Questions about Graveknight Curse

[KerryJ]

According to the curse

Graveknight's Curse This curse affects anyone who wears a graveknight’s armor for at least 1 hour. Saving Throw DC 33 Will save; Onset 1 hour; Stage 1 doomed 1 and cannot remove the armor (1 day); Stage 2 doomed 2, hampered 10, and cannot remove the armor (1 day); Stage 3 dies and transforms into the armor’s graveknight.

So my questions are

1. Does the hour that you wear the armor count as the hour onset time, or after wearing it for one hour is the check made and then onset is another hour?

2. If you succeed at the initial save, do you have to make more saves, and if so when?

From the written description it seems like it should be really bad to put the armor on, even worse than just dealing with the Graveknight rejuvenating. But if it is a one and done save that seems much less scary.

[breithauptclan]

It feels better to me to run it by combining the onset time of the curse and the RAI text of 'this curse affects anyone who wears a Graveknight's armor for at least 1 hour'. That seems to be talking about the same hour of time, just using different language - one narrative language, the other rules language.

Running it that way would mean that #1 would be: You make a save immediately when you put on the armor, but the curse doesn't take effect and put you at stage 1 until you have worn it for an hour.

Running it as two separate hours means that you could wear the armor for an hour before making the first save, and then get another hour of wearing the armor with no curse effect before going to stage 1.

For #2, Multiple Exposure rules for afflictions would apply if you fail the save and are affected by the curse.

Quote:

Multiple exposures to the same curse or disease currently affecting you have no effect.

But if you succeed at the save and are not affected by the curse, it is less clear. The rules for the save itself are:

Quote:

On a successful initial saving throw, you are unaffected by that exposure to the affliction. You do not need to attempt further saving throws against it unless you are exposed to the affliction again.

But if you are continuously wearing the armor, at what point are you considered to be exposed again?

I expect GM variation on this. I would think the most common would be it counts as a new exposure once every hour since that is the onset time mentioned, or once each day during morning preparations when you put on the armor again.

[Temperans]

As written, and in context of the recent flavor vs mechanics thread, I think it works this way:

* Creature wears the armor for 1 hour.
* Creature then makes a save to be affected by the curse.
* On a fail the character suffers the onset (1 hour).
* On a fail the character suffers stage 1 (1 day).
* On a fail the character suffers stage 2 (1 day).
* On a fail the character suffers stage 3 (dies).

That also means you can cheese it by wearing the armor for 30 minutes and then removing it.

[Cordell Kintner]

If the PCs don't know that the armor is cursed, make a secret save for that PC when they put on the armor. If they fail and they wear the armor for a full hour, they go to Stage 1, and you treat is as normal from there. If they succeed, make another save an hour later, and every hour until they take it off or fail.

It takes 5 minutes to don Heavy armor, so "cheesing" it by only wearing it for a bit gets very tedious. I would have the time limit be additive instead of resetting if they try to do that, only resetting after having the armor off for a significant amount of time, like a long rest.