#cursed items

Hello, I hope you don't mind the sudden appearance but I'd like to know what I could get with this?

typically, they wind up just kind of being a big middle finger from the game master - a kind of "whelp, you should have been more paranoid, so now you get hosed" sort of deal. which includes the somewhat game-y trope of objects that you can't get rid of. it's kind of an un-fun mechanic, when you think about it, which is why in most games I've been a part of cursed items often don't see much play, unless it's as a "punishment", or part of a story arc.

...which naturally leads me to think about how to do it better. in the past, I've tried using a curse as a kind of limiter. restrictions or drawbacks to a mostly functional item that is still worth using despite being "cursed". that's good, but it doesn't let you draw on truly nasty curses, because the item needs to be worth using, but also still needs to be balanced.

so, I'm drawing from a lot of sources here, like the cursed shield in Final Fantasy VI, and especially the comics by @foldingfittedsheets, where curses exist to (literally) teach the recipient a lesson

MEAT OF THE POST STARTS HERE:

what about cursed items that have a way to overcome their curse?

it's actually a fairly common trope in classical literature / fairy tales. every curse has a way to be broken. yet in D&D and Pathfinder, most often the only way to break a curse is to find someone with the specific curse-breaking spell.

so, give each cursed item a condition. perhaps a weapon that fuels a person's anger and causes them to fly into a blind rage in battle waits for them to sincerely forgive a hated enemy. perhaps boots that slow the wearer are actually making them heavy with the weight of past transgressions and a sufficient act of atonement will free them. maybe the perpetually bloody doll that gives its bearer horrible nightmares simply waits for someone to be motivated to action by them, either to right some past wrong, or generally bring a certain number of murderers to proper justice.

...maybe a Bag of Devouring. which is technically actually a creature, not a cursed item (but usually classified with them), can be befriended by figuring out a treat it likes, and will not only carry things for the player if fed and cared for, but even cough up a few things that previous bearers had stuffed inside.

the specifics aren't too important, but the idea is that any item with a curse on it has a reason for that curse, and a way to break it. the players can drop the item at any time, sell it off, give it to someone they hate, whatever, but if they put in the time and energy to actually breaking the curse, it becomes better than it was before, sometimes simply losing a drawback, or sometimes gaining new powers.

for an example, let's look at how that doll idea from earlier could work in D&D 5e;

while the party has the doll in their possession, they will all be afflicted by horrible nightmares, seeing themselves as children being attacked by a group of eight bandits with indistinct features. the details of the dreams change each night, and the players awaken before learning their ultimate fate, but the general gist is always that they are completely helpless, and subjected to harm.

after a long rest, have them roll a Wisdom or Charisma save (challenging DC, but not too difficult), or take a small amount of psychic damage.

Like a long con thing, like magic gauntlets, made from a red dragon, with claws made straight from the dragon. Probably should have explained the curse of what happens if you wear dragon scales without checking with a wizard but I mean, what's the worst that could happen?

How you can't take it off cause it has great stats, how the days go by and it's easier and easier to use, like it's becoming part of you. The scales spreading up your skin, you think an allergic reaction at first but it's not, but the gauntlets call for you, it feels wrong to not have them on. Until one morning you wake up and forget to take them off the previous night, but finding them, no, finding yourself with scales lining your arms, your hand with black claws, with scales spreading more towards your back. Trying to stop it, drinking a counter potion but making it worse as you feel yourself change more and more. Feeling as you reshape and grow, your clothes and armor barely being able to hold you together as the scales spread, as your body grows to a proper dragon size, one to instill fear. Your chest bursts out, cracking your armor and clothes into pieces, a remnant of your humanity, as softer scales grow around them, perfect to still be grabbed~

The rest of your armor doesn't fair better, you use your new claws and strength to rip apart the remaining pieces, as your leggings snap and crack, showing off more and more of the new you, as the scales spread more and more, but the scales reach your face, as you feel your face reshape, your horns coming in, your muzzle growing, everything changing as heat builds up, the cries of change let out in a burst of fire, as more change comes. Feeling your wings pop out your back, each throb another growth and growth, you can feel your mind breaking, not of pain but of pleasure, letting out another roar of fire as you spread your new wings, illuminating the sky with your beautiful flames. The finale is almost here, as you grab your ass for the new sensation, a providing pain in your rear as your tail pops out, sending another wave of pleasure as it flops down, falling in pleasure as the first of your dragon orgasmic.

There you stand, in the remnants of your armor, torn to shreds, 10 feet tall, wings spread out, your tail loving with joy, as you explore your new body. Quite the figure, curves to make any adventurer think twice, and even with scaled all around you're still soft in the places that matter, squeezing your new bust size with a moan and a flame escaping your mouth. But as you explored more you went to the white dragon in the room, your leaking pussy, and one touch sent you into overdrive.

Your fingers not enough, your mind quickly filling with the need to mate, begging, your party members finally arriving to hear the commotion, only finding a dragon girl, begging for relief, no, demanding it as it pins them and kisses them, leaving scales on them as well...

Feeling as their once regular dick turns into a dragons knot, the warmth growing hotter and hotter, hearing the moans from other members as they try to resist the changes, holding on to each other, trying to fight back but falling into the lust themselves as they change, ripping off their armor to freely let the change happen. You felt as if you got filled for the first time, a hot mess filling you deeply, as another mate grabbed you, another poor soul still needing to finish the process. Hours and hours, your once noble party of heroes turned into nothing but a mindless horde of dragons, breeding, and breeding, lost in lust. But in the end, you were left, that last one not passed out from it all, an expanding belly as you felt the egg start to form, what you didn't expect was me coming along.

So basically, they're a minor diety of greed, but specifically of hoarding cursed objects. So their older sibling (minor diety of MAGICAL objects), THEY mainly hang around dragon hordes and whatnot, biggest horde being somewhere mid USA in this thing called the "cheese caves"? Idk. So they dont have to move around a bunch. But the thing about CURSED items is that they're pretty spread out, so in order to keep like powered up they were travelling alot, not putting down roots at all. This was pretty lonely, but hey, a god is nothing without power.

Then one day, I get an errant shipment from one of my suppliers called Nik Nak and its all just cursed items. Like 15 of them. And im like "Nik buddy, you gotta come back for these i dont sell cursed items" and he just hissed "giffftttttttttsssssss" and hung up so suddenly I had 16 cursed items total (I may own a whispering mirror just to see what rumors are out there about me. I can handle my personal yelp reviews.)

So 16 cursed items dump into the same person's possession and our god pal gets a sniff of a possibility to settle down! So of course, they're at my place in moments.

Imagine this: youre like 20 mins from opening your totally normal magic shop when you get a shipment of cursed items that will not be vacating the premises, and then your shop rapidly fills with an acrid black smoke and you hear "SSSIIXXTEEEENN ITEMMMSSSSSS" in your ear. I assumed that was the end for me. I just shut my eyes so I didn't see it kill me cuz im squeamish to blood, which is a silly thought in hindsight, but adrenaline is a helluva drug.

So after standing there for like at least 2 whole minutes I open one eye and the smoke has formed a like 5'2" blob who's just examining the cursed items happily. They turn to me and go "You keep?" and terrified I just nod. They flash me what I assume to be a grin and say "Good. I stay." and just carry on.

Resigned, I put a closed sign on the door and set to communicating with whatever this was, trying to get it to leave (because duh), but eventually agreeing on it staying in my store room with the cursed items.

Now we have an agreement: they identify any new cursed items that come in, and I never sell lower than 16 cursed items. (Truly, I could sell down to 8 and still be safe, but they feel weak with so few around them, and im not gonna torture a god.)