Cursed items are fun! For me, anyway.
Seethe
Weapon (greatsword), rare (requires attunement)
This dark, jagged blade almost seems knapped from obsidian. A faint wisp of shadow trails from the blade. You gain a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon. When you hit a creature with an attack, it takes an additional 1d6 necrotic damage.
Proficiency with a greatsword allows you to add your proficiency bonus to the attack roll for any attack you make with it.
On D&DBeyond.
That’s what’s on the item card. Here’s what in my notes:
This weapon is cursed, and attuning to it extends its curse to you. While cursed, you are unwilling to part with this weapon or end your attunement to it. If you attempt to use any other weapon you must first succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw. When you draw the weapon, if it isn’t bloodied within one minute, or if you attempt to sheathe it without making an attack, you must make a DC 12 Wisdom saving throw. On a failure, you must move up to your movement and make an attack on the nearest creature to you as a blinding rage takes hold in your mind, after which the rage fades. If you have the Barbarian’s Rage feature and any uses of it remaining, you enter a rage before making this attack. A remove curse spell or similar magic can end the curse on the creature and its attunement to the blade.
This is a pretty good sword! +1 to attack and damage roles and 1d6 necrotic on top of the 2d6 for a greatsword is a pretty solid amount of damage in levels 4–7. Nothing could possibly go wrong here.
The Encounter
As I ran it, the full encounter involved a party member being put to sleep while on watch at night and being kidnapped as a blood magic sacrifice. Nothing out of the ordinary.
The relevant part was that an NPC orc barbarian named Draddok (based on Path of the Totem Warrior with some NPC customization) guarding the bloodbags wielded this sword. Really any angry, strength-based NPC could have it. The party needed to deal with him one way or another to rescue their comrade.
During the fight, the PCs could see shadows in the flickering light cling to the blade. Darkness coalesced around it, leaving almost smokey trails with each swing. Blood seeped into its surface.
The Above-Table Backstory
I loved the visuals of the sword Craven Edge (spoilers) from Critical Role campaign 1. An obsidian blade would be incredibly, almost molecularly sharp and equally brittle, without magic reinforcement. Knapping produces a jagged look, even when the edge is smooth and straight, because of how light reflects off the flaked surfaces.
I prefer to create items that could be used by more than one party member (and sometimes throw in items that are useless to them—it makes sense for a warlock NPC to have a Rod of the Pact Keeper, even if there are no warlocks in the PCs’ party). This party involved a couple of strength-based PCs: a Twilight Domain Cleric and an Oath of Vengeance Paladin. But both typically carried shields. This was the second or third magic weapon I’d introduced at all.
I liked the idea of introducing the choice between the shield and a two-handed weapon, and that the curse was going to reinforce that choice. The blade is eager to fight, to kill. The DC to use another weapon is higher than the DC to control the rage because it wants to be used, and it’s going to be most of the time. But it does want to be used—to sheathe an unbloodied blade is an anathema.
As a higher level item, I probably would have done 2d6 necrotic damage and had the DC to avoid the rage escalate with some kind of reset, like a long rest.
James DM 