Other than needing a spell/bishop to remove them, is there any effects cursed items have on that character?

You can't swap them out for ranged weapons and later you can find cursed items, which have negative hp regen, so if you don't uncurse them or compensate them with hp regen or dulcimer of mending or the gadget then the character can die.

(or anyone with Heal...)
There are some nasty cursed Armor items, too, which reduce AC or take HP.
Some of the best stuff has curses, but there are many ways to compensate.

I remember my first ever cursed item was Bloodlust, and I couldn't understand why it was cursed. Well, at least I know now [img]smile.gif[/img]

If you have someone who can cast remove curse then you can ofter work around the limitiation of not being able to swap out weapons. Before a fight use remove curse to prepare a ranged weapon. When the enemy gets into range then manually swap in your cursed weapon. Of course for some fights you'll have multiple opportunities for ranged combat. You need to swap the weapon in manually because, IIRC, your character will never automatically equip a cursed item.

did you guys know that remove curse removes hexes too? still need a low level spell for knocked-out though.

That's really good to know. Thanks for the tip babar. [img]smile.gif[/img]