Remove Curse: Curse Control
Usable By: Cleric, Paladin, Warlock, Wizard
Spell Level: 3
School: Abjuration
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Touch
Duration: Instantaneous
Components: V, S
At your touch, all curses affecting one creature or object end. If the object is a cursed magic item, its curse remains, but the spell breaks its owner’s attunement to the object so it can be removed or discarded.
Review by Sam West, Twitter: @CrierKobold
Fairytales and fables as far back as humanity goes talk of wicked spells and dark curses that befall people, transforming them to beast, making them terribly unlucky, or just tormenting them unendingly. Fantasy games love to run with this idea, often leading to grand quests to overcome the curse with characters learning about themself as they go. Remove Curse is D&D’s one stop shop for breaking curses on people and does so in a way I’m not normally thrilled with.
Clerics and paladins in particular I struggle with Remove Curse; as prepared casters, if a curse doesn’t immediately debilitate them or one of their allies, a single long rest provides the solution to the problem. For warlocks and wizards you’d at least have to wait a level to learn it, or prepare it ahead of time with the intention of breaking some magical curses down the road. This has led me to struggle presenting curses to my players not attached to magic items, as a single 3rd level spell supposedly ends any curse, regardless of potency. If a curse says otherwise, it often feels cheap or unfair.
Still, having a cleric able to lift a smaller curse left by a less powerful fey or demon does deliver a kind of fantasy many seek out. While it does hamper the design space for future, exciting, complex curses, Remove Curse does help deliver a fantasy in a streamlined way.
What I adore about the spell is its specific interaction with cursed magic items. It doesn’t completely “solve” the problems a cursed magic item presents, but can act as a tool the group can use to manage it while they figure out a more permanent solution. Removing attunement and allowing a cursed object to be removed adds a big element of risk and willingness to interface with a curse while knowing you have a bit of a safety net to fall back on should it be utterly debilitating.
Seeing as a lot of characters aren’t running around getting cursed anyway, Remove Curse is probably a net positive at the table, but not something I’d ever recommend players learning or preparing without knowing a cursed item or cursed individual is in their future. Take it when you need it, forget it when you don’t.
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