Curses
Sorry, I don't know who is the author
The curse rules originally presented in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rulebooks reflect solely the "dungeon-in-a-vacuum" orientation of the original rules. While the game system has grown and expanded its coverage to other areas of life, the curses have not been modified to reflect this.
The following is meant as a system to allow some flexibility in the types of curses that may be created by the Dungeon Master.
This system functions using an arbitrary measure of of curse severity, called a Curse Factor (CF). The particular spell employed to curse an entity generates a pool of CF's, which are then paid out like money to buy features of the curse.
The following tables list the CF cost of various categories of curse features, and examples follow.
CF SCOPE
1 Individual only
1-3 Group (2-10)
2-4 Friends/Immediate Family
4-6 Extended Family
5-7 Clan
CF EFFECT
2 Minor Fortunes
4 Major Fortunes
6 Minor Personal
8 Major Personal
10 Catastrophic Personal
CF DURATION OF EFFECT
1 Hours
3 Days
5 Permanent
CF REMOVAL METHOD
0 Spell (Normal)
2 Spell-resistant
1 Task, Common
2 Task, Uncommon
4 Task, Difficult
8 Task, Heroic
16 Task, Legendary
CF MISCELLANEOUS EFFECT
1 Returning
10 Hereditary
5 Save at -1
12 Save at -2
24 Save at -3
SCOPE
INDIVIDUAL: The effects of the curse affect only the individual (Most cursed magic objects fall into this category).
GROUP (2-10): Whenever the curse is triggered, 2-10 people are affected (random selection of targets) (Most often seen as a group curse affceting the first x# of people to enter a location, etc.).
FRIENDS/IMMEDIATE FAMILY: Whenever the curse is triggered, the effects are felt by the friends or immediate family of the target. Immediate family includes parents & siblings of unmarried characters, or spouse & children of married ones. If the character spends no time at home, the family will not be affected, but the friends of the target will be. (Curse may cause the family farm's crops to rot in the fields, or the whole party may be thrown in jail, etc.)
EXTENDED FAMILY: Extended family includes spouse, children, siblings, and parents of the target. The effects are similar to that above.
CLAN: The clan includes the extended family plus their extended families. In civilized lands, "clans" tend to be quite small, but in more traditional lands (Celtic, Norse, Dwarven, Elven, etc.) can be quite extensive and formalized; in such cases, only members of the same familial root are affected.
EFFECTS
MINOR FORTUNES: Such curses impose a minor "bad luck streak" on the target (eg, -2 to all attack rolls & saves, only wins ˝ as often at gambling).
MAJOR FORTUNES: Such curses impose a stronger streak of bad luck on the target (eg., -5 to all attack rolls & saves, never winning at gambling, never doing more than minimum damage, or foes always do maximum damage).
MINOR PERSONAL: Such curses impose minor changes in the character's personal appearance, personality, or behavior (eg: berserking, loss of one or two attribute points, etc.)
MAJOR PERSONAL: Such curses impose major or repeated changes on the character's appearance, behavior, or personality (eg: increasing/diminishing height/weight, lycanthropy, repeated loss of attribute points).
CATASTROPHIC PERSONAL: Such curses impose extreme changes in the character (eg: gender change, alignment change, race change, inability to ever profit from actions, etc.)
DURATION OF EFFECT
HOURS: The effect is over within 4 hours (eg: berserking)
DAYS: The effect is over within 1-3 days (eg: lycanthropy)
PERMANENT: The effects are continuous until dispelled (eg: cursed weapons)
REMOVAL METHOD
SPELL: Most magic objects fall into this category, requiring only a spell to be removed.
SPELL-RESISTANT: Some curses are perversely cast, and halve the effectiveness of Remove Curse spells cast against them.
TASK: Some curses negate themselves after the target performs some act required by the caster of the curse. The tasks are divided up by the difficulty of actually performing the act, although sometimes other factors (rank of the one to perform the action, or conditions necessary to find the right place to perform the task) may generate greater difficulty (eg.: a proud and haughty prince required to apologise to a common-born mage might refuse out of spite.)
Common: Very simple tasks,such as apologies or repairs to damaged goods.
Uncommon: Often replacement of damaged/destroyed goods, or completion of the aims of the caster.
Difficult: Protect someone, find the true guilty party in a crime, etc.
Heroic: Slay a fearsome monster, defeat a hostile force.
Legendary: Visit the powers and steal something very valuable to them, or slay a fearsome monster that has terrorized the area for generations.
MISCELLANEOUS EFFECTS
RETURNING: The cursed object returns without the character noticing until it is time to fight again, when the character finds it in his/her hands. (The item disguises itself as something else, and the character leaves that object behind, thinking it is the cursed one.)
HEREDITARY: The curse is passed on to innocent generations (lycanthropy, and sometimes legendary task curses.)
SAVE PENALTY: The original curse is saved against with a penalty.
EXAMPLES
Sword, cursed -2: SCOPE: Individual (1); EFFECTS: Minor Fortunes (2); DURATION: Permanent (5); REMOVAL: Spell (0); MISCELLANEOUS: Returning (1) = 9 CF
Sword, cursed, berserking: SCOPE: Individual (1); EFFECTS: Minor Personal (6); DURATION: Hours (1); REMOVAL: Spell (0); MISCELLANEOUS: Returning (1) = 9 CF
Lycanthropy: SCOPE: Individual (1); EFFECTS: Major Personal (8); DURATION: Days (3) REMOVAL: Task, Heroic (8); MISCELLANEOUS: Hereditary (10) = 30 CF
CURSE SPELLS
The reversed form of Remove curse can generate only 5 Curse Factors, while the Oriental Adventures spell Ancient Curse can generate 50. The DM is free to create any new spells s/he believes suitable to generate ranges of Curse Factors for use with this system.