In the process of crafting a magic item, so many delicate factors have to be taken into account that occasionally things are bound to go awry. These small errors are often readily apparent and usually show up immediately. Sometimes, however, they are more subtle and don’t emerge until days, months, or even years later.
Other factors can make a magic item go wrong as well—things not the fault of its creator in any way. The forces of chaos and general entropy can cause magic to decay or become corrupted. Time corrodes all things—even magic. Long exposure to powerful magical forces, gateways to other planes, or even the proximity of other magic items or creatures can alter a magic item in odd ways.
Finally, items with unpredictable or cursed effects can be created by the devious intention of spellcasters who are malicious, chaotic, or simply insane. These are the most dangerous cursed items of all.
Cursed items are magic items with some sort of potentially negative impact. Sometimes they’re directly bad for the user; sometimes they’re just inconvenient. Occasionally they mix bad with good, forcing characters to make difficult choices. If you want to include the chance for cursed items in your game, determine treasure randomly as usual. Whenever you roll for a magic item, however, make a second secret d% roll. On a result of 01–05, the item generated is cursed in some way. To determine how the item is cursed, consult the table below.
| d% | Curse |
|---|---|
| 01–15 | Delusion |
| 16–35 | Opposite effect or target |
| 36–45 | Intermittent functioning |
| 46–60 | Requirement |
| 61–75 | Drawback |
| 76–90 | Completely different effect |
| 91–100 | Substitute specific cursed item |
Delusion: The user believes the item is what it appears to be, yet it actually has no magical power other than to deceive. The user is mentally fooled into thinking the item is functioning (making him invisible, emitting lightning bolts, or whatever) and cannot be convinced otherwise without the help of a remove curse spell.
Opposite Effect or Target: These cursed items malfunction, so that either they do the opposite of what the creator intended, or they target the user instead of someone else. For example, eyes of charming with the opposite effect makes targets hostile rather than charming them. A staff of healing causes wounds. Eyes of petrification turn the wearer to stone. A magic arrow curves around to strike the archer. The interesting point to keep in mind here is that these items aren’t always bad to have. A wand of lightning bolt that heals rather than harms can be used as a potent healing item.
Opposite-effect items include weapons that impose penalties on attack and damage rolls rather than bonuses. Just as a character shouldn’t necessarily immediately know what the enhancement bonus of a noncursed magic item is, she shouldn’t immediately know that a weapon is cursed. Once she knows, however, the item can be discarded unless some sort of compulsion is placed upon it that compels the wielder to keep and use it. In such cases, a remove curse spell is generally needed to get rid of the item.
Intermittent Functioning: The three varieties of intermittent functioning items all function perfectly as described—at least some of the time. The three varieties are unreliable, dependent, and uncontrolled items.
Unreliable: Each time the item is activated, there is a 5% chance (01–05 on d%) that it does not function. At the DM’s option, the failure chance can be altered to be anything from 1% to 10%, depending on the item and the campaign.
Dependent: The item only functions in certain situations. To determine what the situation is, either select a situation or roll on the following table.
| d% | Situation |
|---|---|
| 01–03 | Temperature below freezing |
| 04–05 | Temperature above freezing |
| 06–10 | During the day |
| 11–15 | During the night |
| 16–20 | In direct sunlight |
| 21–25 | Out of direct sunlight |
| 26–34 | Underwater |
| 35–37 | Out of water |
| 38–45 | Underground |
| 46–55 | Aboveground |
| 56–60 | Within 10 feet of a random creature type |
| 61–64 | Within 10 feet of a random race or kind of creature |
| 65–72 | Within 10 feet of an arcane spellcaster |
| 73–80 | Within 10 feet of a divine spellcaster |
| 81–85 | In the hands of a nonspellcaster |
| 86–90 | In the hands of a spellcaster |
| 91–95 | In the hands of a creature of a particular alignment |
| 96 | In the hands of a creature of particular gender |
| 97–99 | On nonholy days or during particular astrological events |
| 100 | More than 100 miles from a particular site |
Uncontrolled: An uncontrolled item occasionally activates at random times. Roll d% every day. On a result of 01–05 (or whatever range the DM decides is appropriate), the item activates at some random point during that day. Results range from the humorous, such as when the wearer of a cursed ring of invisibility suddenly disappears right in the middle of bargaining in the market, to the disastrous, such as when the wielder’s wand of fireball discharges in the midst of her friends—er, former friends.
Requirement: In a sense, a command word is a requirement. Nevertheless, some items have much more stringent requirements that must be met for them to be usable. To keep an item with this kind of curse functioning, one or more of the following conditions must be met.
Requirements are so dependent upon suitability to the item that they should never be determined randomly. An item with a requirement that is also intelligent often imposes its requirement through its personality. If the requirement is not met, the item ceases to function. If it is met, usually the item functions for one day before the requirement must be met again (although some requirements are one time only, others monthly, and still others continuous).
Drawback: Items with drawbacks are usually still beneficial to the possessor (for instance, a weapon with an enhancement bonus continues to benefit its wielder in combat), but they also carry some negative aspect. You might think of them as “give and take” items. Although sometimes drawbacks occur only when the item is used (or held, in the case of some items such as weapons), usually the drawback remains with the character for as long as she has the item.
Roll on the table below to generate a drawback that (unless otherwise indicated) remains in effect as long as the item is in the character’s possession.
| d% | Drawback |
|---|---|
| 01–04 | Character’s hair grows 1 inch longer. Only happens once. |
| 05–09 | Character either shrinks ½ inch (01–50 on d%) or grows that much taller (51–100). Only happens once. |
| 10–13 | Temperature around item is 10°F cooler than normal. |
| 14–17 | Temperature around item is 10°F warmer than normal. |
| 18–21 | Character’s hair color changes. |
| 22–25 | Character’s skin color changes. |
| 26–29 | Character now bears some identifying mark (tattoo, weird glow, or the like). |
| 30–32 | Character’s gender changes. |
| 33–34 | Character’s race or kind changes. |
| 35 | Character is afflicted with a random disease that cannot be cured. |
| 36–39 | Item continually emits a disturbing sound (moaning, weeping, screaming, cursing, insults). |
| 40 | Item looks ridiculous (garishly colored, silly shape, glows bright pink…). |
| 41–45 | Character becomes selfishly possessive about the item. |
| 46–49 | Character becomes paranoid about losing the item and afraid of damage occurring to it. |
| 50–51 | Character’s alignment changes. |
| 52–54 | Character must attack nearest creature (5% chance [01–05 on d%] each day). |
| 55–57 | Character is stunned for 1d4 rounds once item function is finished (or randomly, 1/day). |
| 58–60 | Character’s vision is blurry (–2 penalty on attack rolls, saves, and skill checks requiring vision). |
| 61–64 | Character gains one negative level. |
| 65 | Character gains two negative levels. |
| 66–70 | Character must make a Will save each day or take 1 point of Intelligence damage. |
| 71–75 | Character must make a Will save each day or take 1 point of Wisdom damage. |
| 76–80 | Character must make a Will save each day or take 1 point of Charisma damage. |
| 81–85 | Character must make a Fortitude save each day or take 1 point of Constitution damage. |
| 86–90 | Character must make a Fortitude save each day or take 1 point of Strength damage. |
| 91–95 | Character must make a Fortitude save each day or take 1 point of Dexterity damage. |
| 96 | Character is polymorphed into a specific creature (5% chance [01–05 on d%] each day). |
| 97 | Character cannot cast arcane spells. |
| 98 | Character cannot cast divine spells. |
| 99 | Character cannot cast any spells. |
| 100 | DM either picks one of the above that’s appropriate or creates a drawback specifically for that item. |
Completely Different Effect: The DM should choose a negative effect for the item, perhaps using the specific cursed items (see below) as examples. The item may seem to be the item that was originally determined, but at some juncture it displays different properties altogether.
The items on list below are provided as examples of cursed items. They are given creation prerequisites, should someone want to intentionally create them (although that does not need to be the origin of the item if you choose otherwise). Note, however, two exceptions: The crystal hypnosis ball and the bag of devouring cannot be created by any known means. The bag of devouring is a creature, and the crystal hypnosis ball is the tool of powerful NPCs such as liches.
A simple detect magic spell yields a misleading aura and strength, often indicating that the item is a noncursed item of similar sort. An identify spell only has a 1% chance per caster level to reveal a cursed item’s true properties, including the cursed aspect. Analyze dweomer reveals the true nature of a cursed item.
Suppose you have planted an amulet of inescapable location in a treasure hoard, and the characters have snapped it up—but they believe it to be an amulet of proof against detection and location.
Now, the characters are back in town and divvying up treasure. They decide to sell the amulet, expecting to get half of the hefty 35,000 gp market price. What do you do?
Alternatively, the characters know that the item is cursed and want to try to sell it off as its much more expensive noncursed version. What happens next?
First, remember that the prospective buyer of the item has a chance of knowing the item is cursed. As a good rule of thumb, give the buyer the same 1% chance per level as any caster of the identify spell. In some cases, the buyer may have access to analyze dweomer, which always identifies a cursed item for what it is. A buyer may be willing to pay to have the spell cast, or may demand that the characters pay for such a casting, before he will go through with the deal.
The characters should be aware (although it’s not up to you to tell them) that trying to dupe someone into buying a cursed item is an evil act.
They should also consider the fact that someone who bought an item from them that turned out to be cursed will usually seek reparations ranging from a full refund to bloody, deadly vengenance.
Some DMs decide not to use cursed items because they complicate the discovery process, since all the players are nervous about having their characters try to use newly found items. Other DMs include them for a variation of the same reason: Discovering new items becomes more exciting, because there’s always a minor hint of danger.
Items with requirements and drawbacks force players to make difficult decisions, which makes for interesting roleplaying opportunities:
“Do I want the backbiter spear, even though it occasionally attacks me?”Don’t give out a lot of cursed items that characters can’t get rid of in any way—that only becomes annoying to players. While some cursed items are meant to hassle the players a little, too much annoyance detracts from fun game play. Once a player has figured out that her character has a cursed item, most of the time she should just be able to rid herself of it.
And of course, some cursed items aren’t really that bad. Dust of sneezing and choking, once it’s identified, can be a potent weapon. Some players who identify cursed items for what they really are will still try to think of some use for them. Some DMs assume that players will discard cursed items when they can, which is not necessarily the case. Expect most to do so, but don’t step on the creativity of those who think of some ingenious use for a cursed item.
Some of the items on the regular magic item tables have drawbacks or limitations but aren’t mentioned in this section. That’s because either the item is still so good to have that no one would think twice about using it, or the item is too interesting to automatically exclude it from a campaign, even if cursed items aren’t used.
Source: Dungeon Master’s Guide (version 3.5), page 273. Note that many of the specific cursed items had to be corrected; for example, many listed Create Wondrous Item rather than Craft Wondrous Item in Prerequisites. Aura strengths did not match caster levels in some cases and were corrected. (If they were supposed to be lower, then the caster levels should have been lower to match.) Aura schools could be deliberately misleading so they are left as is.
The text above states that cursed items can be “created by the devious intention of spellcasters who are malicious, chaotic, or simply insane”. Here are some further thoughts on that.
The more annoying but less deadly cursed items could be crafted by magical pranksters. For example, fey creatures with questionable senses of humor, societies of arcane tricksters, clerics of gods with the Trickery domain in their portfolios can all be makers of such items. In the Yön campaign setting, the society of malicious magical meddlers known as Fools with Magic have invented a number of humiliating cursed items.
The deadlier items, particularly the more costly ones, can be attributed to liches and spellcasters who are devils, demons, or aberrations, all of which may be ridiculously wealthy and have decades or centuries to devise all manner of enticing items to use against their enemies. Some of those enemies are mortal and find their way into the world in that manner; some are “seeded” in places that these spellcasters wish to remain undisturbed by the inquisitive and greedy.