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I had an interesting idea for curse-breaking... remove curse scrolls are rather boring, and with variants moving toward more interesting curses, I thought it might be time to make removing curses more interesting!
The mechanic I have in mind is based on the idea that breaking a curse involves an amount of effort proportional to but greater than the ongoing effect of the curse. After all, you're essentially time-compressing the curse, so it's natural that the effect would be increased!
So, I'm thinking it would work like this - say you have a cursed weapon whose curse gives a -5 to hit. (It could be anything else, but this is a simple example!) To attempt to break the curse, you make some sort of roll (say, a saving throw).
If successful, the curse is broken, removing the -5 to hit... but then you get a larger but temporary penalty; say, -20 to hit! When the effect wears off, though, you're better off than you were before.
If the roll fails, though, the curse is not broken, but you do suffer some backlash from the attempt, so you get a smaller temporary penalty - say, another -5 on top of the penalty from the curse itself.
Interestingly enough, I got this idea from the Bible - Paul refers to an Old Testament passage which says "cursed is the man who hangs from a tree", and applies it to Jesus' crucifixion, saying that Jesus took the curse which was meant for us upon himself! So I guess in the same way, you'd be taking the item's curse upon yourself in Angband?
The mechanic I have in mind is based on the idea that breaking a curse involves an amount of effort proportional to but greater than the ongoing effect of the curse. After all, you're essentially time-compressing the curse, so it's natural that the effect would be increased!
So, I'm thinking it would work like this - say you have a cursed weapon whose curse gives a -5 to hit. (It could be anything else, but this is a simple example!) To attempt to break the curse, you make some sort of roll (say, a saving throw).
If successful, the curse is broken, removing the -5 to hit... but then you get a larger but temporary penalty; say, -20 to hit! When the effect wears off, though, you're better off than you were before.
If the roll fails, though, the curse is not broken, but you do suffer some backlash from the attempt, so you get a smaller temporary penalty - say, another -5 on top of the penalty from the curse itself.
Interestingly enough, I got this idea from the Bible - Paul refers to an Old Testament passage which says "cursed is the man who hangs from a tree", and applies it to Jesus' crucifixion, saying that Jesus took the curse which was meant for us upon himself! So I guess in the same way, you'd be taking the item's curse upon yourself in Angband?