In my game I make "Imperfect" magic items. So not cursed, but have a risk of backfiring or have some slight drawbacks. My players know this, and it is also encouraged that they can improve or even perfect these items. It seems less malevolent and more sloppy. They do use the items more willingly.

I know it doesn’t exactly qualify, but I really love this cursed shortsword our DM gave us in my current game! It constantly implores whoever holds it to kill; problem is, it doesn’t seem to have any real ability to make you obey, so now its just our rogue’s mean, slightly needy roommate.

My favorite character arc I've ever played through was thanks to a cursed dagger. It was a classic curse: I couldn't use other weapons, and I occasionally stabbed things without realizing I was doing it. What made it cool was that I decided to lean into it and multiclassing into warlock to ask the entity which had cursed the dagger for more power. Then a magical trap took the dagger away, my mind cleared, and now my kobold paladin suddenly realized that he was bound by oath to two very different entities. My DM was great and worked out a redemption sidequest we could do in the metals dungeon we were playing in to break my pact and transfer it to my deity, and every step of the way there I lived in terror that we would encounter the evil cultists that I was pact bound to assist, forcing me to betray the party. We were able to complete the redemption ritual before that happened though, and it was one of the best feelings I've ever had in an RPG.

The last one i did was an amulet that summoned a great wyrm dragon to the major city they just left. They thought they were being hunted by a dragon so they started travelling faster. 13 destroyed cities later, they figured it out. The rest of the campaign was them dealing with the fallout of unintenionally destabilizing multiple kingdoms and shattering the balance of power through out the land.

We went on a quest to a nearby fort to find a magical rapier for our Ranger. We ended up finding it and it was a nice +1 Rapier, except when you attack with it you must shout out an advertisement for the smith who made it (with a wisdom saving throw to resist if you dont). She seems to be having fun with it :3 Our DM said that she stole it from another campaign, except in that campaign it was their Rogue who took it, and that it seems fine until you try to kill something quietly and shout "THIS STABBING IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE FORGE!" (it isnt the exact quote I can't remember exactly, but you get the gist lol)

I remember a cursed suit of armor. It was incredible suit of armor, but if you were wearing it you were compelled to jump into any body of water you saw and dispelled any waterwalk on you. It was good enough that the player eventually managed to get a water breathing and swim speed items, but he was forever jumping into monster infested waters.

Yeah, I think there's a definite distinction between cursed item (a beneficial item at a price), versus trap items (the kind that just springs as a gotcha). Generally the first type is fun, where as the trap items need to be used very sparingly and always for good reason. It's okay if Strahd gives the party a trapped sword that he can use to render the fighter's sword arm useless on command, because it feels like this intelligent villain set you up. But just having a treasure hoard with a random necklace that strangles you the moment you put it on is a cheap gotcha.

I like the way the cursed sword was handled in the Dungeons of Drakkenheim game. The sword was actually a pretty strong fire-based intelligent sword that could cast Zone of Truth, but the wielder is unable to tell lies while attuned to it. The whole thing became a roleplaying scenario where the fighter was striving to be a better person and to stop trying to get his way by lying.

I think cursed items are best as a backstory thing. My college of whispers bard who was based on Edgar Allan Poe has a pocket watch whos ticking becomes louder when the shadowy specter of the raven who haunts him is around, and if it stops ticking for any reason he goes down (making death saves).

As you make your way through the dungeon, you find a surprising, almost disturbing lack of monsters and traps. You do, however, find many, MANY skeletons clad in armor bearing the crest of a yellow sun on an azure field. Many of the skeletons are positioned as if they died fighting, one is hanging on to its sword, stabbed through what used to be the chest of its colleague, some even have completely pulverised hands... At the end of the dungeon, you find no boss. No final challenge, just the item you came for lying there on an altar, for the taking. As your fighter takes it, they feel an incredible surge of power rippling through them, and along with the extasy of this strength, they hear a voice: *"what have* they *ever done for you?"*

I remember how my brain felt like it grew on the spot when I saw someone write that a Shield of Missile Attraction is a terrible thing to be stuck with - unless you're a bodyguard. That heavily informed my philosophy of not ambushing people with these items, just, yep, letting players tempt themselves into trouble. They'll never fail you. When you began describing the story about the barbarian, my first thought was "Oh no, what if their friend or ally gets hit with Confusion or controlled?"

So one of my DMs really loves handing out magic items with minor but fun effects that they either make up or find online and out of the 14 magic items they've handed out so far, I managed to get the only one that's cursed. But it was funny as heck. It was a cowboy hat that gave +1 to persuasion rolls but had the associated curse that it can't be removed outside of magical means, compels its wearer to speak in a southern accent, and quote "may cause delusions of rugged outlaw grandeur, regardless of whether or not you are a rugged outlaw". It turned out really funny on my character because he's like a fortune teller little kobold with major self-esteem issues and now suddenly he's speaking and acting like a cowboy, suggesting they steal horses to get to where they're going faster purely for the sake of being an outlaw, and referring to the BBEG's pet beholder as a "varmint". It's actually been a ton of fun

My favorite cursed items I've given my players they actually liked. They "won" a set of 6 "Potions of Healing," from a Leprechaun. Except instead of being Red like in the book description, each was a different color. The colors were Pink, Blue, Green, Purple, Orange, and Turquoise. When asked why they were different colors, the Leprechaun explained. "The potions were made by the fey, and we like bright colors." They were indeed "Potions of Healing." Except when the rogue drank the Turquoise one her hair turned a vibrant Turquoise color. The Leprechaun could be heard laughing at the prank. Instead of getting mad the rogue thanked the Leprechaun and asked if he had any other potions she could buy. The Leprechaun revealed himself clearly confused. He had never seen a human enjoy his pranks and agreed to meet her with more "Fey Potions of Healing" at a location outside of town in a few days. The original potions were a "Potion of Healing" as described in the Player's Handbook or DMG with the added feature of changing the user's hair color to match the potion's color for 1d4 hours. I have since made different variations of the "Fey Potions of Healing." They all work as the normal potions, but give a temporary cosmetic change. Some change the user's hair color like the original. Others will change the eyes, or skin tone. Some others will give the user animal ears or a tail. The cosmetic changes are always temporary. But temporary can be a few hours or a few days. Some like animal ears I've given a bonus to listening based perception checks. I have so far been straight forward with the potions. They are usually obtained from a fey or bought or found in the Feywild. But I have thought about having Fey potions make their way into magic shops and temples.

I learned the lesson the hard way in our first adventure in a series of connecter one shots, by unknowingly picking up a cursed dagger... I was told I couldn't play my character anymore because they has been possessed by the darkness and lost their mind... My character is now a big bad running around the world and to this day the DM still refuses to "give them back" to me because "well, you could have not picked up the dagger :)"

I think the birb may just be a crappy artist.

I’m a fan of low level cursed items where the solution is role play and not saving throws. Like the leather pants of tightening. You can wear them for advantage on charisma throws… but they will get tighter every time you use them. You can eventually cut them off this ruining them but people will go to great lengths for some sexy pants.

My old DM gave the paladin a set of plate armor that would not allow him to wear other armors. The plate armor would "get jealous" and swap places with the other armor he was wearing.

Side note: make sure the cursed item is appropriate for the player or group. While the dagger with a curse that makes you hurt yourself if you fail to hit anyone during your turn might be cool for most groups, it might be a bad idea to implement that in a group where one of the players has a history of self-harm.

Not exactly a cursed item, but a favorite item with a twist that I recently dropped: I'm running a desert game. Party found a magic lamp. Identified it, assuming the obvious. Nope! It's empty. But it's an intelligent item and REALLY wants to house a djinn. And the way it keeps asking them to fill it with a big, powerful djinn with phrasing worse than that has led to hysterics at the table. 😁

Excellent advice! I once gave my barbarian player who was on a quest to avenge his murdered parents a sword called the Arm of Bhal. The sword could only be attuned by speaking the name of the person you wished to murder. It was a +3 greatsword with an expanded crit range, but it became the only weapon you could use in combat (aside from unarmed) and if you were hit, you had to make a wisdom save or everyone around you appeared to be the person you were sworn to kill and you had to attack the nearest person until you couldn't see anyone alive within 30 feet. The group found all sorts of creative ways to evade the barbarian once his murder curse was activated (his eyes became red and pupils replaced with the symbol of Bhal, so it was easy to tell when it was happening). The player had many chances to unattune the weapon through curse removal, but his character really liked the sword and the bonuses were too great to pass up! When they finally killed the vampire who was responsible for the murders, he left the sword in the lair and sealed the entrance so no one else could ever find the cursed weapon again.

Being able to identify the curse on the item made for a fantastic moment in our Halloween oneshot! The cursed Ring of Rhyming allowed us (i.e. me) to Detect Thoughts if I asked a question in rhyme, but if I forgot or couldn't compose a rhyme in time, our interrogate-ee could instead. I enjoy composing rhymes (I have a whole list of rhyming spell incantations), so I took the ring. And then we came to confront the unwitting instigator of much of the town's misery. For personal reasons related to my character's backstory, his particular sin reeeeally didn't go down well with her. And so, as she called one specific memory to mind, one she can still recall with near-perfect accuracy, she asked him: "So what, exactly, were you thinking when you took a child away from her mother?!" That's not in rhyme. Which means he could Detect Thoughts. And he saw exactly how badly he'd screwed up.

This weeks aesthetic is one of the best!! You're right about the willing curse thing, every item I've seen online or personally experienced seems to be really detrimental and give you like a +1 bonus, I can only think of one or two exceptions. ._. People just want to make "punishment" items sometimes it seems.

I didn't consider it a cursed item exactly, but the sword "Eveready" caused some amusement in my campaign. It did the normal damage of a smallsword in our rules but did an additional D4 _squared_ damage to the target. However, it did the same D4 roll, but not squared, to the wielder.

My Dm did something quite similar too. Our Paladin found this sword clutches tightly in the hand of a skeleton. As soon as he touched it, the ghost resides within the sword came out and tell him that he can take it and receive the ghost’s aid as well but there will be draw backs: the sword give you advantage and an extra 1d4 damage on attacks against spiders, drows, and driders. However, once you have saw any of the creature mentioned above, you have to attack them no matter what. This curse has cause some problems for our group but the benefits out weights the drawbacks. The ghost sometimes drops hints to point us in the right direction, we even ended befriend it, try to give it therapy and do some of help it do some of the things it couldn’t do before.

I gave my Rogue a cursed coin that always stayed in his hand and if thrown or handed off it would teleport right back within a half a second. It interfered with weapon holding and gave him a -3 when using the weapons in that hand. But then he figured doing magic tricks and bets in inns and Taverns to make extra money - turned a negative into a positive and the eventually got the curse removed.

Well, cursed items CAN be really fun, even with RAW. I once had a death cleric with a zombie following her. She got some boots that curse you to never stop dancing (and therefore might eventually kill you by exhaustion). But for some reason she thought, my zombie needs boots. And did put them on the zombie, instead of herself (I promise I never told her the boots are cursed). Well, from now on she had the ever dancing Zombie "Carl" and didn't even think of removing those boots from him. 😅

I can only think of two cursed items that my DM has given us, and I think they were both pretty well designed. One is a ring that lets you cast fly and feather fall, but there's small chance that upon drawing a weapon or spell focus that you'll draw a chicken instead that surprises you. The other was much more serious and was the aberrant tooth of a god eater god. The tooth could transform into pretty much any type of weapon and would cause a bleed effect upon a hit. It would also eat the souls of its victims, so no resurrection magic could bring them back. It had a lot of lore significance since it was one of two known weapons that could kill a god. The downside was that attuning to the tooth would cause your soul to be promised to it. The tooth would eat the soul of the attuned whenever they died, attempted to unattune, or attempted to destroy the tooth. I believe that the only way to break the curse would be to get permission from the god eater god himself. He's kind of a jerk though so it's unlikely to happen. Maybe a Ring of Mind Shielding could work, but we never tried it. I doubt it'd go well since the god eater is a sore loser who'd probably just take the ring.

So recently my Druid found a magic ring that gives her the power to use wild for free, but later I found out the cures. While in animal form, she retains her personality and memories, but she takes on all of the beast’s attributes, including intelligence. On occasion she has forgotten to change back until the wilds shape duration expired.

I swear you always release videos when I have a certain topic on my mind. I've been wanting to add a cursed item to my party, but I was having trouble making it seem fair. Now I see that there are some good ways to balance this and have it work for my group

Come for the DnD advice, stay for the ad sponsors. Seriously I wish I saw some much creativity and puns in any other channel sponsors. Love you Ginny! =)

In a campaign, my Warlock found a staff that ended up being cursed...somewhat un-beknownst to us....that slowly shifted his alignment to evil. He loved the staff and did not consider his actions evil, even in a few situations where it harmed the party. They tried to remove the curse, but he would not allow it...and eventually swore to the party that he would stop using the more power features of the staff....so we soldiered on. At the end of the campaign, we ended up failing to stop the big bad, and things went all pear-shaped. At the very last minute, in order to save himself (and the staff), he teleported away and the campaign ended. Still felt very satisfying.

In my campaign I had this group of 'sisters' who wanted you to deliver their cursed items, and if you did would reward you with gold. They would always give every detail of the item, and the gold earned would be dependant on how risky it was. One currently has an item they chose themself, which has put them on 5hp would with an incredible dodging ability. Im very excited to see how they cope. and so are they!

Ideas: Definitely foreshadow! Instead of just allowing Identify to discover the curse, put an appropriate DC on the discovery of the curse (make them roll for every cast to disguise what you're doing?) Choose the curse wisely. Lots of good advice here.

I've been DMing for over 30 years and I agree with Ginny 100%. I used to use purely bad cursed magic items all the time because that was just how old school D&D was, but found the "monkey's paw" items way more interesting for everyone as time went on and switched to only using those. I still remember a battle axe from AD&D that I still adapt to modern games sometimes. The original axe was a +3 weapon that never missed. However, the +3 bonus only applied to damage rolls, and whenever you didn't roll high enough to hit, you took damage equal to how many points your attack roll would've missed by. Also, whenever you tried to draw any weapon that wasn't the axe, the axe would appear in your hands instead. I always was upfront with players about what the weapon did and in 3 different campaigns someone has always succumbed to the temptation. 2 of them were killed by weapon's drawback.

One of my most memorable characters ever, was a fighter cursed three times over. She was chaotic good. At one point, an NPC tried to take the final part of the curse, and she threw him off the dais to take it for herself. The curses had drawbacks and boons to them. Like, each third of the curse gave 5 damage reduction, but one of them made it so if she hit 0hp, she just died with no saves. Morte shouted “Not if I kill them first!” and activated that portion, gleefully. One third lowered the number required for a critical hit, making it so she crit on 17-20. The third part of the curse made it so Morte rolled an extra damage die (which was 2d4, because this was back in 3.5 and she as a scythe fighter) with her crits, but she had to take that damage herself, but with 15 damage reduction, she only took damage from herself on crits. Some of the drawbacks included : demon names in infernal tattooed all over her that moved and crawled like spiders, giving her a hefty detriment to Charisma (as a fighter, she truly didn’t care), she could not close her eyes to trance, her god would not talk to her, she had a situational detriment to intelligence checks, she had a “looming stench of dread and death” that one of my party members cast prestidigitation on at the beginning of each play session to “take the edge off the smell.” It was fun as hell, and the people I gamed with at that time still talk about Morte once in a while with delight so I was for sure not ruining everyone else’s time with my cursed death obsessed edgelord scythe fighter shenanigans. There were a fair few combats where she had to disengage and flee because she was at fewer that 10hp. I still chase how I felt swinging a masterwork scythe as Triple Cursed Morte. Morte’s curses had an effect that made combat more challenging, but also more rewarding; they had aspects that directly effected role play as well as combat encounters; they had interactive but not frustrating ways for party members to choose to engage with them, but didn’t need to be the focus of any sessions aside from the ones where they were picked up.

I took the time to write up custom cursed items for three out of four players in advance of a glabrezu encounter. (I was pretty confident our genre-savvy NG paladin wouldn't want any part of it.) They were never _told_ the items were cursed, but they all immediately assumed they would be. Two of them still accepted after learning the non-hidden effects. Neither has asked to have Remove Curse cast on them yet.

I feel like the cursed amulet you mentioned can have some utility (mainly using strong support spells that you would otherwise only be able to use on others) BUT that is something the player must be actually willing to do and be prepared for. An offensive spellcaster will just be needlessly screwed over by it

I did give my players a cursed item. It was pink goggles inspired by Two-Flower from Terry Pratchett books. Basically, if they fail the Wisdom safe they can't make aggressive actions like attack or even swearing. BUT they can cast Shield of Faith once a day. And I gave them practically useless sword. That sword will have auto-crit on goblins (if you land a hit), but you can't hit anyone except goblins. Sword just change direction of your strike.

When designing a cursed item, I always try to include something that makes the curse interesting instead of just bad. Most of my curses involved a change in personality to the character that attuned, and characters could unattune without issue. Here's an example of one of my favorites: Heartseeker - Very Rare Dagger Heartseeker is a cruel black dagger decorated with golden serpents slithering across its blade. It is obviously ceremonial, and while sharpened to a deadly edge, it looks fragile. Blood gutters run along either side of the wicked blade. Once attuned to this weapon, the user gains the following flaw: “My only joys in life are causing others pain and being in pain myself.” Whenever the user takes damage, they also take 1d4 necrotic damage. This damage cannot be reduced or redirected to temporary hit points. Once unattuned, the flaw fades over 1d4 days. Heartseeker is a +2 weapon that deals an extra 1d12 necrotic damage on hit. Whenever the user reduces a creature to 0 hit points with Heartseeker, they may use their bonus action and all of their remaining movement to eviscerate that creature, regaining 1d12 hitpoints.

Hell Yeah! This advice is D&D gold! I made a pair of magic vampire daggers, each +1 necrotic damage, with 1HP Lifesteal (i.e. regain 1 lost HP if the target is a living thing with blood) with the curse that once drawn, they must be fed before they can be put away. i.e. you have to successfully stab something and get them bloodied, or you just have to hold on to them, or stab yourself, before you can put them down.

A cursed item shouldn’t be the cause of someone’s downfall, merely the tool. If you follow Behavior X, cursed item deals out Negative Consequence Y Edit: Also yeah, the coolest thing about a curse is when someone chooses to use it anyway

The Cinderella cosplay making a comeback! Lesson to never throw anything away because it can always be used again - also I love the fake little bird, it took me a minute to realize it was fake (duh) but I was just so caught up in the atmosphere I didn't even question it

Our paladin attuned to a cursed axe that was strong, but when he got a crit, he'd go into a blood frenzy and attack the closest creature to him indescriminantly. Our DM let him know, so he could rp his character feeling unatturatly angry and bloodthirsty. And when he suddenly snapped in battle and turned on us, the DM didn't have to explain and we were all as shocked as our characters were. But it worked and was amazing and terrifying.

I tend to use cursed items very sparingly, sometimes going a given campaign without one appearing. When I do have them appear, it's not random loot, it's something that has a story connected to it (which usually ties into how to break the curse, and can result in the character ending up with a cool item as a reward for enduring the curse and going through the adventure to break the curse).

I like to make cursed items where the curse doesn't really have a mechanical effect. Like, a Ring of Protection that changes the wearer's hair color randomly at dawn. Even have a d10 table for colors.

House Rule: Remove Curse spell also lets you "detect curse" without removing it, so you know what's going on with an item before committing to ditching it.

This is one of those spaces where I have to give Matt Mercer credit. I have several specific grievances against his DMing style, but his choices of cursed items have been excellent. A cursed dagger that lets you spend hit dice to do extra damage, but you also have to spend one to heal, and if you ever run out you die? That's a phenomenal item - definitely a curse, but it can be played around and lived with. And at this point everyone looks forward to Travis getting his hands on a cursed sentient blade, because it's going to be a lot of fun mechanically, in RP, and an awesome sword to justify the curse. I think, crucially, they have to be better than a standard magic item. That berserker's +1 sword of kill-anything-that-harms-you is a pretty neat one as a usually-minor downside, but it only works as a cursed item if the players are too low-level/if the world doesn't have much in the way of enchantment, because by level 8 or so as the DM you more or less have to let your martial characters get +1 weapons by default, or else they won't be able to do any damage to all the enemies that start getting resistance to non-magical weapons. If you're making the fighter choose between a +1 sword with a serious downside, or doing tickle damage to bosses that hit for 30+ damage, while the wizard is back there choosing between Cone of Cold and Cloudkill, that fighter's player isn't going to have as much fun.

I do my best to make sure that there are some benefits to the cursed item's I hand out. One item I have is The Amulet Of Pride. While attuned to the item, you cannot be frightened, but have disadvantage on saving throws to resist being charmed. While above half your max HP you can add you character level to the damage rolls with melee attacks and unarmed strikes, but when below half your max HP, attack rolls against you have advantage as your unfounded confidence begins to waver. You also have a superiority complex while wearing the item, compelling you to accept challenges regardless of your actual ability to complete them being viable or not. Typical can't remove the item or give it away unless they are hit by a remove curse spell.

I like curses that return the item to the location they were found, or only work against a certain group of NPCs who of course gain possession of the cursed item in some fashion. Then we have time curses, which essentially force the party to relive the most recent scene, (sometimes to their advantage), or cursed pairs where the curse doesn't start until both items are in proximity. Mated cursed items that nullify each other's curse work, too. (:

I once ran a game where every magic item was cursed, just part of the world was that permanent enchantments always came with a downside. Anyway I offered to let players start with a cursed item if they wanted to, and every single player did. It was fun.

There was a TV show when I was a kid called Friday the 13th (not THAT Friday), dealing with a cursed curiosity shop that needed to return the sold artifacts in order to break the curse. Each cursed item had a "blessing" in order to justify whatever act they needed to perform in order to charge the blessing aspect. One episode dealt with a glove a faith healer used to cure any ailment imaginable.... but the wound was stored in the glove, and had to be inflicted on someone else in order for the wearer to avoid suffering the ailment themselves. Another was Jack the Ripper's scalpel. Great source for cursed item ideas, not to mention a great show to begin with!

This video made me realize that I didn't pay enough attention when reading the DM's Guide. I always assumed the Indentify spell would tell about a curse and aways played that way. It's a spell that my players rarely use, so I though the exange was fair. They use a spell that they don't like so much but it manages to give them way more information and control over the cursed loot that they obtain. They wouldn't know about the curse otherwise.

You literally read my mind, I’m making a campaign and was wondering how I should handle cursed items

I actually asked for my DM to give me a cursed item! The reason was I was tired of playing a brainless barbarian, and the curse would involve some intelligent soul trapped in a sword slowly invading the barbarian's mind, letting him speak more logically. We worked together with the DM on the curse, and the sword has a chance to strike me under certain conditions, which would transfer small bits of the trapped soul into my character. Can't wait to use words like "Indeed"!

Our DM is rad and lets us roll to identify cursed items. We ended up identifying a cursed sword, the Sword of Vengeance, which I believe is similar if not the same as the one from the barbarian story lol. We ended up tricking a dangerous NPC that we had to work with into accepting it as collateral for some deal we made with him, which ended up being a SUPER bad idea as he then wanted to murder my guy very much and still does to this day. Cursed items can be fun if used for very stupid shenanigans

I've been doing this for a pretty long time, but it was nice hearing this take. My favorite technique for making cursed items has always been less to force a player into something, and more something where they make choices. You might have access to a powerful ability but it comes with a terrible cost, or the mechanically similar but thematic opposite: a terrible compulsion or urge you sate in exchange for some in-game boon. Your character might have an amulet in the form of a choker that gives them enhanced healing and regeneration but it requires you drink the blood of a living, sentient person to gain it turning you into some claret-starved vampire wannabe. Do you only take what you need from your consenting friend with HP to spare, or do you give in to your cannibalistic urges and start killing and draining those bandits you were fighting in order to top off and get some temporary HP to boot? Maybe all those sightings of ghoulish monsters in the woods at night everywhere you've been are completely unrelated, after all!

Our entire party got cursed items early in the campaign, but we didn't realize they were cursed for literally over 2 rl years of regular playing. No wonder the BBEG was always two steps ahead of us. She could spy on us at any time.

I did one that was a sword that couldn't be dropped out out away, making anything but combat interesting and comical. It also was something like on crit you'd hit yourself instead, but it was like a 2d8, so it was pretty helpful, too.

The "Hey Fiends" at the beginning -- what an absolute perfect opening. 10/10 no notes.

The berserkers axe, the cursed +1 weapon that forces you to attack whatevers closest to you that I think Ginny was referring to, is one of my favorite cursed weapons in the dmg. I recently took it as my free magic item of choice during a one shot, its a fun curse when you buy in to it. Also it adds to your max HP as a small way to counter the no retreat issue.

To me, curses are a bit like death in the base rules, they can be really scary early, but as soon as a character takes the appropriate spell, it becomes inconsequential. Taking some inspiration from Matt's resurrection mechanics in CR, breaking curses in my game is a ritual process that depends on the specific curse. I am quite sparing about using curses for this reason, but when they do appear, they feel impactful.

Ideas for Curses: 1. You loose X max Hitpoints as long as you are attuned to it 2. you have to sacrifice something to the Item in regular Intervals (a small animal corpse, blood, a happy thought, Gold Coins etc.) 3. you loose the Ability to do something mundane (light fire, drink from a cup, tie your shoes, etc.) 4. You cannot use Items in a certain Body part (this effectively takes up two slots) (so you could not wear shoes or rings etc.) 5. This Item counts as two for the purpose of Attunement 6. You have to douse it in a certain liquid once a week or it looses its magic (oil, Water, Wine) 7. You have to fullfill a certain side quest in regular intervals (learn more information about a certain topic, find someone or something, eliminate a certain foe) 8. you gain an annoying but harmless companion that is immortal as long as you are attuned 9. You drastically change your apperance (new color, Clothes or Aura) 10. It has to absorb a magic Item in regular intervals.

My last campaign had a player who loved cursed items and effects so much that he would say "a curse is just a blessing most people don't want" by the end of the campaign all 3 attuned items were cursed, and he had 13 other curses on him he refused to have cured ranging from an inability to tell his left from his right from a cursed maze, to an inability to swear taken by interacting with a fairies child. Somehow he found each and every curse to be either such a small change to his behavior that he didn't care, or directly beneficial to him

The world would be a better place if companies would make their ADs as fun and unique and entertaining as the ADs from Ginny Di.

I introduced a cursed item that gives hp to our monk (he originally had 4 hp). The party found a ring on a necromancer that they beat they then gave to the squishy monk, the curse is simple to circumvent if he remembers to take it off before resting, if he doesn’t remove before sleeping the ring will give him a point of exhaustion.

In my current campaign, XP is earned by absorbing souls from cursed creatures (to sum it up roughly). So if the party finds a cursed item (like they did in the latest session as of this post's writing), if the cons are too much for them or if they want to get rid of it after equipping it carelessly... They can absorb it for XP! They seem to love the idea, it makes even a very shady item that might be too dangerous for them to want at least some XP while still having the option of using them if they consider the drawback acceptable for the sheer power of the item itself. More importantly, they can get rid of the item anytime by just absorbing it if and destroying it for XP. To make curses not too hard to figure out too, I make magic items identified by default, and only curses are hidden. However, the "Identify" spell is therefore used to detect curses on items. It removes the "Identify" spam from the game while making it worthwhile if an item looks suspicious to them :D "Remove Curse" is then only used in that situation if they want to remove but keep a cursed item without destroying it for XP. It's a very simple rule, but it made cursed item so much less of a problem and more of a tool for the campaign.

I made a cursed "Expedition Pavillion" (a "Bigger on the inside" tent for travel shelter) and the curse was that everyone who's ever made a cursed one goes to the same pocket dimension so it gives you the guaranteed shelter but it's basically a big crowded multidimensional hostel.

There is also the thing about how things are treated as cursed. With 3.5, there was an adventure that included a dragon who was leaving cursed items around...the curse was simply one that let the dragon track exactly where the item was and listen/see through the item. Having an enemy who knows how to make those to deal with, either handing it to the boss of an adventure (or modifying their loot to include it) or having that enemy find a way to get it into the hands of the party could be a very interesting thing in and of itself.

I gave the mage a wand of "lightning" but everytime she used it, it poured foth a stream of flowers 🌺

I like "blursed" items. Or items that have a tradeoff but are "cursed" because they require a spell to remove them. An example, Amulet of Temperance, on any D20 roll you gain advantage when you roll 5 or less, or disadvantage when you roll 15 or more.

The Dwarf PC in my game pick up a bag of rocks from the corps of a would be bandit. It is a modified bag of holding. Only “rocks” can enter the extra dimensional space inside the bag. It is becoming increasingly more difficult for the dwarf to give away any “rock” that has been inside the bag. - Side note. Because the dwarf failed their wis saves, they don’t realize that the bag holds more than it should. “It’s just a bag of rocks. What’s the big deal?” No attunement required so the PC can still have their magic items. My players love this magic item. Grab your ketchup and crunch away my friends.

Great summary! I think the major problem with cursed items in the rules is that they really haven't changed much (except for the attunement part) from their origins in BECMI/AD&D, where they were basically obstacles/traps for the PCs to overcome, in the kind of gaming environment where spheres of annihilation used as architecture were legitimate (and indeed brilliant) aspects of dungeon design and first level thieves routinely faced save-or-die poison needles on half the chests in a dungeon. And curses that make major, permanent changes in a character sound great for storytelling, but they're ultimately an author's tool, not a gamemaster's. Your sorcerer friend's character's curse would have been a great subplot in a fantasy novel, but not at the table. Ironically, video games have been making effective curses for years with items that raise stat A by some amount but lower stat B by some other amount, like the clutch rings in Dark Souls. You get the benefit of the item, but have to take the down side with the good. (Indeed, one could make it so such "flawed" items were cursed, not to glue themselves to their user, but in their backstory so that the flaw was caused by the curse and removing the curse would remove the flaw, with the item's history being tied into the campaign storyline or a character backstory.)

I think another fun thing you could do, if you wanted to include cursed items in a way that rewards the players well for their troubles - float the idea of the characters having a form of legacy weapon in their background while you're planning characters in session 0 - if they take the cursed item, it then offers increasing bonuses as the characters level up, with the catch being the curse, which could interlink with bad things that have happened in the character's family history.

Just wrapped up a cursed item b-plot in my OSE game. I run cursed items in a few different brackets, but they all follow a through-line; using the item grants more and more power, with a ever-looming threat of inevitable narrative consequence. In the above example, the cursed item was the Bone Karambit of the vampire Yuan-ti Queen, bathed in the blood of thousands of sacrifices. Every attack with the blade granted more and more temporary HP and attack/damage bonuses, but granted visions of past sacrifices that required saving throws to resist. Greed and character development in this case led to the inevitable; the player pushed their luck too far, and was transformed into a hideous beast that the party had to put down. The important bit was this: the player and I had clear discussion both through in game descriptions of the consequences, and out- of game base-touching that this WOULD happen eventually if they kept pushing it. Despite knowing the consquences, the player chose this path, feeling the combat bonuses were necessary in the late- stages of their quest, and narratively fit their characters lack of judgement and impulsive, greedy nature. Cursed items as gotchas are, at best, a tool in old-school gaming to diagetically reign-in greedy playstyles (a method better served by session 0's and out of game discussion) or a warning (made clear narratively beforehand) to the players to not mess with their owner. At worst, they are relics of early D&D game design, or novice GMing that remove player fun and engagement. You are not your players enemy, regardless of edition. Threats and consequences are much better manifest in other ways.

My group does world building on occasion and we created new items during one session. I made an amulet that is basically an emergency escape. You perform a ritual to bind it to a location and so long as you are on that plane, you can teleport to safety. It creates sonic booms at the start and end locations (helpful to find as it will be held by a PC turned NPC). The specific method of travel causes motion sickness and basically paralyzed the traveler for 24 hours. I talked with DM later to add a curse that when broken, will allow up to 8 people to be teleported when activated rather than one but still imposes the travel effects on all travelers.

Point 2 reminds me of the Magic Sword Makoto from Demon's Souls, which the game just outright tells you that it'll drain your health over time just by having it equipped. However, it's also an extremely strong weapon, so you have to make the choice between missing out on crazy damage or finding a way to deal with that constant health drain.

I'm running a long term (2 years now) campaign and so far I've only introduced two cursed items, both of which my players can't stop talking about how much they love. The first was a greatsword that the party looted off of an evil paladin after a super emotional battle. The sword allowed the wielder to basically deal divine smite damage (extra 2d8 radiant) on every swing, but whenever you make an attack with the sword it would gain a charge to a maximum of 13. Once combat ended, you would immediately take 1d8 radiant damage per charge the sword had, then it lost all charges. The sword went to the party's Fighter/Barbarian and it immediately introduced a cool dynamic for her since she would have to choose between doing more damage with the sword while taking more damage, or using one of her less damaging weapons instead to be safer. The second is a legendary item that I made for the party sorcerer that buffs her spellcasting and gives her a bunch of necromancy spells (since her power comes from the goddess of death), but it gives a penalty to her Wis saves, and it destroys her soul if it's ever removed from her. I designed it to overall giver her upsides so out of game the players don't want to get rid of it, but it's just deadly enough to allow for some great RP moments talking about the morality of using it. Overall, curses have the potential to be really great, you just have to use them sparingly and not make it actively unfun to use.

A couple years back, in a Pathfinder game I ran, I included a cursed ring of regeneration which was powered by a gluttony daemon. When the character slept, the daemon possessed him and went out to sate it's hunger on innocent townsfolk. It ended up with a great month long side quest while they investigated the bizarre "cannibal murders". Once they realized what was happening it was simple to get the ring removed. A simple solve but it led some great role-playing.

Honestly... One of the things that I started to like about cursed items was a Manhwa video about a Cursificer (Artificer specializing in cursed items) Having them give a big boost for a corresponding penalty that makes them a risk vs reward system. The guy also had a sense of style that made every item look super evil because he would use powerful monster bits to make the items. It was a really cool story and I actually have been thinking about implementing something similar.

Ice King's Crown is an excellent example of a cursed magic item. You get powerful ice magic, but the more you use it the more insane you become. Such a good cursed magic item that it made the Ice King one of the most tragic and relatable characters in recent memory because he chose to use it to save someone knowing full well that the crown was cursed and he might lose his mind, which of course he did.

My favorite cursed item is a Longbow of Blasting. On a Nat 20, a 3rd level fireball spell goes off centered on the archer's target (so melee allies who are in the way). On a Nat 1, the fireball goes of centered on the archer instead.

My group had a lot of fun with some specific magic items in a campaign. There were some magic items the party needs to collect, but using them isn't important. They are however strong artifacts, so naturally alluring. After some time of using them, the players gain a flaw, that doesn't take over them but will amplify specific, negative parts of their character. So after they find the first one has it, and they get the rest, they need to balance risk and reward. The first is a surprise that creates roleplay, and the remaining ones now come with a warning.

My brother-in-law, who serves as our current DM, gave our Paladin a cursed shield. What the curse does is it redirects any ranged attack within a certain radius of the shield to the person wielding it. However, the ranged attack doesn't automatically hit; it has to use the attack that was rolled. Our Paladin's solution? Beef up his AC to a ridiculous 23 (or maybe even 24) AC. Now, most ranged attacks against our party go right towards our Paladin and don't even break his AC.

First off I have to say that I love your makeup. The yellow eye shadow looks amazing on you.

The magic phrase is "consequential choice"! Aslong as your players have a choice that matters, AND those options roughly equally good, equally risky, or equally interesting, you're doing it right.

Another couple of fun things to do with curses: 1) make it a conditional. The haunted sword is AMAZING (and has no drawbacks) if it's used in the tomb of it's owner or against the enemy type he hated. If you try to use against any other enemy type, though, some drawbacks kick in. 2) Purely rp curses, e.g. "so long as you are attuned to the item, your hands always appear to be covered in blood" or "what appears to be the ghost of anybody slain with the sword follows you around. Nobody else can see them." Up to the DM whether something bad happens when enough of them have been accumulated. And that amulet sounds TERRIBLE. Depowering a character should be extremely rare, and shouldn't last long. Even if the player thinks a depowered story arc could be a fun RP, they are going to be bored any time the fighting starts.

There's one in Strahd, an armor (I don't recall its name) that turns you into an undead and if removed causes a ton of damage, but the benefits it gives (turning you into an undead, half-time long rest, healing and free temporary hit points) were so good, our sorcerer unknowingly attuned to it, got it removed by a foe and then attuned to it again.

I stumbled upon this video through YTs recommendations, and it's basically irrelevant to me. But, I gotta say, I can tell you put a large amount of effort, care, and thought into the video. Keep being awesome!

I once gave a party a cursed ring that teleported anyone putting it on 1 mile directly up. few rounds later, most people become a messy crater... They used it to escape bad guys by gaining altitude to turn into an eagle and escape, etc - they LOVED it. :) Note - I never use items that cannot be removed - I prefer my curses to be a temptation :)

As a general rule, I really like cursed items like "Crownrend" from Campaign One of High Rollers. A sentient magic item with its own goals, that can't meaningfully achieve them without help. It makes the wielder notably more powerful in combat, but is also a chaotic evil corrupting influence that represents a danger to the wielder and their friends. And each time you use its powers, it's strength and grip on the character grows

Yeah, we had a DM like that of your friend's once. In our group he'd have tried that once or twice with the cursed items and then the group would've had it and would conspire to derail his plot. In our particular situation, one of the players waited until the DM went to the bathroom to check out his campaign folder behind his "master's screen". Which then led to weeks of gameplay in which we killed, robbed, betrayed or failed to help any of the key NPCs in his story that he spent weeks in advance to prepare. Obviously we had loads of backup characters to counter DM-Anger. His face when his vengeful killing of a player character resulted in just "Eh, good thing I brought spares. Oh! How about we ditch the quest for a week and vacay in Candlekeep? :D" was priceless.

Giving the items up and down sides and being up front about it is actually the best advice i heard on this.

Great example: I was playing Baldur's Gate 1 with a friend as a Barbarian/Paladin duo. We got into a fight that way outclassed us. So he buffed me up, gave me a potion of a haste, and turned me loose with that Two-hander that makes you go berserk. He healed me a couple of times and we just let my uncontrolled character take the boss apart while my buddy ran to safety. It felt good to us, considering we were dragging that sword around just for such an occasion.

Don't forget that some "cursed" items can actually be fun and useful. Such as the shield of missile attraction. Put it on a tank, have them stay near the squishies, and any ranged attacks at them get redirected to the tank. Remember it gives the wielder resistance to the ranged attack's damage. A bag of devouring makes a great trashcan.

my cursed item experiment that we had some fun with. A very expensive looking golden and bejeweled amulet, when the player first put it on they initially feel a tingle in their the throat but no immediate side effect. The full effects of the curse don't become apparent until the next social encounter. When the now cursed player attempted to convince a merchant to sell at a cheaper price the amulet caused the players voice to suddenly become very high pitched and prevented them from rolling at their normal advantage. Our now Alvin the chipmunk sounding bard was now causing npcs to laugh at them rather then being intrigued by their normal reaction.

Imagine this: a sword that can lit itself on fire when you want (dealing extra fire damage, giving light and leaving the enemies burning) but it only deactivates at the end if the day, so when you use it, you gotta be careful about what you do afterwards

One source for good Cursed Items: the Pathfinder 2E Oracle! If you dont know that class, its literally an entire class who has a 'curse' as a main mechanic. It works as a good source because generally, the boons you get are REALLY good that it makes the curse feel worth taking (risk/reward), and the Curses are scaling. So instead of a binary all or nothing, it ramps up. The more the player uses the reward, the MORE risk they take. I've started using a scaling curse system in my campaign, and I feel like it has made the items feel slightly better

One of my favorite items, probably because I authored it, isn't so much of a cursed item, just one that presents certain drawbacks and risks. The item is Terra's Signet Planeswalker Ring. This was developed during 2nd edition. The concept of the ring itself is about 30 to 35 years old. In 2nd edition rules exists the Ring of Elemental Command. There are 4 different variations to this. Terra's ring incorporates all 4 of them, but can only utilize one of the ring's powers at a time. The ring itself has a base with a slider between the frame of the outer ring, and a signet face where the selected power is exposed. The ring's inner circle with the sigils on it can only be manipulated once every 10 turns unless you're Terra. You cannot go from one element to the opposing element in a single manipulation. Terra can manipulate the ring with her mind at will, so long as it is on her finger. While the slider will not lock into place on anyone else's hand, it does lock into place on Terra's hand. The slider can go clockwise or counterclockwise one click at a time. The description of the ring is as follows: The description of the ring was given. When found, it will appear as a very ornate ring, with one of the following abilities depending on where the slider is positioned: 1. Invisibility (Air) (-2 saving throws against fire attacks) 2. Fire Resistance (Fire) (-2 saving throws against cold/water attacks) 3. Feather falling (Earth) (-2 saving throws against petrification) 4. Water Walking (Water) (-2 saving throws against lightning attacks) Once the ring wearer exposes or defeats an elemental, or gains its cooperation, that facet's power opens up. It will reveal another power upon an intelligence check every time a power is used until all of that facet has been revealed. Elementals of the plane that the ring is attuned cannot attack or even approach the user within 10 feet. This protection can be forgone in order to charm it. In the event that the charm is successful, the first time, it activates that function of the ring. Should that attempt fail, no further attempts can be made, and the protection is broken. At that point, you must either kill the elemental, or die. Until that has happened once, it is always possible for an elemental of that sort to show up, and even if the user doesn't understand that, it won't be random or by accident. Other creatures of the attuned elemental plane will suffer additional damage if stuck, will not require magical weapons to harm and in some case they may just ignore the wearer altogether. The other powers for each element are granted one at a time after using a learned ability: Air: -Gust of Wind once a round -Fly at will as per spell -Wall of Force once per day -Control winds once per day -Summon Storm once per week Earth: -Stone Tell once per day -Passwall twice per day -Wall of Stone once per day -Stone to flesh twice per week -Move Earth once per week -Spider climb at will Fire: -Burning hands once per turn -Pyrotechnics twice per day -Wall of Fire once per day -Flame Strike twice per week Water: -Purify water upon touch -Create water once per day -Water breathing at will -Wall of Ice once per day -Airy Water at will -Lower Water twice a week -Part Water twice a week Once all powers are learned, the wearer can summon one of the following elemental creatures per week according to the selected power: -Djinn (Air) -Dao (Earth) -Efreet (Fire) -Marid (Water) The ring functions at 18th level for all functions. After using a power, there is a 10% cumulative chance the slider will change on its own. The wearer may not be aware of this. That chance does not activate for abilities that can be used at will. This will happen without warning. Again, this never happens to Terra, as she was the one to craft and imbue the ring, and obeys her commands. The ring is intelligent, but does not communicate to the wearer directly, but through dreams and visions that seem like strokes of genius or divine inspiration to the wearer. If this ring is used on any elemental plane, the ring immediately attunes itself to that ring, making the wearer able to survive. Elemental creatures encountering you on that plane will regard you as highly respected, or in tremendous fear, depending on the DM. This ring should not be introduced to a campaign by a DM not willing to play the part of the ring. While it is not evil or devious as say, the One Ring, most of the true fun comes in the sudden changes. If you're underwater and use a power and switch the ring to anything else, suddenly, you don't have water breathing. This isn't the ring trying to kill its wearer, it's just one of the risks involved with using the ring.

One of my worst experiences in D&D is when my DM "cursed" my Warlock without attuning to a cursed item. He said that an evil deity tainted the connection I had with my celestial patron. As a result, my spell slots were one level lower than they should have been and any damage (or healing) I did with a spell was one die lower (a d4 instead of a d6 for example). This lasted for MONTHS until the DM just hand waved it away. There was no known (to us) way of ending it. It was awful. I was very close to just rolling a new character.

My daughter’s rogue has a cursed dagger. Every time she uses it she takes 1 dmg (that can not be healed by spells and normal means) but also accumulates a “blood point”. At any point before the end of a long rest she can choose to use one, several, or all of the blood points to do an additional d4 of damage on a hit and gets half the result as healing. The party has no healer so its a way for her to help herself, but there are consequences and she has a decision to make. That’s how I do cursed items. There is a trade off and a decision. Great video!