Curses as Skill Challenges

One of the differences between 4e D&D and other editions is the elimination of penalties. Everything is expressed as a positive. Rather than suffer a -2 penalty to your AC when you’re prone your opponents receives a +2 bonus to attacks made against you because you’re granting combat advantage. Sure it’s the same thing, but there’s a lot to be said for keeping things positive. With all modifiers expressed as positives, it’s up to the attacker to keep track of them and add them when appropriate. This makes things a lot easier for everyone since you know that none of your defenses will ever get lower. Your AC of 15 remains an AC of 15, even if you’re prone.

By eliminating penalties and negatives from D&D, curses – especially cursed items – have disappeared from the game. We no longer have cursed items in the traditional sense because they’ve always imposed negative penalties. Where a normal magical +1 sword provides a positive modifier, a cursed weapon (or a -1 sword) imposes a -1 penalty in much the same way. But since 4e D&D doesn’t have negative modifiers this kind of item doesn’t really work in the way that it did in previous editions.

Just because the mechanics don’t easily support permanent penalties, curses and cursed items shouldn’t be eliminated from D&D. There are still a lot of good ways to introduce curses and use them in you game. However, instead of imposing a mechanical penalty like -1 to attacks made by the poor PC unfortunate enough to grasp the cursed weapon, think bigger and apply the “penalty” in a more abstract way.

This discussion of curses shouldn’t be confused with the Warlock’s ability to curse enemies during combat. This type of curse is temporary and doesn’t usually impose any hardship on the recipient. It’s just a way for the Warlock to designate foes and inflict more harm to them. At the end of a battle the Warlock’s curse dissipates from any survivors. The kind of curse I’m talking about is a lot more permanent and doesn’t just fade away on its own.

Even the word curse was removed from the e4 D&D (except for the aforementioned Warlock’s curse). For example a Werewolf used to be considered cursed, but now they’re not cursed they are afflicted with Lycanthrope. It may seem like merely semantics at the end of the day, but it does leave the door open for a discussion on actual curses.

Introducing a curse to your camping can be a great way to kick off the next leg of your story arc. The curse could be something that affects a PC (or the entire party) directly. I’d recommend making it something that will come into play during the role-playing and not the combat (at least not during every combat). The kind of curse I’m thinking of includes things like having all of their hair fall out; their skin colour changing to an unnatural hew; or a repugnant scent that they cannot wash away. These are all rather tame examples, but serve to illustrate my point.

Curses in this manner shouldn’t impose any permanent mechanical deficiencies like the -1 to attacks of editions past. This just angers players and makes recordkeeping more difficult. However, a symptom of the curse that rears its ugly head occasionally is certainly fair game, and can serve as a good reminder if the party seems to be taking the curse lightly. For example, they may begin every combat slowed until they save or they may have a vulnerability to a specific damage type when in the presence of Fey creatures.

Of course you can introduce curses that don’t affect the PCs directly. The party could learn about a cursed village or even a cursed NPC. Getting the party involved should be easy enough. It could be as simple as hiring them to investigate or just appealing to their sense of doing the right thing in the face of evil. In this case the curse can certainly be more abstract since it won’t impact the PCs directly. A cursed King that can’t do something vital to his wellbeing like eating or sleeping, or a village afflicted with a curse where none of the locals can bear children, should all be drastic enough to get the PCs’ attention.

Once you’ve decided to introduce a curse, you need to make sure that the PCs understand that removing it is possible (but not necessarily easy). This is where a skill challenge becomes an integral part of the adventure.

In most cases a skill challenge has very defined boundaries with a specific goal. In this case the goal is removing the curse. In order to give the curse the power it needs to scare and motivate the PCs, the resolution shouldn’t be a simple as making a few skill checks. The method for achieving complete success should be a lot more complex than the traditional skill challenge.

Skill Challenge: Removing the Curse

This kind of skill challenge may take many sessions to complete. Be sure to keep the PCs very well informed of how their doing and what is still required of them. If they loose focus and can’t see where this is leading then the entire skill challenge will likely fail. I recommend breaking the larger challenge into three phases. Within each phase there will likely be smaller skill challenges that will directly affect the outcome of the larger objective.

Phase 1 – Discovery

During the discovery phase the PCs are trying to figure out what’s going one. This will usually be accomplished by first-hand observation, especially if the PCs themselves are cursed. During this phase the PCs should get a sense of what the curse does, how it will affect them and how long they have to find a way to remove the curse. This phase will likely only require a couple of successes to complete.

Phase 2 – Investigation

The investigation phase is where the bulk of the skill checks are required. During this phase the PCs, now armed with information on what’s happening, will look for ways to counteract the problem. Depending on what the curse does they might even find a way to suppress it for short periods. Doing so could even be a mini-skill challenge, and success here could count as one success in the larger removing the curse skill challenge.

If the curse causes the PCs to glow brightly when in moonlight and they have to sneak somewhere at night, they could learn a way to suppress the glowing long enough for them to cut across the open field undetected.

If the curse makes the PCs vulnerable to necrotic damage and they know that they’ll be fighting undead, maybe one PC can chant prayers during combat, effectively taking them out of the fight, but making it easier for his companions to defeat the undead.

Providing this kind of reward at the mid-point of the larger skill challenge lets the PCs know that they’re on the right track and doesn’t make it feel like the bigger goal is still so far away. Little rewards like this keep players engaged.

During the final part of the investigation phase the PCs should learn the ultimate key to removing the curse. It may not be something that they can do alone or that is even within their power. Finding an NPC capable of completing the final task necessary for removing the curse may be another mini-skill challenge within the larger one.

Phase 3 – Removal

The removal phase is the climax of the skill challenge, and likely the adventure arc. Although the guidelines for skill challenges usually indicate that the ultimate success or failure should never be tied directly to one skill check, in this case bending that rule my be necessary. If the curse was easy to remove then it wouldn’t require the PCs getting involved.

Removing the curse should be difficult. By tying it directly to one specific task or action (as discovered in the final stages of the investigation phase) the PCs may find that they cannot overcome it alone. If this is the case then they should have a chance to enlist the aid of someone who is capable of completing the check.

The most common solution for removing a curse will likely be a ritual. During the investigation phase the PCs gathered the necessary components and now they’re ready to finish the job and remove the curse. Depending on the nature of the curse Arcana, Heal, Nature, or Religion checks may be required. This should also have been discovered during the investigation phase.

Removing the curse needs to be a spectacle. Even though it may only require one really difficult skill check it’s important to build up the scene. If the curse was deliberately imposed by some evil force, perhaps they appear to try and stop the PCs form removing the curse. If the PCs have worked through many encounters and gaming sessions to complete this success then it’s your job as the DM to ensure that they feel the reward and the outcome were worth the challenge.

Gone are the days of the cursed -1 sword, but that doesn’t mean that curses are gone all together. Introducing a curse to your game as the main focus or just a sub-plot is easy to do and can make for some really memorable situations. So the next time you’re really struggling for a good adventure hook, consider cursing… the PCs.

Have you use curses in your game? How did you handle it? What means did you introduce for removing the curse? What did the players think after all was said and done? Has anyone used cursed weapons (like the -1 sword) in 4e D&D? How did that go over?

Related reading:

• Adventure Hook: The Metamorphosis Curse
• Creating and Running Engaging Skill Challenges
• Making Boring Skill Challenges More Exciting

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