What are some creative curses you've seen that aren't on the normal list?
I was thinking of having "The curse of the copious nose-bleed", but I'm not sure what the mechanical effect should be...
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Curses that can modify behavior seem interesting, in a horrible 'A Clockwork Orange' sort of way.
You could curse someone to have -4 saves to compulsion or charm effects that you cast personally, and to be extra susceptible to your Bluff, Diplomacy and Intimidate checks.
Someone who has threatened you could be cursed to suffer pain whenever you are harmed (equal to the sickened condition), increasing to crippling agony if you are disabled, dying or dead (sickened + staggered), motivating them to not only not send people to harm you, but to even attempt to prevent your death (since they don't want to spend the rest of their life sickened + staggered by incapacitating pain!).
Instead of picking one of the standard curse effects, to be applicable 100% of the time, you could pick two or more, to only be applicable a certain percentage of the time. So you could curse someone to lose 50% of their actions *and* have a -6 penalty to their prime attribute, but only when they choose to take action against you or your interests. As long as they keep their nose out of your business, they might as well not be cursed at all. The second they initiate an action against you, they suffer -6 to their favorite ability score and have a 50% chance of having a spontaneous 'senior moment.'
You could curse someone to always have to roll twice against you specifically or to resist / avoid effects you impose upon them (saves or spell resistance checks against your spells, CMB checks to break your grapples, attack rolls against you, damage rolls against you, etc.) and take the worst result. Against anyone else, they are effectively un-cursed, but against you, they might as well have a pugwampi riding on their shoulder.
A curse could give a foe spell resistance against only harmless or beneficial magic. Attempts to cure him or buff him might fail 50% of the time, or healing spells might have half effect or even minimum effect. (1d8+5 from a cure light wounds would be stuck at the minimum of 6 hp, for instance.)
A different 'anti-healing' curse could cause the target to count as a living creature for the purposes of negative energy (always take damage) and count as an undead creature for the purposes of positive energy (*also* always take damage), forcing the creature to recover hit points naturally, through heal checks, or by other means (goodberries, fast healing, etc.).
Taking a peek at the death curses of linnorms might inspire some ideas. If travelling in a group with a Winter Witch or Gnomish Pyromaniac, cursing someone to have Vulnerability to Cold or Fire could be fun.
Old-fashioned curses could include impotence or infertility, various oracle-like curses like a lame leg or occluded vision (everything has 20% concealment against the victim, and Perception checks are -4) or whatever. A less mechanical RP/campaign relevant curse might afflict someone so that they can sire children normally, but every child they sire is born with fiendish features (a tiefling).
Also more RP/campaign relevant, you could curse someone to be unable to lie, or unable to tell the truth, or to suffer some effect (tongue catches on fire for 1d3 damage, nose grows 1 inch and stays that way for 24 hours, etc.) if they lie. A more dire effect could be keyed to speaking about one particular event. "Try to tell anyone that I was the one who killed King Galder, and your tongue will blacken and rot within your skull before the words leave your lips. Try to write the words, and your fingers will fall from your hands before the pen touches paper."
You could also put a *second* curse on someone, to uncontrollably attack anyone who attempts to remove the first curse. Just for extra cruelty. Other 'backup' curses could cause even worse things to happen if the first curse is removed, or if someone attempts to and fails to remove the first curse (a burst of damage, perhaps even a radius burst of negative energy damage that might hurt the would-be curse-remover, or a poison or contagion effect that afflicts both cursee and curse-curer).
How about a Bluff check, some hand-waving and flashpowder:
'You will be always betrayed by those whom you come to trust, and none shall tell you truth.'
Sit back w/popcorn and watch the paranoia ensue.
I have a rogue who enjoys stealing minor things (stuff like boots, prayer books, but usually nothing that's very valuable) from everyone, including members of his own party. At one point, the cleric got irritated with him and cursed him so that every time he stole something from someone she considered an allay, he unknowingly left something of his in its place
I had a party that cursed a dragon with pregnancy (with a gnome's children). I blame these boards for that idea.
dotting thread. i'm building a character around curses, so the ideas people dream up here should give me food for thought.
(Gravewalker witch. hexes, and a voodoo doll? FTW!)
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There is already a GREAT thread for this. I suggest you all post there to avoid redundancy.
By far the best curse (in that it is most debilitating) you can put on someone is amnesia. RAW states that you can take away ALL the target's class abilities FOREVER, leaving only a confused, empty shell that is easily manipulable. You can then make whatever lie you want to them and convince them that you are there ONLY friend in the world. *evil grin*
Worse, the amnesiac loses all class abilities, feats, and skill ranks for as long as his amnesia lasts. He retains his base attack bonus, base saving throw bonuses, combat maneuver bonus, combat maneuver defense, total experience points, and hit dice (and hit points), but everything else is gone until the amnesia is cured. If a character gains a class level while suffering from amnesia, he may use any abilities gained by that class level normally. If the class level he gained was of a class he already possess levels in, he gains the abilities of a 1st-level character of that class, even though he is technically of a higher level in that class. If his amnesia is later cured, he regains all the full abilities of this class, including those gained from any levels taken while he was suffering from amnesia.
Additionally, an amnesiac suffers a -4 penalty to WIll saving throws and all skill checks.
See the insanity and madness rules for more.
You can use multiple curses, or the insanity spell, to inflict agoraphobia (fear of open spaces), claustrophobia (fear of enclosed spaces), eosophobia (fear of daylight), lygophobia (fear of darkness), sociophobia (fear of people/society) all at once!
Said victim will be wholly unable to function anywhere at any time without being perpetually frightened.
I also like inflicting someone with psychosis, which immediately turns them chaotic evil, filling them with a secret desire to bring harm to EVERYONE while also granting them a +10 bonus to bluff checks made to hide the insanity.
1.5 words: TerrorBoner.
Check out the other thread for more info.
There is already a GREAT thread for this. I suggest you all post there to avoid redundancy.
I'll go ahead and second this.
I didn't think it was an original idea when I posted it but I also didn't find anything with a search either (Though admittedly it's hard to search for a specific thread idea like this.)
I didn't however search the homebrew forum.
Thanks for the Link RD.
I didn't however search the homebrew forum.
What the hell? I didn't post it there. I would have put it in the Advice or General Discussion forum. The mods must have moved it.
No wonder people stopped posting to it back in the day.
I ABSOLUTELY HATE it when they do that. Kills a good thread EVERY TIME.
There is already a GREAT thread for this. I suggest you all post there to avoid redundancy.
By far the best curse (in that it is most debilitating) you can put on someone is amnesia. RAW states that you can take away ALL the target's class abilities FOREVER, leaving only a confused, empty shell that is easily manipulable. You can then make whatever lie you want to them and convince them that you are there ONLY friend in the world. *evil grin*
** spoiler omitted **
See the insanity and madness rules for more.
You can use multiple curses, or the insanity spell, to inflict agoraphobia (fear of open spaces), claustrophobia (fear of enclosed spaces), eosophobia (fear of daylight), lygophobia (fear of darkness), sociophobia (fear of...
What do the victims statistics go to? (ie. Strength, Dex, Con, etc) Or are they unchanged?
I curse this thread to never rest.
Does that work?
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I curse this thread to never rest.
Does that work?
Bestow Curse is a Necromancy spell.
So, I might as well ask- could I set a curse so that its effects only show up when a keyword is said? Preferably from a specific person?
So, for example, what is a person fell prone and dropped their weapons every time the caster tells them the command "kneel"?
Or perhaps they suffer from normal listed penalties (such as the attack and save penalties) for one minute after giving the command?
This kind of thing could be useful for.... 'obedience training' of minions. You want them to be weak to you, but you do not want them to be weak to everyone else too.
When a thread has been dead for five years, can you still raise it?
Many of the curses I read about above are far too powerful to fall within the purview of the 4th-level bestow curse spell, FWIW.
Don't remeber where I Originally found this list but I love it:
Possible list from message boards submitted for GM perusal/approval:
• Target is rendered sterile.
• The next person introduced to the target for the first time
will hate him or her uncontrollably forever. Even if this
curse is removed, the person still hates the victim of the
curse, but the victim can improve the person’s attitude
normally after the curse is gone.
• Each time the target attempts to help a friend or ally, there
is a 50% chance the attempt fails and causes the ally to fail
at the task.
• Target is struck blind and deaf.
• Each round in combat, there is a 25% chance that the
target will attack the nearest creature rather than choosing
an opponent normally.
• Every time the victim makes a d20 roll, a roll of 20 counts
as a 1.
• The victim effectively ages, moving him or her to the
beginning of the next age category. See Chapter 6 of the
Player’s Handbook for the effects of aging.
• At some point within the next week (or whenever it is feasible),
thieves are able to steal all monetary wealth the
victim has.
• Animals refuse to be within 5 feet of the target and do not
respond to the target’s commands or requests.
• Each time the target meets someone for the first time,
there is a 50% chance that the new person will confuse the
target with a hated enemy, a well-known criminal, or a
raving lunatic.
• All creatures of a specific kind (such as orcs, owlbears, or
black dragons) are permanently invisible to the sight of
the victim (invisibility purge does not help, but see invisibility
and true seeing do). The spellcaster chooses the kind of
creature.
The following effects can be substituted for those given in
the bestow greater curse description (see Chapter 6).
• A random friend or family member of the target contracts
a disease. If the disease is magically cured or runs its
course (regardless of the outcome), another loved one
contracts a new disease.
• The target’s most powerful and/or cherished item falls
apart, becoming forever useless.
• Valuable metals (such as platinum, gold, silver, and
copper) turn to lead in the target’s possession, even if they
are in a bag of holding or stored away from the target. The
target’s touch transmutes valuable metals (including
coins) into lead as well.
• 1d4+1 of the target’s loved ones or allies are affected by a
curse chosen from the bestow curse list above.
• All of the target’s loved ones and allies suddenly despise
him and are considered to have unfriendly attitudes. See
NPC Attitudes in Chapter 5 of the DUNGEON MASTER’s
Guide for actions former allies might take.
• The target cannot cast spells, use spell-like abilities, or
activate spell completion or spell trigger items.
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Don't remeber where I Originally found this list but I love it:
Possible list from message boards submitted for GM perusal/approval:
• Target is rendered sterile.
• The next person introduced to the target for the first time
will hate him or her uncontrollably forever. Even if this
curse is removed, the person still hates the victim of the
curse, but the victim can improve the person’s attitude
normally after the curse is gone.
• Each time the target attempts to help a friend or ally, there
is a 50% chance the attempt fails and causes the ally to fail
at the task.
• Target is struck blind and deaf.
• Each round in combat, there is a 25% chance that the
target will attack the nearest creature rather than choosing
an opponent normally.
• Every time the victim makes a d20 roll, a roll of 20 counts
as a 1.
• The victim effectively ages, moving him or her to the
beginning of the next age category. See Chapter 6 of the
Player’s Handbook for the effects of aging.
• At some point within the next week (or whenever it is feasible),
thieves are able to steal all monetary wealth the
victim has.
• Animals refuse to be within 5 feet of the target and do not
respond to the target’s commands or requests.
• Each time the target meets someone for the first time,
there is a 50% chance that the new person will confuse the
target with a hated enemy, a well-known criminal, or a
raving lunatic.
• All creatures of a specific kind (such as orcs, owlbears, or
black dragons) are permanently invisible to the sight of
the victim (invisibility purge does not help, but see invisibility
and true seeing do). The spellcaster chooses the kind of
creature.
The following effects can be substituted for those given in
the bestow greater curse description (see Chapter 6).
• A random friend or family member of the target contracts
a disease. If the disease is magically cured or runs its
course (regardless of the outcome), another loved one
contracts a new disease.
• The...
There was a Dragon magazine article about alternative curses back in 3.5, I think this was the list for Bestow Curse and there was another one for Greater Bestow Curse
mean like thisSo, I might as well ask- could I set a curse so that its effects only show up when a keyword is said? Preferably from a specific person?
So, for example, what is a person fell prone and dropped their weapons every time the caster tells them the command "kneel"?
Or perhaps they suffer from normal listed penalties (such as the attack and save penalties) for one minute after giving the command?
This kind of thing could be useful for.... 'obedience training' of minions. You want them to be weak to you, but you do not want them to be weak to everyone else too.
...damn it, yes.
My suggestion is to curse people into having the Oozemorph ability without the ability to cheat out of it by teaching Druidic.
Congrats, you are now a bucket of slime.
...damn it, yes.mean like thisSo, I might as well ask- could I set a curse so that its effects only show up when a keyword is said? Preferably from a specific person?
So, for example, what is a person fell prone and dropped their weapons every time the caster tells them the command "kneel"?
Or perhaps they suffer from normal listed penalties (such as the attack and save penalties) for one minute after giving the command?
This kind of thing could be useful for.... 'obedience training' of minions. You want them to be weak to you, but you do not want them to be weak to everyone else too.
Exactly what I was thinking. : D
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I had a whole post typed up and the forums ate it. Oh well here's a quick retype of some of them these are a mix of bestow curse lesser and greater.
1) Curse of the invisible bard: Wherever someone goes they shall have music constantly playing appropriate tuned to what they are trying to do e.g. lullabies when they're trying to go to sleep.
2) Curse of the inaudible narrator: There is a voice constantly describing everything the character does including their motivations e.g. "And so Robin snuck up and tried to pick pocket the cell key from the oblivious guard." Only person who can't hear the voice is the person cursed.
3) Curse of attracting naked women (Not one of mine): The curse will arrange a bizzare sequence of accidents wherever possible so that women will wind up naked in the cursed subjects presnece. The curse here was two fold first the women in question were not necesarily happy with this (such as the lvl 9 Barbarian) and neither were they relations (like the prince she'd just married to bring about peace between her tribes and his kingdom).
4) Curse of no direction: The subject will continually and unconciously substitute the opposite direction for the one they want to go in. They can be told "Turn right at the leaping stag in" and when they get to the leaping stag in they can check a map, a wayfinder and then turn left convinced they turned right as instructed. They will in fact refuse to admit even to themselves they got it wrong and instead blame people, maps, wayfinders and even the stars themselves for their constantly getting lost.
5) Walk a mile in their shoes: Transforms the subject into a woman/varisian/cat or something they have displayed "inapropriate behaviour" towards to teach them a lesson. Original version had them staying that way till they'd learnt their lessson, later one had it as literally till they had walked one mile in that form.
6)Curse of the Emperors new clothes: The subject will be convinced they are wearing an absolutley amazing royal outfit that only the wise can see when they are in fact utterly naked.
7) Curse of the open hand: The subject needs to help the next person they meet to do something or bad luck will follow them. They can negotiate what they do e.g. "No I will not kill your neighbour" but they can't accept any reward for the deed when they do it.
8) Curse of the miser: The person must make a will save any time they try to spend money DC is 15 + 1 per 500 GP spent. If they fail they refuse to spend the money no matter how badly they need what they're looking at.
9) Curse of the hungry cats: The subject becomes utterly irresistable to every cat within a 1 mile radius which will make their way to them and meow plaintively until they are fed.
10) Curse of the bodily functions: The subject will be unable to prevent themselves belching and farting on a regular occurance.
I'm also a fan of older style curses like whenever you talk snakes and toads will fall out of your mouth.