Favorite Cursed Items

[Baldwin Stonewood]

I did a quick search, of the first three board pages, to see if this discussion has occurred recently but I did not see anything, so here it goes:

What is everyone's favorite cursed items they have either had as a GM or as a player?

My favorite as player was an emerald stone in low magic campaign that actually attracted undead. Of course, my rogue had a different POV, he thought it was an early warning device that glowed green when ever undead were within 100ft. I carried that item for two years of gaming.

[Speech]

I have never had a cursed item in game (lucky I suppose) but the ones that I did like were the insidious weapons that had just enough power for players to overlook the drawbacks. I found it fascinating to watch players rationalize their power lust and see how their characters would actually take on these evil traits. Ahh..how I miss the role play of the old days.

One guy I played with had a ring that wiped out his alignment and allowed him to act as he wanted without any restrictions. This came out as completely chaotic and was surreal to watch the character develop. One day he would cast a spell and help villagers grow their crops ..the next he would attack guards without provocation. Very fun game to be in.

I miss that game...

[Baldwin Stonewood]

Here is a fun little duel cursed item I placed in my last campaign. The PCs were high roughly 12-14 level at this time. They were confronting various devils (LE) in search of weapons of legacy that could assist in defeating the demonic forces (CE).

These were the false weapons for two players.

The crossed swords from the masters Quarters in the Wizard’s Peak Tower. There is a long sword and great sword crossed on the wall. The PCs believed these to be powerful +4/5 demonbane weapons.

A detect magic will reveal strong aura (phb 219){these are false magic weapons, they are actually just MW quality but they send out a false aura until used in battle. If swung and used for practice the weapons will feel like finely tuned blades that are apart of your hand. Once in battle the wielder must make a DC 15 Will save, failure means they will use the weapon without hesitation, weapons will be used easily for the first round of combat, then they become heavy in nature requiring a second hand on the weapon DC 20 Will save, instinct to grab the weapon with the second hand and drop anything else in that hand, the third round the weapon falls to the floor leaving the pc kneeling with the weapon, the fourth round the weapon disappears and returns to the wall.}

Nothing like seeing the barbarian in the midst of battle begging and pleading with his weapon.

[Arch Lich Thoth-Amon]

I did a quick search, of the first three board pages, to see if this discussion has occurred recently but I did not see anything, so here it goes:

What is everyone's favorite cursed items they have either had as a GM or as a player?

My favorite as player was an emerald stone in low magic campaign that actually attracted undead. Of course, my rogue had a different POV, he thought it was an early warning device that glowed green when ever undead were within 100ft. I carried that item for two years of gaming.

The emerald stone is pretty clever. Here's one that can go either way depending on one's perspective. It was a simple, plain necromancers ring. It would enhance the power of the necromancer when controlling numbers of undead. It wouldn't let you control undead more powerful than you could normally control, but it would definitely let you control larger numbers and for far longer periods of time. Pretty cool, actually.

Problem with it was, if you died "while" controlling undead, you would create a feedback loop and control yourself. Cool way to become an undead spellcaster. You'd get all the undead characteristics (basic undead template), not the more powerful lich stuff, mind you, but just the undead stuff. Over time your body would decay, but hey, you could continue leveling and would be "immortal." Immortal being used loosily, here.

Now if you werent using the magical rings properties during your death, then you would just die. But if you were using the ring, then you had to always keep the ring on you, for if it was ever removed from your finger, then you would die on the spot, no resurrection. Not even if someone immediately put the ring back on.

[deathboy]

I had a beserking longsword drop in my 2nd Ed FR game once it was pretty nasty. As it killed a creature it gained a point of ego, this ego would stack for each kill thus after killing 18 orcs it would get an ego of 18. This ego would try to dominate the wielder if it was strong enough, and if it succeeded it would force the wielder to go beserk and attack everything.

The Ego would leech away slowly, I think it was a point per week. If a new owner picked it up after vanquishing the last wielder the ego would drop to half the current score, rounded down. The name of the sword was Red Harvest, and it wrecked havoc in the game when the ranger owning it went on a rampage against an orc horde.

[Baldwin Stonewood]

I had a beserking longsword drop in my 2nd Ed FR game once it was pretty nasty. As it killed a creature it gained a point of ego, this ego would stack for each kill thus after killing 18 orcs it would get an ego of 18. This ego would try to dominate the wielder if it was strong enough, and if it succeeded it would force the wielder to go beserk and attack everything.

The Ego would leech away slowly, I think it was a point per week. If a new owner picked it up after vanquishing the last wielder the ego would drop to half the current score, rounded down. The name of the sword was Red Harvest, and it wrecked havoc in the game when the ranger owning it went on a rampage against an orc horde.

Sounds cool. Although, I suspect, the other party members did not enjoy the berserker within the party.

[Arch Lich Thoth-Amon]

My fighter, years ago, had obtained a +3 cursed sword. It worked great till the baddies were all dead, then he attacked the party. So i can say, party's frown on this type of cursed weapon.

[deathboy]

Sounds cool. Although, I suspect, the other party members did not enjoy the berserker within the party.

they didn't realize how bad it was until after the Horde. An Ego score of 88 was hard to deal with, even though the ranger did a lot of damage to the Horde. After the fight the rest of the party had to take him out and throw the sword in a bag of holding and then drop it into an active volcano.

It actually side tracked the party but good for 5 game sessions, right into a dragon fight.

[Baldwin Stonewood]

Problem with it was, if you died "while" controlling undead, you would create a feedback loop and control yourself. Cool way to become an undead spellcaster. You'd get all the undead characteristics (basic undead template), not the more powerful lich stuff, mind you, but just the undead stuff. Over time your body would decay, but hey, you could continue leveling and would be "immortal." Immortal being used loosily, here.

Now if you werent using the magical rings properties during your death, then you would just die. But if you were using the ring, then you had to always keep the ring on you, for if it was ever removed from your finger, then you would die on the spot, no resurrection. Not even if someone immediately put the ring back on.

That is unique way to become immortal.

[Stabbity]

well since I only have gotten one cursed item I guess thats my favorite. Though Ide much prefered the undead early warning, I got a returning rock of half speed (load stone) on my halfling thieif who already had encombrence issues. My dm's way of encourging me not to play my character as a thief I think

[Baldwin Stonewood]

well since I only have gotten one cursed item I guess thats my favorite. Though Ide much prefered the undead early warning, I got a returning rock of half speed (load stone) on my halfling thieif who already had encombrence issues. My dm's way of encourging me not to play my character as a thief I think

You got off easy. No problem with your character being a thief but quick fingers can get you in trouble. Especially since he does not have a way to identity items. This can make it fun for the DM.

[Stabbity]

You got off easy. No problem with your character being a thief but quick fingers can get you in trouble. Especially since he does not have a way to identity items. This can make it fun for the DM.

I wasn't complaining. It was fun rp via paper with skunk

[Baldwin Stonewood]

I wasn't complaining. It was fun rp via paper with skunk

You convinced another PC to carry your gear. I'm sure you will try to clip his coin purse to pay his porter fee.

[kitsune1842]

Darwin's Sword. +3 Vorpal Broadsword. Any character weilding it with an Inteligence score of 19 or lower if they managed to hit an enemy, and rolled a hit that beat thier own AC, they would do damge to the enemy and themselves, and a critical fumble counted as a critical hit against the person using the sword.

The game that dropped in, once we figured out what was going on, my 21 Int Warmage theorized it was made by some poor mage that got tired of seeing barbarians get all the girls.

[RoryN]

One of my rangers picked up some backbiter arrows at one point...always missed the target and then came back to nail the ranger. I used them ONCE and then traded them to some orcs for free passage through a cavern.

My favorite as a DM was I created a couple of daggers and placed them in seperate dungeons. On their own, they were nothing major, although they were inlaid with silver and had rubies embedded in the hilts as well. Whenever they were brought together (within 100' of one another), anyone holding them would instantly be drawn into battle against each other. The unknown drawback was that if one character held both of them, he would slowly be driven insane. The only way to get rid of them was to have a remove curse cast upon them both simultaniously. One of my better creations, if I do say so myself.

I really like the emerald stone, especially the way the thief played it. Very cool item.