Cursed Items for D&D

Apparently Wizards of the Coast does listen to its fans.

Remember when I ranted about a lack of cursed items in 4E?

They're now available.

Finally.

It probably sounds weird that I'm so excited about this, because I'm not currently a 4E DM.  I'm a player.

It's not as odd as it seems. I promise.

Currently, I know that every time I slay a foe, I can (and should) grab anything they drop that I can carry. I don't need to worry at all about drawbacks - it's a matter of, "Is this stuff better than what I already have or not?"

I miss the mystery of, "Is this safe to use?" or "Will this item have a drawback of some sort?" I miss powerful items that forced PC's to remove their armor. Or which had a risk associated with them - the Wizards article linked above makes it sound like the curses are added to the existing awesomeness of an item - so you might get a Dragon-slaying Backbiter blade +4 that has the power to do significant damage to Dragons (and nearly anyone else), but inflicts half-damage on its wielder in the case of a critical.

It means that PC's will need to think before mindless grabbing handfuls of loot. It may be that that blade +4 is better than my Longsword +2 - but is it worth the critical effect?

I, for one, can't wait to start seeing some of these items in play.

Jim and Jason: I'm not kidding. I'd love to see a few cursed items in our games from time to time.