If you’ve ever been strangled to death by your own magic necklace, then you probably don’t need the warning. Cursed items are a mainstay of the hobby, and everything from the scarab of death to the cloak of poisonousness can kill your ass dead. Of course, not everything needs to be the magical equivalent of a heart attack to do the trick.

Cleverly placed magic items can be every bit as deadly as their cursed brethren. I’m thinking of a certain demon’s mouth, portals to unknown levels of the Abyss, and even sudden fiery immolation via bad luck and a necklace of fireballs. Heck, the item doesn’t even need to be magical. The Head of Vecna wracked up quite the kill count without doing much more than rotting.

Still, despite the message in today’s comic, I think that it behooves GMs to reward “daring play” every once in a while. For my money, nothing is more boring than the dread gazebo style of adventuring. I detect good at it. I call out to it. I shoot it with my bow. I insult its mamma…. At some point, you’ve got to hit the big red button that says “PUSH” and see what happens. Should that backfire some of the time? Absolutely. But if you want to keep the game fresh and exciting, I think that rewarding recklessness every once in a while is a good idea too.

Question of the day then. Have you ever put on a magic item without properly identifying it first? What happened? How much damage did you take? Let’s hear it in the comments!

ARE YOU AN IMPATIENT GAMER? If so, you should check out the “Henchman” reward level over on The Handbook of Heroes Patreon. For just one buck a month, you can get each and every Handbook of Heroes comic a day earlier than the rest of your party members. That’s bragging rights right there!