Loadstone (cursed item) /random

[Hazgarn]

So. The loadstone basically looks like a smoothly polished stone and if thrown away basically reappears on the PC who carries it...

...has anyone ever tried to use it as an infinitely returning sling bullet?

[HuManBing]

Makes sense. Harkon Lukas has a cursed sword that always appears in his (humanform) hand during a fight, and he does weird tricks with it like throwing it at faraway people or allowing them to hold his sword as a sign of trust.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

I suppose the question is: How long does it take to return? A crafty DM with a player exploiting this will have two obvious solutions...

a) the stone returns in 5 rounds (when most battles are over) (beware.. this answer will lead the player to toss the thing away every 5 rounds to circumvent the curse. If your speed is only slowed to half on every 5th round, that's only a 10% speed reduction)

or

b) the stone returns in less than a second (before it hits its target)


Of course, the mean DM will say:

c) the stone returns at the same velocity at which it left.

[Jimsolo]

Generally speaking, when it comes to players trying to make lemonade from lemons when it comes to curses (including cursed items) I subscribe to the following rule: so long as the bad outweighs the good, they can do it. If the penalty of the loadstone is still greater than the benefit of using it as a returning sling bullet, then it would be fine to take the minor advantage. If the positive effects outweigh the negatives, however, I would rule that they could not circumvent their curse in that fashion.

That's a decision for each DM to reach on their own.