D&D 5E Gave a player a cursed item has not notice its cursed want to hint at it

[Nightbeat84]

Hello everyone being DM for less then a year now and have been trying different things with my players one of them was giving a player a stone of ill luck was testing the waters with a curse item unfortunately it's a minor curse and he has not noticed that its curse for those that don't remember what it does. It looks like a stone of good luck and the player thinks he gets a +1 to saving throws and ability checks. What it really does is give a -2 instead. What I'm trying to do is give him hints that it is curse without straight up saying its curse. Any help is appreciated

 

[Quickleaf]

Hello everyone being DM for less then a year now and have been trying different things with my players one of them was giving a player a stone of ill luck was testing the waters with a curse item unfortunately it's a minor curse and he has not noticed that its curse for those that don't remember what it does. It looks like a stone of good luck and the player thinks he gets a +1 to saving throws and ability checks. What it really does is give a -2 instead. What I'm trying to do is give him hints that it is curse without straight up saying its curse. Any help is appreciated

Once metagame way of doing it is to start announcing DCs. "Make a Wisdom (Insight) check, DC 13." The player should quickly notice when he gets a 14 and you start narrating the result as a failure.

 

[Nightbeat84]

Once metagame way of doing it is to start announcing DCs. "Make a Wisdom (Insight) check, DC 13." The player should quickly notice when he gets a 14 and you start narrating the result as a failure.

Hmm that's brilliant never thought of that I will give it a try thanks for the help[emoji2]

 

[Eltab]

The group as a whole has bad luck, or his character does if he is alone.
- Steps on twigs when trying to sneak.
- Road construction gang closes the bridge he was going to cross over.
- He gets the sour mug of ale from the waitress' tray.
- Enemies picking targets "randomly" team up on him, not anybody else.
- His treasure chest is the one with the least cash in it.
- His treasure chests have cool magic items in them … for the other PCs to use.
- Tax collector wants you yes you to pay the toll for everybody in the group.
- There is no room at the inn if you ask, but there is when somebody else asks.
- Receives a crit every session (which may be min damage if it really matters).
- Gets the 'NPC has no useful information' result on the chart.

Do only one of these per day / session at first, later on the bad luck gets more frequent ("stronger").

If the PC is a Halfling, per Mordenkainen, he may receive a message from a halfling priest. Something about you is not in its natural state, and you need to talk to the gods about it.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

Once metagame way of doing it is to start announcing DCs. "Make a Wisdom (Insight) check, DC 13." The player should quickly notice when he gets a 14 and you start narrating the result as a failure.

This is a good one. Or just wait til the character does something that should be an auto-success and instead it fails. That will get the player's attention really quick too. Make that a part of the curse. After having possession of the item for a certain number of days: once per day, one skill auto-success fails instead.

 

[GMMichael]

I recommend Eltab's approach. The character got a cursed ring, not a Ring of Numbers Announcing. Unlike Eltab, I'd keep the bad luck real small and personal, like shoes come untied, or something green is always between his teeth.

 

[aco175]

When everyone needs to make a saving throw, announce the DC to everyone, but tell the player his is 3 higher. Everyone needs to roll a DC12, but Bob the Fighter needs to roll a DC15. Player will add +1 thinking he has good luck, but another 2 is added for the ill luck. Eventually the player will start to wonder why his PC is always adding 3 to the rolls.

Now you have a side quest where the PC must find out why he is cursed and how to fix.

 

[Rya.Reisender]

I wouldn't provide meta information like DC. But there are often checks that all the PCs have to do and eventually it would end up with "Hey, why did I fall when I rolled 6? X didn't falls at 5!"
And then I would answer with something along the lines of... "It seems strange. Like you're particularly unlucky for some reason."

 

[Blue]

Once metagame way of doing it is to start announcing DCs. "Make a Wisdom (Insight) check, DC 13." The player should quickly notice when he gets a 14 and you start narrating the result as a failure.

I'd need to retrain my group some - if a DC is announced they just give the "pass/fail" response.

I'd probably be a little more direct - ask for saves, and when they fail by the 3 difference (between the +1 the added and the -2 it really is), announce how they feel off and fail.

If you want to make it clear what it is, have them "off balance", and let them try to figure out what they have on the side that was suddenly heavy...

 

[KenNYC]

I don't agree with going out of game telling DCs. That is just another way of saying you have a stone of bad luck. The more narrative way is to just DM it and have him being perpetually unlucky. Sooner or later he should get the idea, and if he doesn't let him just be unlucky.