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It's not a pathfinder item, but the Necklace of Vampires was always an interesting find, especially for people who didn't mind becoming a vampire. (The DM allowed them to keep their alignment.)
There are some other cursed items that can be used carefully, provided the owner knows they are cursed. Far less expensive than some of the regular items.
So can you think of any others or do you not agree?
There are, absolutely, others for clever players.
Bag of Devouring. Waste disposal. Evidence removal. Raise/Resurrection prevention. The possibilities are vast.
Armor of Rage is great for those melee-ers that want more crowd control - although it does take a little DM intervention to assume most enemies basic tendency is to go after the wearer, unless a better target presents itself.
Helm of Opposite Alignment can be used to break many of the alignment restrictions of some class combinations. Total cheese? Yes.
I'm fond of a Mace of Blood myself...
Necklace of Strangulation is a great assassin tool...
And I'll stop here to give others a chance to respond.
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Hmm, well it was a necklace that allowed you to cast certain necromantic spells, like finger of death, and vampiric touch, as well as darkvision 60 feet and double natural healing. The necklace entices its wearer to use the finger of death spell, and after 10 uses, the necklace kills its owner and turns it into a vampire.
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A wand of fireball that heals instead of hurtss is a potent healing item(unless you are a rogue and make your reflex save) and a dangerous weapon against undead. 25 points of healing fire. Useless for a red dragon, 50% more effective for white dragons, etc.
"I'm almost dead, hit me with a fireball!"
Creative Director
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Yes; if you know what they are and how they work, most cursed items can be used as weapons of some sort. It's probably not a particularly NICE tactic to use, though... so beware GM-mandated alignment shifts if you're sneaking cloaks of poisonousness into the cloakroom at the town hall!
Virtually all items are useful if you can plant them upon the enemy.
As far as using it as intended, the berserker sword has obvious benefits.
Poison and Disease based items are meaningless to a monk or druid, so if you can further enchant them, you might find some additional use from the item, at DM discretion.
Necklace of strangulation just sounds like a rogue's best friend.
Incense of obsession? Excellent for those annoying stingy spell-hoarders. ;-)
Broom of animated attack? Perfect for those would-be thieves in your tower, hoping to make a quick get-away.
Amulet of inescapable location? Good for when you want to be found.
There are some of the new "Drawback" items which are definite cases of "It's not a bug--it's a feature!" If you have an item that changes your race, your gender, or makes to 6" shorter or taller, but this can be reversed by the simple expedient of taking it off and handing it a friend? Wow, great disguise items, with extra fun possibilities.
And if you can reliably figure out how to make the boots that make you 6" taller, there'd be a big market for those.
There are some of the new "Drawback" items which are definite cases of "It's not a bug--it's a feature!" If you have an item that changes your race, your gender, or makes to 6" shorter or taller, but this can be reversed by the simple expedient of taking it off and handing it a friend? Wow, great disguise items, with extra fun possibilities.
And if you can reliably figure out how to make the boots that make you 6" taller, there'd be a big market for those.
They're called platform stilettos, and there's not that big of a market for them.
And the item doesn't say anything about snug-fitting armor changing when you use the item, so beware!
Dreg comments, "I thought ye said it'd change her into a man. She still sings pretty durn high if you ask me."
An interesting NPC I did for a 3.5e game was a wandering merchant of cursed magical items. I'd hoped there would be an opportunity for my players to encounter her on a Lower Plane, though alas it didn't come about. I had planned to make her a night hag, though any species intelligent enough to cast spells and act as a merchant will do.
Believe it or not, she's honest about her wares; she purchases and sells cursed items with some utility. Her business model is to buy them cheap from the reject piles of professional enchanters and from adventurers that don't want them, in the latter case often defraying her costs further by casting Remove Curse or Break Enchantment at exorbitant value. She then seeks out particular situations or people when a cursed item's abilities outweigh its drawbacks.
Useful spells on her list will depend on the level at which the players encounter her. For countering curses, at minimum she should have Remove Curse (Sor/Wiz 4). Additional possibilities for ending curses are Dispel Magic and its greater for (S/W 3 and 6), Break Enchantment (S/W 5), or Mage's Disjunction or Wish (S/W 9). For identifying baneful spells, useful abilities are Detect Magic (S/W 0), Identify (S/W 1), and Analyze Dweomer and Legend Lore (S/W 6). I've given the wizard levels for the spells, but bards and clerics have access to most of them.
Some likely sale situations for her include: (1) unusual environments where intermittently functioning items work, like an icy plane for an item that only functions in freezing temperatures, or regions of eternal night for a night-functioning item; (2) characters that meet requirements for an item, such as having sufficient ranks in a skill or being willing to cast a necessary spell each day; (3) items of general utility with minor drawbacks or useful side effects, like the bag of devouring mentioned above, or something simple like changing the user's gender or warming the local air by 10 degrees; (4) items with serious drawbacks that people will still be willing to buy cheap: armor of arrow attraction is great +3 full plate if your team remembers to keep enemy archers occupied elsewhere, and a medallion of thought projection is a perfectly good one-way communication device for someone who knows to ignore its whisperings.
For extra mystery, she might have a secret way of creating crystal hypnosis balls or bags of devouring!
Of course that certain cursed items are great to use in some creative way, but as a GM I tend to be a swine.
What about the bracers of armour +3 coveniently placed in the way of lvl 6 party... they reacted like electromagnets when electricity struck the character wearing them or when he caused some electricity effect (of course that it was the wizard who took them) and thanks to the polarization (N wrist, S elbow) immediately made him clasp his hands in a rather awkward way (preventing item manipulation and spellcasting for a few turns... 1d4 per SL if I recall it correctly).
Curses should be harmful after all.
Of course that certain cursed items are great to use in some creative way, but as a GM I tend to be a swine.
What about the bracers of armour +3 coveniently placed in the way of lvl 6 party... they reacted like electromagnets when electricity struck the character wearing them or when he caused some electricity effect (of course that it was the wizard who took them) and thanks to the polarization (N wrist, S elbow) immediately made him clasp his hands in a rather awkward way (preventing item manipulation and spellcasting for a few turns... 1d4 per SL if I recall it correctly).
Curses should be harmful after all.
Sounds like to me a good opportunity for a situational bonus to disarm opponents with metal weapons. :)
Hmm, I like the cursed item merchant. I had an NPC who would be one of her best customers: A wizard who was a collector of cursed magic items, who had realized that for the price of one or two high-priced toys, he could have a beautiful collection of cursed magic items, lovingly displayed and with no extra need of security precautions beyond the items themselves.
Of course when PC thieves botch their Gather Information checks, his is the house they pick to burgle.
Someone who told me about his old groups travelling around.
I am talking about Gyax style dungeons wile I was still a young tike.
He told me about one his favourite moments was when they were about to fight a dragon until.
The fighter started quivering at the sight of the dragon.
"Oh we did not ment to disturb you we had no idea these were your minions please let us live"
The DM looked a bit puzzled.
"What will get from you living?"
Fighter puts down his backpack and rumages for a second.
"This my lord, our most valuable item"
Starts towards the dragon holding it out as if put it on for him like a servant.
The dragon dons the necklace only to be strangled to death by it.
I thought to myself thats pretty darn cool.
The DM was a random treasure rolling dude going ha ha no cool stuff you guy (or at least thats how he appears in my head)
The players look at this and just see it as another tool in the box of weapons.
As a DM who has never used cursed items.
Yeah I know how boring am I.
I would love to have a moment like that.
One where the player goes in his head "Ha ha, you though you'd screwed out of some treasure you bleeping bleep bleep now it's pay back time!"
Using something in a way that you had not thought about.
(accually I take that back I have used something like a cursed item it just wasn't a cursed item from a book.)
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The old school Ring of Contrariness was pretty fun if you could trick the wearer into thinking that you wanted him to do the opposite of what you *really* wanted him to do (which wasn't always an easy sell...).
"Oh, no, whatever you do, don't throw me into the briar patch..."
Sneaking an Amulet of Inescapable Location onto a foe that you want to keep track of would be handy.
Crystal Hypnosis Balls are good, clean fun, for the wizard who makes them. Yes, I too would like to randomly enslave other spellcasters! Too bad the recipe is unavailable to PCs.
A Flask of Curses with a 30+ ft. length of twine attached to the cork, so that it is unstoppered 30+ ft. away from the dude who threw it, to affect all around it, works as a debuff weapon.
A general wearing a Medallion of Thoughts could relay orders to a sub-commander 30 ft. away through the din of battle, or even a silence spell (everyone in the cone would receive the order, but they would have heard it anyway if he screamed it out).
An undead with a Command spell could shout 'Catch!' as he hurls a Scarab of Death at a living foe, to potentially amusing affect. Then again, he could save a lot of cash and just throw green slime or yellow mold or rot grubs or kyuss worms or whatever at them instead...
The best to exploit are the items that do damage when in contact with people of incompatible alignments. Put these sorts of effects on missile weapons. Barbed arrows, for instance, or harpoons, or hooked nets. Ow, Mr. Demon, you seem to have a 'damages any evil-aligned person who touches it' arrow stuck in your backside. The really exciting ones give a negative level to incompatible touchers.
"Oh dear, you are stuck in my good, lawful, flaming mancatcher, taking 3d6 damage every round until you escape and having two negative levels until you stop touching my pole(arm)? Sucks to be you, nasty evil, chaotic, Orcus-worshipper guy."
I love that Bestow Curse remains open-ended in Pathfinder. It really gets the players creative juices flowing, and is the only open-ended 'come up with your own effect' spell of that sort between Prestidigitation and Lesser Wish.
Sounds like to me a good opportunity for a situational bonus to disarm opponents with metal weapons. :)Of course that certain cursed items are great to use in some creative way, but as a GM I tend to be a swine.
What about the bracers of armour +3 coveniently placed in the way of lvl 6 party... they reacted like electromagnets when electricity struck the character wearing them or when he caused some electricity effect (of course that it was the wizard who took them) and thanks to the polarization (N wrist, S elbow) immediately made him clasp his hands in a rather awkward way (preventing item manipulation and spellcasting for a few turns... 1d4 per SL if I recall it correctly).
Curses should be harmful after all.
Yeah, it could work that way, but the wizard rarely had the thoughts to try getting into a melee fight.
I once had a group that loved to take a bag of devouring and put it over the heads of their enemies. Learned that that was not such a cursed item.
I too would sneak up behind enemies and put a bag of devouring over their heads. Chomp Chomp. Strange, I never seemed to find any cursed items after that. ;)
Kinda on topic, I had my PCs give their necklace of fireballs to one of the players who then charged into the fray at low health. Another player intentional hit him with a fireball trying to set off the necklace. Lots of dice rolling followed.
Most fun curse item I have ever seen used on a player.
A pair of irremovable bracers with two effects. One is that they do 2d6 damage to the opponent while doing 1d6 to the wearer.
The other is that the wearer has a random appearance change every 1d12 hours.
The Halfling Rogue who donned them went from being normal, to having a dark blue Mohawk, to being a fluorescent pink ewok, to being bald and bright green, to normal again in 24 hours.
Never in any session have I had such a good laugh
One of these days, I am going to get a ring and have Explosive Runes cast on it. I could see dropping it while running from a monster who picks it up and reads the inscription. "Boom" how very OOTS!
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Cursed items are essentially portable magical traps, and as such just about any cursed item can be used by a clever player to their benefit, assuming they know what the curse is.
I'm glad there are now specific rules for identifying an item as cursed.
One problem I've had with cursed items (as a DM) are the ones that are broken when put in the hands of players. Dust of sneezing and choking, I'm looking at you--a magic item that can defeat most CR 20+ monsters whether or not they make the save, and which bypasses SR. I unilaterally ban it from my campaigns. To my mind, the best cursed items are ones that inconvenience the characters for a time, but do not kill them outright.
My favorite use of a cursed item was in 2e, with a simple ring of delusion that the players thought was a ring of protection +5. A good chunk of the campaign went by before they finally figured out why its wearer would sometimes get hit when he should have been missed.