Curses
Curses are different from other rituals and have effects that are targeted to impact a specific creature of your choosing, regardless as to whether the creature is present for the casting of the curse or not. Curses are a more personal type of magic than basic rituals or magical powers, and as such have a number of additional factors that affect their strength.
By their nature, Curses are strong, complex workings of magic. They have large costs (usually in Karma), require very specific components, and can be affected by a number of factors. Likewise, the effects of a curse can be quite detrimental to those without protection against it.
Effects of a Curse
The effects of a curse are broken into four different severity levels: Mild, Lesser, Moderate and Greater. Naturally, as the severity increases, the effects grow stronger and last longer.
Factors that Affect Curses
The closer a caster is to the victim (both literally and figuratively) the stronger a curse will be. The strength of a curse is dependent on its Intensity, which is adjusted by a number of factors. These factors include what components the caster may have for the casting, their familiarity with the victim, and their distance from the victim at the time of the casting.
Components
Components are physical objects of the victim's that assist in the casting of the curse. While they are not required, obtaining a component will increase the curse's efficacy. If the caster has multiple components of a victim's, the component of the highest value (i.e. greatest bonus or lowest penalty) is used. The caster does not gain a cumulative adjustment for having multiple components, though bonuses and penalties from components will stack with those granted by other factors.
| Component | Intensity Adjustment |
|---|---|
| Flesh, Teeth or Bone of Victim | +6 |
| Blood of Victim | +4 |
| Treasured Personal Possession of Victim (with high emotional value) | +4 |
| Hair, Fingernails, Tears (or other component that is shed, i.e. Skin) of Victim | +2 |
| A Favorite Possession of Victim (with moderate emotional value) | +2 |
| Mundane Possession or Tool of Victim (with no emotional significance) | 0 |
| Urine, Excrement or Sweat | 0 |
| Effigy in the likeness of the person (statue, painting, doll, etc) | -4 |
| None | -6 |
Familiarity Factor
How well the Caster knows the Victim affects the strength of a curse as well. In fact, if a caster does not at least know the common name of a Victim and have a detailed description of them, the curse will automatically fail, not being able to properly identify the victim.
| Familiarity | Intensity Adjustment |
|---|---|
| Truename of Victim | +6 |
| Intimate Familiarity with Victim (i.e. close family, lifelong friends, etc) | +4 |
| Very Familiar with Victim (i.e. friends, business partners, etc) | +2 |
| Acquainted or Somewhat Familiar with Victim | 0 |
| Met Victim once, but generally unfamiliar with them | -4 |
| Never met Victim, but have Detailed Description and the Victim's Common Name | -8 |
| Never met and Common Name only | Impossible |
Distance Factors
Distance factors are only applicable at the time of the actual casting of the curse, and are not affected by the location of ritual preparation.
| Distance | Intensity Adjustment |
|---|---|
| Victim present for casting of the ritual and the curse performed at the private residence of the Victim. | +8 |
| Victim present for casting of the ritual | +6 |
| Performed at the private resident of the Victim, while the Victim is present within the residence but not present for the casting of the ritual. | +4 |
| Victim is present within the same building, dungeon, castle or complex where the ritual is performed (or 10,000 sq. ft. area). | +2 |
| Victim is present within Town or City where the ritual is performed (1 sq. mile) | 0 |
| Victim is present within Kingdom where the ritual is performed (within 100 sq. miles) | -6 |
| Victim is present within Region where the ritual is performed (within 1000 sq. miles) | -12 |
| Victim is distant (greater than 1000 miles), but on the same plane where the ritual is performed. | -18 |
| Victim is on a different plane from where the ritual is performed. | -24 |
Landscape Factors
Certain aspects of the landscape can affect the strength of a curse. Unlike other factors, landscape factors are cumulative, with each landscape factor between the Victim and the Caster causing a cumulative penalty.
| Landscape Feature | Intensity Adjustment |
|---|---|
| Victim is Across a Body of Water (River, Lake, Ocean, etc from Caster) | -2 |
| Victim is on the other side of a Mountain Range from Caster | -2 |
| Victim is Underground while the Caster is Above Ground, or vise versa | -2 |
Other Factors
Synergy Bonuses
Some curses will have a Synergy Bonus, where a Victim that is affected by another Curse or similar effect becomes more susceptible to a specific curse, therefore granting a bonus to the Intensity of the curse. These are unique to each curse and are written explicitly in the curse description.
Caster and Victim Considerations
Some curses will have Caster and/or Victim Considerations which will affect the Intensity of the curse. These are unique to each curse and are written explicitly in the curse description.
Determining the Intensity of a Curse
All curses have a base Intensity given in the description of the curse (usually 1d6 + Ritual Caster Rank). When you complete the casting of the curse, roll the check and apply any modifiers based on Components, Familiarity, Distance and Landscape. If there are any Caster or Victim considerations, they are also applied at this time. The result of the check determines the final Intensity of the curse. The curse is then applied to the victim with a severity based on the final intensity. The severity determines the final effects of the curse.
If the final Intensity is 0 or less, then the curse fails to take hold and the ritual fails.
Curses versus Wards
If the victim of a curse has some sort of ward present upon them, the ward will impose a penalty on the intensity roll, which affects the severity of the curse. Additionally, some wards (or magic items) may make the victim immune to a specific curse or group of curses, in which case the curse automatically fails.
Curse Potency vs Intensity
Note that the intensity (and severity) of the curse has no effect on the potency of the curse. A particular curse may only have a minor effect, but could still be very potent (and difficult to remove).