What spell could best be described as a curse for a Black Magic Ritual Spellcaster?

I was thinking...
Decrease Attribute
Invisibility
Agony
Compel Truth (That could be fun)

Any other ideas, spells in books or spells made up.
Feedback is appreciated thanks )

Fire Aura!

Influence
Shapeshift

Orgasm
Insomnia (custom version of Stim that prevents sleep and doesn't require a willing target)
Hibernate

Orgasm is not a curse!

Indeed, but you'd be pretty damn weirded out if it happens out of nowhere. Also, if you time it right, you can even severely inconvenience a person with a strong Orgasm spell. Business meeting, anyone?

Maybe not immediately. Wait til you've been having one for 6 hours straight.

Any sensation that seems like it's going to last forever gets to be horrible after a while. That's doubly true if it's usually something you'd love.

[quote name='James McMurray' date='Jun 14 2011, 06:28 PM' post='1079126']
Maybe not immediately. Wait til you've been having one for 6 hours straight.

Any sensation that seems like it's going to last forever gets to be horrible after a while. That's doubly true if it's usually something you'd love.
[/quote

Blue Balls Curse?

Now that's just mean. I like it. Just don't hit me with it.

Dream, imho the best spell for ritual spellcasting, just needs perseverance and doing it more than once
Double Image imagine there's suddenly a twin running next to and copying all you do.

Ohh I thought of another one, Hacker/Technomancer Curse
Interference (Environmental, Area)

It is if you quicken it.

Speaking of which, how long would you estimate before a quickened version of Bugs (especially with a dice pool mod higher than the targets Willpower) drove the target irrevocably mad?

Stench is another good one. Especially for in the middle of a board meeting, or just quickening it to make their life a living hell.

I'd think after a few minutes you might cause someone to develop a phobia, after half an hour, they'll have withdrawn entirely and require some serious effort to bring around even after the spell has ended. After an hour the character will require professional psychological help. After that I think it'd jump up to around 6 hours or so before you 'break' someone (or maybe 1 hour per willpower) and they won't be able to function properly.

Alternately it could actually have decreased effects every (willpower) minutes or something like that as the person overcomes their fear and/or realizes that it isn't really real.

Edit: Also, for the OP, I was going to suggest Invisibility, surprised it got mentioned already. Physical mask could prove very impressive as well.

That's a pretty poor one. The hacker just has to move Force meters away from the position where the spell was cast and he is in the clear.

@Invisibility: Make a custom multi-sense Undetectability spell Poof you're gone!

All area spells are like that. Unless you put a dedicated Spirit of Man on him/her, or do it yourself. But that would cause trouble when they eventually pass a magical security anyway.



Awesome.

This probably won't work. The spell requires a voluntary target. So no turning enemies into sheep.

The problems with all sustained "curses" are a) they have to be sustained b) as soon as the target walks through through a ward chances are that the spell will be disrupted. Permanent spells should be better in both respects.

How about Fashion? Turn the exec into a clown. Or make the Ares exec wear a Aztec priest gown.

Except that with fashion, all the target has to do is change clothes. The spell does not travel to the new set of clothes.

well, it's all about timing

This is true. A sustaining focus could alleviate that problem, for a time. The problem with most spells in general, is that unles you are masking (which every runner chould have), it is incredibly easy to go to a freelance mage, or a wagemage if the NPC is working in a corp, and get the spell removed, or traced. Curses in general, don't seem like a good idea to me.

Sorry. Double post...

They are definitely situational...
As Makki indicated, it is all about the timing.

There's still a pain spell, right? Seems fairly simple and effective...

Umm no. Not only does the spell have all the drawbacks of sustained spells, it is also a lot less effective than Orgasm.

Different Fluffy Effect though... Pain vs. Pleasure...

Having different fluff is fine but making one spell vastly superior to the other despite causing effects that should be similarly disabling is not.
-1 dp/per hit and possible total incapacitation versus 1 imaginary damage box/per hit and no incapacitation

To make the name fit the rules you could rename agony into minor nuisance though. Even a watcher probably is more distracting.

So do them both at once!

Hard to make happen, but an old curse that still conjures weird images:
"May the dinks of a thousand {camels/gorillas/whatever} dangle in your soup."

If an area spell is cast ritually, wouldn't the center of effect be the target of the spell, and would move with him/her?

The center of the effect would be whatever the spotter designates as target, this could be a point in space as well. A sustained area effect spell does not move with any object. It (normally) has to be moved by the caster to a point in his LOS. In case of ritual spellcasting I assume the spotter would do this.

That's my understanding as well. I see where I messed up a little, although a spirit can be the spotter, it doesn;t need to be a Spirit of Man. My thoughts were about casting it on the target normally, not ritually. Regardless, the same problems still persist, and I really would not rely on a spell that requires that much dedication for a curse, even in the short term.

Heh... Entertaining Indeed...

How about the intoxication spell?

That's just good fun.

Question: why is the target being cursed? The best spell for the situation is the one that supplies poetic justice, not just dice pool penalties or social awkwardness.

Cripple Limb if it still exists. I quickened that to a PC in SR3 and he was very annoyed.

And then he walked through a ward and it wasn't a big deal?

Not that run. He got rid of it before the next one.