Curses Come With Dramatic Significance in 5E D&D with Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft

We’ve been delving deep into Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft since this fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons book released and at this point not only read it cover to cover but spent a great deal of time thinking about the content to share useful insights on all the material inside. The book devotes significant space to guidance for running horror adventures for 5E D&D and does a terrific job doing so for Dungeon Masters and the rest of the players in any given game. One of those areas of guidance deals with curses so let’s get into it.

Ravenloft to the rescue for emergent 5E D&D playstyle

Part of the guidance for the 5E D&D horror adventure experience falls under the Horror Toolkit section, which covers fear and stress, haunted traps and survivors. The final piece of this particular puzzle explores curses and since I’ve recently had a change of perspective on this aspect of 5E D&D gameplay I’m delighted to share this part of Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft.

The elephant in the room when it comes to curses in 5E D&D is the 3rd level remove curse spell, which requires no special material components and ends all curses affecting one creature or object, even going so far as to break attunement to an cursed object allowing for its removal. In many ways the term “curse” acts as a sort of keyword in 5E D&D indicating an effect the spell can remove.

Assuming the tagging system at D&D Beyond is applied correctly there’s 20 cursed magic items found in official sources, which are the most common curses players typically think of when it comes to curses. But there’s plenty of creatures capable of cursing characters as well. For example a rakshasa’s claw attacks curse a creature in such a way as to negate any benefit from resting — short or long! Likewise the mummy lord (one of my very favorite monsters) curses those struck by its Rotting Fist.

The issue many 5E D&D groups run into concerns the ease with which a curse is removed (i.e. the remove curse spell). One 3rd level spell slot and voila — no more curse. The spell goes so far as to remove all curses as a matter of fact, even when a curse afflicts a creature without them being aware of it.

Many voices in the 5E D&D space including Nerdarchy and other content creators have lamented this easy removal even going so far as to present new rules and special curses unable to be ended this way. Herein lies my change of heart in the sense I no longer see this as a fault of the system but rather a result of playstyle evolution due in large part to actual play games. But I digress. Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft offers a fresh take on curses with more impact, which can be exciting additions to any style of campaign whether a group of players follows the more traditional model of adventuring or the popular storytelling approach leaving the resource management part of the game behind.

Curses with dramatic significance

While I appreciate how Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft presents a new approach to employing curses in 5E D&D I can’t help thinking a different term for them would have been ideal. Sticking with calling them curses means there’ll be a caveat for players every time they encounter such a thing. At any rate the idea here is the invocation of a fateful curse through narrative means rather than mechanical.

In a lot of ways this section of the book deals primarily with providing direction for developing a story. The first step to crafting a dramatic curse involves deciding on what sorts of actions from the characters warrant the triggering of such a thing. The book gives a few examples such as undue harm to an innocent, stealing culturally significant treasure or even a dying villains last breath. In other words these are narrative origins for a curse rather than mechanical sources like the casting of the bestow curse spell, a cursed magic item or the effect of a monster’s attack.

Components of a curse

Similar to how Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft presents a step-by-step process for creating various aspects of horror adventures in the context of the eponymous campaign setting the book guides players through developing a curse. One of the things I appreciate about 5E D&D’s approach to this and so many other concepts is how the material goes beyond mechanics to inspire players’ creativity. I’ve come across quite a lot of sentiment desirous of more crunch as having greater practical use for players and I cannot disagree more. Teach a man to fish, and all that.

• Pronouncement. This stage of a curse deals with implication. Essentially this is a threat and gives characters an opportunity to recognize and hopefully avoid the curse. The looming threat of the curse might be foreshadowed through a cautionary tale characters hear during their adventures or any other sort of standing warning giving a heads up. If I may offer one piece of advice for DMs here: be careful to make a pronouncement off camera, so to speak. I don’t mean this in an absolutist way but for example if there’s a dire warning etched into the stone in a dungeon chamber and the characters miss that room only to inadvertently trigger the curse elsewhere it may come across unfairly. Exercise caution and try not to create an adversarial dynamic between players and DMs with gotcha moments. [NERDITOR’S NOTE: One of our Out of the Box encounters is called Standing Warning and definitely portends future dangers!]
• Burden. The nasty part! Once a character becomes cursed any number of dire consequences may befall them. Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft wisely points out how the victim of a curse may not realize the situation until the effects of the curse come into play. The book includes a variety of examples, which all incorporate mechanical qualities. This is crucial because if a curse only carries narrative drawbacks it does not truly threaten a 5E D&D character. Any particular game may be deeply immersive and reliant on storytelling but at the end of the day it’s still a game. Consider a story like Stephen King’s Thinner where a curse causes the victim to rapidly lose weight and waste away. This curse in a 5E D&D game without mechanical drawbacks loses its teeth. It’s also a reminder not to curse a character without warning from the Pronouncement phase or at the very least ample time and means to discover the affliction and do something about it. The way the book approaches curses in a lot of ways reflects the same approach to monsters in 5E D&D. Whereas creatures and their associated lore promote a more immersive combat pillar these curses lead to a more robust exploration pillar of play.
• Resolution. How does a character rid themselves of this kind of curse anyway? Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft touches on several possibilities. The first and easiest of these lies in the Pronouncement itself, which could include the means of lifting the curse. This section also addresses good ol’ remove curse, which the book advises can offer temporary suppression of the curse for one hour. This duration can certainly be adjusted depending on playstyle too. For some groups suppressing a curse for an hour might be superfluously long while another group may get more dramatic juice through suppressing it for only ten minutes. For greater impact and engagement though resolving a curse requires characters to perform a particular deed, which to me is the heart of the disconnect with the remove curse spell. Lamentations on the weaksauce nature of 5E D&D curses stems from here because of the low impact on play, which I’ll reiterate speaks more to the different playstyle emergent in this era of gaming. In other words a 5E D&D game with little to no resource management between long rests makes a standard curse little more than a hiccup but when it requires character action then it leads to more storytelling, which this style of play relies on.

Sample curses with dramatic circumstances

Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft presents four distinct curses to illustrate how they might emerge and what characters can do about them. They’re all very good because they’re succinct. Very little specifics are given and this makes them flexible for use in a variety of situations.

• Ancient Seal. This curse comes about when characters ignore an explicitly dire warning, in this case carved into a crypt door. Invoking the curse puts a wraith on the character’s tail in never-ending pursuit. Resolving the curse requires setting whatever was disturbed right. This one makes a great model to adjust for all sorts of scenarios. Simply changing up where the warning appears, the pursuing monster and the means to break the curse makes it infinitely adaptable.
• Broken Vow. This juicy curse befalls characters through their own behavior. Making a solemn vow can carry great import in a fantasy world of magic and the supernatural so breaking such a promise might bring about dire consequences indeed. My first thought naturally went to paladins and the tenets of their Sacred Oaths. Incorporating a curse like this hits the sweet spot for me where mechanics inform storytelling. This is also a situation where it is extremely important to be up front as a group because this goes beyond the standard player experience. Continuing with the paladin example there is absolutely nothing in the 5E D&D Player’s Handbook to suggest any consequence whatsoever by violating tenets. Discussing the possibility of doing so causing a curse to befall the character as well as more broadly looming over any broken vow is without a doubt something to go over during session zero. Otherwise a DM is just being a jerk.
• Final Breath. If I’m honest this example curse seems half-baked and rather strange. The premise is a dying creature (presumably an enemy cleric or creature with strong ties to a divine entity) curses their killer. The burden is quite drastic and the means of resolving the curse involve basically doing the bidding of whatever entity the slain servant called upon. Maybe it’s simply not my taste but overall it comes across awkwardly. A dramatic moment like this calls for something more interesting and this example drops the ball.
• Innocent Blood. In my experience with the D&D community on a large scale this curse would befall adventurers left and right. Essentially it comes across as an advertisement for the loup garou, one of the new monsters in Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft. Unlike the other three sample curses it’s incredibly specific for one thing, which does a poor job illustrating the flexibility of curses. To the original point though it befalls characters who kill indiscriminately, which seems like the default approach a tremendous number of 5E D&D players take.

*Featured image — In Har’Akir, an ancient curse awakens the Children of Ankhtepot. Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft illustrates how using survivors helps create horror experiences focused on the dread inherent to having limited resources and facing impending doom without forcing players to risk their favorite 5E D&D characters. [Image courtesy Wizards of the Coast]

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