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<blockquote data-quote="Rel" data-source="post: 4346003" data-attributes="member: 99">I think that cursed items are fair game in my campaigns, but they require some careful handling.First and foremost, I think you need to know your players and how well they are likely to &quot;roll with it&quot;.&nbsp; If you have people for whom you know that a cursed item is going to suck the fun out of the game then better to steer clear as far as they are concerned.&nbsp; Fun is always a priority.However some players (like me) have the most fun when there are challenges that can be difficult to overcome.&nbsp; Even then, I think that some care needs to be taken in terms of how the item works with a given character.&nbsp; Let's say you have a cursed &quot;battle axe of the berserker&quot; that forces the first person to pick it up to thereafter always rush into battle with their foes, and never flee until all foes are dead.&nbsp; Now for the Fighter or Barbarian in the group, that's not a huge penalty.&nbsp; I mean sure they are going to be in deep doo doo if the party runs into something they should be fleeing from.&nbsp; And it could be a problem trying to take prisoners.&nbsp; But in the short term this may not be at variance with their normal fighting style so they are almost getting something for nothing.But what if the Wizard picks it up to examine it and see if it's magical?&nbsp; He is SCREWED.&nbsp; Can't cast his spells in battle and has to rush forward and swing the axe (at a penalty for non-proficiency probably) and can't flee.&nbsp; That is probably going to tend to irritate the player heavily unless there is a fairly immediate way to lift the curse.&nbsp; So what I'm saying there is &quot;be careful how you structure the curse&quot;.That also brings up the issue of &quot;how long are they stuck with this thing?&quot;&nbsp; In most cases I think that they should have a means of release from the curse sooner than later.&nbsp; The more restrictive the curse, the sooner you can ditch it.&nbsp; I don't think that long term (as in &quot;may not be lifted before the end of the campaign&quot;) curses are off the table but I do think that they require some buy in by the player as well as being open for choices on the player's part.For example, I ran a campaign a few years ago in which the party accidentally teleported into Hell (oops).&nbsp; They needed shelter while they were there so they could rest and recover spells so they could get out of there.&nbsp; A friendly, helpful Erinyes offered to let them crash at her place for a small price:&nbsp; A kiss.&nbsp; The party Rogue volunteered (I played dirty pool when I described her as the &quot;unholy love child of Salma Hayek and Lucy Liu&quot;) and, amazingly, made his Saving Throw vs. her seduction attempts.&nbsp; Then later, after the rest of the party was asleep, he voluntarily went back and bedded her, this time failing the Save.As a consequence, she got him to sign his soul over to her.&nbsp; He was basically damned.&nbsp; However she later provided him with an &quot;out&quot;:&nbsp; A dagger that sent all souls killed with it, directly to her &quot;inbox&quot;.&nbsp; If he killed enough people with that dagger then his soul was out of hock.So, basically he was cursed.&nbsp; But he sort of willingly walked into it so I knew there was some player &quot;buy in&quot;.&nbsp; He also suffered no in-game consequences other than the knowledge that his character was going to a Bad Place when he eventually died.&nbsp; But he really got into the idea of trying to redeem himself while still trying not to become totally Evil (in my campaign, sending somebody else's soul to hell in place of your own, while directly benefitting an infernal creature turns you Evil pretty quick).&nbsp; So he took care to only use the dagger on enemies who &quot;had it coming anyway&quot;.&nbsp; And of course he had to keep that on the low down from the party's Cleric of St. Cuthbert.It made the character and the whole campaign that much more memorable.&nbsp; So I'm in favor of using curses so long as it is done with some care.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Rel, post: 4346003, member: 99"] I think that cursed items are fair game in my campaigns, but they require some careful handling. First and foremost, I think you need to know your players and how well they are likely to "roll with it". If you have people for whom you know that a cursed item is going to suck the fun out of the game then better to steer clear as far as they are concerned. Fun is always a priority. However some players (like me) have the most fun when there are challenges that can be difficult to overcome. Even then, I think that some care needs to be taken in terms of how the item works with a given character. Let's say you have a cursed "battle axe of the berserker" that forces the first person to pick it up to thereafter always rush into battle with their foes, and never flee until all foes are dead. Now for the Fighter or Barbarian in the group, that's not a huge penalty. I mean sure they are going to be in deep doo doo if the party runs into something they should be fleeing from. And it could be a problem trying to take prisoners. But in the short term this may not be at variance with their normal fighting style so they are almost getting something for nothing. But what if the Wizard picks it up to examine it and see if it's magical? He is SCREWED. Can't cast his spells in battle and has to rush forward and swing the axe (at a penalty for non-proficiency probably) and can't flee. That is probably going to tend to irritate the player heavily unless there is a fairly immediate way to lift the curse. So what I'm saying there is "be careful how you structure the curse". That also brings up the issue of "how long are they stuck with this thing?" In most cases I think that they should have a means of release from the curse sooner than later. The more restrictive the curse, the sooner you can ditch it. I don't think that long term (as in "may not be lifted before the end of the campaign") curses are off the table but I do think that they require some buy in by the player as well as being open for choices on the player's part. For example, I ran a campaign a few years ago in which the party accidentally teleported into Hell (oops). They needed shelter while they were there so they could rest and recover spells so they could get out of there. A friendly, helpful Erinyes offered to let them crash at her place for a small price: A kiss. The party Rogue volunteered (I played dirty pool when I described her as the "unholy love child of Salma Hayek and Lucy Liu") and, amazingly, made his Saving Throw vs. her seduction attempts. Then later, after the rest of the party was asleep, he voluntarily went back and bedded her, this time failing the Save. As a consequence, she got him to sign his soul over to her. He was basically damned. However she later provided him with an "out": A dagger that sent all souls killed with it, directly to her "inbox". If he killed enough people with that dagger then his soul was out of hock. So, basically he was cursed. But he sort of willingly walked into it so I knew there was some player "buy in". He also suffered no in-game consequences other than the knowledge that his character was going to a Bad Place when he eventually died. But he really got into the idea of trying to redeem himself while still trying not to become totally Evil (in my campaign, sending somebody else's soul to hell in place of your own, while directly benefitting an infernal creature turns you Evil pretty quick). So he took care to only use the dagger on enemies who "had it coming anyway". And of course he had to keep that on the low down from the party's Cleric of St. Cuthbert. It made the character and the whole campaign that much more memorable. So I'm in favor of using curses so long as it is done with some care. [/QUOTE]

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