Bestow Curse and choices

[Beshaba]

Bestow Curse says:

You place a curse on the subject. Choose one of the following.

–6 decrease to an ability score (minimum 1).
–4 penalty on attack rolls, saves, ability checks, and skill checks.
Each turn, the target has a 50% chance to act normally; otherwise, it takes no action.
You may also invent your own curse, but it should be no more powerful than those described above.

The part I am interested in is the invent your own curse part of the spell. Has anyone used this part during a scenario and what have you chosen?

I am trying to figure out what is possible? I know that there may be table variability with GM's. Do people think it would be good for my character to have a list of choices and then have the GM peruse them before the game?

Thanks

[The Great Rinaldo!]

Generally in PFS, any description that has several options plus "or anything similar your GM allows" is restricted to the options specifically listed.

[Irizati Qadim]

At the very least, you can justify the penalties with a flavor description of the curse. Perhaps they are distracted by visions of an alternate life in an ideal paradise, thus causing them to lose 50% of all actions. Or their muscles bulge so large as to overbalance them, causing -6 to Dexterity.

[David Haller]

I think a list of choices is a fine idea - I may do that myself (My PFS main is a rather mean fey sorceress with a DC 27 major curse!)

Obviously, there will indeed be table variation; a lot of PFS GMs are "new to GMing", and will likely be uncomfortable making a call, but a good rule to follow is that bestow curse is a 4th level spell, and major curse 6th, so any curses should be commensurate with those power levels.

A sorcerer might have cursed an enemy to be forever blind to beauty, which a GM might sort of softly rule to mean beings with charisma better than 16 or so would be effectively greater invisible to the victim; since greater invisibility is a 4th level spell, this is probably a reasonable curse.

(My sorceress, who is very vain, was turned permanently blue (rod of wonder), and is quite angered if she's referred to as "blue" rather than azure, and I'd like to have a contingency where if she's offended by being referred to as "blue", the offender is stricken with a major curse of may all the world be blue in your eyes, thus presenting an world in which everything appears bright blue. A flavor thing. We shall see!)

A thread on suggested curses would be amusing!

[Alexander_Damocles]

Major Curse: may you only play at kyle baird's tables.

[Myron Pauls]

I'm always a fan of "Each turn, the target has a 50% chance to act normally; otherwise, it takes no action". Whenever I use that one on my players, they seem to roll very poorly, making it end up more like 30% chance to act.

The best one was when an alchemist with wings was hit with this curse. The party came up against a particularly nasty enemy. The alchemist rolled to see if he could act, and was able to, so he decided to fly out over a cold, dark, underground lake to escape. Of course, the following round, he wasn't so lucky and fell into the water and started drowning.

[Some Random Dood]

Myron Pauls wrote:

I'm always a fan of "Each turn, the target has a 50% chance to act normally; otherwise, it takes no action". Whenever I use that one on my players, they seem to roll very poorly, making it end up more like 30% chance to act.

The best one was when an alchemist with wings was hit with this curse. The party came up against a particularly nasty enemy. The alchemist rolled to see if he could act, and was able to, so he decided to fly out over a cold, dark, underground lake to escape. Of course, the following round, he wasn't so lucky and fell into the water and started drowning.

Yea, I was that alchemist. Not the greatest of ideas, but I did manage to survive. lol