You can customize the number of times that you enter an incorrect password before you get the password hint in the loginwindow on OS X. To do so, use the defaults command to send a RetriesUntilHint integer key into com.apple.loginwindow.plist stored at /Library/Preferences using the following command:
defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow RetriesUntilHint -integer 10
