Just break the @#$!& thing!

[the Jester]

You fell for that?! Does your group have much experience with cursed items?

You are lucky you are still alive. An item found in that situation likely has enough curse juice to snape your spine as you snap it's blade.

Ehh, kids these days never have to deal with stuff like curses. Why, back in my day, you didn't dare cast a fireball except in an open field or room, and chain lightning was risky business. Why, even resurrection could kill you! [/gronard]

 

[Shadeus]

I see it like this. The curse is that you use the blade in combat....a sort of covetous relationship. I would argue that you would not WANT the blade to be shattered, because then you can't use it in combat as your curse demands.

I don't know if sundering would work though; look through your DMG at the -2 Sword, Cursed. A limited wish or better to get rid of it. A cruel DM would force you to immediate try to find a smith to get it reforged.

 

[kirinke]

Well. Watcha do is knock the character who owns the cursed sword out or better still, put a lil sleepy juice in his rations, wait for it to take effect and carefully cast dispel magic, followed by remove curse, followed by consecrate and hollow on the item in question. Pop it into a bag of holding or portable hole. When the character wakes up and finds his nifty sword gone, play dumb and lie your rear-end off. Once you get to the volcano, drop it in, ala Frodo. Or you could go the exalted route and redeem it. (See book of exalted deeds for further details.)

 

[ThirdWizard]

The curse has a mental effect -- it forces the cursed character to draw *and use* the weapon even though he knows he shouldn't. It has a hold on him, in other words.

If that were true, he wouldn't get the remove curse.

It's just a run of the mill cursed sword. It's not some super Intelligent item. Even those allow saving throws!

 

[Dross]

The curse has a mental effect -- it forces the cursed character to draw *and use* the weapon even though he knows he shouldn't. It has a hold on him, in other words.

I would totally extend this to the character absolutely refusing to throw away the sword or allow it to be destroyed -- the curse controls him and prevents him from doing so even if it's what he knows he should do. Even to the point of violently resisting should one of the other party members try to destroy the sword.

Sure, another party member can sunder it, but they have to overpower the cursed player first.

I agree, afterall, how can you USE the sword, the apparent answer to all your killing needs, if you let someone BREAK it? And this goes to the Remove Curse spell use. The Player has already indicated that his PC is almost out of ammo. "I'm saving what is left until it is absolutely necessary. However I have this nifty sword to use in the meantime"

There is another Q as well. How do the other PCs know that it is cursed? Because the DM said that you have to use it? Or because after a while and having refilled your quiver/s you still use the sword?

 

[TheEvil]

Many comments:
First off, several of you are right, the GM did mention me REALLY liking the sword, so I agree that the character wouldn't destroy it or let it be destroyed.
Second, since the Cursed Sword -2 only seems to kick in on the Must Use clause after a week of possession and we have only had it 2 days and it kicked in after the first time I used it, it doesn't seem to be that particularly nasty sword. We will have to see how the Remove Curse goes the next day.
Yes frankthedm, I felt pretty dumb when I realized what I had done. That said, I have been playing D&D for around 20 years, so don't blame this as a newbie mistake. Just made me feel all the dumber.

 

[TheEvil]

I agree, afterall, how can you USE the sword, the apparent answer to all your killing needs, if you let someone BREAK it? And this goes to the Remove Curse spell use. The Player has already indicated that his PC is almost out of ammo. "I'm saving what is left until it is absolutely necessary. However I have this nifty sword to use in the meantime"

There is another Q as well. How do the other PCs know that it is cursed? Because the DM said that you have to use it? Or because after a while and having refilled your quiver/s you still use the sword?

The character has plenty of arrows left, as the other party members would know. They also know he is a dedicated archer and how we came by the sword. It is no stretch for them to figure it out, partularly after our LAST fight...

 

[Nyeshet]

I see it like this. The curse is that you use the blade in combat....a sort of covetous relationship. I would argue that you would not WANT the blade to be shattered, because then you can't use it in combat as your curse demands.

It's mine. My own. My Precious . . . .



Technically, by the RAW, breaking it should work. However, the RAW does not take into account Rule 0, so breaking it - if even possible - may be hazardous to your health.

I was in game once where there was this wizard that turned out remarkably powerful magical weapons at a somewhat sub-standard cost. Turned out the weapons were empowered by trapped outsiders and elementals. Break the weapon and the creature was freed - and rather violently awoken from their 'dream' of being a weapon. Usually they were quite angry at that time, as they had little knowledge - if any - on how they came to be within / as a weapon. They were especially angry if they were aligned and had been used by a character that was of a differing alignment - or in persuit of goals of differing alignment.

Nothing like your companion's blade being sundered in a fight. You go from that it broke and your companion is less able to aid the party in its goals to when you realize that the party has something more pressing and immediate to worry about.

 

[Land Outcast]

Oh oh oh...

Looks like you've stumbled upon the Jewel of Nir....

You know, the story about the human who was invited to Dwarven halls because he had saved the life of the Thane's eldest son...

The first non-dwarf allowed to see the mighty awe-inspiring forges burning with the heat of the everburning flame, modelled after the Soulforger's workshop. It was breathtaking, as were the marvelous works therein, but the thing which gaught Nir's eye was not something eleborated nor refined, although it was marvelous in its own: mithral, harder than steel but lightweight as leather.

Greed settled in Nir's heart. As he praised with foul intent the stout folk's craftmanship, after a year of his stay had gone by, he was to depart... But he had told the Thane's son of his fascination for their work, especially for that strange nigh-divine metal, a jewel -as he described it-.

Dwarven pride or dwarven gratefulness, probably both. At dawn, after the Thane himself was to say farwell to the saviour of his son, the son appeared with a exquisite sword held unsheathed... the ease with which it was wielded, the shine of the blade, Nir knew it, it undoubtedly was mithral. The son sheathed the sword and came beside Nir, whith the intent of giving a gift to this man of good who so enthralled was with dwarvencraft.

Here is where the story gets blurry and the songs of the bards are in discord. Some say Nir had been possessed, some say it was plain human greed, even others say it wasn't him but a transmuted duergar. The truth is that Nir rode into the night with a bloodied mithral blade, and the elderly Thane thrice cursed the human, and made sure he wouldn't ever drop the "Jewel".

When Nir encountered himself at a dwarven outpost at a later date he unwittingly unsheathed the sword, which misteriously was still wet with blood; the dwarves asked for explanations, but so fascinated he was with his "Jewel" that he described it's origin, always unfailingly praising the blade... They didn't take it kindly, some say he escaped the outpost blade in hand, unable to sheathe it, others say the dwarves killed one another for possession of the blade, all agree in that the Jewel is cursed.


Or maybe it's just a random mithral cursed sword.

 

[Nyeshet]

Land Outcast, that was genious!

Would I be correct in presuming that you make use of Weapons of Legacy? Even if you do not, your story has real potential. I wonder if the weapon has other properties on it? Perhaps it has drunk so much dwarven blood it has gained the Dwarvenbane property. Or maybe it has been used so long and often in combat that it has gained the Vicious property. Even without any properties (beyond its curst nature) it could still be useful.

Personally, I like to give my curst items a nice property or two - so that the PC has to weigh the disadvantage of curse against the other - more desirable - properties. Should they choose poorly it will likely lead to their doom, but sometimes the curse is little more than an irritant. Perhaps the initial forger wished to make it so that none by he (or a friend, liege, etc) could wield the weapon. Years past, and the one for which it was made eventually died. Now everyone that wields the weapon must deal with its irritating and sometimes quite problematic curse. They could remove the curse, granted, but then the other properties might be removed or weakened, reducing the usefulness and desirability of the item significantly.

That, anyway, is my take on curst items. Actually, most permanent magical items have some odd feature or another. Sometimes they are curst, while other times they have some odd 'extra' added on by one eccentric owner or another.

Like the skeletonbane spear that once per day could turn undead as a fifth level cleric. Or the wolfbane sling the shepherds of one town had been using for generations to protect the town's sheep. Or the holy mace that once per day could change water into holy water without cost. Or the flaming dagger that could keep a 10 ft cube room warm indefinately once stabbed into the floor - and never left a mark of the stabbing once removed from it.

Or the flaming spear that caused creatures with the Cold subtype to take one point of fire damage each round they held it. Or the staff that could find water within a hundred paces but caused the wielder to suffer 1d2 Con damage each time it was used for that purpose. Or the sword that caused the wielder to enter a rage whenever they fell to less than ten hit points (which while within they could not distinguish between friend or foe). Or the axe that bled caustic blood and ignored up to two points of natural armor but once drawn could not be put down until it had drawn life's blood from a living creature.