#d&d curses

[zannafella]

D&D curse that makes you constantly mention the curse but prevents you from communicating any specific information about the curse itself

And the only way to break it is if a party member correctly guesses that the curse makes you constantly mention the curse while also making you unable to directly describe it

A.k.a, the vagueposting curse

[endyre]

D&D Curses

Here’s some curses, cursed items, and dark gifts

I don’t like it when they are net negatives, so most of them are blessings that try and tempt the players. It’ll make more sense once you read the first one.

Gift of Static

When someone stares into your eyes, they see and hear faint tv static.

Before you make any dice roll, you can use this gift. There is no limit on how much you can use it. Doing so will automatically give you the highest roll on that dice. However, when you do this roll a d100. On a 2 or under you instantly die. Each time you use this feature the odds increase by two. so the second use it’s 4 or under, third use 6 or under. If this ability kills you and you are resurrected the counter resets back to 2. Each time you die due to this, your soul becomes increasingly unstable. If this ability kills you 3 times, your soul shatters and you can only be revived with a wish spell.

usage: two of my players were stuck in a pocket dimension as it was collapsing. The concept of nothingness in my campaign also includes the absence of darkness, so it’s instead represented by tv static. So they were enveloped by this staticness and absorbed some of it into themselves. One of the party members only used it twice and was fine, but the other began relying on it, and got up to 18% before dying, then immediately used it again after getting revived and died on the 2% chance.

Marksman’s Coin

It’s just the ultrakill coin

AC 17

Can be cast into the air as a bonus action. If shot out of the air by a ranged attack or ranged spell attack on the same turn, that attack redirects to the shooters desired target, bypassing their AC in favor of the coin’s AC. EX the shooter is fighting an adult red dragon with an AC of 19. They may cast the coin into the air as their bonus action, then make a short bow attack against it. Their attack roll is a 18, it hits the coin, and redirects into the dragon, hitting it despite the dragons AC of 19, dealing normal shortbow damage to the dragon.

The coin manifests back in the shooters pocket after 10 minutes. This will happen regardless of if the coin is shot or just left to fall on the ground, the coin cannot be gotten rid of except by remove curse spell.

However, if the shooter rolls a natural 1 against the coin their shot bounces back at them, dealing triple their attacks damage to them.

If the shooter rolls a natural 20 against the coin, their shot richochets, dealing critical damage to their desired target, then bouncing back to them dealing the attacks normal damage to the shooter.

usage: i just gave this to my parties sorcerer in my last session. I did not tell him how to use it, he arcana checked it to try and figure it out and all I told him was “All you can tell is that unnatural and perverted magic radiates from this coin” then sent him an ultrakill gif on discord. We’ll see if he figured out how to use it

The Machine

This cursed item is very up to DM interpretation.

This large machine is capable of reviving the dead. If DNA of a deceased person is put into the machine, it will produce a clone of them with their exact memories, abilities and appearance. It will not function if the DNA belongs to a living person. If multiple DNA’s are put into the machine, their appearance and abilities are mixed, but the memories will belong to the dominant DNA. EX: my party out the dead fighters human fighter hand into the machine alongside a dragon scale. The “new” fighter was the exact same, except his race changed to dragonborn. The party then all agreed to murder the bloodhunter and mix him with a health potion (they were idiots). He was revived but was slightly pink and had magic cancer.

The downside to this machine is that the new body does not have a soul, and the deceased’s soul is sucked into the machine, imprisoned there permanently save for a wish spell saving it (not that there’s a warning label telling the party this). This could have a lot of adverse effects and it’s up to the DM’s discretion what those are.

Gold rose Brooch

This would be a more “plot centric” cursed item, and harder to just slot into a campaign, also very very up to DM discretion.

A small pin that when attuned to gives the wearer +2 Charisma. Seems innocent at first, but to hint to the wearer that something is off, when they take necrotic damage they feel some sort of psychic draw to their brooch.

If the user kills someone wearing the brooch, it consumes their soul. Certain revives will fail to work on creatures without souls, DM’s discretion since the various types of undead are pretty vague about if they have them or not. If the wearer dies with the brooch, their body will begin growing vines and thorns all around forming a cocoon. After 2d4 days the cocoon falls apart, and the user can get out slightly altered by their chrysalis. Each time this happens the changes get more noticeable.

1st. They have a vague floral scent, and their hair produces pollen. The brooches boost goes to +2 Charisma and proficiency in performance and persuasion. The user is now cursed to keep the brooch on their person

2nd. Their eyes turn a dark green and shining gold. color. The boost goes to +3 charisma and proficiency in performance and persuasion. The user may also notice they can no longer unattune to or remove the brooch, even with the remove curse spell. roots from the brooch dig into their chest.

3rd. Their blood vessels are replaced by brown and green roots. +3 charisma and proficiency in all charisma skills

4th. Their skin turns dark green and their hair shining gold, +3 charisma and proficiency in all charisma skills and saving throws

5th. On the 5th time this occurs, the user does not come back, instead their body comes back puppeted by an evil archfey (or whoever made the brooch) The consciousness and soul of the user are consumed in this process. What happens next is up to the DM

Overall, with these 4 and other cursed stuff in my campaigns, I don’t want them to just be debuffs. Getting a flat -2 to a stat is boring and also not fun for players. Instead, make them appear helpful, or tempting. Try and get the players to embrace their seeming gift knowing that the outcome of their greed won’t be good for them. It won’t be unfair, since they never *had to use it.* It’s just sitting there, it could save their life in a boss fight, but is that worth it?