Goal: Make curses more interesting, especially if one of these death curses applies.
Rational: Casters of curses now have to decide between making the curse harder to remove with remove curse and making it harder to remove by allowing fewer end conditions for the curse, which I feel gives an interesting choice. The caster casting remove curse has an interesting choice in determining whether to try to force the removal of the curse, or try to fulfill one of the curse removal conditions.
Why use this list? Because remove curse on it's own is boring. My untested take on this: Someone casting a curse has an ending condition applied at random. They can choose to have more than one ending condition. When any ending condition of a curse is satisfied, the curse is lifted. More conditions makes it harder to remove the curse with a remove curse spell.
Curses that have at least one of these end conditions should not be automatically cured by simply casting remove curse. Instead, have the caster roll a d20 and add their level: if the result is 20 or greater, the caster becomes aware of the total number of condition(s) required to end the curse, and the details of 1d3 of them that the caster did not already know. Again, only one condition needs to be satisfied to remove the curse.
The caster of remove curse then has the option (with that same casting) to try to force removal of the curse. This requires another similar roll, with a difficulty of 15 +5 for each condition the curse has for removal, +5 if the person casting remove curse is trying to remove a curse on themselves. If the caster succeeds, the curse is removed. If the caster fails to force the removal of the curse and rolls a natural one, the caster of remove curse becomes afflicted by an exact copy of the curse including ending condition(s). If the caster is the individual cursed, they instead take a -2 to their Constitution score. The caster can maintain the spell with concentration while discussing with others which choice to make.
The +5 for trying to remove a curse on yourself is because self-treatment is awkward. Analogies: first aid or medical treatment on yourself, from splinting a break to doing heimlich on yourself, to self-care when running a fever or frostbite. It can be done, but it's way easier with unaffected help.
TL;DR: Every curse should have a non-magical condition that can be met to break the curse. For instance, Sleeping Beauty gets woken up by her true love's kiss (at least in the Disney version). They should be improbable, but not implausible. Reboot of this attempt, completed on Reddit here.
100 Ways to End a Curse
| # | Entry Text | Credit |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | You must right the wrong that caused you to be cursed in the first place. | Foxymemes |
| 2 | You must make an appeal for your case in a court where the deity of magic serves as the judge, executioner and a member of the jury. If you and your court approved lawyer win, the deity of magic will lift your curse or the caster of it will be required to do so under the pentality of losing their powers if they refuse to comply. Unfortunately, Faerie lawyers are not cheap to hire or easy to come by. | Foxymemes |
| 3 | Sacrifice a living being that shares the same blood as you (A relative? A leech after it has sucked your blood?). | Phenolphtal |
| 4 | Don't sleep or rest for a whole week. | Phenolphtal | "
| 5 | Eat the heart of a strong and dangerous creature. | Phenolphtal | "
| 6 | Find someone that willingly accepts the curse for you. | Phenolphtal | "
| 7 | Kill the caster of the curse. | Phenolphtal | "
| 8 | Find and live near a magical obelisk for three days. | Phenolphtal | "
| 9 | Remain fully submerged in water for a hour. No magic spell or item is allowed to help them survive. (Simple solution is to use a reed or similar to breath through) | GloomyEngine | "
| 10 | Plant 100 trees (potentially the curse is for damaging nature in some way) | GloomyEngine | "
| 11 | Kiss a certain frog / toad. (Frog has had ""Awakened"" cast on it and really doesn't want a kiss, thank you Very much!) | GloomyEngine | "
| 12 | The caster of the curse is actually under their own curse which means they can't die, kill themselves or ask for assistance dying. | GloomyEngine |
| 13 | They have cast the curse on the player in order to anger them into killing the caster, thus releasing both parties from their curses. | GloomyEngine |
| 14 | PC must eat, by their self, an entire gigantic melon. It could be a delicious though uncomfortable huge portion or it could even be bitter and disgusting if you want to challenge the eater with even more saving rolls they'd have to make in order to not be sickened. | feralrapist |
| 15 | PC must slay a certain number of a certain local monster, then cast their remains into a certain ceremonial fire. | feralrapist |
| 16 | PC must sacrifice their best piece of equipment at the altar of the god of the forge. | feralrapist |
| 17 | PC must climb that rope we all had to climb in gym class and ring the bell at the top. | feralrapist |
| 18 | Create a potion from a specific part of a difficult to find plant. | TheDirtyDeal |
| 19 | Wash yourself in a specific river x number of times. | TheDirtyDeal | "
| 20 | Give your most valued possession to someone who needs it more (Can potentially include the BBEG for extra drama). | TheDirtyDeal | "
| 21 | Be buried underground in a coffin for x amount of time. | TheDirtyDeal | "
| 22 | Stay absolutely silent for an entire day. If the vocal chords are engaged in any way, the attempt fails. Communication can still be done through writing or signing. | TheDirtyDeal | "
| 23 | Get Married. | RSkyD | "
| 24 | Be Remembered by someone who has forgotten you. | RSkyD | "
| 25 | Leave a dish of milk by your head every night before bed. | RSkyD |
| 26 | Help a fae (the fae would then break the curse, not a non magical condition unless the curse was put into place by a fae). | RSkyD |
| 27 | Have their lineage be recognized. | RSkyD |
| 28 | Donate X amount of money to a charity the caster of the curse would approve of. | RSkyD |
| 29 | Learn to be a better person (or other character growth. Like becoming less shy or more reserved). | RSkyD |
| 30 | [Drink nothing for a month] | RSkyD |
| 31 | Drinking for the first time (could be mean to do if you have a character that doesn’t drink) | RSkyD |
| 32 | Find a lost item for the curse caster | RSkyD |
| 33 | Return a lost item to the curse caster | RSkyD |
| 34 | Go to X-location and put Y-object in Z-place | RSkyD |
| 35 | Do some kind of morally gray ritual that could be a rise of internal conflict for a character | RSkyD |
| 36 | Hunt a rare beast and eat part of it or dawn its hide | RSkyD |
| 37 | Kill/free the caster from this mortal plane | RSkyD |
| 38 | Break into a fortified location/caster lair and steal a personal object of theirs | RSkyD |
| 39 | Take a bath (good for stinky characters) | RSkyD |
| 40 | Take in no food or water for 1d8 days | RSkyD |
| 41 | Guess the caster's name (could be a fun side plot) | RSkyD |
| 42 | Finish counting all the grains of rice in a bowl/pile (consider ways the players might be able to cheat like dumping out the bowl means there is no rice to count and announcing that breaks the curse. Or flattening out the pile till there’s a small amount left) | RSkyD |
| 43 | Getting blackout drunk [for a week] | Complimentrix |
| 44 | Punch a bear (then survive) | AegisAngel |
| 45 | Solve a [particular] math problem | AegisAngel |
| 46 | Destroy a piece of jewelry | AegisAngel |
| 47 | Say your name backwards | AegisAngel |
| 48 | Drink a vial of goat blood | AegisAngel |
| 49 | Making an Ogre laugh | DoomVonDoom |
| 50 | Kiss of a mermaid (or mer-man). | PutridMeatPuppet |
| 51 | Spoken aloud, make a wish upon a falling star. | PutridMeatPuppet |
| 52 | Recitation of a certain lullaby | Yourlocalshitpost |
| 53 | Water from a hidden spring | PhioneDaddy |
| 54 | Ask politely. Didn't your mother ever teach you the value of "please" and "thank you"? | JonnyIHardlyBlewYe |
| 55 | “Copy” the curse and cast it on someone else, with or without their knowledge (a la The Ring) | brushin |
| 56 | Sign a contract with a very specific demon who is collecting interesting curses | brushin |
| 57 | True Polymorph for at least five days or until PC is knocked unconscious (or non-5e equivalent) | brushin |
| 58 | Get swallowed whole by a dragon who shares your name, and then get vomited back up. Careful; you might suffocate or get burned by the digestive acids. And watch the teeth! | I_m_different |
| 59 | Do not speak for 1d6+2 months. | Torvaak |
| 60 | Shave their body and head completely and scrub their flesh clean under cold running water every morning for 2d20+1 months. | Torvaak |
| 61 | Write a phrase or draw a picture in a hidden location once every day/week/opportunity till some condition has been met (**d6**): **1.** One hundred people have found at least one of your hidden drawings; **2.** You have drawn one thousand drawings; **3.** You are caught in the act of drawing one hundred times; **4.** A priest of secrets or knowledge confronts you about these drawings; **5.** The thing pointed to by your map or drawing is found (you've basically been seeding rumors to this thing all along without realizing it); **6.** Your phrases or drawings are collected into an epic work which inspires a sage or ruler to find you. | Torvaak |
| 62 | Sacrifice a limb permanently. | Torvaak |
| 63 | Remove your own eye/tongue. | Torvaak |
| 64 | Build a temple/shrine/monument. | Torvaak |
| 65 | Build or fund an orphanage. | Torvaak |
| 66 | Find a lost tome that contains the words to release them from it. | Torvaak |
| 67 | Find out the truth. | Torvaak |
| 68 | Make a demon cry. | EmpedoclesTheWizard |
| 69 | Be touched by a truly honest (**d6**) **1.** Human; **2.** Tiefling; **3.** Gnoll; **4.** Rakshasa; **5.** Aboleth; **6.** Pacifist | EmpedoclesTheWizard |
| 70 | Receive a freely given kiss from a chaste person. You know this, but are unable to communicate anything about the person who cursed you to anyone. | EmpedoclesTheWizard |
| 71 | Convert a greenskin (goblin, orc, troll, etc.) to the religion of the person who cast the curse on you. | EmpedoclesTheWizard |
| 72 | Meditate on why you were cursed for one thousand and one days, total. Eight hours straight per day (no other activity may be done on those days). | EmpedoclesTheWizard |
| 73 | See a particular lake or river frozen over in summer. | EmpedoclesTheWizard | "
| 74 | See a cow--any cow--jump over the moon. | EmpedoclesTheWizard | "
| 75 | See a pig--any pig--fly at least thirty feet above the ground for at least a minute. | EmpedoclesTheWizard |
| 76 | Serve the family of the person who cursed you for a year. They don't know why you want to do it, and you cannot tell them. If the caster of the curse tells them, it also ends the curse. | EmpedoclesTheWizard | "
| 77 | Say the true name of the person who cursed you, to that person. You know this, but are unable to communicate anything about the person who cursed you to anyone. | EmpedoclesTheWizard | "
| 78 | Turn the person who cursed you into a (**d6**): **1.** human; **2.** elf; **3.** orc; **4.** pegasus; **5.** hag; **6.** statue. | EmpedoclesTheWizard | "
| 79 | Live for 2d20+1 months as the lover of some (**d6**): **1.** goblin; **2.** otyugh; **3.** porpoise; **4.** medusa; **5.** gnome; **6.** Aasimar. You know this, but are unable to communicate anything about this to anyone. | EmpedoclesTheWizard | "
| 80 | Apologize to the being who cursed you, or their family, if they are dead. | EmpedoclesTheWizard |
| 81 | Have anyone take pity on you. | EmpedoclesTheWizard |
| 82 | Refrain from striking anyone for 2d20+1 months. | EmpedoclesTheWizard | "
| 83 | Sleep in a new place every night for 2d20+1 months. If you sleep in a place you've slept before in that period, you have to start over again. You know this, but are unable to communicate anything about this to anyone. | EmpedoclesTheWizard | " "
| 84 | Eat only raw meat for 1d6+2 months. You know this, but are unable to communicate anything about this to anyone. | EmpedoclesTheWizard | " "
| 85 | Do not bath or groom yourself for 2d20+1 months. You know this, but are unable to communicate anything about this to anyone. | EmpedoclesTheWizard | " "
| 86 | Keep your eyes closed for 1d6+2 months. You know this, but are unable to communicate anything about this to anyone. | EmpedoclesTheWizard | "
| 87 | Spend three nights, unclothed under a full moon. | Darehart |
| 88 | Remove all hair from your body. | Darehart |
| 89 | Sprinkle a vial of your tears over the final resting places of all of those you have slain. | Darehart |
| 90 | Destroy the weapon you last used to kill with. | Darehart |
| 91 | Drink poison to burn out the curse from the inside. | Darehart |
| 92 | Cut out your own tongue, and feed it to a pig. | EmpedoclesTheWizard |
| 93 | Enter the Realm of Leng, find the Dreamer, and Kill them, only then will I lift my Curse. Hahahhahah! | MaxSizeIs |
| 94 | Wash a Hag's Mouth out with Sanctified Soap. Killing them only makes the curse stronger. | MaxSizeIs | "
| 95 | Eat Hot Coals at every meal, for a week. | MaxSizeIs | "
| 96 | Obtain a Demon's Tears, get an Angel to forsake thier vows, and strangle the life out of an Innocent on Hallowed ground. | MaxSizeIs |
| 97 | Convince the king that a lie is the truth and then have him drink some of your blood. | I_m_different | "
| 98 | Hear a maid sing a song discussing a mortal besting a devil at a feat of skill. You know this, but are unable to communicate anything about this to anyone. | EmpedoclesTheWizard | "
| 99 | Dance for a night in the lands of the Fae (for 5e: could be either Feywild or Shadowfell, depending on type of Fae). | EmpedoclesTheWizard |
| 100 | Give room and lodging to three people in need asking for that. They can be three separate events, and it doesn't have to be "the next three people in need". | EmpedoclesTheWizard |
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