Question about living with the Haunted curse

[Prok]

I'm in a group right now that generally goes pretty well, though I find myself at odds with a particular player often on the rules. His interpretation is usually "well, it doesn't say we can't, therefore we can, and..." which isn't really my thing.

So we got into the thing about Handy Haversacks and my Oracle's curse. Right now my character is a typical Oradin wielding a Nodachi. I wear a locked gauntlet on my left hand and have my holy symbol tattooed to my right palm. This means I probably won't be able to wear gloves that require both to be worn, but I'm pretty sure I can wear one under my gauntlet. Also I'm pretty sure the consensus on the Haversacks debate is that I simply don't provoke, but still take a standard to retrieve items.

My character is very much a samurai without being the actual class. She takes meticulous care of her O-yoroi which seems to appease the spirits. She often has to demand the most deluxe suite at inns, because normal rooms don't offer a full armor rack suitable for her daily rituals.

Are there any recommendations from the community as to how else I could role-play the curse or any other equipment options I could use to live with it?

[blackbloodtroll]

Oracles don't need a Holy Symbol.

Also, see this FAQ.

[Prok]

Thanks for the link. The symbol is for the Hospitaler archetype, which gets its own channel energy pool separate from the Oracle levels, as far as I understand.

The locking gauntlet is more of superstitious thing. Getting disarmed is bad enough, but in the admittedly rare chance that it happens, I'd hate for my sword to end up 10' away.

[blackbloodtroll]

Well, there are Weapon Cords.

[Prok]

Well, I thought about that. My take was that it affects dropped items. So with a weapon cord, unless it was 10' of cord, isn't going to stop the dropped item from landing that far away. I could get tangled in it, the spirits could detach it when I'm not looking, or simply be strong enough to snap it, or drag me down with it.

Is that all unreasonable? It's a curse from a diety after all. I figured it was better to not drop things.

[Kelarith]

I have an oracle in my game, and so far, the haunted curse has been interesting. I have it show up in small ways, but do the drop thing when it applies. It's given me a way to explain really bad rolls with her crossbow; "You have the target in your sights, and just as you pull the trigger, you feel the crossbow yanked to the side, and your bolt goes flying wildly off..." Other than that, they've been more mischievous than penalizing. She's also given me free reign on what the spirits are that are plaguing her, so I've created a small character story arc to explain it.

I think if you're looking for more roleplay opportunities with the haunted curse, you should speak with your GM, and let them figure out how it fits into the game, and have them work with you on that.

In my game, oracles have been created by a trio of gods that have foreseen a diminishing in divine magic, so blessed/cursed a select few with the abilities of the Oracle. While this does give them divine power, in the haunted curse case it opens them up to direct influence by spirits as well. The issues she sees are the results of different spirits (bad roll = spirit trying to harm her, good roll may be the opposite). So now I have my Oracle realizing that spirits are with her all the time, but isn't fully aware of why. She's been trying to communicate with them, to find out if there's some way to placate them etc. If your GM comes up with a little mystery behind what your spirits are, it will give you things to do as far as roleplay.

[Prok]

That's a cool spin on it. The Nodachi hunts for crits with a keen enchant, so that does give me the thing about benevolent spirits guiding my hand. I like it.

[Wrong John Silver]

I've got a Haunted oracle in PFS who is a scion of the Lost Prince, and I've flavored her curse as that all these invisible fairies are constantly "borrowing" her items and returning them to her. Either that, or she's just really, really scatterbrained. I regularly roleplay her finding something of hers left in random places, and she has far less feeling of possession for anything of hers--she figures she'll lose it soon enough.

When she drops something, it doesn't suddenly fling away, but it just becomes lost, only to be found 10' away.

[blackbloodtroll]

Prok wrote:

Well, I thought about that. My take was that it affects dropped items. So with a weapon cord, unless it was 10' of cord, isn't going to stop the dropped item from landing that far away. I could get tangled in it, the spirits could detach it when I'm not looking, or simply be strong enough to snap it, or drag me down with it.

Is that all unreasonable? It's a curse from a diety after all. I figured it was better to not drop things.

I think you are overburdening yourself.

I would rather play up the spirits that follow you, with maybe the occasional cup falling, or candle blowing out, than looking for a new way to restrict myself mechanically, at every corner.

It's one of the lesser curses, but it has a lesser boon for it.

Work for adding flavor, not restriction.