So I have a player whose character is a Half Elf that was cursed to now appear as an Aaracokra. They were made when Aaracokra race page indicated they had a more limited lifespan of about 30-35 years. The aim of the player is to have the curse lifted (Which requires god level magic put simply) before this half elven woman with a lifespan of hundreds of years dies at the young age of 35. (This is the backstory and personal mission she chose for herself)
The problem is that the party seems to not give much care to it(or at least 1 problem player isn't caring and the rest are going along with it cause they are a problem player and they don't want them to keep arguing) So things that this player needs to do are being overlooked. So, I've been putting more emphasis in the narrative about how fast she's aging and how poorly she's appearing, But now I have to make a big statement.
The player and I have already discussed how she will start to combat more "Age related" problems over time; such as occasionally making intelligence checks to see if she had forgotten something important. I want the party to have to deal with this character having a heart attack. Cure wounds will not be allowed to work, because heart failure (While damaging) is not a wound. And while Lesser res. could potentially stave off a heart attack (Heart disease etc.) it wouldn't stop a heart attack once begun so this is a strictly medicine based check.
As no one is really proficient in Medicine (and the PC is a Rogue) i'm setting the DC as 15 for both the med. check and the PC's Con save to resist the heart attack.
If it's a 1 then the PC's HP is reduced to 0 and just starts making death saving throws.
If succeeded, it's more like a seizure than a heart attack and the party just needs to keep the PC from hurting themselves, or use Lesser res.
If the dc is failed and not a 1 then it's a full blown attack. The pc's HP is reduced by 1 d 6 every second and the party is going to need to restart the PC's heart and Breathing w/ the med check.
I've applied the rule that as long as the Pc's health is no 0, then the party can keep buying time for the PC to make another con save, but the DC will increase by 2 for each failure.
While I haven't discussed doing this with the player, she does understand that things like this can and will occur given certain circumstances. I want to instill the urgency of the matter into the other players and, while I think i'm doing that with this, I also don't want to kill the PC by accident in an OP attempt to just remind the "Problem player(s)" that there is other people at the table with wants and desires for their game experience I want to accommodate as well.
I think there may be a communications issue between you and the players. The half-elf was cursed to be an Aarakokra with a lifespan of 30-35 years. Unless you have changed your 5e campaign using gritty realism, characters can often reach level 20 in weeks of adventuring depending on what you have them do and the rate at which they level up. Even in a slow 5e game, leveling is still quite quick. As a result, the characters may think they have some time to get more powerful in order to more effectively deal with this curse.
In addition, have you told the half-elf that they are now in the body of a 35 year old Aarakokra on the verge of death? If the half-elf was 20 years old when cursed, then if done proportionally they might be a 10 year old Aarakokra. If the number was just transferred in terms of age then a 20 year old half elf would be a 20 year old Aarakokra with 10-15 YEARS left to solve their problem. Urgent but not critically so. If the half-elf was 60 and the age was just tranferred over then they are already dead and you can just have them make a new character.
Basically, the heart attack idea really doesn't make any sense to me. In addition, the idea appears to punish the character who has the curse, who wants to cure it and who is presumably already taking actions to do so. I'm also not sure why you think this will solve the situation with your "problem" player - they seem to me to be the type who will say "Ooops, didn't work out for you" when the character dies of their heart attack then say "Better roll up a new character" then continue playing exactly the same way.
It is rarely a good idea to try to solve real world problems with in game consequences. If there is a problem with the players, talk to the players, don't try to make the players change how they play by penalizing or otherwise creating uncomfortable situations for the characters. The players often don't have a clue why the bad thing is happening. The DM may have an idea what they are trying to do but often the players do not.
TL;DR - I have no idea where "overpowered" (which is the usual definition of OP in this context) comes into this question, however, in my opinion, yes it is a step too far and not the best way to handle the in game situation.
The problem player (and the others) have made it clear that the PC's curse is not something they care to focus on. There is a very real likelihood that this heart attack gambit will turn into them leaving the cursed PC to die and moving on without her, which will just make the half-elf player feel worse. Don't do it.
You can't manufacture buy-in, and for this heart attack to work, the other players have to have motivation to get involved. Contriving a dramatic scenario will not force characters (or players) to care unless they already want to care. So far, they don't. And as David42 said, this isn't an in-game problem, it's a player problem. Trying to fix player problems in-game almost never works out well.
I strongly recommend having a conversation with your players privately about how they feel the game is going. Perhaps they aren't getting invested because they'd rather play the game another way, or perhaps the cursed character isn't striking the right tone, or even perhaps you've got a selfish jerk at the table who doesn't know that D&D is a cooperative game where everyone gets their turn in the limelight. Get to the root of the dysfunction rather than try to use the story to create behavior you want out of your players. Open communication and clear expectations are key.
It sounds like you're punishing the players for being uninterested in your prescribed story. I'd recommend NOT doing that. (especially if you planned to do it without buy-in from the cursed player).
However, you could reframe it so that it can be more palatable. Limiting the cure to "god-like" powers only probably put the players off from trying. Unless they're close to 20th level, that seems impossible.
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I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
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So I have a player whose character is a Half Elf that was cursed to now appear as an Aaracokra. They were made when Aaracokra race page indicated they had a more limited lifespan of about 30-35 years. The aim of the player is to have the curse lifted (Which requires god level magic put simply) before this half elven woman with a lifespan of hundreds of years dies at the young age of 35. (This is the backstory and personal mission she chose for herself)
The problem is that the party seems to not give much care to it(or at least 1 problem player isn't caring and the rest are going along with it cause they are a problem player and they don't want them to keep arguing) So things that this player needs to do are being overlooked. So, I've been putting more emphasis in the narrative about how fast she's aging and how poorly she's appearing, But now I have to make a big statement.
The player and I have already discussed how she will start to combat more "Age related" problems over time; such as occasionally making intelligence checks to see if she had forgotten something important. I want the party to have to deal with this character having a heart attack. Cure wounds will not be allowed to work, because heart failure (While damaging) is not a wound. And while Lesser res. could potentially stave off a heart attack (Heart disease etc.) it wouldn't stop a heart attack once begun so this is a strictly medicine based check.
As no one is really proficient in Medicine (and the PC is a Rogue) i'm setting the DC as 15 for both the med. check and the PC's Con save to resist the heart attack.
If it's a 1 then the PC's HP is reduced to 0 and just starts making death saving throws.
If succeeded, it's more like a seizure than a heart attack and the party just needs to keep the PC from hurting themselves, or use Lesser res.
If the dc is failed and not a 1 then it's a full blown attack. The pc's HP is reduced by 1 d 6 every second and the party is going to need to restart the PC's heart and Breathing w/ the med check.
I've applied the rule that as long as the Pc's health is no 0, then the party can keep buying time for the PC to make another con save, but the DC will increase by 2 for each failure.
While I haven't discussed doing this with the player, she does understand that things like this can and will occur given certain circumstances. I want to instill the urgency of the matter into the other players and, while I think i'm doing that with this, I also don't want to kill the PC by accident in an OP attempt to just remind the "Problem player(s)" that there is other people at the table with wants and desires for their game experience I want to accommodate as well.
I think there may be a communications issue between you and the players. The half-elf was cursed to be an Aarakokra with a lifespan of 30-35 years. Unless you have changed your 5e campaign using gritty realism, characters can often reach level 20 in weeks of adventuring depending on what you have them do and the rate at which they level up. Even in a slow 5e game, leveling is still quite quick. As a result, the characters may think they have some time to get more powerful in order to more effectively deal with this curse.
In addition, have you told the half-elf that they are now in the body of a 35 year old Aarakokra on the verge of death? If the half-elf was 20 years old when cursed, then if done proportionally they might be a 10 year old Aarakokra. If the number was just transferred in terms of age then a 20 year old half elf would be a 20 year old Aarakokra with 10-15 YEARS left to solve their problem. Urgent but not critically so. If the half-elf was 60 and the age was just tranferred over then they are already dead and you can just have them make a new character.
Basically, the heart attack idea really doesn't make any sense to me. In addition, the idea appears to punish the character who has the curse, who wants to cure it and who is presumably already taking actions to do so. I'm also not sure why you think this will solve the situation with your "problem" player - they seem to me to be the type who will say "Ooops, didn't work out for you" when the character dies of their heart attack then say "Better roll up a new character" then continue playing exactly the same way.
It is rarely a good idea to try to solve real world problems with in game consequences. If there is a problem with the players, talk to the players, don't try to make the players change how they play by penalizing or otherwise creating uncomfortable situations for the characters. The players often don't have a clue why the bad thing is happening. The DM may have an idea what they are trying to do but often the players do not.
TL;DR - I have no idea where "overpowered" (which is the usual definition of OP in this context) comes into this question, however, in my opinion, yes it is a step too far and not the best way to handle the in game situation.
The problem player (and the others) have made it clear that the PC's curse is not something they care to focus on. There is a very real likelihood that this heart attack gambit will turn into them leaving the cursed PC to die and moving on without her, which will just make the half-elf player feel worse. Don't do it.
You can't manufacture buy-in, and for this heart attack to work, the other players have to have motivation to get involved. Contriving a dramatic scenario will not force characters (or players) to care unless they already want to care. So far, they don't. And as David42 said, this isn't an in-game problem, it's a player problem. Trying to fix player problems in-game almost never works out well.
I strongly recommend having a conversation with your players privately about how they feel the game is going. Perhaps they aren't getting invested because they'd rather play the game another way, or perhaps the cursed character isn't striking the right tone, or even perhaps you've got a selfish jerk at the table who doesn't know that D&D is a cooperative game where everyone gets their turn in the limelight. Get to the root of the dysfunction rather than try to use the story to create behavior you want out of your players. Open communication and clear expectations are key.
It sounds like you're punishing the players for being uninterested in your prescribed story. I'd recommend NOT doing that. (especially if you planned to do it without buy-in from the cursed player).
However, you could reframe it so that it can be more palatable. Limiting the cure to "god-like" powers only probably put the players off from trying. Unless they're close to 20th level, that seems impossible.
I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?