What Do You Limit With Wishes?

[Sugashane]

Do you allow feats or class abilities to be granted via Wish or Miracle? I have seen a character gain the regeneration ability of a troll, though it did alter his body to a degree where he had a green tint to his skin, as his blood was green. (Doesn't sound like much but get attacked in public and guess the hysterics when you bleed green). Most often I have seen it used almost as a "Greater Permanency" so it can make certain abilities permanent that are not listed.

Just wondering what the people in the Playground have/would like to use Wish or Miracle for if the backfire risk was minimal.

[SciChronic]

i don't limit it that much, but i turn wishes into monkey's paw situations.

[NichG]

I tend to play in and run games where (for better or worse) the spell Wish eventually becomes an unlimited thing or is only limited by wealth availability. As such, something like gaining a permanent feat or class ability at no other cost would be really over the top (for the same reason, invention of new slotless magic items is strictly forbidden).

The way I'd run gaining a permanent racial ability is via the Savage Species 'change your race' ritual, which is basically Wish. You can get a troll's regen but you pay the portion of the troll's LA that covers the regen ability. You can retrain a level to get a new class ability (losing an old one...), and so on.

Of course, its also useful to have the occasional 'true wish' in such games that comes at a steep cost to the provider or just can't be replicated by mortal magic. If for example a deity drops a divine rank permanently to give you a 'true wish' for great deeds, ask away for anything up to 'I'd like that divine rank you just burned', and it won't get twisted or denied.

[Emperor Tippy]

It depends a ton on the game, the character, the level, the type of game, what is desired, etc. I don't really have any hard and fast rules.

[BWR]

This hasn't come up more than a few times in games I've played.
First time, the PC got a magic ring, unidentified, and wanted breakfast.
Bing! breakfast.
He went to get the ring identified and the shopkeeper said "sorry, all magic is used up".
"No, look at this. I want breakfast"
Bing! Breakfast. And that was the last wish.

Second time I had gotten hold of a wishblade, and we were hunting the lich that was a problem in our fiefdom. I carefully worded the wish to take it out, covering every loophole we could think of. We spent hours IRL wording it, and in game did this a week or so before finding the lich, just to cover our bases and make sure there wouldn't be any chance of fumbling the wording or casting.
The DM ruled that the lich's ring of spell turning worked just fine.

Personally, if PCs ever get hold of such magic in my games, I am not about to let them get away with everything. Wish/Miracle can go above and beyond other spell effects or magic items, but if it were easy then every caster capable of using them would have extra abilities all over the place.
In the case of getting feats...if we use 3.5 rules, I might just allow it. You are paying a bit of xp for it, after all. In PF, I would probably rule that you need something like 1 Wish/Miracle for access to the feat, and another to make it permanent. Otherwise it would disappear over time.

Unless the wish was very overpowered or you are in Ravenloft or it's granted by a fiend/evil god or something, I wouldn't intentionally try to screw players over on the wording or effect. Once you have something awesome like that, it ruins the fun if you can never use it because it's expensive and never does what you want.

[Alleran]

A character in my games wanted to experiment with wish spells and similar to get a permanent, supernatural shapechange spell. I eventually allowed it, since they were pushing 20th level. However, I also ruled that the consistent magical experimentation warped the character's psyche, pushing them to chaotic neutral and prone to bouts of madness.

Even if the individual spells weren't necessarily outside the power of the wish, the sum total was. And I like the concept that magic will ultimately have a price if you start experimenting like that.

[Yogibear41]

Recently in a game I play in 3 characters made a deal with a devil for 3 powerful abilities, DM later said that it was essentially a wish spell powered by their souls.

Half-Giant, Half-Troll wished to have his LA removed

Rogue wished for permanent true strike AKA +20 to hit on every attack

Wizard wished to become a chosen of mystra( modified slightly for out campaign setting, think he just lost out on the silver fire part)

[Alleran]

Wizard wished to become a chosen of mystra( modified slightly for out campaign setting, think he just lost out on the silver fire part)
Really? The silver fire is probably the weakest part of the entire template - the SLAs outstrip it by orders of magnitude.

[Krobar]

I don't have any hard and fast rules on this. I look at every one on a case-by-case basis.

That said, if it breaks my game, then no. If it doesn't break my game, then you'll probably get what you wish for.

But in some games, if you wish for one gold piece you will get it, but an epic great red wyrm 80th level sorcerer/60th level cleric of Tiamat will immediately come after you for stealing Tiamat's favorite gold piece.