Curses!

You could say some choice four letter words. There sure are a lot of them, and some of them are very versatile! You could make up your own or delve into historical language and dredge up any number of fantastic phrases. Perhaps this very blog is even cursed given the amount of our output lately, and our lack of meeting our general commitments to it. (To be fair, 2026 seems to have been a particularly cursed year for everyone... NSD included.) Or you could cast a spell. Bestow Curse in Dungeons &Dragons 5th edition could give different effects of your choosing, and is available as a third level spell to Bards and Clerics, and with Wizards starting at level five. And, of course, one could always come across a cursed item or two, but that isn’t what we’re talking about this time. Rahter, we’re bringing up Bestow Curse for yet another edition of Andy Being Super Cranky About Content Creators Intentionally Misusing Spells and Misinterpreting Rules. Yes, that means it is time for yet another edition of... Never Say Dice Ruins Your Memes! (Which is a fair bit punchier than "ABSCACCIMSAMR," if sounding a little less like what a cartoon wizard might shout when casting a spell of his own.) The kind of post where some "clever" player uses (ostensibly) established gaming rules in ways nobody ever intended them to be used, "outwitting" their hapless and patting themselves on the back for being "superior." (With the occasional example that goes the other way round.) Perhaps you feel cursed that this is coming up once again, but it's too late! You are already trapped into finishing this post! 

To paraphrase the "meme" we're looking at today in our own words, the Curse of the "Bestow Curse" Curse goes a little something like this: 

Player: I’m going to cast a spell. 
DM: Okay... but you didn’t take dispel magic or remove curse - you thought they were lame and that you didn’t want to waste spell slots. So just what are you going to do about that Curse the BBEG just bestowed on you? 
Player: I’m going to cast... Bestow Curse!
DM: Bestow Curse? You’re cursing him back? Sure, go ahead, but I don’t see how that will help... 
Player: I’m cursing myself!
DM: Durrrr…what? You curse self? Why you do?
Player: I’m going to use it to break his curse. 
DM: Not how that works. 
Player: Sure it is!
DM: Huh? 
Player: Combining spell effects. Because we cast at the same level, my curse overrides his curse! 
DM: Okay. You still cursed though. 
Player: Right! But I’m picking the one where I get disadvantage to attack myself. 
DM: Wuht?!
Player: I’m not going to attack myself because I’m not an idiot, so…
DM: My brain is definitely attacking itself after all that. Does anyone else smell toast? [collapses]

Confounded Curses!

Curse me all you like (you won't be the first and you won't be the last), but this one doesn’t work like that player thinks it does. There are two major issues that this usage relies on. First, if we take a look at the "Combining Magical Effects” portion of the rulebook, the player in this scenario does happen to be correct in that effects of the same spell cast multiple times don’t combine. This would prevent, say, a party of Clerics from casting Bless on a single character multiple times to give them multiple 1d4 bonuses on their attack roll. There's not much to argue about the intent there, or the way it was written. But while a 1d4 Bless to your attack rolls is going to be the same no matter who casts it (all being the same spell with the same effect), the hypothetical Bestow Curse Chain involves different curses coming from different casters. Again, in this scene we have a BBEG casting Bestow Curse on a player to give them disadvantage to attacking the BBEG. A different bad guy, say a Smaller Bad Evil Guy - SBEG (or a miniboss for the electronic gamers), could also cast Curse on the player to give them a disadvantage in attacking the SBEG. They could choose a different effect or they could even attempt to create their own curse. So what is casting Bestow Curse on yourself going to do? You could give you disadvantage (against yourself), but you’ll still have disadvantage against the BBEG (and maybe even that SBEG), until you save from their curses. Maybe it would be helpful if either the BBEG or the SBEG start doing the "stop hitting yourself" routine on them, but that's about it.

The other part of the rules to look at is Bestow Curse itself. If you didn't click the link or look it up yourself, there's a very important bit right at the end before you get into the upgrades for casting it at higher levels. “The DM has final say on such a curse’s effect.” For those in the back THE DM HAS FINAL SAY. If it doesn’t make sense or seem fair, especially to other players who may have used more  traditional means to get out of such a situation like Dispel Magic or Remove Curse, the DM has the right to just tell you no, it just won’t. If they’re kind, maybe you won’t lose your turn due to this tomfoolery. Maybe.

I must get my hands on those healthy purple berries!

Here's the part where we talk about how we could make this one work, but... I kind of don’t want to. There's specifically a spell in the game called Remove Curse. There is even the alternative approach of Dispel Magic. You have TWO possible routes your character could have prepped for something like this and, at least in this scenario, purposely chose not to. Can it work, though? Okay, fine... rule of cool and all. Reward players who are making an effort to be creative. You make it a point to say this works this once, and figure out the ramifications if something similar comes up again after the session. It doesn’t have to work exactly how the player wants, though. How about: they cast curse and it does negate the other curse (just this once), but now they also have to make a wisdom save before they can do anything else with their primary action again. We could also turn it around and say that the first curse is cancelled, but now everyone else has advantage to attack you instead of you having disadvantage. You could always say that none of this falls under "rules as written," but please don’t make me tap the “DM Has Final Say” sign. 

Bort?!

In short, Curses (and the bestowing of them) are nothing to be trifled with. If you’re going to try and use a spell when there are established alternatives already written to do what you’re trying... maybe ask the DM first instead of trying to "get one over" on them. And DMs, if you’re going to let your players be creative, limit it to one time and do your best "yes, and..." style. “Yes, you negate the curse, and it has this other effect on you as well that you won’t like.” But beyond everything else, and something probably mentioned in other posts of this type, Wil Wheaton’s law of gaming: don’t be a dick. Don’t be that guy trying to get something over on your DM. Be someone who works with your DM and the group as a whole to have a cool moment. Until next week folks, enjoy your tables, your curses, and your dice.

- A 

Send questions, comments, and curse-removal kids to neversaydice20@gmail.com.