar feature, and add that to the total cost of the item. The list of cursed items has many things you can use as guidelines.

The only tricky part is activation - most item activation methods call for you to have possession of the item to activate it, and in generally that won't hold for these.

 

[Greenfield]

There are ways to get discounts on weapon and item abilities by limiting who can use them, or placing other limits.

For example, some can say "This Bow is +3 in the hands of any Elf, but only +1 when wielded by a non-Elf"

Look into that aspect. Is your character a member of a Prestige Class or particular Arcane Order? A particular religion? Could a "Works for members and supports of The Order of X" be engineered? That might be a bit too narrow, but you get the idea.

Oooohhh! Bloodline! Think "Family Blade", that only works for a member of the family, or one of their designated champions! And whose family should it represent? Hmm. I'm sure something will come to me...

That one has a good feel, story wise. It sounds just mythic enough to sell to a story-driven DM.

 

[Umbran]

That one has a good feel, story wise. It sounds just mythic enough to sell to a story-driven DM.

Except, trying to mislead your GM into making it cheaper, because you are including a "limitation" that is really the exact feature you want for your own benefit, is kind of min-max cheesy, isn't it?

In a metagame sense - he's building specialized, personal protection magics. That's a benefit to him, he should pay for it. It shouldn't be a huge cost, but it should be there.

 

[Greenfield]

Oh, I agree, "limitations" that don't really limit an item should be worth a discount of zero.

I was simply suggesting the mechanism as a way to get the effect he wanted.

All they affect is the resale value, and shouldn't be applicable to custom made items unless that impose an actual limitation on the wielder.

 

[Umbran]

Okay, then I agree the precedents are useful.

Though, to be honest, for this use, I think the "supporters of" and "designated champions" are pretty weak designations for magic to cue off of, unless there's some form of ritual or rite or key item in their possession to designate them as such.

Here's a good sell, though. The wizard tells the party that he can make the items more easily if they form themselves into something like a knightly order - which calls for just such a ritual. Then, have the items not work for those outside the order, or against individuals in the order. He can, in fact, be entirely open about this. It looks like a feature, *unless* you're already thinking about turning against your fellow party members.

And the wizard simply doesn't make any such items for *himself*. Unless someone with the appropriate knowledge skill watches him, nobody will know the difference.