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Curses can be hard to handle in some RPGs. D&D3.x in particular the Bestow Curse spell has some nasty but purely mechanical effects
-6 to an ability score == -3 to related rolls and possibly loss of spell casting ability
-4 to pretty much every roll
do nothing 50% of the time
but by the time you encounter it with any frequency Remove Curse is probably available to you and the effects are serious enough that you wouldn't think twice about using it. And of course you are left to come up with interesting names / descriptions of the curses.
Something more subtle which occurred to me this morning is possibly more frustrating, yet small enough in apparent impact. Simply this: any dice rolled for the character are treated as if they had naturally rolled 1 less. Not a huge deal on any given roll perhaps, but
- no more natural 20s (auto hits, critical threats)
- 1 less HP per level gained while under the effect of the curse
- doubles the chance of auto-failing a saving throw (now on a "natural" 1 or 0)
- significantly reduced damage on multiple-damage-dice attacks.
OTOH marginally better chance of making those 10% chance stabilisation checks.
-6 to an ability score == -3 to related rolls and possibly loss of spell casting ability
-4 to pretty much every roll
do nothing 50% of the time
but by the time you encounter it with any frequency Remove Curse is probably available to you and the effects are serious enough that you wouldn't think twice about using it. And of course you are left to come up with interesting names / descriptions of the curses.
Something more subtle which occurred to me this morning is possibly more frustrating, yet small enough in apparent impact. Simply this: any dice rolled for the character are treated as if they had naturally rolled 1 less. Not a huge deal on any given roll perhaps, but
- no more natural 20s (auto hits, critical threats)
- 1 less HP per level gained while under the effect of the curse
- doubles the chance of auto-failing a saving throw (now on a "natural" 1 or 0)
- significantly reduced damage on multiple-damage-dice attacks.
OTOH marginally better chance of making those 10% chance stabilisation checks.
