Let's say the party defeats a powerful anti-hero mage(not a villain, mind you), he had good intentions...

Let's say the party defeats a powerful anti-hero mage(not a villain, mind you), he had good intentions, but had to be put down cause his ways were unorthodox.
If i make the mage bestow a curse in them in his last breaths, is it a dick move?

It's a dick move on the Mages part, yeah.

Like many other "dick moves", it depends on the execution. Make it a medium level curse (so not too crippling, but not something they can just keep indefinitely and be totally fine) and give them a fun adventure to lift the curse, then you should be fine.

No, as a dm.
Am i being a dick?

I wish to make it a heavy curse, since the magus is really powerful.
Powerful enough to threaten kingdoms.

Depends on execution, like
said.

>Dick move
You're the GM

Besides...a quest to get rid of your curse is always fun.

It's better if it enables character growth instead of hindering fun.

Is the curse to make them carry on the mages mission?

>"You've bested me and proven your strength. Now I pass the torch to you, so that you must carry on in my stead."

Well, that's a really good idea.

It is if you just fiat it after they kill him, like if he sticks around long enough to blast them with magic they might call bullshit.

If he casts it as soon as his health gets low, it's fine.

While it's already been said, depends on execution. Like this guy said, if he is lying on the ground dying when he starts cursing and the players have no way to prevent it, that's kind of a dick move

You gotta tone it down. If it's too powerful, even though this guy is a powerful mage, it's going to be a dick move and you're going to piss off the players. I mean, an unavoidable, character-crippling curse given by a ridiculously overpowered mage in his railroady death-throes cutscene? I'm gonna call you out on your bullshit.

Make it medium, make it fun (remember, everyone is there to have a good time).

But i do not intend to make it pointless, i intend to make it the thing that will trigger the next part of the story.

user tell us what the curse is or there's really no advice we can give.

Tulkas was such an asspull in the Silmarillion
>hey lets pull this super strong guy out of my ass that can 1v1 Melkor all on his own but never have him do anything of note ever again all the while Melkor is on the loose for tens of thousands of years

Curse of gender transformation

Okay, okay.
They are "good" characters, right?
Then, the curse is unless they ressurect him or complete his mission(ressurection doesnt exist in my games, aside from really hard rituals which you would have to make long quests to get, it's pratically a myth), everything they touch will be "destroyed", their intents twisted, where they try and help they will make it worse, plants will wither and die where they walk, animals will become agitated in their presence, and when humanoids see them they will have a strange feeling, an unexplainable fear, a chill in the spine.

Thats exactly what im talking about: a medium curse. Its something that is significant, but doesnt outright brick a character. A mild curse is "you always smell faintly of blueberries", and a major curse is, "-20 all rolls forever"

You're imposing significant, but not crippling penalties and making adventure out of lifting the curse. The only way for you to make this a dick move is if you are a complete ass about it to your players.

Is the curse active while they are pursuing either objective?

Oh yes, i dont like roll penalty curses, i prefer to use them to advance the story.

It's active until they complete the objective.

What were these unorthodox ways that were apparently bad enough to justify killing him, but not bad enough to make him a full-on villain?

Make it a type of curse that would maybe help the heroes see this side of things? What was he doing and why?

>their intents twisted, where they try and help they will make it worse,
This is the questionable part depending on how you enforce it, and I'm not sure about an unavoidable way to railroad the party to complete the mission of the guy they stopped.

If not made in a dumb way railroad is not that bad.
as long as its not
>hey maybe i could-
>no, you cant

I just think it should either be possible to find out before hand, so they just get him close to death but don't kill him because they know about the curse (which should be risky and difficult), or possible to stop when it happens sort of like a medusa turning someone to stone, it doesn't happen immediately and you can somehow stop it. Like at half health he bestows the curse so even if he dies they will carry out his will, they can try to remove it but it's going to be hard to both kill him and remove it (on all of them). Having some party members under the curse and others not under it would also prevent it from turning edgedark and could provide interesting dynamics and character development.

>The Contagious Quest
The Champions Destiny is not linked to any one mortal. Rather, it is a curse that transfers from one being to another. To defeat the champion is to be bound in their place.

This was by design. Whomever created this curse needed a champion of immense power to complete an impossible task. Though this method is not perfect, it still provides a high probability of the champion who completes the quest being one of the greatest of their age.