Wish

[Kyberwulf]

I am not really sure why everyone is gaga about getting these in D&D. (3.5) Most of the abilities the wish grants seems pointless, as People that can cast them can pretty much do whatever the spell says anyway, or have access to someone that can do it for them.
I mean without the DM messing anything. Most of it seems pretty standard.
I mean even the wishing for Higher ability scores seems limited. I mean to get higher than a +1 Bonus needs more than one wish in a certain time. And the bonus being an inherent one means it doesn't stack with other Inherent bonuses.
You can cast any level spell up to 8 that isn't prohibited to you.
It has limits on the money and item it can make for you. Even magical ones.

I mean for it to be even remotely awesome, opens it up for Realty to lay the smack down on it. (I.e. The Dm has the power to mess with your wish.)

All in all, it doesn't seem to be the end all and be all of spells.

[Carth]

Wish is useful because it isn't difficult to get someone else to cast it for you, thus avoiding its EXP cost.

[TuggyNE]

It's mostly useful for two things in high optimization: extreme flexibility, and teleporting past any and all barriers. As far as I know, there is no way to prevent, delay, or particularly penalize someone who wishes their way into a specific area, and that kind of Yes button is quite useful.

[Alleran]

As far as I know, there is no way to prevent, delay, or particularly penalize someone who wishes their way into a specific area, and that kind of Yes button is quite useful.
Pretty much. It doesn't matter what local conditions (read: defenses) somebody tries to throw up - a wish will blow right past them like they're not even there. Not even divine abilities can block it, off the top of my head. Of course, if you did something stupid like wishing yourself to the middle of a dead magic zone, you'd need somebody else to wishport you back out again.

There are also several other tricks that a wish can pull off, scattered through 3E/3.5e (spell descriptions, etc.). I was putting together a list of everything a wish could do by RAW at one point (including stuff in Dragon and Dungeon), but never finished it.

[ahenobarbi]

There isn't limit on magic item creation. This allows you to create magic item cheaply, quickly and without having crafting feat.

It gives you access to spells that you couldn't normally cast. This is very good sometimes.

Getting +5 inherent bonus in primary casting stat is very worth 25000 XP.

Also you can have wishes without paying XP :smalltongue:

[Frozen_Feet]

The joke with Wishes is that you can cheat your way into getting them (from items, bound creatures etc.) much earlier than you'd actually get high-level spells yourself - allowing you to replicate high-level effects and break the game.

See various Pun-Pun stories that abuse Candle of Invocation for an example.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Wish itself isn't what everyone's after. It's free wishes that are awesome-tastic. There are several ways to get wish as a spell-like or supernatural ability. Once you've accomplished that, RAW allows you to wish for any magic item you want with no limitations on cost or what it can do. If you have wish as a SP or SU you can wish for a ring of three wishes to give to your friend. You can wish for any staff you like and get all the spells contained therein "just because." The only limit is that you can't wish up an item that can't exist or an artifact.

Basically, wish as a SP or SU says that the only limit on what you can do is DM fiat.

Even if you're not willing to build to accomplish this, certain creatures have wish as a SP or SU built right in.

In the cases of creatures that have it as an SU, you can simply shapechange into one and use the SU.

Many of the creatures that have it as a SP are valid targets for calling spells. Calling one of these creatures affords the opportunity to trade one of these unlimited wishes for a favor, though this is far more subject to DM interference than the shapechange - SU wish method. (Popular belief says that gate lets you force a wish out of such a creature. This is not true. We're having a discussion on it in the thread "Why are solars seemingly the preffered choice for gate," if anyone would like to see why this is or debate the veracity of this statment.)

The actual spell is reasonably balanced by its XP costs and nothing to write home about.

[Cruiser1]

There isn't limit on magic item creation. This allows you to create magic item cheaply, quickly and without having crafting feat.
And with a little preparation, you can also wish for items that cast Wish, i.e. effectively Wish for infinite Wishes (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=268501). And that's without abusing Wish as a (Sp) or (Su) ability, or depending on creatures with such abilities. :smalltongue: