By touching a creature, the caster bestows a minor curse upon it. The caster can choose any effect from the minor curse list. The creature is allowed a saving throw vs. spell; if successful, the curse is negated.
The reverse of the spell negates the effects of any minor curse.
Notes: Very rare spell, used by evil priests. (Updated from Dragon Magazine.)
Minor Curse Effects
- Adherence
- Animal Features
- Appendage Growth
- Appendage Shrinkage
- Arthritis
- Babbling
- Baldness
- Barkskin
- Belching
- Body Odor
- Brooding
- Casting Requirements
- Change Skin Color
- Chills
- Continual Smiling
- Dancing
- Double Vision
- Elasticity
- Filthiness
- Floral Hair
- Forgetfulness
- Generosity
- Greed
- Hair Growth
- Halitosis
- Hiccupping
- Insatiable Appetite
- Insatiable Thirst
- Insomnia
- Itching
- Kleptomania
- Lethargy
- Metal allergy
- Myopia
- Narcissism
- Nausea
- Pathological Lying
- Profuse Sweating
- Serpent Hand
- Serpent Hair
- Shaking
- Slurred Speech
- Smoldering
- Sneezing
- Spike Growth
- Stumbling
- Truth
- Uncontrollable Laughter
- Unintentional Insult
- Vulgarity
- Wart Growth
- Weariness
- Weight Gain
- Weight Loss
- Whistling
Effect Explanations
Adherence: The subject becomes very sticky. Items touched adhere to the fingers, preventing the use of material components. Alcohol topically applied can negate this effect for several rounds. The subject can pull away from solidly anchored objects with successful Strength check. The caster can affect either the victim's whole body or just part of it.
Animal Features: This curse causes the subject's features (ears, nose, etc.) to become animal-like. Which animal's features are gained is entirely up to the caster.
Appendage Growth: One of the victim's appendages grows to a disproportionate size.
Appendage Shrinkage: This curse effect is the opposite of appendage growth.
Arthritis: The victim suffers from painful arthritis. The Dexterity is reduced by 2 and somatic gestures are 25% likely to fail.
Babbling: The cursed individual constantly talks and chatters unable to remain silent for more than a moment This causes a 25% chance of spell failure.
Baldness: In addition to affecting the subject, this can also be cast to cause those around the cursed one for any great length of time to suffer baldness as well.
Barkskin: The subject's skin takes on the texture and appearance of tree bark, increasing base Armor Class to 6. Fire saving throws are at a -2 penalty and fire-based damage is increased +2 per die of damage.
Belching: Uncontrollable belching causes a 25% chance of spell failure while casting, and likewise reduces any chance to Move Silently or be quiet.
Body Odor: The subject develops a repugnant body odor, lowering Charisma by 2 points.
Brooding: The victim is continually downcast, lowering Charisma by 2 points.
Casting Requirements: This establishes a short action (dancing a jig, knocking on wood, etc.) that a spellcaster must perform before or during spell casting for the spell to be effective. (The DM might require the player to actually perform the action).
Change Skin Color: The subject's skin changes to any hue of the caster's choice.
Chills: The subject suffers chills as with a fever, lowering reaction time and dropping overall Dexterity by 2 points.
Continual Smiling: While not seeming much of a curse, this can result in many a skirmish. Many will be offended by the subject's constant grin.
Dancing: The subject breaks into a dance, jig, or caper at the most inopportune moments. Armor Class and saving throws have a -2 penalty, while spellcasting has a 20% chance of spell failure.
Double Vision: The subject makes attack rolls at a -2 penalty; effective Dexterity is lowered by 2 points.
Elasticity: The subject can stretch his body beyond its normal shape. Unfortunately, the body takes 1d4 hours to return to its normal shape, during which time Dexterity is reduced by 4 points.
Filthiness: The subject remains dirty no matter how many baths are taken. This filthiness extends to the clothing as well. Charisma is reduced by 2 points.
Floral Hair: The subject's hair becomes like weeds, grass, twigs, and flowers. While possibly improving the reaction of woodland creatures, it otherwise lowers Charisma by 2 points.
Forgetfulness: Lapses of memory triggered by certain events or contact with particular objects or creatures incur a 25% chance of spell failure. The effects on non-spellcasters is determined by the DM.
Generosity: The subject feels an irresistible need to give away everything of value that he owns.
Greed: The subject covets anything of value that anyone else owns. Often this leads to theft.
Hair Growth: The subject is beset by rapid uncontrollable hair growth. The caster can choose to make this over the entire body or just the head.
Halitosis: The subject develops breath so foul that all within 10 feet have a -2 penalty to attacks and a 20% chance of spell failure.
Hiccupping: This increases chances of spell failure by 23%. It is otherwise similar to belching.
Insatiable Appetite: The subject can't satisfy feelings of overwhelming hunger and suffers a -2 penalty to all actions when uneaten food is present.
Insatiable Thirst: This curse has the same effect as insatiable hunger except that it causes a thirst that cannot be quenched.
Insomnia: The subject is always tired, and has a 25% chance of spell failure during casting.
Itching: The caster chooses whether this is non-stop itching or triggered by an event or stress. The subject's Dexterity and attack rolls are reduced by 2, and any spellcasting is 25% likely to fail.
Kleptomania: The subject has an irresistible urge to pilfer from others (if not a thief, he won't be very good at it).
Lethargy: The subject suffers extreme drowsiness either all the time or when under stress. Dexterity and attack rolls are reduced by 2, and any spellcasting is 25% likely to fail.
Metal Allergy: Every time the subject touches metal, his hand breaks out in hives and blisters. This gives a -2 (or -10%) penalty to any activity requiring the use of the hands.
Myopia (extreme near-sightedness): The subject has a -2 penalty to missile attacks and uses the grenade-like missile table to determine the center of area attacks.
Narcissism: The subject becomes extremely vain, and quick to point out his own looks to everyone, while pointing out their flaws. Those spending any time around the subject react as if his Charisma was 2 points lower than normal.
Nausea: This arises when conditions set by the caster are met (for example, entering a small room meeting a dwarf etc.). Attack rolls are at a -2 penalty and spellcasting failure is 25% likely.
Pathological Lying: No explanation is necessary to portray what an inability to tell the truth can cause.
Profuse Sweating: While not causing any detrimental effects of a physical nature, this curse might have deleterious effects on Charisma. It might also make the hands slippery at inopportune times.
Serpent Hair: The subject can be mistaken for a medusa by others who may be prone to attack first and examine the corpse later. The subject's hair changes into locks of living serpents. These snakes are indeed poisonous to all but the victim, making them hazardous to those who are close to him.
Serpent Hand: One or both of the victim's hands becomes the maw of a living poisonous snake. The type of snake is decided by the caster of the curse. The snakes cannot harm the victim, but are not under his control, attacking any else who ventures too close.
Shaking: Body spasms reduce the subject's Dexterity and attack rolls by 2 points and cause a 25% chance for error in casting spells with a somatic portion.
Slurred Speech: Aside from making the subject hard to understand, a spellcaster has a 25% chance of spell failure if the spell has a verbal component.
Smoldering: The subject constantly emits smoke from his skin and hair. This can cause some visual impairment, reducing attack rolls by 2 points and causing errors in distance judgment for spell casting. Furthermore, anyone suffering from this curse has no chance of going undetected unless he is standing downwind in a gale.
Sneezing: Sneezing fits occur when a particular event happens or the subject is under stress, causing a 25% chance of spell failure during casting.
Spike Growth: Once cursed, the subject sprouts spikes all over his body. While the spikes are no danger to the accursed, they can cause serious damage to clothing and to others (1d4 points of damage per spike).
Stumbling: This affects Dexterity with regard to movement. Any walking or running requires a successful Dexterity check at a -2 penalty to avoid tripping over one's own feet. This is in addition to a general penalty of -2 to the effective Dexterity score.
Truth: This is the opposite of pathological lying.
Uncontrollable Laughter: Many people find being laughed at insulting. This can have serious repercussions when the accursed laughs at the wrong persons in the wrong places.
Unintentional Insulting: The cursed individual has no control over his tongue when around others. It usually only takes a few curse-inspired insults to cause major problems.
Vulgarity: Insults can be forthcoming with this curse but unlike the unintentional insulting curse, profanity is uttered in some form with every breath.
Wart Growth: The cursed person becomes covered from head to toes with warts. This reduces Charisma by 4 points.
Weariness: The accursed individual is always tired. This causes a -2 penalty to attack rolls. Furthermore, this curse reduces Constitution by 2 points. This makes wearing armor or equally heavy objects for long periods of time nearly impossible.
Weight Gain: The subject immediately begins to gain weight at a rate of 5 pounds per day. The curse ultimately adds 100 pounds to the subject's original weight. Of course, clothing and armor no longer fit.
Weight Loss: The exact opposite of weight gain. However, the subject's weight is not reduced below 1% of the original weight.
Whistling: This curse appears at random times. When it does it has a 25% chance not only of interrupting the subject's spellcasting, but also of interrupting the spellcasting of those in the immediate vicinity. It also makes hiding difficult.