I was reading the 1E DMG description of the rope of constriction and man is it deadly!
"This rope exactly resembles a rope of climbing or entanglement, but as soon as it is commanded to perform some action, it lashes itself about the neck of the character holding it, and from 1-4 others, within 10' of the victim (each is entitled to a saving throw vs. magic) and strangles and crushes the life from each and every such victim. Each round it delivers 2-12 hit points of damage, and it will continue to constrict until a dispel magic is cast upon it. Note than any creature entwined by the rope cannot cast spells or otherwise free himself or herself by any means. This rope is AC -2 and takes 22 hit points to cut through; all hit points must be inflicted by the same creature (not the one entangled).
Holy shit! If it entangles the wizard and the cleric, it's almost certain they're dead (especially the wizard). It can easily cause a TPK all by itself (especially with lower level characters). This is one damned dangerous item I've overlooked for years!
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Serves them right for failing to do any due dilligance on them.. IMO a simple Augury would weed out cursed items via asking "Will using this item be for weal or woe"?
I've never liked the idea of using augury to avoid cursed items. It's kind of a spoiler and it makes things too easy, especially considering it's such a low (2nd) level spell. Unless maybe you go with the idea of giving a very cryptic answer. For example, for the rope of constriction:
"Powerful and dangerous - care must be taken, lest user become victim."
Or some such thing.
I always took the augury spell to apply to major actions taken by the PCs, such as whether or not sneaking into a dragon's hoard offers them any chance of survival, or whether sneaking into the evil wizard's tower at night will offer a better chance than in the day time, things like that. I never used it for minor actions, such as "is it safe to open this book?". Using it that way, to me, seems to allow for a lot of abuse and really reduces a great deal of risk - perhaps too much.
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Thing is, not every group i've gamed with even DID that.. Only a few have..
And they'd often burn through 5 to 6 auguries per treasure pile.
"Will using any item in this pile, bring us woe or weal"
Even if it says yes, its not saying there IS A CURSED item there.. It might just be saying "hey, there's an item there if used by the wrong race/class, they may be impacted by it badly"..
ITs still up to the party to figure that out.
