20 Misfortunes (3.5e Other)

Author: Ganteka Future (talk) Date Created: 31 May 2008 Status: 30 March 2015: Version 2.1 Editing: Clarity edits only please

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The 20 Misfortunes Reloaded

Here are 20 curse-like effects. They can be removed with remove curse, break enchantment or similar effects and powers. Dispelling instead suppresses the effect for the number of hours the dispel check result exceeds the save DC. These misfortunes are otherwise permanent if the save to resist is failed. Some misfortunes have secondary saves to prevent an instance of the misfortune's effects upon the target. Saving against an instance of the misfortune does not remove it, but often delays it from happening again for a while. Some misfortunes are designed to be "put up with" as traits, while others are designed to be removed at the nearest convenience. As DM, you may want to simply pick which ones you use rather than rolling for them randomly.

Save DCs are calculated as per their in-game usage.

Roll a d20:

Table: 20 Misfortunes

#	Misfortune	Save	Description
1	Swirling Vision	Fort	Your vision swirls with distortion that's plain to see right on your eyes. Everything you see is treated as though it were under the effects of blur, granting concealment (20% miss chance).
2	Echoes Echoes	Fort	Your hearing is just awful. You hear phantom sounds and everything echoes terribly. Whenever making a Listen check, roll 2 d20s and take the worse result.
3	Dumb Tongue	Will	You lose the ability to speak intelligibly. Anytime you talk, all that comes out is gibberish and nonsense.
4	Color Incorrection	Fort	Your skin, hair, eyes and current possessions all change color, typically to garish hues and unnatural tones.
5	Gnarly Hands	Fort	Your hands (or grasping limbs) become arthritic and gnarled. You suffer a −2 penalty on attack rolls, a −4 penalty on skill checks involving the use of the hands and a 20% spell failure chance for any spell with somatic components.
6	Eyes Be Bleedin'	Fort	Your eyes bleed once every 1d6 hours, causing blindness for 1d6 rounds unless you save. You are otherwise unhurt, but blood gets all over you.
7	Spoil The Good-Times Luck	Will	You just can't seem to muster the success of other's good fortune. Any d20 roll resulting in a natural 20 is instead counted as if it were a 1 (but not a natural 1).
8	Balder or Shagger	Fort	Roll 1d2: On a 1, your natural hair (such as that on your head and facial hair) grows two feet longer and your body grows a covering of thick, shaggy fur, like a sasquatch. If you try to trim it, it just grows back instantly and any hair trimmed off just vanishes. On the plus side, it cures male pattern baldness and at least your palms aren't hairy. On a 2, your hair falls out (even eyelashes) and never grows back, leaving you completely hairless. Any form you assume is also bald. Additionally, any wig you don instantly disintegrates.
9	Ass Ears	Fort	Your ears (or perhaps your whole face if your DM wants to go there) distort into those of some animal which would cause embarrassment to you. If you don't have external ears, you gain a pair in the most appropriate location. This embarrassing feature is difficult to hide and causes you to suffer a −4 penalty on Disguise skill checks as well as a −4 penalty on Charisma-based skill checks. This is considered a polymorph effect.
10	Hot Thoughts	Will	You occasionally burst into flames because you can't stop thinking about hot things. Once every 24 hours (roll 2d12 to determine when) or when confronted with obviously hot things, you must make a save or burst into flames. You are initially dealt 2d6 fire damage and 1d6 fire damage each round until you extinguish yourself. Catching on fire from this or saving against it makes you immune to your hot thoughts for 8 hours.
11	Cankerskin	Fort	You break out in loads of different skin problems (such as boils, warts, zits, pustules, blisters, carbuncles and big hairy moles), dealing you 1d6 Constitution damage that cannot be restored until this misfortune is lifted.
12	The Dolls	Will	When the curse hit, you couldn't help but think about dolls. You don't know why, but there it was in your head. Now, dolls just seem to show up around you, though you never see them move, and they show up in really strange places. They tend to vanish when not observed. They're usually Tiny (about a foot tall), but occasionally they might be a bit bigger or even your size. They usually look innocent enough, but some are strange, cracked, broken, worn or otherwise just unsettling or "off". If ever animated by magic, they're friendly toward you (regardless of the caster's commands) by default and won't attack, though if you attack, the caster's commands override this.
13	Horrible Body Odor	Fort	You suffer from sweaty, nasty odor that cannot be washed off or covered up. You're easier to track by scent (giving any tracker a +4 bonus to his check). You additionally suffer a −4 penalty on all Diplomacy, Gather Information, Handle Animal and Hide skill checks. Shopkeepers are unlikely to buy used gear from you, thinking it is fouled.
14	Chatty Decor	Will	Furniture is able to speak to you when you're within 60 feet of it, though it doesn't always do so, and only you are able to hear it. It simply isn't very smart and is often redundant and repetitive when it answers. You're able to communicate back with it (this sounds like gibberish to anyone else), but it simply isn't generally helpful to even bother. For whatever reason, chairs and beds are the least stupid and most helpful.
15	Loud Mouth	Will	You're unable to not be loud. You take a −4 penalty on Perform skill checks involving vocalization, Diplomacy, Handle Animal, and a −10 penalty on Move Silently and Hide skill checks.
16	Extra Gross Head	Fort	A second, weird little head grows next to your regular head. The second head has its own personality and acts in opposition to your behavior, habits, and alignment. It generally tries to get you into trouble and causes a −20 penalty to Move Silently, Handle Animal, Disguise, and Diplomacy skill checks. It can be removed (chopped off), dealing 1d6 damage to you as well as 1d6 points of temporary Constitution damage. A successful Heal check (at the same DC as the save) performed at the nasty head's removal halves any damage as a result. If removed, the second head regrows in 2d6+6 days.
17	Distracting Voices	Will	You hear voices in your head, and they don't shut up. Mostly, they just carry on with off-topic conversation, though occasionally they sing or ask you strange questions. You take a −10 penalty to Listen checks and suffer a spell failure percent of 20% when casting or activating a spell with verbal components, and this applies every round for spells with a duration of "concentration".
18	Moon Cusser	Will	Every night (at sunset) you must make a save or involuntarily transform into some manner of either a hybrid were-beast, alternate race form, alternate sex, alternate size, or other mild transformation of the DM's choice. The form is the same every time and is otherwise treated as an involuntary alternate form. Your gear changes shape to suit your new form (it may also change in style and general appearance but not function). While in this form, you are particularly difficult to recognize as yourself, granting you a +4 bonus on Disguise checks (and treating you by default as if you had taken 10) to disguise yourself as someone else. This form lasts until sunrise when you change back. This is considered a polymorph effect.
19	Massive Weight Gain	Fort	You quickly double in weight. This weight counts against your carrying capacity. Your worn gear stretches to accommodate your new girth. This weight cannot be lost naturally, but you can adjust to it. For every week spent while under this misfortune, you are allowed another save to treat the weight as your own body weight rather than carried weight at a cumulative −1 to the DC.
20	Inconvenient Reincarnation Syndrome	Fort	You've got IRS, sorry to say. Once every 2d6+6 days, your race changes as though you had just been reincarnated. The DM gets to pick the basic physical characteristics of your new form (including eye color, hair color, skin color, and sex as per typical for the race). Your gear at least changes to fit your new form, so it's not all bad. If this misfortune is removed, you may return to your normal form or keep your current form.

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