I will be starting a modified Ruins of Azlant game soon where the players will be going much further into the shattered continent. A great many things have survived the 10,000 years following the Earthfall due to the way the Azlanti weaved magic into basically everything they did.
Plenty of items are fine but I wanting some to be poorly affected by the time. Like bags of holding have degraded into bags of devouring. Staves, rods, and wands have odd quirks like altering the visual of the spell or flat out casting different spells or maybe have some chance of acting like a rod of wonder.
Thank you in advance
DAA
As a starting point, might I recommend the "quirks" and "flaws" tables from Pathfinder Unchained's Dynamic Magic Item Creation?
I have been slowly going though that list but I figured it couldn't hurt to see if anyone had an devious ideas :D
I can't remember where I found this, but it's a table for randomizing cursed weapons. This is for D&D 5E though. Whenever it says "Disadvantage", you can translate this to Pathfinder by rolling twice and taking the lesser result, OR, roll once but with a -5 is also roughly equivalent.
Cursed Weapon Properties
d20 Property
1 When you score a critical hit with this weapon, it deals 1d12 psychic damage to you. This damage cannot be reduced in any way.
2 After attacking with this weapon for this first time it becomes grafted to one of your hands. While the weapon is grafted to you, you cannot drop or sheathe it and you cannot be disarmed. In addition any ability checks you make which require the use of both hands are made with disadvantage. Only a remove curse spell or similar magic can undo the grafting.
3 When you roll a natural 1 on an attack roll with this weapon, roll the weapon’s damage as if you had hit. Instead of the creature you attacked taking the damage, it heals for the damage amount you rolled.
4 When you roll a natural 1 on an attack roll with this weapon, you become poisoned until the end of your next turn.
5 When you roll a natural 1 on an attack roll with this weapon, you become blinded until the end of your next turn.
6 When you roll a natural 1 on an attack roll with this weapon, you become frightened of the creature you attack until the end of your next turn.
7 When you roll a natural 1 on an attack roll with this weapon, you become incapacitated until the end of your next turn.
8 This weapon only deals half damage to creatures of a certain type (chosen by the DM).
9 You have disadvantage on attack rolls made in sunlight with this weapon.
10 Whenever you miss an attack with this weapon, you fall prone.
11 When you draw this weapon it cannot be put away or dropped until it has damaged a creature. While the weapon is drawn and hasn’t dealt any damage yet, you cannot be disarmed. In addition any ability checks you make which require the use of both hands are made with disadvantage.
12 If you carry any other weapons on your person while you wield this weapon, attacks made with this weapon are made with disadvantage.
13 Each time you draw or pickup this weapon you take 1d6 psychic damage. This damage cannot be reduced in any way.
14 When you use this weapon to attack an enemy while you can see another enemy of a higher challenge rating, you have disadvantage on the attack roll.
15 This weapon cannot reduce a creature to 0 hit points. If a damage roll made with the weapon would normally reduce another creature to 0 hit points, that creature is instead reduced to 1 hit point.
16 When you roll a natural 1 with this weapon, you are charmed by the enemy you attacked until the end of your next turn. The creature you are charmed by is aware of this effect.
17 When you attack a creature with a higher Strength score than you with this weapon, the attack roll has disadvantage.
18 Creatures not native to the Material Plane are drawn to your weapon and wish to claim it for themselves.
19 In a combat encounter when all of your enemies are defeated, if you are carrying this weapon, you must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or see all conscious allies as hostile enemies for one minute. You can repeat this saving throw at the end of your turn, ending the effect on a success.
20 Roll twice on this table.
.
Maybe you could create something like this list, but make it for Wondrous Items and make it a much longer list-- like hundreds of possible cursed effects. It sounds like you want a lot of this stuff to be custom per your campaign's needs, and I think that's the way to do it.
Of course, you can always custom-create a non-randomized cursed item whenever you want throughout the campaign, but whenever you're feeling like throwing a random cursed item at the group, you can just roll for it, and presto, instant cursed item.
Cool. This has been saved and added to the list of stuff I will be working on