Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Cursed items, anyone?

Which - if any - Cursed magical items would you like to see make an appearance? I think it would be neat if the devs could bring back the Jewel of Attacks. Players tend to love a good shiny, right ?

"Why are we being waylaid so damn much?!"

Also, the Stone of Weight (Loadstone) is worth considering; in the right area, it can lend an extra degree of unique challenge.

[Sarcasm]I want ring that will give you disadvantage, and -10 to every roll ... unless you carry at least one Barrel.[/Sarcasm] :P

Now for real ...
I dunno how much is this possible in DnD, but i really would love to see some item that will be appealing to players, something that will "lookalike" good idea to wear imediatly but once equipped (or checked by identify) it will reveal its actualy cursed and it have exactly oposite effect we wanted. >:]

Do not most cursed items fall under that description?

Yeah, that's how a standard cursed item works in D&D since the first editions, so I'm not sure if he knows what he's talking about.
of course, to have cursed items that make sense you have to include an "identify" system for your items, that despise being a staple in D&D this game currently doesn't include.

That said, we already have a couple of things that are close enough, like this "Absolute-tied" equipment. For instance the Gloves of Power (or whatever the hell they are exactly called) that give you a bonus if you are branded by Guts, but cast Bane on your character if you are not.

As i said. O_o

I fell into that trap first playthrough, put them on without reading the fine print!! However they do at least come with said fine print without having to identify them in any way. I believe truly cursed items should not reveal their issue untill it has been equipped, at which point there should be an issue resolving it.

I am gonna be extra mean and ask that all magical items should have a very small % chance of coming with a curse to make multiple playthroughs interesting / make your playthrough different (again) to someone elses.

I appreciate curses aren't everyone's cup of tea. In fact I played D&D with a DM who flat out removed them from the game because players hated dealing with them.

No, thank you, Riandor. With the possible exception of story-related artifacts, requiring the player to read (and understand)the small print before equipping an item should offer sufficient risk. And I really don't want to have occasional playthroughs burdened with hassle because the Dancing Lights amulet you received turned out to be cursed.

Well the best “cursed” item in the game now is that stupid poison bottle that looks like a healing potion…. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, watch it! I'm huge!

Yeah I failed for it and paid the price lol

That fracking bottle. First fight with Ethel, I narrowly beat her, then kicked back a health potion to celebrate…only to get duped by it and die.

Damn ye Ethel. Damn ye.

An interesting idea, I would not mind getting an item that gives not only bonuses, but also damage

Something that would give a lot of magical power, but reduce physical power, such as

Im not sure if that is intented or not ...
But when you use Staff of Crones ... your character gets 1d4 poison damage for casting the ray of sicness ...

But im not sure if that is intented, it seemed to me more like bug.
(Or i missunderstanded that description)

I prefer cursed items that are just that: cursed and nothing else. Such objects would not provide a positive ability or bonus to offset their albatross. Remember that they are supposed to be tools of adversity in the service of drama. Any benefit these ill-starred instruments may provide to the player should be gained through ingenuity (e.g., using the bag of devouring to dispose of an evil artifact that is a far greater threat or tricking an NPC into accepting a jinxed magical sword that can only be separated via voluntary exchange).

A cursed item that makes I get the Werewolf curse hehee.... it draws a Werewolf near me that bites me and then Werewold leaves me and does not kill me.

A cursed item that has a chance of creating a portal that summons a Demon and then the Demon wipes (kills) the whole party tadaa. Oh we are already teased by a Demon that might offer a "solution" to the problem.

How about a nice Sex-changing belt- like in Bg1? Girdle of Masculinity/Femininity

But yeah there are plenty of cursed items, its just they follow Larian Cursed rules. Which penalizes you for not reading things carefully. Poison which looks like a health potion. A talisman, shield, and gloves which will curse you if you are not marked right.

The Larian system rewards people who pay attention and punishes those who don't. Reading is fundamental.

The standard D&D system just required that you identify things before using them and they make it clear if something is cursed.

The D&D system is easier to avoid cursed items, but I can't say the Larian system isn't compelling on its own. Maybe both kinds would be cool.

As Blackheifer said, there are many items that could be construed as "cursed" in the game. The gloves being one of the first you encounter. You also have items with conditions, such as the druid medium armor in the Owl Bear cave (slight bonus, but also a penalty if you hit a natural creature). Or the mace from the cleric of pain in the Goblin camp (the one whipping himself), or the Gaive at the secret cave under the Druid enclave that harms you while it harms your opponent as other examples. Also the masks in the Hags lair are cursed. So there are items, but in most cases they are removable without needing a dispell, or wisdom check.

I think in BG3, if we're going to do Cursed items, they'll have to be so good that you'll willing risk being cursed to use the item. I think the Absolute Brand + Shield/Gloves is a great start to that.

Mechanically, if you know a curse exists, once you get access to the 3rd level Remove Curse spell, it stops being a fun challenge. It's not like in PnP where the cursed player is usually cursed to also keep it a secret from other players (the challenge becomes a RP one). So I think they'll either have to make it a conscious trade-off the player willingly takes part of, or somehow super well hidden from the actual player (kind of like the Absolute Gloves, etc).

I would also rather have fewer cursed items instead of many, and instead have them deeply ingrained into the game. I.e. they affect dialogue, choices, etc. It'll be cool if a cursed player's choices to a encounter is 100% different to a non-cursed player.