Help! PC is a Cleric, inadvertently ruining the plot!

[abcd_z]

I'm running a D20 campaign based on the old Sierra game Quest for Glory 1. A large part of the campaign is based on running around, collecting ingredients for a potion to dispel the spell on the brigand leader, returning her memory as the Baron's daughter.

Unfortunately, one of the PCs is a cleric, and will probably get the spell Dispel Magic before the encounter with the brigand leader. I don't want to GM fiat this: if he can dispel her on his own, he should be allowed to. But what do I do with the portions of the map that were meant to lead to the dispel potion?

Seed from a spitting flower (the Spore Spitting Spirea): required to give to the dryad.
Green fur from the meeps (fuzzballs that hide under rocks)
Faery dust: talk to the faeries at night and dance in the faery ring.
Flowers from Erana's peace: an enchanted peaceful meadow, a rainbow-colored fruit tree, and the final resting place of the powerful benevolent sorceress Erana.
Magic acorn: gotten from the dryad, who also tells you the ingredients needed for the dispel potion.
Flying water: Something of a pun there. You actually use water from a waterfall called the "flying falls".

As a side-note, flowers from erana's peace and mushrooms from the faerie ring can be sold to the healer as potion ingredients. She just gives you money for the ingredients, though.

I already cut out a bunch of stuff in the name of simplicity. If I can't alter this it to something else, it will be a short game.

Help?

(P.S. If anybody's curious about the game, there's a narrated screenshot playthrough at http://lparchive.org/Quest-for-Glory-1-5 )

[Elric VIII]

You could make the effect a curse. The Remove Curse (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/removeCurse.htm) spell specifies that some curses require a certain CL to remove. You can either make it completely unremovable except by the quest item, or you can make it extremely hard to do, but possible. I recommend using Mummy Rot (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/mummy.htm) as a template (Adjust CL check in order to give the PC a larger/smaller chance of failure).

[DoctorGlock]

Let him and continue the plot in a new direction? Dispel is bread and butter to the system, it cannot be removed for the sake of convenience and a game not designed to handle countermagic is not well designed at all.

That said, the curse on the baron can just have much higher caster level than the cleric. By the time he can dispel he will have a +5 check. If the curse is CL 10 or so, he is going to need a 15+. If the spell is higher, his chances of breaking it are lower.

Honestly, there is not much of an issue. The plot looks like a load of fetchquests and those are universally unfun. Let them run off the rails, its a PnP RPG, freedom exists for a reason.

[Reluctance]

PCs tend to break plots simply by existing. Especially old-school adventure games. When the computer declares the situation unwinnable because you didn't read the programmer's mind, it's frustrating but impersonal. When a person sitting across the table from you declares the situation unwinnable because you didn't read his mind, feelings get hurt much faster.

If you must, start the game out such that the PCs don't know who the princess really is. They have the ingredient fetch quest intertwined with a mystery to find out just what happened to her. Let that last two or three levels, call it practice, and look for places where you can be less railroady.

BTW. As you level up, Dispel Magic will be the least of your problems. Mid- to high- level D&D characters can do tons of things that break normal fantasy plots. Running those sorts of games well takes its own special set of skills.

[Incriptus]

My advice from a mechanical point of view is that the curse is a custom curse from "Bestow Curse, Greater" [Spell Compendium 27]. Basically they require a Wish, Miracle or a level 17+ spell caster.

Now of course, should a character with the break curse spell collect certain magical ingredients [hint hint] the curse can be over come.

The secret is to not deny your player there abilities but to incorperate their usefulness into your story.

[Bastian Weaver]

Man, that's a way cool idea for a game! I love Quest for Glory.
Now, about your dispelling problem... Elsa's problem is caused by Baba Yaga's curse, and the curse was cast "upon von Spielburg and all his clan". I suppose you might use it to explain that simply casting a spell on Elsa wouldn't be enough to undo the curse.
But! If you want to play nice and let the players use their abilities without plot-caused limitations, I suggest you use the dispel potion to get rid of Baba Yaga. Let someone (like Erasmus and Fenris or the Dryad or Yorick) advise the adventurers to put it into Baba's cauldron, so that she would lose at least some of her impressive powers after she eats some Saurus Soup or whatever she has for dinner.

[Coidzor]

1. Curse.
2. CL issues
3. The difficulty is in getting to her anyway, so if they can obviate the necessity of hitting her with a potion, well, less ways that the dice can mess up the narrative.

Also, tier list and challenges.

[Slipperychicken]

It could be an alchemical effect, and thus undispellable. As in, someone else got her to drink a potion that made her forget in the first place. It could also have been cast as an SLA, which can't be dispelled. Or maybe the spell actually removed her memories, so dispelling wouldn't help, and the potion literally restores the memories to her.

[abcd_z]

Okay everybody, I decided on my course of action. The effects of the curse are similar to that of the Helm of Opposite Alignment, and THAT requires a wish or miracle. I dislike GM fiat, but I'm totally okay if it's in line with existing rules.

Thank you all for your help and advice!