RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16
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All,
My players are going up against a couple of lamia priests of Lamashtu this week, and I'd like to throw some creative curses at them. The Bestow Curse spell is wonderfully flexible for this sort of thing. Recall that you can cause either a -4 penalty on attacks, saves, and checks; a -6 penalty to one ability score; or a 50% chance to lose an action each turn. But the best part is the line, You may also invent your own curse, but it should be no more powerful than those described above.
On a side note, I always like to leave an "escape clause" in my curses; I think it's more flavorful than just casting "Remove Curse." Usually in my games, casting "Remove Curse" will identify what the character must do to break the curse, but then they have to actually go do it!
So, what are some ideas for Lamashtu-flavored curses that are more flavorful than the generic ones? Off the top of my head, here are a couple ideas:
- Target grows a third eye in the middle of his forehead, which perceives the world in hideous, evil-tainted terms. The distracting visions impose a -6 penalty on Wisdom, but grant the target a +2 bonus on Perception checks made to notice evil creatures. This curse can be cured by washing out the eye with holy water.
- Target spontaneously combusts whenever he casts a spell, taking one point of Fire damage per level of the spell cast. This means he must make a Concentration check to avoid losing the spell. To cure this curse, the target must take at least 10 points of Cold damage while casting a spell, and successfully make the Concentration check to finish the casting. Doing so will permanently "put out" the flames.
- All animals (including animal companions and/or familiars) become hostile to the target, and will attack him on sight. I'm not sure how one might break this one; any ideas are welcome!
I love this spell. Here's some ideas.
~The character grows a hostile independent third arm that attempts to get the character killed. It imposes a -4 penalty to AC, Attack and Damage rolls. The character can cut off this arm by using a heavy blade and making a will save (DC equal to the save of the curse) and taking 4 con damage.
~Each time the character sleeps his skin slughs off into a horrific mass that crawls off to shelter and eventually grows into a plague zombie resembling the characters likeness. This zombie has the same HD as the character. The characters skin regrows by morning.
~The character suffers from comforting and longing visions of time spent in the womb. Each time the character sleeps they do so indefinitely unless the character ir awoken (a standard action) by another character.
Hopefully you will have better luck than my curse thread did.
* Curse a barbarian so that he is emotionally destitute and wholly unable to feel anger, happiness, or any other strong emotion.
* Curse a bard so that he is mute and unable to play an instrument without damaging it beyond use (strings snap, bites down too hard on wind instruments, etc.)
* Curse a cleric so that every time he speaks of his deity/faith and/or prays he speaks blasphemy instead the intended words. Also, make it so his holy symbol burns him like holy water against undead.
* Curse a druid so that he suffers from severe agoraphobia (fear of open spaces) and becomes a permanent shut-in.
* Curse a weapon-focused fighter to always fumble and drop his weapons whenever he attempts to draw them/pick them up.
* Curse a monk so that they cannot walk at all (0 ft. movement speed), effectively making them a cripple forced to take the crawl action.
* Curse a paladin so that he is wholly unable to tell the truth ("I am a very bad man who brings innocent people to injustice!"). Also, see cleric.
* Curse a ranger so that his bow string always breaks or he always fumbles one of his two (or both of his) weapons. Also, curse him so that he perceives his favored enemies (if you know them) as some other type of creature, causing him to use the wrong tactics against them. Also, see druid.
* Curse a greedy rogue so that all valuable items look like worthless bobbles and vice versa. Also, make him always tell the truth, or sing loudly when he tries to sneak. Also, make him always miss his mark when making precision attacks (dealing normal damage instead).
* Curse a sorcerer so that they suffer from severe self-esteem issues.
* Curse a wizard with illiteracy.
* Curse a person to be blind, deaf, and mute (with multiple castings)--so that he can't tell anyone he is cursed.
* Curse a person so that they are wholly unable to swallow even remotely solid foods--watch as they suffer and starve to death slowly.
* Curse a person so that they can no longer bend their arms and legs at the elbow/knee joints, causing them to walk around with a strange "tin soldier" like gate.
* Curse a womanizer with Shallow Hal syndrome so that they perceive all physically attractive girls as ugly and vice versa.
* Curse a master orator with Turret's syndrome so that they must blurt out at least one curse with every breath when talking.
* Curse a liar into always telling the truth.
* Curse a thief so that he cannot pick up anything that he attempts to steal (it always slips out of his grasp).
* Curse someone to smell so offensive as to keep people from coming within ten feet of them.
* Curse a pervert to always mistake somebody's sex until the worst possible/most critical moment.
* Curse a dwarf so that ale and other alcoholic beverages tastes like bland water--or something far nastier.
* Curse an aquatic creature with severe aquaphobia (fear of water). We actually did this to a giant squid once--it clamored up our ship's mast to get away from the water and remained there as we rowed into port (with several amazed harbor citizens staring at the odd sight in awe). Whenever it reached down for a sailor snack, we simply sprayed it with a bottle of water like it was some kind of misbehaving cat. The squid eventually dragged itself inland and died on its own.
* Curse a scarred barbarian who takes pride in his battle history with flawlessly smooth skin.
* Curse a person who took a Vow of Poverty with an uncontrollable greed.
Just to name a few...
Hopefully you will have better luck than my curse thread did.
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At first I thought those were pretty extreme, but then realized that Bestow Curse can effectively apply a -8 to all ability scores.
Here's one that might fit well with Lamashtu:
Curse of Perversion
Effect: Whenever the target of the curse perceives a creature of the monstrous humanoid type or demon subtype, the cursed creature must succeed on a Will save each round at the beginning of its turn (DC equal to the original DC of the curse) or become infatuated as though affected by a Charm Monster or Unnatural Lust spell, with the monstrous humanoid or demon as the "caster" or subject, respectively. Saving throw bonuses from these spells apply as normal, although the cursed creature must make another check at the beginning of its next turn regardless of success or failure. The cursed creature is only required to make this check once per turn, irrespective of the number of monstrous humanoids or demons present.
Removal: The curse is removed if the cursed creature remains chaste, and does not encounter a monstrous humanoid or demon, for one week.
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Curse of Vampirism: THe target becomes dependant on the taste of blood. Every round the afflicted must make a Will save against the original DC of the curse. Failure results in a -.5 penalty to target's intellegence and they take -1 penalty to thier AC if within 30ft of a living being. The penalties are cumulative and persist for the duration of the curse, or until the target partakes of bloood, which resets the curse. If the afflicted's Intelligence Score reached thier Int-mod as it would without the affects of the curse, or reached 5 (whichever is higher) THey will immediatly attack the closest living thing, functions as a Vampires Blood drain ability, and will not stop until thier prey is dead, or until the afflicted is knocked out.
THe cure for this curse is to burry them up to thier chin at a cross-road for 8 hours in broad daylight while being gagged with a clove of garlic, or a cloth soaked with holy water.
You like?
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RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16
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My players aren't that into vampires, so I probably won't use that one. Suitably creepy, though. and I love the cure :-)
I plan to curse the Ranger with claw-hands. She'll have a chance every time she attacks with a bow to slice the string (requiring a round to re-string, and a whole lot of spare bowstrings). However, she'll get a Claw attack for 1d3 damage.
Not sure what a good cure for that one will be.
My players aren't that into vampires, so I probably won't use that one. Suitably creepy, though. and I love the cure :-)
I plan to curse the Ranger with claw-hands. She'll have a chance every time she attacks with a bow to slice the string (requiring a round to re-string, and a whole lot of spare bowstrings). However, she'll get a Claw attack for 1d3 damage.
Not sure what a good cure for that one will be.
Maybe soaking them in a solution of wolfsbane and belladonna during a full moon?
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Target grows a third eye in the middle of his forehead, which perceives the world in hideous, evil-tainted terms. The distracting visions impose a -6 penalty on Wisdom, but grant the target a +2 bonus on Perception checks made to notice evil creatures. This curse can be cured by washing out the eye with holy water.
I like this one, as it fits the Lamashtan three-eyed thing.
Another option would be growing a third eye that causes hallucinations. Every round of combat, make a Will save or suffer the effects of lesser confusion.
That covers the madness aspect, but she's also a goddess of monsters and nightmares.
For monsters, the person could be cursed to appear as a Lamashtan creature (goblin, gnoll or minotaur, as most appropriate by size), and to replace their starting language with goblin, gnoll or minotaur (although they retain any other learned languages).
For nightmares, will save each night or suffer terrifying nightmares that cause one to be fatigued the next day.
She's also a twisted sort of fertility goddess, and a character could be cursed so that any child they sire or bear will be born a goblin, gnoll or minotaur (or perhaps an abyssal-tainted tiefling).
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RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16
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Another option would be growing a third eye that causes hallucinations. Every round of combat, make a Will save or suffer the effects of lesser confusion.
That covers the madness aspect, but she's also a goddess of monsters and nightmares.
For monsters, the person could be cursed to appear as a Lamashtan creature (goblin, gnoll or minotaur, as most appropriate by size), and to replace their starting language with goblin, gnoll or minotaur (although they retain any other learned languages).
For nightmares, will save each night or suffer terrifying nightmares that cause one to be fatigued the next day.
She's also a twisted sort of fertility goddess, and a character could be cursed so that any child they sire or bear will be born a goblin, gnoll or minotaur (or perhaps an abyssal-tainted tiefling).
All fantastic ideas! I like the confusion idea, but I worry a bit that it might be too much. I tend to skew toward the lower-end of the power curve, particularly since the curses can't just be gotten rid of with a Remove Curse spell.
I love the idea of cursing the character's appearance to look like a gnoll or whatnot. And the "replace the starting language" thing is brilliant :-) My players will hate that one!
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RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16
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Well, I ended up using Erich's Curse of Perversion. It actually worked out fabulously in the game:
Thanks for all your help, everyone!