Magic Items
The new season of Hero Club, Here There Be Monsters, which is an imaginative high-seas romp with anthropomorphic races and some hilarious characters, has got me thinking about cursed treasure. It’s a staple of buccaneering adventures — even Hero Club’s new season seems to have some evil treasure at the center of its plot — so I thought it’d be fun to experiment with some cursed coins for your party’s next treasure chest.
After all, sometimes treasure chests are buried for a reason — nobody should touch these coins.
Gold Coin of Greed
Wondrous item, uncommon
Whenever you spend this coin, it magically returns to you 1 hour later.
Curse. This coin is cursed; picking it up extends its curse to you. Whenever you spend the coin, lose it, or discard it, the coin not only returns to you, but it multiplies when it does so, first becoming two coins, then four, etc. Moreover, whenever you spend gold pieces, the coin magically replaces one of the coins spent, ensuring that its number doubles.
Soon, the number of mass of coins on your person can slow or crush you. If the coins double 11 times, your speed is halved. If they double 12 times, you have disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks, and if they double 13 times, you are crushed to death under their weight.
Breaking the curse with the remove curse spell or similar magic causes all duplicates of the coin to vanish and allows you to safely discard the coin.
Silver Coin of Wrath
Wondrous item, uncommon (requires attunement)
Whenever you take damage while attuned to this ever-bleeding silver piece, you deal an additional 1d6 damage the next time you deal damage before the end of your next turn.
Curse. This coin is cursed; attuning to it extends its curse to you. You remain attuned to the coin until targeted by a remove curse spell or similar magic. While cursed, you take an additional 1d6 damage whenever you take damage.
Copper Coin of Cowardice
Wondrous item, rare
While in possession of this coin, attacks of opportunity made against you have disadvantage.
Curse. This coin is cursed; picking it up extends its curse to you. While cursed, you have disadvantage on saving throws you make against being frightened or intimidated. Moreover, once frightened by a spell or effect, you automatically fail any saving throw you make to end the condition early. This curse can be ended by the remove curse spell or similar magic.
Electrum Coin of Envy
Wondrous item, rare (requires attunement)
While you are attuned to this coin, you can use your action to attempt to charm a humanoid you can see within 15 feet, which must make a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or be charmed by you for 1 minute. This effect ends early if you charm another creature using it or if you directly harm the charmed creature. Additionally, your clothes and possessions always appear to others as being in top quality and condition.
Curse. This coin is cursed; attuning to it extends its curse to you. You can only break attunement to this coin with the remove curse spell or similar magic. The goodwill secured by this coin is transient; those charmed by this coin will secretly harbor a resentment for you, and feel compelled to act in a manner contrary to your best interests once you are no longer in sight.
Platinum Coin of Immortality
Wondrous item, very rare (requires attunement)
Each day at dawn while attuned to this coin, your hit point maximum increases by 1.
Curse. This coin is cursed; attuning to it extends its curse to you. You can only break attunement to this coin with the remove curse spell or similar magic.
The health granted by this cursed coin is transient, for the coin always takes more than it gets. When you break attunement to the coin, the improvement to your hit point maximum vanishes, and your maximum instead decreases by the amount it was previously increased. This hit point reduction can’t be remedied by any means short of a wish spell. Furthermore, if the coin ever increases your hit point maximum to double what it would be normally, or if the coin reduces your hit point maximum to 0, you die and are reanimated as a skeleton the following midnight.
Wooden Coin of Lies
Wondrous item, very rare (requires attunement)
While attuned to this coin, you are constantly under the effect of the glibness spell.
Curse. This coin is cursed; attuning to it extends its curse to you. You can only break attunement to the coin with the remove curse spell or similar magic. While attuned to the coin, you can’t deliberately speak the truth. You can be evasive in your wording, lie by omission, or speak half-truths, as long as your words remain within the boundaries of deception.
