Cursed Wish

[Joeggernaut]

So, I have a (lvl 4) Wizard in my group whos flaw is they are curious to the point of stupidity, get hold of an item that grants majorly cursed wishes, making them come true in the worst possible ways. He held this item and without REALLY thinking about it said he wished he never got food poisoning again. (he ate grass before as well as poisonous other plants.) What are some good solutions to making this be devilish but not killing the character?

[Greywander]

Any time he eats something that could poison him, he immediately starts vomiting. A lot. He's basically incapacitated for a full 10 minutes, and suffers a level of exhaustion.

Any time he eats something that isn't poisonous to him, secretly roll a CON save for him with a DC of 10 or so, and if he fails, then the same thing as above happens.

[Tiadoppler]

He can no longer swallow or digest solid food, and must subsist on liquids. Any poisoning is now drink poisoning.

[DeadMech]

Cant get food poisoning without a mouth.

[Ventruenox]

Undead can't be poisoned. He can die and come back as a zombie.

[Ganymede]

This is a pretty minor wish, I suppose, so the curse should be minor as well. Remember that there are plenty of role-play penalties a character definitely won't want that won't make your player want to immediately reroll a new character.

I'd allow him to be permanently immune to ingested poisons, but the protective enzymes in his mouth and gullet make all food taste and smell like ash.

[Errata]

Doesn't require food or drink to survive, but can't consume any food or drink, including potions. Sounds OK, but in this game getting enough food to survive is never a major game balance obstacle, while not being able to have a party member stabilize you with a healing potion could be rough.

[Tiadoppler]

...he wished he never got food poisoning again...
(emphasis mine)
He has permanent, continuous food poisoning for the rest of his life.

[Laserlight]

He never gets food poisoning again, and alcohol doesn't get him buzzed.

It's a minor-to-trivial wish, let it be a minor curse.

[agnos]

Simple. Make him unable to eat or drink ever again. As a nurse, many people on PEG tubes (where a needle is used to guide a tube through the belly into the stomach) get mouth hungry. Nutritionally, they get everything they need (in addition to the worst case of consistent ****s you’ll ever see) but because they aren’t eating or drinking their mouth gets dry and they want the tactile sensation of eating. Make food and drink a taunt for him in game. Something he doesn’t need but is incapable of enjoying as once it passes his lips it disappears. He needs to have a day’s worth of food disappear into his mouth in order to not suffer exhaustion. Spoiled or not. What matters is amount “eaten.” That way he gets all the smell of food and drink but is entirely denied.

[Azgeroth]

immune to FOOD poisoning, when within 30ft of any food/meal that is not a simple meal (read, porridge/oatmeal or iron rations) roll a con save, or suffer from the poisoned condition for 1 minute..

[Provo]

Make him immune to food poisoning (not poison in general).

Later make a dangerous encounter in a dungeon with poisonous gas. There is a special mushroom that will make players immune to the gas. The shroom's effect is technically a form of food poisoning, so your cursed player can't gain immunity.

Alternatively anything that would cause food poisoning to him now causes petrification (slowly so he has time to visit a priest).

[the_brazenburn]

Cant get food poisoning without a mouth.

Or a throat, or a stomach...

[bc56]

Minor wish, minor curse, I agree

When he eats something that would give him food poisoning, it goes straight through his system undigested. Very awkward at dinner parties. :smallbiggrin:

[Joeggernaut]

Cant get food poisoning without a mouth. Or a throat, or a stomach...
I considered this very first thing, I decided to see if I could be a bit more creative, but couldn't think of one.

immune to FOOD poisoning, when within 30ft of any food/meal that is not a simple meal (read, porridge/oatmeal or iron rations) roll a con save, or suffer from the poisoned condition for 1 minute.
This is a bit more up what I was looking for, but a bit more then I want to curse for a minor wish.

Simple. Make him unable to eat or drink ever again. As a nurse, many people on PEG tubes (where a needle is used to guide a tube through the belly into the stomach) get mouth hungry. Nutritionally, they get everything they need (in addition to the worst case of consistent ****s you’ll ever see) but because they aren’t eating or drinking their mouth gets dry and they want the tactile sensation of eating. Make food and drink a taunt for him in game. Something he doesn’t need but is incapable of enjoying as once it passes his lips it disappears. He needs to have a day’s worth of food disappear into his mouth in order to not suffer exhaustion. Spoiled or not. What matters is amount “eaten.” That way he gets all the smell of food and drink but is entirely denied.
As someone who actually had to deal with this very thing (though not quite as permanent.) as a person, I really like this idea, and will consider this.

This is a pretty minor wish, I suppose, so the curse should be minor as well. Remember that there are plenty of role-play penalties a character definitely won't want that won't make your player want to immediately reroll a new character. I'd allow him to be permanently immune to ingested poisons, but the protective enzymes in his mouth and gullet make all food taste and smell like ash. Sadly, his character is used to eating food that tastes like ash, so that inconvenience wouldn't be as dramatic as I hope.

Any time he eats something that could poison him, he immediately starts vomiting. A lot. He's basically incapacitated for a full 10 minutes, and suffers a level of exhaustion. Any time he eats something that isn't poisonous to him, secretly roll a CON save for him with a DC of 10 or so, and if he fails, then the same thing as above happens.
This is another one I will take into good consideration.:smallsmile:

[DeadMech]

thought about it some more with a slightly more serious attitude.

Give him immunity poison(ingested) or whatever the proper game term for it is these days. It's a neat little wish hardly ever come up in most cases. But... the next time he is hanging out with any important npc make sure the two eat the same thing. Specifically only the two of them. Perhaps a gift arrives, perhaps it's a banquet, something. Turns out a hag or some such evil entity is the one who made the cursed item and at some point has made a deal with the npc. They knew from something the hag said that she would try to poison them so made a habit of only eating things that have been tested or they have seen someone else partake in to no ill effect.

NPC drops dead, or perhaps just into a coma. Their servants or advisors knowing of their curse or at least the npc's paranoia about poisoning notice and point out the wizard ate the same poisoned food. Clearly they were they were trying to assassinate them, with a substance they had built an immunity to or already had taken a cure for.

[willdaBEAST]

Expanding on Deadmech's idea, you could make the PC immune to ingested poisons and that's now his only form of sustenance. Regular food applies the poisoned condition on a failed con save. If you go this route, I'd figure out a way to not make the poison consumption overly expensive.

[Hugh Mann]

What If we take this in the complete opposite direction? Rather than the wish affecting the player it affects all the food on the planet.

Here are some thoughts:
1. Any piece of food that is can potentially cause any sort of food poisoning immediately disintegrates, and any piece of food that spoils to even the lightest degree from here on out disintegrates. This includes foods that would be be safe to eat cooked, but isn't safe while raw. This can cause wide spread stored food across the planet to disappear, and will temporarily cause various famines.

2. Everything on the planet becomes edible, assuming you can chew it and it doesn't lascerate your throats and mouth. Everything can now eat anything. Herbivores can now eat meat, carnivores can eat plants, food allergies cease, and food poisoning is a thing of the past. This seems like a blessing at first, but causes massive environmental and socioeconomic changes.
Animals destroy ecosystems as they can now eat any type of plant they want, thus causing massive animal over population while destroying plant life.
The upper class realizes that the poor can literally survive on poop, which quickly becomes the cheapest and easiest to produce food source on the planet. The competitive market then forces the most other food producers out of business except those that serve the upper class. Fast forward a while and the party has to buy poop instead of trail rations.

3. All food becomes bland flavorless, but healthy, mush. The population quickly spirals into depression at the loss of flavor.

[Eradis]

To keep it simple, you can grant his wish, but any food makes the character nauseous, or any food that isn't the freshest it could be. A loaf of bread made today, no problem; made yesterday, feeling sick, but never throws up.

This could mechanically plays on the PC's short term concentration after eating something or his social encounter as he struggles to keep his composure. Otherwise it stays benign.

You can always go with gasses instead of nausea. The rest will somewhat stay the same penalty-wise.

[Ganymede]

Holy hell, you guys.

Ok... the wish causes the universe to implode; food poisoning can't exist if there's no universe, right?

Then roll up new characters in a different universe that doesn't have this wish granting artifact.

[noob]

Ok... the wish causes the universe to implode; food poisoning can't exist if there's no universe, right?
If only that was true...

[BLC1975]

As a result of the wish one of their low level spells, randomly chosen by DM, is magically replaced with a homebrew "detect poisoned food" spell which is always successful so no need to roll and, due to an obsession about food poisoning, has to be cast before eating and drinking.

[Joeggernaut]

(OP)
Alright guys, you have all given wonderful options. I don't however know how to close my thread, but I have received the information I wanted to get. Thank you so much for being such a great community!