Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft
An ancient warning echoes in a tomb robber's mind. A lost treasure bears a magical affliction, assuring it remains lost. A dying priest's last breath carries a portent of doom. Curses come in myriad forms, presaging terrifying tales and distinctive dooms.
This section provides guidance for creating dramatic curses, either distinct from or as part of curses resulting from magic, monsters' actions, or other effects. These curses provide ominously poetic responses to fateful choices and afflictions that last until they're alleviated by specific remedies. Spells at the characters' disposal might relieve these curses' effects temporarily but can't lift them completely. The price must be paid.
Curses aren't something to throw around lightly. They should be dramatically appropriate responses to meaningful choices characters make. If every goblin or bandit coughs out a dying curse, the narrative impact fades. There should always be a way to avoid a curse, and a curse's effects should clearly arise from wrongdoing. Here are some examples of actions that warrant a curse:
- Defiling a sealed tomb
- Desecrating a temple
- Slaying a villain who is backed by a powerful entity such as a demon lord or a deity
- Murdering or grievously harming an innocent
- Stealing a treasure that is meaningful to an entire culture
In cases where the curse arises from a creature, such as a dying villain's last breath, the pronouncement of the curse is clear. When there is no wronged party present to lay the curse directly, the curse should be obvious in some way, such as a warning of dire consequences carved into the wall of an ancient crypt or relayed by a spell such as Magic Mouth.
Most curses have three distinct components: pronouncement, burden, and resolution. Whatever form these take, at least one of them, especially the burden or resolution, should have an ironic connection to the action that triggered the curse.
The first component of a curse is the pronouncement, which amounts to a threat. It promises suffering to those who dare to perform or have already performed a specific offensive act. The pronouncement can be a standing warning against taking some action, or it could be a declaration in the moment. The following examples suggest just a few possible pronouncements:
- A widely spread story explaining that a particular action tempts terrible punishment
- A warning spoken on the cusp of a deadly battle, assuring dire consequences for the victorious
- A poem, rhyme, or song foretelling doom
- A carved epitaph on a gravestone discouraging robbers
- The last words of a dying person—either a powerful villain or a wrongly slain innocent
- Swearing a vow to refrain from or undertake some action on pain of great suffering
A curse's burden is the effect that causes hardship and suffering to the curse's victim. A burden is often reflective of what caused the curse in the first place, twisting the transgressor's action against them. The burden takes effect immediately, along with a vague sense of foreboding—such as a chill down the spine or a wave of nausea. The victim might not notice the curse's effect until a situation arises to make it obvious. For example, a character cursed with clumsiness that manifests as [disadvantage](/Game_Rules_Reference/The_Basics/Advantage_Disadvantage) on [Dexterity](/Game_Rules_Reference/The_Basics/Ability_Scores/Dexterity) Tests might not notice anything until they make such a Test. Burdens can take many forms, such as the following:
- The victim has disadvantage on Attack Rolls, Ability Checks, Saving Throws, or some combination of the three. This can be tied to a single Ability Score or applied generally.
- The victim can't communicate using language, whether through speaking, sign language, writing, telepathy, or any other means.
- The victim gains 3 levels of Exhaustion that can't be removed while the curse endures.
- When the victim finishes a Long Rest, they must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution Saving Throw, or their hit point maximum is reduced by 1d10. If this reduces their hit point maximum to 0, the victim dies, and their body crumbles to dust.
- When the victim takes damage, they take an extra 1d10 necrotic damage. This effect can't happen again until the start of the victim's next turn.
- The victim gains a Dark Gift appropriate to the circumstances surrounding the curse.
- The victim gains vulnerability to one damage type.
- The victim's Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution score is reduced to 3, and the victim can't be raised from the dead while the curse lasts.
- A monster hunts the victim relentlessly. Even if the monster dies, it rises again or a new one takes its place 24 hours later.
Sometimes a curse can be ended by making restitution to a wronged party (or their closest kin in the case of a death) or reparation if something was stolen or destroyed. The resolution might be declared as part of the pronouncement, or it may be left to those who suffer the curse to make amends on their own. Research and divination can offer clues or even reveal the exact steps needed to resolve the curse.
While more general curses can lifted by a Remove Curse spell, more specific or dramatic curses can't be permanently lifted through spells. Magic can offer temporary respite, though. A Remove Curse spell cast on the victim of such a curse suppresses the burden for 1 hour. A Greater Restoration spell suppresses the burden until the victim finishes a Long Rest. Death usually ends a curse, but the curse returns in full force if the cursed character returns to life without resolving the curse.
Persistent Curses. When a curse is resolved, its effects usually end immediately. Some more insidious curses might linger beyond the resolution but can then be removed by a Remove Curse spell or similar magic if the victim succeeds on a DC 15 Charisma Saving Throw when the spell is cast. If the save fails, it can be repeated after a specific interval passes, usually 1 month, with the curse ending on a successful save. Adjust the DC of a particularly weak curse to 10 or that of a stronger one to 20.
Here are some examples of curse resolutions:
- Protecting a loved one dear to the person who laid the curse from some dire threat
- Returning every piece of a stolen treasure hoard, down to the last copper coin, to the place where it once rested
- Slaying the head of a dynasty that has long held power in the region
- Accomplishing a seemingly impossible task, such as raising a castle above the clouds or making the sun cross the sky in a different direction
Provided here are several example curses and the circumstances surrounding them. Change the details of any of these examples to customize them to your adventures.
This curse protects the resting place of a long-dead ruler and punishes any who disturb the ruler's remains or plunder the treasures.
Pronouncement. Carved into the stone of the crypt door are the words "Relentless death follows those who disturb the sovereign's rest."
Burden. Each character that gains the curse is hunted by a wraith that appears at sunset and vanishes at dawn, pursuing the single-minded goal of slaying the cursed individual. The wraith manifests in an unoccupied space within 30 feet of its victim. Destroying the wraith grants a temporary reprieve; it doesn't reform for 10 days. You can scale this curse for lower- and higher-level characters by choosing another kind of creature.
Resolution. The cursed character sets right what they disturbed; stolen treasure must be returned, and if the ruler's body was disturbed, it must be reinterred with proper observances.
A character breaks a solemn vow. The consequences stem from the powers that observed the oath's swearing.
Pronouncement. Whatever vow the character made, it came with an implied warning that guilt and restlessness would beset anyone who broke the oath.
Burden. The character is plagued by restless sleep and recurring nightmares featuring those the character swore to protect. The character gains 3 levels of Exhaustion that can't be removed until the curse ends.
Resolution. The curse lasts until the character upholds the broken oath. That might require the character to wait until the circumstances arise again or, more questionably, to engineer the circumstances.
A deity's favored servant lies dying and calls down divine wrath.
Pronouncement. The dying creature declares to the killer, "May your mind grow dim in battle until the sun sets forever."
Burden. The character has disadvantage on attack rolls brought on by brief, sporadic bouts of confusion.
Resolution. To lift the curse, the character must cause a symbolic setting of the sun or an empowering of the night to appease the slain creature's deity. The character might prevent a festival dedicated to a sun god or perform a ritual that shrouds an entire settlement in magical night for 24 hours, thus ending the curse.
The tragic situation came to pass where a character killed an undeserving person, who laid a vengeful curse in punishment.
Pronouncement. The dying victim spits final words: "You shall spill innocent blood until laid low by the moon's bite!"
Burden. The character is cursed with loup garou lycanthropy.
Resolution. This curse can't be broken until the character is reduced to 0 hit points by a silvered weapon. If the character survives, the curse can be broken as described in the "Loup Garou Lycanthropy" section of chapter 5. Treat the character as a werewolf whose loup garou progenitor has been killed.