As part of my "tragic background" I want to give a character a status that motivates the PC to take up arms and go out for a cure. "Petrified" is the first status that came to mind, because it does not have a deadline, and can be assumed in world to be curable (or at least, has a monster inflict the status that you can hunt and hope has a cure). However, as it looks pretty "easy" to cure, in that a cleric with diamond dust (I know, can be made to be hard to obtain) can kind of just remove it (yes, needs to be level 9 and all that), and, if the character is cured through that method, the PC loses motivation to actually hunt the monster. So I'm looking to find a status that is petrification-like, or at least almost as incapacitating, that the party with its current makeup can't just be able to fix once they hit level 9.

This sounds very much like I want to have my cake and eat it too, I know. For clarification, I'm a player in the campaign (has not started yet), and I would like to present my motivation in a way that does not require the DM to alter the setting (or make my motivation a priority over the group, part of the benefit of having no deadline to cure "Petrification") to accommodate something like diamonds being rare (I don't like to be a bother). And yes, there is a cleric in the party (not me), so my current iteration of the character's motivation kind of falls apart once a cure is found, and I would like it to not be a nothing event. Obviously, I might iterate on the origin even if something fitting all my wants and desires does exist, and if there is nothing more fitting, I need to think about adding a secondary motivation that would/could keep my character in the party post-cure.

Thank you for any help you can offer. I love you. (Also, if this is the wrong thread, please let me know. It feels the most appropriate to me.)

Quote from Pretelethal49 >>

So I'm looking to find a status that is petrification-like, or at least almost as incapacitating, that the party with its current makeup can't just be able to fix once they hit level 9.

 Anything you can think of (possibly including being turned to stone) maintained by an artifact whose powers include stopping spells from stopping its powers, so the only option for overcoming it is by following the quest the DM laid down to do so.

For a backstory, freeing someone from petrification is a pretty solid motivation. You don’t really need any more. It’s not really all that easy. I suppose it’s campaign dependent, but there’s not often lots of level 9 clerics roaming around. And for non-PCs, diamond dust is also going to be very rare to come by. 
So, your motivation got you out the door. It’s still going to be a while before you are able to get the spell cast (assuming both you and the cleric live that long. also assuming you aren’t starting at level 8 or something). And by the time you are able to cure it, your character is, ideally, neck-deep in the main plot. So even though you’re able to free your whoever it is that’s a statue, by that point, you should have plenty of other reasons to continue adventuring. If nothing else, you should feel like you owe the cleric, and want to help them with whatever they’re doing.

In short, motivation is only to get you out the door, and you’ve got that. Don’t try to plan your character’s entire arc before you even start playing — that’s the whole point of playing. 

Banishing to another plane of existence comes to mind (aka Deck of Many Things: Donjon) or entraping the soul of the player in an object (Deck of Many Things: The Void).

I would use a curse for effects like this; while the remove curse spell can remove common curses inflicted by spells, or break attunement to cursed magic items, more serious curses are narrative devices and entirely up to your DM, otherwise ending the Curse of Strahd would be ridiculously easy for any party with the right spellcaster.

Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft has a nice section on curses and how to handle them, but it basically amounts to deciding why/how it was inflicted, why the effect of the curse is appropriate with that in mind, and how to end it. For example if you're cursed for refusing to give alms to a beggar, you might be cursed to have a ghoulish appearance until you perform an act of real generosity, like giving away all of your personal wealth.

With that kind of framework you can still have the curse involve petrification, so at best greater restoration might only give you a temporary reprieve for the day before the curse reasserts itself, e.g- at midnight. So you've always got the motivation even if there are workarounds so that you're not completely screwed if you take too long.

But really I guess it just amounts to "don't focus on the mechanics too much, make it a narrative device agreed with your DM, or left up to them".

I wish I could just delete this.

I don't understand how threads work.

Quote from Xalthu >>

For a backstory, freeing someone from petrification is a pretty solid motivation. You don’t really need any more. It’s not really all that easy. I suppose it’s campaign dependent, but there’s not often lots of level 9 clerics roaming around. And for non-PCs, diamond dust is also going to be very rare to come by. 
So, your motivation got you out the door. It’s still going to be a while before you are able to get the spell cast (assuming both you and the cleric live that long. also assuming you aren’t starting at level 8 or something). And by the time you are able to cure it, your character is, ideally, neck-deep in the main plot. So even though you’re able to free your whoever it is that’s a statue, by that point, you should have plenty of other reasons to continue adventuring. If nothing else, you should feel like you owe the cleric, and want to help them with whatever they’re doing.

In short, motivation is only to get you out the door, and you’ve got that. Don’t try to plan your character’s entire arc before you even start playing — that’s the whole point of playing. 

 In general, I do agree with the sentiment, and by no means am I intending to plan anything beyond the background . The crux of my concern (in relation to your response) is that there won't be a main plot (according to the DM), so, after whichever point I do have access to a level 9 cleric (who would be the player in our party that is a cleric), there could straight up not be any current conflict to justify continuing in the party. And I would be fine with the character, in that instance, leaving the party, if it fits, but I, as the person, would like the resolution to not occur passively, if that makes sense.

I think it's a very fine line, if there is a line at all, between being a satisfying finale and a contrived one.

Again, thank you. It probably reads like I'm completely disagreeing with you, but it has helped a lot with my processing to read your response.

Quote from Haravikk >>

I would use a curse for effects like this; while the remove curse spell can remove common curses inflicted by spells, or break attunement to cursed magic items, more serious curses are narrative devices and entirely up to your DM, otherwise ending the Curse of Strahd would be ridiculously easy for any party with the right spellcaster.

Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft has a nice section on curses and how to handle them, but it basically amounts to deciding why/how it was inflicted, why the effect of the curse is appropriate with that in mind, and how to end it. For example if you're cursed for refusing to give alms to a beggar, you might be cursed to have a ghoulish appearance until you perform an act of real generosity, like giving away all of your personal wealth.

With that kind of framework you can still have the curse involve petrification, so at best greater restoration might only give you a temporary reprieve for the day before the curse reasserts itself, e.g- at midnight. So you've always got the motivation even if there are workarounds so that you're not completely screwed if you take too long.

But really I guess it just amounts to "don't focus on the mechanics too much, make it a narrative device agreed with your DM, or left up to them".

I would love to not focus on the mechanics, but the DM appears to want to keep things "by the book." Which I have no problem with, I think the constraints help.

The curse route seems like a great one for me to explore, since it also fits my character's inherent lack of knowledge about magic, while still creating a problem that they would hope they can fix, and would require intent to actually solve (which was my big concern with petrification [being able to potentially just have the components to fix it without making a concerted effort]).

Thanks for the references. If I do go with a curse, I will probably leave it up to the DM to decided how it's resolved/nuances (as again, my character shouldn't have any idea, and therefore me knowing would "break immersion").

Another one aside from petrification could be to look for a cure to a magical slumber or powerful charm effect. Or dreadful curse, poison, disease or madness of some kind.

Quote from Pretelethal49 >>

Quote from Xalthu >>

For a backstory, freeing someone from petrification is a pretty solid motivation. You don’t really need any more. It’s not really all that easy. I suppose it’s campaign dependent, but there’s not often lots of level 9 clerics roaming around. And for non-PCs, diamond dust is also going to be very rare to come by. 
So, your motivation got you out the door. It’s still going to be a while before you are able to get the spell cast (assuming both you and the cleric live that long. also assuming you aren’t starting at level 8 or something). And by the time you are able to cure it, your character is, ideally, neck-deep in the main plot. So even though you’re able to free your whoever it is that’s a statue, by that point, you should have plenty of other reasons to continue adventuring. If nothing else, you should feel like you owe the cleric, and want to help them with whatever they’re doing.

In short, motivation is only to get you out the door, and you’ve got that. Don’t try to plan your character’s entire arc before you even start playing — that’s the whole point of playing. 

 In general, I do agree with the sentiment, and by no means am I intending to plan anything beyond the background . The crux of my concern (in relation to your response) is that there won't be a main plot (according to the DM), so, after whichever point I do have access to a level 9 cleric (who would be the player in our party that is a cleric), there could straight up not be any current conflict to justify continuing in the party. And I would be fine with the character, in that instance, leaving the party, if it fits, but I, as the person, would like the resolution to not occur passively, if that makes sense.

I think it's a very fine line, if there is a line at all, between being a satisfying finale and a contrived one.

Again, thank you. It probably reads like I'm completely disagreeing with you, but it has helped a lot with my processing to read your response.

 I get what you are saying. But there also comes a point where you can overthink these things. It’s a game, not the next great fantasy novel where every character needs motivations or the reader will start to poke at plot holes. There are no readers, and no one will question your motivations unless you do. Bob sitting next to you at the table won’t start giving you side-eye because your character’s backstory quest has been resolved and you no longer have a reason to be out in the world. Just play along with the game. Maybe your character decides they just like the life of an adventurer. Maybe they want to help the party members who’ve become close friends. Not everything needs to be so deeply literary.

And I don’t mean this to sound like you are doing D&D wrong. If deeply literary is what fun for you, then that’s absolutely the way you should play. I’m just trying to suggest that it seems to be causing you some sort of problem coming up with these ideas — otherwise why ask for help from the internet. And games are supposed to be a relief from problems, not the source of them. So just letting it go is ok, too. Intricate backstories with lots of plot hooks can be fun. But you can have plenty of fun with a character with no backstory at all.

I don't know what level you are starting at, but I assume level 9 is pretty far away. In that time your character could form new reasons to continue to be an adventurer with looking for a cure only be what started you off. Or it could require you to fight the thing that caused the petrification to truly be safe which could require a higher level.

Most stuff that can't be cured by 5th level spellcasters will need to be run by the DM: Curses or diseases that resist magic, effects of powerful magic items, divine intervention, soul trapping, etc.

I assume the afflicted character is not the PC, since it would be hard to be an adventurer while petrified. If it's acceptable for the afflicted character to be unable to take actions, the hardest RAW affliction to cure is imprisonment, though a plot device can be arbitrarily hard.

Quote from Pantagruel666 >>

I assume the afflicted character is not the PC, since it would be hard to be an adventurer while petrified. If it's acceptable for the afflicted character to be unable to take actions, the hardest RAW affliction to cure is imprisonment, though a plot device can be arbitrarily hard.

TBH, a character whose backstory is that they've been petrified for X numbers of years (maybe their very first adventure went very poorly?), mysteriously got restored and are now out trying to find out a) who restored them, b) why, and c) what happened to their loved ones while they were a statue sounds pretty dope if you can pull off the "wait, didn't this tavern have a different name?" time dislocation shenanigans

Gosh, you guys have been helping me save my petrified friend for 9 levels, I'm so grateful, I feel like helping you out with whatever it is that you're doing now, as way of saying thanks.