Curses

[Drakill Tannan]

Perhaps for transmuter wizards, although i'd love to see it avilable for clerics of fitting dieties and druids as well as sorcerers, the ability to curse a PC without needing to have any contact with him.

Maybe using some altars in the wilderness similar to scrying focuses, you merely choose the PC you want to curse, send him the spell and if he fails the check, he is cursed. Naturaly we're not talking about the "Bestow Curse" spell, that would be far too OP, but rather some less powerfull and more flavourfull curses.

The proces would cost XP to cast, and persist after resets, so that the aflicted PC requires somone to cast "Remove curse" on him to get rid of it.

Examples of the curses i had in mind (Examples, just to inspire! not exactly wht i want)

Plagued
Every time the character rests he catches a disease, unless he/she is already diseased (Something not too draining) Untill remove curse is cast.

Evil Web
The aflicted PC has a chance of looking "Evil" to the "Detect Evil" ability regardless of his/her alignment. He also gets -4 Persuade untill Remove curse is cast.

Weakness
The aflicted PC gets -2 to all saves vs disease. The Withering advances slightly faster on him/her untill remove curse is cast.

Scent of Unatural
Non-Hostile animals (such as deer, falcons, etc.) Attack the PC on sight. Druids near the PC will get the "feeling" something is not right with him untill remove curse is cast.

Missfortue
Greater chance of triggering a sand worm encounter in the desert, magic eaters on the upperdark, or any such encounters untill remove curse is cast.

EDIT: It could be cool if "Contagion" could do something similar to the lines of the "plagued" curse too!

[Keeper of the White Wyrm]

Contagion already causes a plague.

But I Simply -LOVE- this idea.

[Arch Rogue]

This is actually a pretty cool suggestion, TBH.

[Egon the Monkey]

Would be good if like Scrying you had the chance to ID the attacker with a Spellcraft check.

[Paha]

There is absolutely no sense in being able to curse someone just for the sake of it from other side of the world.

I've always been interested of the idea of being able to do this, but it requiring specific catalyst for it. For example, vial of blood from the target. On other hand, you can curse someone right infront of you which is absolutely fine and dandy, as it should be.

It would take out the actual sense of power if every neighborhood wise woman could curse who ever they can think of from their head.

[derfo]

I dunno about just being able to curse someone from nowhere without any investment but experience, but the example ideas seem very cool. Even if people don't desire this, the evil web idea being induced by something else would be amazing.

[Tarnished_Tulip]

Poor upcoming mayor..

[Incorrigible]

This is a really cool idea! I'm of the same mind that it should be a bit hard to do or take a very specific reagent and spellcraft to accomplish, lest it be overdone and lose its novelty, but on the whole it's a neat flavor thing that doesn't seem too powerful.

[Random_White_Guy]

Two words: Blood Magic.

Be it voodoo dolls, be it bloodmagic, be it anything.

If your'e going to curse someone form far away at an alter it should be a requirement that you have a vial of their blood. With the new blood tools readily available it would add some depth to it and make blood magic actually feared rather than just RP feared.

[Drakill Tannan]

I don't think needing blood is a good idea. If so a person would always know who is cursing them, and the objective is that they don't. Even if they don't know who, the moment their blood is drained they know the curse is incoming.

If the objective is to make a paladin's friend look evil when he is not, once the blood is drawn both the friend and the paladin will know there is a curse incoming, thus when the evil web curse is cast on the friend, the paldin will ignore it, knowing it is a fake result caused by a curse.

If the objective is to make hunter X become hunted by the druids, and mr. X's blood is stolen, IC it's a matter of time before he knows the reason animals attack him are due to a curse. Then, there is no conflict, because IC he can say it to the druids or whatever. It defeats the purpose.

Furthermore this also means that to curse someone you need to hire a good. Else it's imposible: they will know who is cursing who.

So no, i do not think needing blood, or any catalist that requires something from the PC is required.

In fact, i'm thinking it would be best if some curses, particulary the  withering and evil web ones would not affect any stat, so that they  would go completly unoticed mechanically, so PCs don't metagame a remove  curse ASAP. Other curses such as the plague one would be very evident,  and could be used to scare the PC.

However....

I do think there should be a restriction, so that you can only curse PCs you know and who know you. I'm thinking of a Player-tooled ability that allows you to "lock" to a target, this takes a few minutes and you must be close. Theere is no visual effect, so unless the target succeds in an invisible throw, he won't notice. This way you cannot just curse anyone, people have a clue who the cursing-witch is, but they may not see the curse comming

Another thought could be that when you black-out a PC, they drop a "XXXX's lock of hair" item wich disapears as soon as they wake up. That way you can disguise an incoming curse with a muging. Although this could work if you could simply drain the PCs blood when they are unconcious and didn't notice. I imagine this would make a nice black market of player's blood vials, but would be too hard to mess with somone who is only politically active and remains in town.

Perhaps the blood can be used to increse the power of the curse instead, using the method above so players might not see the curse incoming, thinking they were just mugged? If you want blood to be feared, make curses castable with blood of a PC be serious business, something like:

Blood Grip
Using a vial of blood, the curser makes the cursed PC take 1d4 point of damage per turn when being far away from "X" area, or when entering "X" area untill remove curse is cast.

I think this offers potential to have unwilling "Servants" or send "Warings". As well as keeping untrustworthy asosiates in line. It might be OP, although if you take into account this allows a PC to have a good alternative to FD (after all, once you subdue the PC, you might as well kill it).

[Egon the Monkey]

I know Bestow Curse is Transmutation, but most of the things that look like "curses" are Enchantment. Blindness, confusion, commands, Doom. If Cursing at a distance was an ability that was seen as a sort of Enchanter version of Scrying i think it could be a way to breathe interest into a school that sees relatively little use in showing off outside of Uber DC Hold Spells, especially with the new undead filled setting.

I like the idea of XP to cast it rather than blood, unless there was a scripted way to bleed an Unconscious Body. Otherwise it's hard to disguise an attempt to nab blood as a mugging. Although, I could see a way to balance it. If you have a PC's blood you can sacrifice it at an altar to mess with them, applying a curse with no XP penalty or save. Otherwise you sacrifice your own blood (losing XP if it succeeds by them failing a Will save, suffering minor CON drain whatever to prevent spamming). This would make using blood advantageous, but without it you could still curse someone at personal cost. A PC with a Voodoo Doll can do this anywhere, the Doll being similar to a Portable Scrying Focus for malicious purposes.

[Paha]

In my opinion there is no easy way to just yank out a crystal ball and actually curse a random name.

It's quite a grave thing to do, not just simple magic. Even scryers shouldn't be scrying random names of people they've never met, in general that in terms of RP would be rather difficult if not even impossible without some form of connection or way to actually reach that person.

In my opinion I don't simply understand how one picks a random name from player list (naturally they usually have some name in mind) and just spits out a curse/scry out there on them. Without the list or names over their head, how can their characters even be sure of the targets real name.

A connection between action and target is a must have component. One way or another.

[Kinslayer988]

Remember that it is not just transmuted wizards that can use these but sorcerors and bards as well. A shamanistic sorceror that uses witchcraft/voodoo hexes and curses, a Dwarven storyteller that will put grudges upon his foes etc.

Curse of Obesity:
You become obese and lose some charisma and dexterity. Would make the player have fat phenotype I'd possible until removal.

Gorm's Grudge:
The cursed gain -2 AC against dwarves as well as fire vulnerability

Spiritual Hex:
Your spirit becomes warped by an ancient curse and cannot find rest until removal.

[Porkolt]

There should be a high cost involved with cursing.
 
Otherwise, transmuters are going to wonton curse everyone who scuffs their boots. All hell would break loose.

[THEDiamondJ]

I agree with Porkolt.  Otherwise, might as well have a spell called "instadeath"  and ability to cast it while not online.