I have a friend(deception roll 23) who's party includes a Dwarf with some very specific anxieties about his beard. This Dwarf will avoid sleep to the point of exhaustion for fear of the beard becoming wet when camping during rainy weather, avoid fire for fear of the beard becoming singed, and in general cannot stop obsessing over his beard or other party members' lack of facial hair.
My friend is a healer who isn't so much immoral as Amoral. Of the 9 allignment choices he lines up most closely with lawful neutral. He struggles with understanding others and their motives (low wisdom), lacks most social considerations, and generally only sees actions rather than intent. He has come to the conclusion that the best way to solve this issue is to remove the source of anxiety entirely. What he has been looking for in his free time is a way to not just permanently remove said beard, but also relieve the character of his obsession with it, which he perceives as a healer to be a kind of illness.
A spell to remove the beard might cause greater sadness, so simply cursing said character to lose his beard would constitute doing harm, as well as potentially disrupt the party that has proven quite effective in helping said healer gather information on his ancestry and amass resources to help promote a peaceful way of life for all around. In an ideal situation we are looking for something to compel said dwarf to not care for beards and actively shave it off and keep it off. My Amoral friend is ok with the dwarf keeping sideburns and a mustache because he never expresses fear about something happening to either of those or derides the rest of the party for not having them.
I would think that Wish would work, but finding someone powerful enough to cast wish, willing to accept the side effects, and not likely to charge a small city state's entire reserves for what amounts to magical behaviour therapy seems unlikely. While certainly magical, I would define the effects of "has no beard and doesn't care" or "will suffer no beard upon his face" as relatively mundane in the scope of a magical item or effect, with the permanence being the sticky wicket.
Wish sounds good to me. Gives a quest (find and convince capable caster, maybe be their errand boy for a few adventures), players can want and work towards what they want, dm can be lenient and just allow the caster to be wise enough to understand what the player wants and translate that to a safe accurate wish(or not if he has a grudge against the party)
Looking for solutions from the player base.
I have a friend(deception roll 23) who's party includes a Dwarf with some very specific anxieties about his beard. This Dwarf will avoid sleep to the point of exhaustion for fear of the beard becoming wet when camping during rainy weather, avoid fire for fear of the beard becoming singed, and in general cannot stop obsessing over his beard or other party members' lack of facial hair.
My friend is a healer who isn't so much immoral as Amoral. Of the 9 allignment choices he lines up most closely with lawful neutral. He struggles with understanding others and their motives (low wisdom), lacks most social considerations, and generally only sees actions rather than intent. He has come to the conclusion that the best way to solve this issue is to remove the source of anxiety entirely. What he has been looking for in his free time is a way to not just permanently remove said beard, but also relieve the character of his obsession with it, which he perceives as a healer to be a kind of illness.
A spell to remove the beard might cause greater sadness, so simply cursing said character to lose his beard would constitute doing harm, as well as potentially disrupt the party that has proven quite effective in helping said healer gather information on his ancestry and amass resources to help promote a peaceful way of life for all around. In an ideal situation we are looking for something to compel said dwarf to not care for beards and actively shave it off and keep it off. My Amoral friend is ok with the dwarf keeping sideburns and a mustache because he never expresses fear about something happening to either of those or derides the rest of the party for not having them.
I would think that Wish would work, but finding someone powerful enough to cast wish, willing to accept the side effects, and not likely to charge a small city state's entire reserves for what amounts to magical behaviour therapy seems unlikely. While certainly magical, I would define the effects of "has no beard and doesn't care" or "will suffer no beard upon his face" as relatively mundane in the scope of a magical item or effect, with the permanence being the sticky wicket.
Any suggestions from the community?
Wish sounds good to me. Gives a quest (find and convince capable caster, maybe be their errand boy for a few adventures), players can want and work towards what they want, dm can be lenient and just allow the caster to be wise enough to understand what the player wants and translate that to a safe accurate wish(or not if he has a grudge against the party)
Not all solutions need to be immediate