Karma Curse

A karma curse gives the caster a tangible guarantee that the affected being won't commit a breach of ethics against him or her. It has no effect on creatures of animal Intelligence or less, or on other entities devoid of ethical awareness.

The caster must decide, when casting the spell, which of these areas of ethics it will secure: truth, theft, murder, or the breaking of a promise. A being affected by a karma curse ensuring truth cannot lie to the caster without activating the penalty. If ensured against theft, the being likewise cannot steal from the caster. If ensured against murder, the being cannot murder the caster. If placed on a being that has made a promise to the caster, the being cannot break that promise without activating the penalty.

A being who violates the curse conditions suffers an experience point loss of 100 points per round until stopping. If the action committed cannot be reversed, enough points to drop one experience level are lost. The curse still exists, however, and future losses of experience points are possible. While losing experience points, the being is aware of what is happening but perhaps not why, unless aware of the curse. Experience points can be regained only by performing un act of contrition equivalent – in the DM's judgment – to the act that resulted in the activation of the curse.

The caster is not required to tell the being about the enchantment, but must inform the being that he or she is expected to behave in a manner that will not activate the spell (example: “I expect you to keep your word, my friend”).

A karma curse cannot be removed by a remove curse spells. Due to the personal nature of the spell, a karma curse cannot be cast for anyone but the caster.

A karma curse can be cast only by non-evil priests. On Toril, only followers of the Padhran faith use this spell, though other deities may grant it to followers demonstrating a genuine need for its peculiar properties.