Friday Encounter: The Curse of Feebleness

This encounter could be used in a variety of situations, including in a town, on the road, in the wilderness, or in a dungeon. The idea is to use it wherever the PCs could be impacted by a curse. The simplest way to do this would be for the party to accidentally bump into a witch (perhaps knocking into her from a carriage while on the road and injuring her, or bumping into her on the street in town and causing her to spill what she's carrying) who, feeling vindictive, decides to place a curse on them. But it could just as easily be the result of a cursed treasure in a dungeon, or inflicted upon the party by a recurring villain. Feel free to use it wherever and however you think it would be enjoyable.

Some way or another, the PCs are all stricken with a curse that penalizes them in a fashion that is detrimental to their class and general play style, making it hard for them to fit their typical role in the party. For example:

• Martial classes have Disadvantage on all Strength checks, to-hit rolls, and damage rolls, and their carrying capacity is halved.
• Magic-users have Disadvantage on Knowledge checks, any checks to successfully cast spells, and saves against magical effects.
• Rogues have Disadvantage on all Dexterity checks, and their footsteps become loud and conspicuous, making it harder for them to sneak around silently.
• Bards become tone-deaf and have Disadvantage on Performance checks. They also lose proficiency in any musical instruments until the effects of the curse wear off.

You get the idea. Feel free to tailor these to your party - if any of the PCs wouldn't be affected much by these penalties (for instance, if you have a Finesse fighter), come up with an alternative effect that would negatively affect them.

The idea is to make it harder to play the PCs the way the players normally would, forcing them to act outside of their comfort zone. This could present a fun opportunity to challenge players to think outside the box if their typical strategies wouldn't work, or to give them a chance to experiment with play styles they aren't used to. If you have a player who always plays one class, this might be a way to force them to branch out.

For maximum fun, don't have the curse take effect right away. Instead, the effects should start to become apparent 1d4 days after the inciting incident. Don't tell the players that the curse takes effect, either - just start asking them to reroll their rolls and take the lower result, without elaborating. Eventually, they'll figure out something's wrong, and this could kick off an investigation of what might have placed the curse on them. If you have the curse placed on them by an NPC, it's probably best if it's obvious that some sort of spell was cast even if it doesn't take effect immediately. The players will be a lot more likely to draw a connection between the little old lady they knocked over and the fact they can't hit the broad side of a barn if that old lady started waving her hands at them and speaking in tongues before they saw a bright flash. Otherwise, they might end up on a wild goose chase that leads nowhere.

Because I've left things open-ended as to what triggers the curse, I'll also leave it open-ended as to what breaks it. If the PCs attracted the ire of a magician, for example, they may need to find them and right their wrongdoing. Or potentially kill the mage that cursed them, but that might not be possible if they're in polite society. If they picked up a cursed artifact, it may simply be a matter of disposing of it - but cursed artifacts have a habit of turning up again, unless the curse is passed on to someone else. One fun option would be to have the curse be broken for a given PC when that character performs a great deed or overcomes a great challenge without having to fall back on their area of expertise, proving that they can thrive on their own merits even if their greatest assets are taken away from them.