Hi! I'm currently making a D&D 5e handbook based on Made in Abyss. Every day I'm sharing one design decision from the project and looking for feedback. Feel free to jump in, each post is self-contained!
Today's mechanic is the Curse of the Abyss.
The Curse manifests whenever a creature's vital organs ascend more than 10 meters within the Abyss. There is no conventional way to avoid it, although certain areas have a weaker Force Field or none at all.
The Curse affects every living creature, but its effects vary depending on how closely that creature resembles a human. In general, the higher you ascend, the stronger the Curse becomes.
While experienced Delvers can learn to endure some of its effects or navigate paths where the Force Field is weaker, the Curse itself can never truly be avoided.
For the handbook, I adapted this mechanic to work better in D&D combat.
Mechanically, the Curse works like this:
Every time a creature ascends 15 feet or more, it must make a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, it suffers that Layer's Curse effects and takes the listed damage. On a successful save, it avoids the conditions but still takes half damage. Curse effects last for 1 minute. Failing another save refreshes the duration instead of stacking the conditions.
Examples:
1st Layer (DC 10): Mild nausea and dizziness. Disadvantage on Perception checks that rely on sight.
3rd Layer (DC 15): Vertigo and hallucinations. Disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks. 1d8 poison damage.
5th Layer (DC 22): Sensory deprivation and confusion. Disadvantage on all rolls. Speed reduced to 10 feet. 4d10 force damage.
7th Layer (DC 30): Certain death. 20d12 force damage.
Instead of activating every 10 meters like in the original material, the Curse triggers every 15 feet of upward movement (roughly 5 meters). This makes vertical positioning much more important during encounters and encourages players to think twice before climbing.
Each Layer has its own version of the Curse. The deeper you descend, the more dangerous its effects become, and the harder they are to resist.
As you see, the damage is poison in the upper Layers and gradually shifts to force damage in the deeper ones, representing the increasingly supernatural nature of the Abyss.
My goal was to make the Curse feel like a constant environmental hazard instead of something players only remember once every few sessions.
Do you think triggering it every 15 feet is too frequent, or does it make vertical combat more interesting? If you were designing the Curse for D&D, would you have handled it differently?
Update on the races: After revisiting them one last time and making several adjustments based on your feedback over the past few days, I think they're finally in a balanced state and ready to be played at the table.