Cursed Items

[Goblinz]

I think tome could use curses. Not like crawl curses that force you to use the equipment but more like egos with negitive effects. Since a good chunk of what I am suggesting might be a bit on the powerful side they may be batter off as a randart only or have artifacts that use them.

Inferno weapon - low chance on use that it will cast some aoe fire ball that will damage the user
Draining weapon - adds darkness damage but whenever the weapon is used to kill something the use is damaged
Engaging - low chance to teleport next to a nearby monster
Hungering - all egos fade unless it is used to kill something every X turns
Unlife - disease on strike but healing factor is reduced
Arcane Channeling - if the user has mana the blade will deal extra arcance damage but each blow will drain mana
Blighted armour - increase hardness but decrease health
Diseased armour - physical stat reduction and slower health regen but when hit you can spread disease

Undeath - while worn healing and infusions are reduced but if you die while wielding it you rise as a undead (maybe with a new talent tree)

because some of these are powerful (undeath) these might be more appropriate as artifacts. Something to make them more flavorfull would have artifact quests. you pay some seer guy and they tell you where one of these cursed artifacts are (or normal ones too) and you can go find them. I think it would be cool if we could give some of the more powerful ones there own zones with a gurdain wielding the artifact. This would add some random quests to the game and allow powerful items to be limited (one could requirements to even get the quest). If enough of these cursed item are made I think a class or race that has talents to use them more effectivly would be cool.

So any ideas or comments? I think this could add a bit more choice to tome and a cursed item user sounds fun.

[Dervis]

Well this could be fun, any ego needs to be properly tested and balanced to prevent overpoweredness though.

Vampiric *melee weapon* - Heals the user for 2-20% of damage dealt, drains 4-40 health per turn.
*melee weapon* of Ages - +10% attack speed. 5-50 bonus temporal damage. Speeds target by 30%.
*melee weapon* of Brutality - 20% chance for double base damage. Alerts every monter within 30 squares.
Desperate *infusion* - Extra power with missing health.
Heavyload *ranged* - 50% range, 150% power.
*staff* of Blinding Light - hit blinds target. Activate to Blind everyone in LOS (including user). 2-20% light damage.

Don't want to throw too many out there...

[madmonk]

I like the old cursed item concept - wield an item at your peril! With the advent of easy ID this no longer works for obvious reasons.

You might want to consider being a little more extreme. So that would be having an item with significant benefits but also significant drawbacks as well.

How about this - extremely beneficial and a nasty downside as well...

The Maleficent Sword (Power 40, APR 15)

Note: this sword increases its affects (levels) by inflicting damage

+1 - +6 STR,
+1 - +6 DEX,
+1 - +6 CON
Radiates Gloom@TL1 - TL5 (as per spell)

Reduces Stamina by 10% - 60%
Inflicts 10% - 60% of the damage dealt to the wielder.

[Grey]

Any such weapon must be not so negative that it is impossible to wear, but at the same time not so trivially negative that the effects can be overcome. For example the blinding weapon is great for someone with 100% blindness.

I really like the idea of an artifact which teleports you next to enemies. Would actually be useful in many circumstances for certain classes, but threateningly unpredictable at times too. Lots of fun!

[edge2054]

I like the idea of effects that can be fully or partially overcome.

The explosive weapon idea for instance could be really dangerous if you have low fire resist but really effective if you had it capped. Though I'd prefer for something like that to be low damage and always proc over high damage and low proc.

As an example. Explosive Sword. Deals 10% of weapon damage as fire damage to all creatures in a radius of 1 around the target you attack with it, including the wielder. That'd be a small constant stream of AoE damage, small enough to not be game breaking and small enough not to kill the character off. With fire resist it could be a really fun effect.

[Wombat]

I am not a fan of cursed items in the least, at least not the "traditional" cursed items a la tome2. In T2, the only cursed item I ever used was mormegil, which was the weapon of choice for many of my winners, since its upsides were worth the hassles of its downsides. I could see creating items in that mold where a powerful character could accept the tradeoffs of the item.

Grey, for what it's worth, I always hated "teleportitis" in T2, so that's one feature I wouldn't really care to see again.

[hamrkveldulfr]

i'll toss my hat in and give a few ideas

-staff- lifethirst - converts one health to mana per turn whenever mana is not full

-heavy armor- Iron maiden - adds +10 to armor and defense, every hit does ten extra damage to character, but refelcts 20,

-helm- Wailing - grants +20 infravision, see invisible, alerts all enemies in 10x10 grid to your presence

-cloak- Cobweb Shroud - adds insidious poision effect to attacks, increases stealth chance by 15%, +20% fire damage taken, -10% global speed,

Amulet- hangmans noose - adds 15 darkness to all attacks, ignore traps, 20% chance to cause fear when targeted, suffocate 2x as fast, subtracts 7 constitution and 7 dexterity

[Charlatan73]

I like the concept of a little extra power at the cost of a detriment of some sort. The term 'cursed' might be confusing here, we're really just talking about additional flavors of magic items.

Wondering if it makes sense to align some flavors to some of the more popular archetypes so that the trade off is a little easier to see. Something like:

Barbarian
[armor] of the brute
Physical power *1.25, Health +, all cunning / willpower / magic based skill levels are halved.
Notes: So extra physical power at the cost of trap detection / disarm, or wyrmic abilities granted from sandworm queen.

Summoner
staff of the gates
Summoning skill tree levels doubled, summoning duration halved

or maybe something that makes a race "racier".
boots of the Shalore
+10% global speed, -10% total hit points

[Marcotte]

My preference for cursed items goes to items with some personality. If you go along that personality, the item is excellent, but if you go against it, the item is dangerous. And to avoid players unequipping them whenever they are inconvenient, just add restrictions on when they can be removed.

Few suggestions/examples (as greater egos):

Berserker *weapon*:
- Huge damage and regeneration bonuses
- If you haven't hit an enemy with it in 10 turns, it teleports you next to the nearest enemy. (no distance limit)
- Can only be unequipped on the world map, or if all enemies are dead.
Good for aggressive fighters, but very bad if your life get too low.

*Boots* of cowardice:
- Good dodge bonus
- Movement speed increase
- Randomly teleport whenever you get damaged. The teleportation distance is proportional to damage divided by remaining life.
- Can only be unequipped at full health.
Useful to get out of dangerous situations, but make it hard to fight long battles (especially in melee).

*Weapon* of cruelty:
- Good damage bonus
- When it hits an enemy, it has a random chance of replacing the normal damage by a debilitating effect (stun/freeze/time prison/blind/etc.). This chance increase the lower the enemy health is, up to about 50% for a nearly dead one.
- Hit you with a debilitating effect if you unequip it.
Good if you want to quickly disable enemies, but annoying when it is time to finish them off.

Wonder *staff*:
- Has a special "wonder" damage type, which tends to have random consequences.
- Very high damage, but don't grant any spellpower bonus
- When unequipped, get replaced by another greater ego staff (of the same material)
Useful as a last ditch backup or to fight monsters too strong for you, but too random to be used reliably.