“Bonus damage? Hold on Raphael, let’s hear him out.” -Dunbrill, the Tailor of Tristan
Cursed items can be really hard to run. They are cool thematically but they can completely wear out a player. When I create cursed items, I either create curses that can be managed (ex: kill something within 24 hours) or have the effect be narrative-based (ex: you can’t raise this weapon against the BBEG). When it’s the former, I try to make sure the players understand the pros and cons. DnD is all about choice. Decisions can only be made from information!
Does anyone have ideas for really fun cursed items? I ran a hag adventure for Halloween and the players now expect the coven to appear in the campaign! Help would be appreciated.
I hope everyone had a happy Halloween!
4 Comments
I have used cursed items from the DMG. One cursed item that I created was a scythe that couldn’t be enchanted until it was used to spill blood from a devil, a demon, an archon, and an angel. The campaign ended with the character only fulfilling 3 of them. I made it to drive the character into the story.
That’s a great way of going about it! Hopefully the effect would’ve been epic after going on such a big quest!
Combine the 2. The party is cursed, possibly by picking up the wrong item. They then go on a mini quest to find how to get rid of the curse. Eventually, it turns out that only the hags can do it. And they’ve got some– requests…
Great twist. Hags are probably the best creatures to run when curses are involved!