6
\$\begingroup\$

I have a player that's a born lycanthrope (weretiger), that was bitten by a known werebear. one of my other players is planning on casting remove curse on them. Would the caster know that the spell was unsuccessful, or would it be a "weird feeling", or would it be a "find out at the next full moon" thing?

The reason for the question is that the other players don't know that this character is a born weretiger. This player is waiting for an exciting moment or something to unveil their weretigerness and would prefer me to not give anything away, however I don't want to possibly change how remove curse works. If the caster knows it didn't work i can phrase it so they're just confused, until the unveiling of the weretiger, but if they didn't know if it worked then there's nothing to worry about.

Improve this question
\$\endgroup\$
1

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
1
\$\begingroup\$

No. The caster would not immediately be aware of the success or failure of the outcome.

tl;dr the caster would know that the spell was cast properly or not, but does not know the outcome unless it is otherwise observable.

Spell description does not indicate imparting the knowledge to the caster.

Remove curse simply states that curses on the target end. Since spells do what they say they do, and this one does not state any indicators as to the success or failure beyond the effects observable by a curse ending.

No general curse detection in 5e

Generally, the detectable effects of the curse need to be observed to determine if someone or something is cursed. There isn't a general method of detecting curses in 5e.

For lycanthropes, detecting a shapechanger will usually work.

Casting polymorph on the putative lycanthrope would indicate if the target is still a shapechanger or not.

The spell has no effect on a shapechanger

That's an immediate litmus test if it's available.

Improve this answer
\$\endgroup\$
4
  • 2
    \$\begingroup\$ The polymorph test would fail because the character was a shape-changer even before being bitten. \$\endgroup\$
    – Davo
    Jan 17, 2019 at 20:45
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Davo The failure to polymorph would indicate remove curse did not cure the lycanthropy as the target remains a shapechanger. Basically, since the target is not polymorphable after remove curse, the remove curse did not cure the lycanthropy. \$\endgroup\$
    – GcL
    Jan 17, 2019 at 20:48
  • \$\begingroup\$ But the question is about a natural born weretiger who was later bit by a werebear. The test would fail even before being bit, and so is no test at all (on the example given in the original question). \$\endgroup\$
    – Davo
    Jan 17, 2019 at 20:50
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ @Davo I see. I must have misread the question. Assuming one could be affected by the same curse twice and that they stack in such a fashion, you're correct. Polymorph would not be indicative under these house rules. \$\endgroup\$
    – GcL
    Jan 17, 2019 at 20:57
1
\$\begingroup\$

5E has no feedback for a caster to know (other than observation) if a spell was successful. See this question.

However, note that Remove Curse would cure the bite-induced lycanthropy of the were-bear, but not the birth-induced lycanthropy of the were-tiger.

See this answer to a similar question:

From page 206 of the Monster Manual:

A remove curse spell can rid an afflicted lycanthrope of the curse, but a natural born lycanthrope can be freed of the curse only with a wish.

Improve this answer
\$\endgroup\$
0

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .