Cursed +1 Shield of Dragon Attraction

Cursed +1 Shield of Dragon Attraction

It is said by the most learned of scholars and sages that, due to truly unknown aspects of magic, sometimes a magic item can become cursed simply due to the actions of it's owner. This shield is one such item, and cursed it truly is. Pray to whatever Gods you believe in that you should never happen upon it.

This shield seems to be attracted to individuals that demonstrate great stupidity, pigheadedness or simpleminded actions. This doesn't include beings with actual mental deficiencies or low INT scores, just beings that do something so incredibly stupid that the gods themselves would facepalm.

For all intents and purposes, this is a normal +1 shield. Aside from some wear and tear, it is quite sturdy and will function normally. That is, until a true dragon or any member of a draconian species comes within one mile (1.6km). Then, they will be instantly drawn to the user with an irresistible urge to kill him and destroy his remains. There is no saving throw or magic resistance against this compulsion. 

Against the user of this shield, dragons have the following bonuses:

• Bonus to all Skill rolls equal to their hit dice
• Bonus to hit and damage on all melee attacks equal to their hit dice (example - 7hd = +7 To Hit and Damage with all physical attacks)

• Bonus AC equal to their hit dice (example - 14hd = +14 to AC as a Competence bonus)

• If the dragon is killed by the user or his companions, the dragon will somehow fall on or impact against the user in some way causing damage equal to it's original unwounded Hit Points. The user is allowed a REF save (DC 20) against this effect, but the Save has a penalty equal to the dragon's HD. This will occur no matter what actions the user takes, even up to going etheral or astral, teleporting away, running underground into a confined space, etc.

These effects are only against the user of the shield, not his companions, pets, random strangers, etc. For everyone else, the dragon is treated normally.

A disturbing secondary effect of the shield is that no matter what shield the user carries, it will morph into the cursed shield within 24 hours. It can be an iron buckler or a +5 Heavy Fortification Mythril tower shield and it will still turn into this atrocity. There is no save or magic resistance against this effect either.

The only way to be rid of this shield is to perform multiple acts of great intelligence and wit. What these may be is up to the DM, but they must show great acumen and reasoned thought on the part of the player. Remove Curse, Alter Reality, Wishes or even the powers of the gods themselves can not eliminate this curse without the player showing great judgement on their part.

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DM Note: This item was actually born out of incredible stupidity.

I was running a D&D campaign that was taking place in a snowy wilderness, and I had a full compliment of players. The party was dealing with strafing attacks from a huge white dragon. The party's mage manages to kill the dragon in the air at the start of another strafing run, and I was all set to describe the dragon impacting against the snow, taking out trees, etc. All of the players yell that they're getting out of the way of the incoming dragon corpse... well, all but one actually, which I'll call S.

S was somehow convinced that he could just stand there and brace himself and that the characters that ran were cowards. The other players were yelling at S to get the hell out of the way, but his only retort was "The dragon won't hurt me, I have a +1 Shield." He said that in a really snotty voice, too. Multiple times the other players tried to get him to move, but he refused to budge (and kept being a little bitch about it as well).

Ok, S. You wanna' stay there? Let's do this. Let's play.

Pausing the game and going online, I worked out the mass of the dragon, the speed it was flying at, the force in newtons that it would hit with and converted that into HP damage based on other very similar attacks and effects listed within several WotC rulebooks (including D20 Modern).

(20,000 lbs, diving Spd 400 which converts to 333 ft/sec or 227mph, hits at 15,343 N)

His character was a pink smear on the glistening snow. All of his equipment, including several valuable magic items and a suit of elven chainmail, was destroyed. One item, however, survived. His +1 Shield.

I've included this shield in every single game I've played since. It's become so infamous that my players will warn new players or visiting friends against claiming any +1 Shields that they happen to find as random treasure. You'll never find a single character carrying a +1 Shield; they would rather go without a magic shield or wait until they find a more powerful one than to risk even the slightest chance of their new shield being this shield.

Fear the DM you irritate.