Has anyone else ever wanted to have a BBEG pronounce a horrible dying curse upon the PCs? I’d want it to only work on occasion (just because an opponent curses you as he dies doesn’t guarantee anything will come of it), be a free action, not count as a spell slot (anyone can attempt to pronounce a dying curse) and something that scales in magnitude with the BBEG’s power – no one is too worked up by the dying curse of a 1st level Warrior, but no one wants to receive one from a 14th level Wizard / Lich.
I can’t think of a good mechanic for it in the core rules and I’m wondering if anyone knows of anything out there that would work. Something beyond the spell curse – something that requires more than a successful casting of remove curse to get rid of.
Thanks!
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Has anyone else ever wanted to have a BBEG pronounce a horrible dying curse upon the PCs? I’d want it to only work on occasion (just because an opponent curses you as he dies doesn’t guarantee anything will come of it), be a free action, not count as a spell slot (anyone can attempt to pronounce a dying curse) and something that scales in magnitude with the BBEG’s power – no one is too worked up by the dying curse of a 1st level Warrior, but no one wants to receive one from a 14th level Wizard / Lich.
I can’t think of a good mechanic for it in the core rules and I’m wondering if anyone knows of anything out there that would work. Something beyond the spell curse – something that requires more than a successful casting of remove curse to get rid of.
There are actually rules already established for this kind of thing in Sword & Sorcery's Ravenloft Campaign Setting for D&D 3.0. It was published by White Wolf Game Studios, so you know it's good! I would start your search there.
I have no idea how any of this might work in terms of game rules, but I would recommend that, if you haven't already, you read Roger Zelazny's Amber novels, particularly the first five. This "dying curse" is an attribute of "the blood" of Amber and Zelazny examines it within the story enough to give an imaginative DM some idea on how to structure it.
For storytelling purposes there was some interesting stuff in one of the Ars Magica books, I think in Lion of the North? Which gives bonus for succeeding for things like ironic justice etc...
I really like this idea, and I always wanted it to happen to one of my spell casting pc's. I think it is something I still hold dear from dragonlance. Raistlin's shattered body and wracking cough plus his eyes that always see people aging and dying to remind him of the cost of power. This always seemed something great for a story line to me.
Fizz
I really like this idea, and I always wanted it to happen to one of my spell casting pc's. I think it is something I still hold dear from dragonlance. Raistlin's shattered body and wracking cough plus his eyes that always see people aging and dying to remind him of the cost of power. This always seemed something great for a story line to me.
Fizz
Or the Tower of High Magic in... God, I can't remember the name of the city, it's been so long! The one in the north that started with a P. Anyway, the Tower became cursed by the Black Robe who jumped from the window and impaled himself on the spines of the gate below. That's a good example of a nice (?), powerful dying curse.
Or the Tower of High Magic in... God, I can't remember the name of the city, it's been so long! The one in the north that started with a P. Anyway, the Tower became cursed by the Black Robe who jumped from the window and impaled himself on the spines of the gate below. That's a good example of a nice (?), powerful dying curse.I really like this idea, and I always wanted it to happen to one of my spell casting pc's. I think it is something I still hold dear from dragonlance. Raistlin's shattered body and wracking cough plus his eyes that always see people aging and dying to remind him of the cost of power. This always seemed something great for a story line to me.
Fizz
Palanthas!!!
Thank you!
Thanks for the help all! I’ll follow up on the suggestions. I would have responded sooner, but I was without Internet access for the last few days.
And yes, while I hadn’t been thinking of that curse on the tower of high sorcery when I wrote the question, that’s exactly the sort of curse I was talking about.
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Something a little different;
there are some powerful celestials with a sort of 'dying curse', Raziel being one of these archangels. My party was forced to slay one, and the mage failed his save. He earned a mark on his forehead visible to all celestial creatures that basically branded him an eternal enemy of good.