slurpy
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Post by slurpy on Jan 10, 2014 4:42:34 GMT
So now that the holidays are over, my group is ready to meet again. In the last session, our kobold beguiler found the goblin king's crowned corpse, put the crown on, and convinced the surviving goblins that he had killed the king and was now their ruler (he rolled a 20 on intimidate).
I am now thinking that crappy copper crown should be cursed.
. . . Yes, I know I am evil. . .
So I need some ideas for mild curses that could be used here (it's a level 3 party), beyond just -2 to INT or whatever.
The classic gender/race/color change curse is a possibility, but I am not hugely enamored of the idea.
It could randomly rain on him.
The crown could cause a constant humming that impedes his abilities to cast spells, hear, and sleep.
Randomly polymorph into a butterfly once per day (or become a werebutterfly). Maybe a king crab. Fits with the crown then.
The crown could have Tourette's Syndrome (very inconvenient when sneaking, especially since he is the group 'rogue').
Randomly shoot a fireball into the air.
He wakes up covered in spiders every morning.
Other suggestions are welcome.
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Post by thedmg on Jan 10, 2014 5:02:24 GMT
See Rod of Wonder, make it random and crazy, but should have benefits as well
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Post by monkeywithtacos on Jan 10, 2014 7:31:01 GMT
It should make random loud noises at very inconvenient times.....
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Post by onethatwas on Jan 10, 2014 8:42:59 GMT
I love cursed objects!
Hmmm...well, I would make it story relevant. Why was the Goblin King a Goblin King? Was there an idiosyncrasy he was known for (Besides being all gobliny)? How did he die?
Now you may have just inserted a random goblin king to make it interesting. Which makes sense. Who doesn't want to see David Bowie made into a corpse? Seriously, less make up and put on some real pants...leotards went out in the 80's. I don't care if the movie was made in the 80's...point is, just no.
Anyway, back on track. If you did have just a random goblin king for the characters to find, then these details are total unknowns. You can fill them in to fit your curse then, which is great. If not, it helps if we can get a little back story.
A few suggestions I would toss out: Have him be forced to eat a Goblin Diet...which isn't really acceptable to most other intelligent creatures. Then, as he levels up, if he continues to wear the crown (As if he had a choice. Ha! I'd make that thing a lodestone...always turning up), have him slowly transform into a goblin...which may make playing his character less possible. Also, hit him with CHA negs progressively (Seriously, Goblins aren't liked by very many people, except Goblins), except with Goblins. Then hit him with a Geaes (Gaeas? Who cares...to many vowels in that word anyway) to do something particularly unpleasant.
I like to scale up my curses over time. I once had a player who found a magical sword that had a chilled blade. It didn't really have much else special about it, but then he started going evil. In RavenLoft...yay Powers Checks. So I basically made his blade more powerful, but made the chill feeling extend to his own body, so he couldn't experience warmth. Except when he killed a sentient creature...the more innocent, the longer the warmth lasted. He knew exactly what was happening, but he couldn't justify not occasionally murdering more people to "Get warm." The chill effect was constant for him, and only relieved when he killed with that particular blade.
As he killed more and got more powerful in levels, his blade became more potent, and he became more undead and unfeeling. The problem was that he was constantly cold, constantly miserable except for those brief moments when he would secretly kill again. Eventually I had to take his character from him (That's the way it is in RavenLoft...don't turn evil or else the DM gets your character to play with).
So yeah, I'd just keep scaling the curse up, make the character really regret deciding to take the crown, but make it hard for him to let it go, either because the benefits are really great, or because they just can't seem to get rid of it.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 10, 2014 12:01:28 GMT
I would go with a functional, subtle curse, such as the crown allows the character to make an extra action, or have a bonus on a dice roll, extra spell slot, whatever.. but, every time the character makes use of the ability, the crown will either drain some hit points from the character, or the nearest available ally.
I call it the 'Soul Stone' game mechanic.
You could have it enhance all ability scores by 1 point, but never allow the character to wear magical jewellery, such as rings, amulets, etc.. they just don't work when the crown is worn.
You could have it provide a lovely set of abilities, enhanced senses, intellect, understand spoken languages, etc.. but it has an unusual effect when other magic items are used.. it creates a random, minor curse for each new item, the curse only effects the character when the crown and the other item are worn together.
You could have it so that the crown influences others, sends your character snippets of their surface thoughts, controls lesser creatures and magnifies your character's charisma, but it is largely out of the character's control, and the crown has its own, conflicting agenda.
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Post by kokigami on Jan 11, 2014 0:26:15 GMT
What about the normal curse of kings. He must serve his kingdom.. He attracts sycophants, both supporters and those who would have or take power. The Better he serves, the more supporters, generally. And there may be others whose lineage have claims.. If he discards the crown, he will begin to have night terrors. And he will become a target for his rudderless kingdoms anger..
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neil
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Post by neil on Jan 11, 2014 1:31:53 GMT
I like the positive that can be negative. Maybe a couple of goblin minions always follow him around. Guard the king and suchlike. But they are goblins right. Mean little bastages. Sometimes they say" hey this is the king he will kick your butt - bow before him kneel slime". As long as he is the king he gets goblin "guardians".
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Post by 1999robur on Jan 11, 2014 22:53:57 GMT
I'd say give the crown a slight disadvantadge when wearing, but whenever he tries to put it off make him do a will save if he fails the crown stays on his head if he doesn't he puts it of, but when it's off make him unable to do something or make the crown misteriously appear on his head
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Post by Muze on Jan 15, 2014 0:42:42 GMT
have the crown function like the ring of gaxx
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slurpy
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Post by slurpy on Jan 15, 2014 1:32:10 GMT
I can't seem to find anything on the Ring of Gaxx besides the fact that it has an eight- (or nine-) sided stone that rotates, sometimes on its own.
Also, the goblin king was killed by a wizard, the main baddie in the campaign, via some super-strong energy blast. The remains were similar to when a vamp gets staked in True Blood. He didn't really have any role in the back story, just the leader of a clan of goblins the wizard enslaved, they never met the dude and he died six months before the campaign began.
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slurpy
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Posts: 197
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Post by slurpy on Jan 15, 2014 1:37:19 GMT
Oh, DMG, I actually created a Wild Mage class, combined from the 2E class and 3E prestige class that uses a modified Rod of Wonder table for when spells fail. The NPC that hired them is this class; they have already has a few interesting things happen when asking for his abilities, including gerbils spraying out of his hands when he tried to cast Cure Light Wounds.
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