Cursed Items

Cursed items are any Magic Items with some sort of potentially negative impact on the user. Occasionally they mix bad with good, forcing characters to make difficult choices. Cursed items are almost never made intentionally. Instead they are the result of rushed work, inexperienced crafters, or a lack of proper components. While many of these items still have functions, they either do not work as intended or come with serious drawbacks. When a Magic Item Creation skill check fails by 5 or more, roll on the Common Item Curses Table below to determine the type of curse possessed by the item.

Table: Common Curses

d100	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

Identifying Cursed Items

Cursed items are identified like any other magic item with one exception: unless the check made to identify the item exceeds the DC by 10 or more, the curse is not detected. If the check is not made by 10 or more, but still succeeds, all that is revealed is the magic item’s original intent. If the item is known to be cursed, the nature of the curse can be determined using the standard DC to identify the item.

Removing Cursed Items

While some cursed items can be simply discarded, others force a compulsion upon the user to keep the item, no matter the costs. Others reappear even if discarded or are impossible to throw away. These items can only be discarded after the character or item is targeted by a Remove Curse or similar magic. The DC of the Caster Level check to undo the curse is equal to 10 + the item’s Caster Level. If the spell is successful, the item can be discarded on the following round, but the curse reasserts itself if the item is used again.

Cursed Counterfeits

Ancient bric-a-brac that appears to be a genuine artifact could be valueless junk held together by magic. More sinister, however, are deliberately cursed objects intended to visit vengeance upon their buyers or return some great wealth to their creators. Some items are crafted to function for a limited time, convincing a buyer of their authenticity. These twisted treasures are often sold for far less than their apparent worth by merchants claiming to need money quickly or who feign ignorance of their value.
By the time the curse manifests and the buyers realize they have been cheated, the seller is long gone.
Many cursed relics differentiate the item’s creator from its owner. Owner refers to the creature wearing or using the magic item, while creator refers to the original creature who crafted the magic item, or else the last creature to wear it and speak its command word (which is often kept secret from perspective buyers).

Intentionally Crafting Cursed Items

Intentionally crafting cursed items requires the same Item Creation Feats and skill checks as does crafting a normal item of that type, but in addition to such requirements, intentionally cursed items require Bestow Curse or Curse, Major as a spell prerequisites. Crafting cursed items is generally cheaper than creating fully functional items, depending on the type of curse involved, as detailed below. The table below indicates the price and spell prerequisites of some of the most common deliberately created cursed items.
Delusion: Cost is reduced by 90%.
Drawbacks and Requirements: Cost isn’t reduced for cosmetic drawbacks or requirements with no direct game effects. Cost may be reduced by 10% for minor drawbacks or requirements such as minimum skill ranks or worship of a specific deity; by 30% for harmful or costly drawbacks or requirements such as Alignment change, ability damage, sacrificing wealth, or performing a quest to activate the item; or by 50% for severe drawbacks or requirements such as negative levels or sacrificing sentient creatures.
Intermittent Functioning: The cost of uncontrolled or unreliable items is reduced by 10%. The cost of dependent items, which function only in certain situations, is reduced by 30%.
Opposite Effect or Target: Cost is reduced by 50%.

Table: Crafted Cursed Items

Item	Price	Spell Pre-requisites
Armor of arrow attraction	10,650 gp	Protection From Arrows
Armor of rage	1,850 gp	Rage
Bag of devouring	120,000 gp	Disintegrate, Plane Shift, Rope Trick
Boots of dancing	*	Irresistible Dance
Bracers of defenselessness	12,500 gp	Mage Armor
Crystal hypnosis ball	49,000 gp	Dominate Person, False Vision, Scrying
Flask of curses	25,000 gp	Bestow Curse
Gauntlets of fumbling	*	Touch of Gracelessness
Mace of blood	12,912 gp	Bleed, Death Knell
Necklace of strangulation	95,000 gp	Power Word Kill, Steal Breath
Net of snaring	16,320 gp	Entangle
Potion of poison	1,800 gp	Poison
Ring of clumsiness	1,100 gp	Slow, Touch of Gracelessness
Robe of vermin	30,000 gp	Summon Swarm
Scarab of death	6,000 gp	Finger Of Death, Summon Swarm
Spear, cursed backbiter	3,901 gp	Magic Weapon, Warp Wood
Stone of weight	5,400 gp	Make Whole, Slow
Sword, berserking	36,190 gp	Rage

*90% of the normal price for the beneficial effect the item duplicates in addition to its curse or when its curse is not active.

Common Cursed Item Effects

The following are some of the most common cursed item effects.

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 and cannot be convinced otherwise without the casting of Remove Curse.

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. The interesting point to keep in mind here is that these items aren’t always bad to have. 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 non-cursed 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 intended—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 d100) that it does not function.
Dependent: The item only functions in certain situations. To determine the situation, select or roll on the following table.
Uncontrolled: An uncontrolled item occasionally activates at random times. Roll d100 every day. On a result of 01–05 the item activates at some random point during that day.

Table: Intermittent Function Triggers

d100	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	Above ground
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 a particular gender
97–99	On holy days or during particular astrological events
100	More than 100 miles from a particular site

Requirement

Some items have 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.

• Character must eat twice as much as normal.
• Character must sleep twice as much as normal.
• Character must undergo a specific quest (one time only, and the item functions normally thereafter).
• Character must sacrifice (destroy) 100 gp in valuables per day.
• Character must sacrifice (destroy) 2,000 gp worth of magic items each week.
• Character must swear fealty to a particular noble or to their entire family.
• Character must discard all other magic items.
• Character must worship a particular deity.
• Character must change their name to a specific name. The item only works for characters of that name.
• Character must add a specific class at the next opportunity if not of that class already.
• Character must have a minimum number of ranks in a particular skill.
• Character must sacrifice some part of their life energy (2 points of Constitution) one time. If the character gets the Constitution points back (such as from a Restoration spell), the item ceases functioning.
• Item must be cleansed with holy water each day.
• Item must be used to kill a living creature each day.
• Item must be bathed in volcanic lava once per month.
• Item must be used at least once a day, or it won’t function again for its current possessor.
• Item must draw blood when wielded (weapons only). It can’t be put away or exchanged for another weapon until it has scored a hit.
• Item must have a particular spell cast upon it each day (such as Bless, Atonement, or Animate Objects).

Requirements are so dependent upon suitability to the item that they should never be determined randomly. An intelligent item with a requirement 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 but carry some negative aspect. Although sometimes drawbacks occur only when the item is used (or held, in the case of some weapons), usually the drawback remains with the character for as long as they have the item.
Unless otherwise indicated, drawbacks remain in effect as long as the item is possessed. The DC to save against any of these effects is usually equal to 10 + the item’s Caster Level.

Table: Drawbacks

d100	Drawback
01–04	Character’s hair grows 1 inch longer every hour.
05–09	Character either shrinks 6 inches (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.
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	Either pick one of the above that’s appropriate or create a drawback specifically for that item.

Completely Different Effect

An item with a completely different effect substitute the effects intended to be crafted into the item with different effects. This effect is different for each type of magic item, and is typically handled on a case-by-case basis, but with the following general guidelines:

• The alternate effect is of similar power to the intended effect (roll randomly on the same category for the item)
• The type of item (wand, belt, chain shirt, short sword, etc.) does not change
• The alternate effect is always different from the intended effect (reroll if you get the same/similar effect to what was originally tried for)

Specific Cursed Items

Table: Specific Cursed Items

d100	Cursed Item	d100	Cursed Item
01–05	Incense of obsession	64	Vacuous grimoire
06–15	Ring of clumsiness	65–68	Spear, cursed backbiter
16–20	Amulet of inescapable location	69–70	Armor of arrow attraction
21–25	Stone of weight	71–72	Net of snaring
26–30	Bracers of defenselessness	73–75	Bag of devouring
31–35	Gauntlets of fumbling	76–80	Mace of blood
36–40	–2 sword, cursed	81–85	Robe of vermin
41–43	Armor of rage	86–88	Periapt of foul rotting
44–46	Medallion of thought projection	89–92	Sword, berserking
47–52	Flask of curses	93–96	Boots of dancing
53–54	Dust of sneezing and choking	97	Crystal hypnosis ball
55	Helm of opposite alignment	98	Necklace of strangulation
56–60	Potion of poison	99	Poisonous cloak
61	Broom of animated attack	100	Scarab of death
62–63	Robe of powerlessness