Beetleford's Law of Cursed Items

Beetleford's Law of Cursed Items makes the following statements:

Statement 1: Items can be cursed. Either intentionally or accidentally.

Statement 2: The curse cannot be easily detected.

Statement 3: Curses are inactive till some trigger sets them off.

Statement 4: Cursed items are difficult to get rid off.

Statement 4a: Cursed items come in three levels of "clingyness".

Statement 5: Curses can be suppressed using an Antimagic Field.

Most of this was known before Beetleford came along, but he was the first to formalize the knowledge.

Statement 1 - Cause of Curses

There are several ways in which items, magical or mundane, can become cursed. Mundane items can either become cursed intentionally: by a suficiently skilled magic user. Or accidentally: by absorbing malicious magic energies from the surroundings. Magic items can become cursed through one additional means: it's maker can decide to intentionally include a curse in the item.

Statement 2 - Difficulty of Detection

Cursed items do not abide by the normal functioning of the Law of Identification. A mundane cursed item will not identify itself at all, and won't even show up on the readings of a Detect Magic spell. A magic cursed item will usually only let the user know it's non-cursed functions. A semi-reliable, and quite costly, way of detecting a cursed item is to cast Legend Lore on it. However, the spell's descriptions are usually cryptic, and might not give enought insight to ascertain the precise nature of a curse.

Statement 3 - Curse Triggers

A cursed item might not immediately affect the creature using it with the curse. Each curse has it's own trigger to become active. Some common triggers are:

A creature attunes to the item.

A creature picks up the item.

A creature uses the item for it's inteded purpose.

There are more excotic or uncommon triggers to be found. Whatever the trigger might be, once the curse is active, it is hard to get rid off (See the next statement).

Statement 4 - Clinging Curses

Cursed items are hard to get rid of, usually by design. Some wearable items will attach themselves to their victim, while things like coins might simply find their way back to the cursed owner once they try to get it off their person. Three levels of "clingyness" have been defined, to be able to classify how difficult a curse is to remove.

Statement 4a - Levels of Clingyness

Low: These curses can be removed by the aptly named Remove Curse spell, as well as by some other means. This other means is usually some action or ritual that has to be preformed. Sometimes this is as simple as: "Look the buyer in the eye when selling this staff.", but the required action could be a lot more complicated.

Medium: These curses can only be removed via casting Remove Curse.

High: These are the most frustrating of cursed items. Like the Low clingyness items, they can be gotten rid of by preforming some kind of action. Unlike their less clingy counterparts however, these items will not react to the Remove Curse spell.

Statement 5 - Curse Suppresion

Cursed items, even non-magical ones, will have their curse suppressed when put inside an Antimagic Field. When the item is taken out of the field, the curse will re-take it's hold.
Some have tried, and succeeded, to take off cursed articles of clothing while inside an Antimagic Field. However, it has been found that the item will simply re-attach themselves to the wearer once the field is taken away.

Type

Metaphysical, Arcane