Cursed Items
Some magic items affect the character using them in a negative way, either by design or by accident. The girdle of femininity/masculinity is an example of a magic item designed to have an undesired effect on the character using it. Cursed weapons and armor often have numerical penalties instead of bonuses, making them less effective than a non-magical item of the same type.
Read more about this topic: Magic Item (Dungeons & Dragons)
Famous quotes containing the words cursed and/or items:
“I’ve been cursed for delving into the mysteries of life. Perhaps death is sacred, and I’ve profaned it. Oh, what a wonderful vision it was. I dreamed of being the first to give to the world the secret that God is so jealous of, the formula for life. Think of the power, to create a man. And I did, I did it, I created a man. And who knows, in time I could have trained him to do my will. I could have bred a race, I might even have found the secret of eternal life.”
—William Hurlbut (1883–?)
“In the midst of this chopping sea of civilized life, such are the clouds and storms and quicksands and thousand-and-one items to be allowed for, that a man has to live, if he would not founder and go to the bottom and not make his port at all, by dead reckoning, and he must be a great calculator indeed who succeeds.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)