The Evil Eye (Optional Rule)[]
Pride and success can be dangerous in the AL-QADIMTM campaign, especially for a character who boasts aloud. When Zakharans receive a compliment, they often protest and belittle their skills, lest a jealous genie overhear and bedevil them with the evil eye. The evil eye is the ability to bring misfortune upon another—from an annoyance to a tragedy—with no more than a glance. Nearly all genies are thought to have this power. They need not stand before a character to use it, but can spy upon him or her from afar.
In game terms, the evil eye is not magical per se, though magic can sometimes invoke or prevent it. Rather the evil eye is a common, ordinary part of life in a world where genies run rampant and elemental spirits continually seek to cause trouble.
The following rule is designed to reflect the danger of being less than humble in an Arabian setting. If player characters are praised and fail to respond with humility and modesty, they must make a Wisdom check. A character who fails has made a genie jealous, and becomes afflicted with the evil eye.
Neither Fate nor Fortune can be said to smile upon characters afflicted with the evil eye. They become hapless and unlucky. All saving throws suffer a -2 penalty, as do all proficiency and ability checks. New encounters are indifferent at best, never friendly. Strangers can sense that something is wrong with the "sufferers," but rather than sympathy, they feel distrust. Local governments view anyone afflicted with the evil eye as shifty; a sufferer's business may be audited for fraud. Local clergymen view sufferers as potentially dangerous, and may search their belongings or even refuse to offer hospitality.
A character afflicted with the evil eye only can be cured by remove curse or quest. The avert evil eye spell can protect a character from this plight (even a pompous braggart), but the spell is of no help after the fact.
As noted above, this rule is optional; DMs may decide not to penalize haughty PCs. Even so, player characters may fall prey to this mysterious force in one other way: by being the target of attract evil eye, reverse of the spell avert evil eye.
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