How to involve the trickster genie?

[evisiron]

As a light hearted side quest in my campaign I was considering including a genie who has been taunting a town with the promise of 3 wishes, but will inevitably switch to taunting and following the adventurers after they breeze through.

I am all for giving them their wishes is they successfully catch him, but it needs to be appropriately difficult and I'm unsure on how to play it out and how they will try to catch him.

Is there much you can to to bait a genie into showing himself?

I feel like the players best chance is to beat him with non lethal damage then trap him in some kind of Gaseous Form/whirlwind proof prison, but what other methods would work well?

[HalfQuart]

What is the level and class makeup of your party? And I'm unclear if "trickster genie" is referring to a particular kind of monster that I'm unfamiliar with, or if it is just the personality of a specific noble djinni.

[ryu]

Use a girl calling out as completely gullible and ready to start wishing as bait, it's actually an alter selfed party member, trap both inside a force cage and reinforce with a wind wall, and dimensional lock, or anchor if necessary.

[Galvin]

Lure the genie with a seemingly stupid, gullible farmer that heard rumors of a magical spirit granting wishes. Then, when the genie appears, trap with forge cage and dimension lock. If the genie is honorable, he will give the wishes now, as he has been caught.

If the genie is not honorable he will probably try to escape, or at least "creatively" interpret the wording. Such as thinking raise ment Raze. :smallamused: oh great genie! Raze my intelligence! :smalltongue:

[ryu]

Lure the genie with a seemingly stupid, gullible farmer that heard rumors of a magical spirit granting wishes. Then, when the genie appears, trap with forge cage and dimension lock. If the genie is honorable, he will give the wishes now, as he has been caught.

If the genie is not honorable he will probably try to escape, or at least "creatively" interpret the wording. Such as thinking raise ment Raze. :smallamused: oh great genie! Raze my intelligence! :smalltongue:

Such shenanigans are why the first wish must ALWAYS be that all wishes including this first one are to be fulfilled to the spirit and letter of the word.

[Galvin]

Such shenanigans are why the first wish must ALWAYS be that all wishes including this first one are to be fulfilled to the spirit and letter of the word.

That's one way to get the most out of two wishes, though you would sacrifice one wish to get two safe wishes, instead of three unsafe wishes.

This genie sounds like a childish genie, Chaotic Neutral, but leans towards Good more than Evil, so I don't think that his particular genie would fool around with the wording. Other genies would, though.

Remember to set limits for your players and yourself about what you will let your players do with the wishes the genie can grant then. Read the wish description, it's sorta written so wish isn't the most ab usable spell in the game (that's Polymorph and Object).

[ryu]

Do it anyway. The genie could be putting up a front and I don't think the risk of letting a stranger rewrite reality specifically to screw with you is ever worth it.

[Galvin]

My Advice on Running it:

1. Townsfolk tell PCs about the genie, make a point to tell that it likes to taunt the poor and gullible... blah blah blah...

2. Genie takes interest in the PCs, being curious with mortals.

3. PCs notice genie following them, try to confront, genie flees.

4. By making use of the genie's weaknesses, capture genie.

5. Spend 3 Wishes

6. Genie goes free.

Remember you probably have more party members than wishes.