Return of the Cursed Magic Item?

[Flynn]

Good Afternoon, All:

I haven't heard anything about this, and I was curious, but what do you think will be the status of cursed items in 4E? I mean, I really enjoyed them in both 1st and 2nd Editions, because of the colorful atmosphere they gave an adventure, and the sense of caution one gets with magic items. Cursed magic items have all but disappeared from published 3E and v3.5 adventures, however, for various reasons, I'm sure. I think they add a lot to the game, and I was saddened to see them gone from active use in the latest version of D&D.

So, do we know anything about the status of cursed items in 4E? Will they return, or will they remain an unused section of the DMG Magic Item chapter?

What do you think?

With Regards,
Flynn

 

[Doug McCrae]

Bring back the girdle of masculinity/femininity. There's not enough sexual perversion in today's D&D.

 

[DandD]

Cursed items should only then return prominently if the advantages really outweight the disadvantages, or at least it should appear to do so.
Else, no player will want to have them, and will get rid of them in the next temple/friendly neighborhood wizard tower.
Also, it's stupid to create purposefully cursed items as treasures. If anything at all, these drawbacks when wielding/using cursed items and weapons should come automatically if you want to apply really powerful enchantments on it when you create such a thing, because there's no other way to get the enchantment to stick on it.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

Cursed items should only then return prominently if the advantages really outweight the disadvantages, or at least it should appear to do so.
Else, no player will want to have them, and will get rid of them in the next temple/friendly neighborhood wizard tower.
Also, it's stupid to create purposefully cursed items as treasures. If anything at all, these drawbacks when wielding/using cursed items and weapons should come automatically if you want to apply really powerful enchantments on it when you create such a thing, because there's no other way to get the enchantment to stick on it.

I agree completely. Why would anybody ever make a -1 sword? Just to annoy somebody who happens to come around and loot their stuff? The only other exception I can see are items that are specific to a certain creature or class and impart a penalty (or should I say malus?) to someone not of that type to encourage them to not take it:

The Mace of Holy Joe when wielded by a worshipper of Java, the God of Coffee, is a +2 mace that also reduces the wielders need for sleep to only four hours per day. If carried by a non-worshipper, the mace has no magical bonus and the person develops a severe tremor in their body that results in a -1 to all attack and damage rolls and a -2 to Move Silent and Hide checks.

 

[sckeener]

though I agree that cursed items are fun...I think they are fun the same way the deck of many things is fun....so

they still ruin the game for most players.

 

[Scribble]

I agree completely. Why would anybody ever make a -1 sword? Just to annoy somebody who happens to come around and loot their stuff? The only other exception I can see are items that are specific to a certain creature or class and impart a penalty (or should I say malus?) to someone not of that type to encourage them to not take it:

The Mace of Holy Joe when wielded by a worshipper of Java, the God of Coffee, is a +2 mace that also reduces the wielders need for sleep to only four hours per day. If carried by a non-worshipper, the mace has no magical bonus and the person develops a severe tremor in their body that results in a -1 to all attack and damage rolls and a -2 to Move Silent and Hide checks.

mmmm Holy Mace of Deliciousness.

I can understand why they were sort of sidelined in the current rules... I mean if you're uysing XP to pay for the item construction who in their right mind would volunarily create a cursed item...

I do still like the idea of a cursed item though...

Maybe have it be "fixable..." as opposed to permanent.

In a game I had once a large series of adventures was based around the fighter trying to get the curse removed from his favorite sword.

Maybe magic has an expiration date. If you don't use it by a certain point it goes all cursey.

 

[el-remmen]

Why would anybody ever make a -1 sword?

Well, -1 sword is a pretty plain and cursed boring item - but I can think of reasons one could be made.

Imagine a wizard wanting to give an arrogant young prince a gift - make a sword that doesn't work so well that is cherished as an heirloom and may even be passed down with no one bothering to check the sword, because most of the time that -1 is too insignificant to be noticed.

When it comes to cursed items it is all about flavor, and the idea of there being general mechanical aspects to outweigh a curse blows my mind at how different from my attitude towards what is "fun" in a game.

 

[Umbran]

I agree completely. Why would anybody ever make a -1 sword?

Well, we haven't really addressed how cursed items come to be, have we? My impression is that in the literary tradition, cursed items are most often not created as such, but become cursed through use or events surrounding them.

Ring of the Nibelung, and all that...

 

[Celebrim]

I agree completely. Why would anybody ever make a -1 sword?

I don't think that most of them are made in the sense you are using. I think most of them come about by accident, either as a result of magical experimentation gone bad or of actual events of such a tragic character that the items associated with that event become accursed. Or, they could be the result of literal curses arising from these events.

So, a cursed chain shirt may be the possession of a beloved nobleman who was cruelly assassinated and his armor failed him. Thereafter, the armor carries a curse to fail whoever wears it. A cursed sword may have been the possession of a once mighty soldier, who in a fit of madness, instinctually strikes down his own daughter in the dark imagining her to be an attacker. And so forth.

 

[DandD]

The -1 penalty is significant enough to be noticed, and get the wizard tortured and beheaded for insulting the crown prince. Now, if there were some advantage, like it making you look more handsome and gallantly, then the wizard might get away with it.

In Fantasy Novels, cursed items tend to have useful and powerful charms and abilities that make the protagonist still want to use it.
Beginning with soulsucking swords of doom and destruction who can call ethereal lords of Chaos (That sword that the guy called Elric uses), to cursed armours who don't let you feel any pain anymore and enable you to fight on, but pierce your bones to mend the fractures and will make you die of bloodlose if you don't stop fighting (the Berzerker armour that Guts wears at Flora's mansion in Berserk).