Wishes and Miracles

[Blackjackg]

Something bothers me about the way wishes and miracles get handled in D&D 3.5 (in the case of wishes, of course, older editions are just as bad, but still). Allowing wizards and clerics to create their own mindboggling wonders takes away so much of the mystique of these classic elements of heroic fantasy and makes them a routine element of strategy. As a DM, that disappoints me. So here are a couple of ideas to change things up to try and recapture these elements of the game. Most of these ideas have probably been suggested by others before me, but I flatter myself to think that I may have come up with at least one new idea, so I'd appreciate if you bear with me.

First of all, we can the spells Wish, Limited Wish and Miracle. They're gone, forgotten. Does this take a little power away from spellcasters? Sure, but they're almost all tier one. They can afford it.

Wishes

Wishes still exist, but instead of being spells that can be cast by powerful mortals for a nominal XP fee, they can only be granted by three sources:

1. Gods
2. Artifacts (including lesser artifacts)
3. Certain outsiders (e.g. genies, some fiends)

This has three major effects as far as I can tell:

It means that non-spellcaster characters can have fun with wishing about as often as spellcaster characters.


It effectively limits the number of wishes that a character can have. A deity or a powerful servant thereof may grant one wish as a reward for some holy quest. A devil or genie bound in a particular way may be forced to grant three wishes before its service ends. A Deck of Many Things can grant a wish, but you've got to take your chances...

(If I were DMing this particular variant, I would make sure that the arcane methods for binding Outsiders to extract wishes from them were lost eons ago just so that PC spellcasters don't go around summoning and binding creatures and getting infinite wishes that way... they'll have to find pre-bound outsiders to do their bidding, or at least invest a bunch of roleplaying time into uncovering the ancient secrets)


It means that all, or nearly all wishes are adjudicated by some kind of intelligence with motives of its own. Even artifacts that grant wishes were created by a god or godlike being, for some purpose; beyond that, many artifacts have their own intelligence and goals. This means that characters have to be smart making their wishes, and they have to take into account what sort of intelligence they're working with.


For me, those effects are an unequivocal positive in terms of storytelling and game balance (at least compared to the rules as they are written).

In terms of what can be wished for, the power levels in the book seem about right. You can't make yourself a god, but you can get a cool new toy or roll back time a ways. Maybe some creatures, such as Janni or other mid-powered outsiders can only grant wishes up to the power of a Limited Wish spell.

The other limitation, as mentioned above, is the will of the creature or artifact granting the wish. I figure there are four different attitudes a wish-granter might take:


Friendly: A divine reward for some great task or a djinn with a good-aligned master. The wish granter will expend reasonable effort to grant the wish as it believes it was intended.

Indifferent: A Deck of Many Things, or an an alien intelligence that doesn't understand the ways of mortals. The wish granter will try to meet the letter of the wish via the simplest and easiest methods. If the wisher wants a magic sword, the indifferent wish-granter will find the nearest magic sword and teleport it to him (because teleporting an object expends much less effort than making a new one).

Malicious: An efreet, or some fiends and evil artifacts. The wish-granter must still answer the wish to the letter, but will attempt to twist the wish such that it brings only misery to the asker. A wish for wealth may bring a great inheritance by causing the death of a loved one, for example; or the efreet may exert some influence to make sure that the owner of the magic sword comes to find it.

Malevolent: Some fiends and evil artifacts. The wish-granter wants to bring woe not only to the wisher, but to the entire world. As with the malicious attitude, but rather than bringing only personal misery, the wish will be twisted so that it brings devastation on a much larger scale. A poorly-worded wish may send nations to war or unleash a horde of ravening ghouls. Of course, malevolent entities may get along very well indeed with like-minded wishers...


Depending on the entity in question, a good diplomacy check may help to ensure that wishes are granted as they were intended. But in any case, the adjudication-through-an-NPC-intelligence means that characters must once again be careful what they wish for.

Ultimately, DMs would certainly be justified in just removing Wish and Limited Wish from the spell-lists without including any other options; but I prefer using this option to keep this classic element of heroic fantasy alive.

Miracles

Managing miracles is a little bit trickier. If you remove the spell from the cleric list, then the only reasonable way for a miracle to occur is to be granted by a deity. That is, after all, what a miracle is!

Generally my feeling is that miracles should not come at the beck and call of a priest, but rather when they are truly needed by a truly faithful person. Like with wishes, the description in the spell seems like a fair framework for determining the scale and scope of a miracle. Unlike wishes, however, the form that a miracle is not determined by the asker (indeed, miracles probably shouldn't be asked for at all), but by the intervening power. A faithful worshipper knows he must oppose the rampaging army even though he has no hope of victory... he may pray for a miracle, but he doesn't ask for a specific intercession. It's the deity who decides to send down a rain of fire or an army of angels.

Of course, gods reaching down and fixing big problems is a deus ex machina in the truest sense, which can be a real knot in storytelling. But maybe there are ways to handle it.

Way, way back in the 2nd edition-era Dragon issue 236, they introduced a system for tracking piety through "Piety Points." Without getting too deep into the nitty and the gritty, characters get awarded piety points for observing the requirements of their religion, supporting their god's goals and opposing those of her enemies, and acting in accordance with the values of their faith. Points get taken away for, well, doing the opposite of those things. Some of the stuff in the article is outdated, being a couple editions behind, but the core of the system is pretty universal.

If I were going to include miracles in a 3.5 game, I would adjudicate them on a system of piety points. A miracle can occur when a character with exceptionally high piety points puts him or herself at great risk in service of their faith or interests strongly aligned with it (e.g., a worshipper of Obad-Hai protecting a wilderness area; a cleric of Heironeous opposing a cult of Hextor). Putting those stringent situational requirements on miracles makes it a rare and special occasion-- it shouldn't happen more than once per campaign at a maximum. A character whose extreme faith and self-sacrifice brings about three miracles in a lifetime well deserves the title of Saint.

The other benefit of this system is that, as with the wishes above, it opens it up to everybody, not just clerics and favored souls. Any character with an identified faith can accumulate piety points. So even a fighter or rogue whose player has tried hard to roleplay their religious convictions may bring about a miracle. And I like that.

Of course introducing piety points into a campaign adds another level of record-keeping onto an already burdened DM, so it's not for every campaign. I would only use them in a game where faith and belief played an important role in the theme or the plot. But then, those are the only games I would want to see miracles in too.

[Story]

For me, those effects are an unequivocal positive in terms of storytelling and game balance (at least compared to the rules as they are written).


It wouldn't really do anything for balance, actually.

Also DoMT is only used if you want to end a campaign with style. It isn't really worth discussing much.

Malicious wishes seem like a bad idea because it will just halt the game while the players write out pages of legalease for their wish.

[JoshuaZ]

This should probably be in the Homebrew forum rather than here.

That said, I like this. But, there's a more fundamental problem: high level D&D isn't like classic fantasy or mythology to start with. Look at novels for example: Outside book settings specifically based on D&D settings (e.g Mystara, Eberron, Forgotten Realms), the power level of mages is much lower. Teleport anywhere on the planet, plane shift and make your own new demi-plane just because aren't normally there. Even in high magic fantasy novels (e.g. Ethshar) wizards don't have this level of power. The problem isn't just wish and miracle although that's part of it. The problem is that at high levels a wizard is effectively a demi-god.

[Sith_Happens]

Don't forget Bend Reality and Reality Revision.

Also, most of the day-to-day utility of those spells comes from the "duplicate another spell" option, so you might or might not want to provide replacements for that.

[Blackjackg]

Good call, I definitely see your points-- this does next to nothing to fix the huge imbalance that exists between high-level tier one casters and the rest of the multiverse. I think of it as skimming the top ridiculous skin off a giant ridiculous pudding of imbalance. In any case, I don't really see the need to replace any of the spells' function within their respective spell lists. As I said, those classes can easily afford the loss.

Story, you are so right about the legalese issue. I've encountered this in previous campaigns myself, more or less exactly as you describe. But then I figure, if this is what makes the game more fun for these players, so be it. Me, I prefer to either wish my wish and chance the consequences, or walk away from the deal that seems too good to be true. I like the malicious and malevolent options because they add flavor and because the possibility of malice feels more honest to me than the idea that all genies only want what's best for you.

[TuggyNE]

One thing to consider is that there are some negative effects that can only be removed by wish/miracle. Are you fine with requiring characters to seek out a source of wishes for those, or would a new 9th-level "Superior Restoration" spell be more appropriate?

[Blackjackg]

One thing to consider is that there are some negative effects that can only be removed by wish/miracle. Are you fine with requiring characters to seek out a source of wishes for those, or would a new 9th-level "Superior Restoration" spell be more appropriate?

Hm, that's an interesting thought. Back in the bad old days, when an effect came with a "nothing short of a wish can fix it" clause, it was basically just code for "it's permanent, sucker, better get used to it." But with the relatively easy access to these spells in 3.x, it makes sense that developers might have put in more of those effects with the expectation that a high-level pc could just wish them away the next day.

Creating a Superior Restoration spell seems like a fair compromise; alternatively, as a DM you could reduce the prevalence of wish-cure effects and make sure you only use them at times that you want it to be a major part of the character or a central feature of the plot.

[Maginomicon]

You wouldn't necessarily have to limit it to those options. If you convert the spells/powers into "charged" (requires all the components of the original spell/power) incantations (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/magic/incantations.htm)/communals (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=299864), you gain a number of advantages as GM:

Incantations coincidentally lend themselves well to powerful end-of-campaign effects, as the incantation procedure may (and probably should) require special research efforts (in-game) to learn, such as travelling to the "Ancient Library of Ogg" (http://youtu.be/zNrU0_A-PFk?t=38m18s)... on a boat (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw84Kusbr5g). You have a lot of power to make PCs do what you want if they want to research something.
The spell can't just be cast willy-nilly, it takes a significant amount of time to cast.
The spell can have a built-in backlash. The backlash of a wish might be that the wish goes sour, for example (thus giving a mechanical backing for when and when not to have a wish go sour.
Being able to wield the original spell via spell slot, spellbook, scroll, etc. becomes just the ability to charge the incantation, something those that don't have the original spell can never do even if they've found the incantation procedure in a dusty tome somewhere.
You can specify that the incantation procedure the party finds in that dusty tome can only grant a specific wish or certain kinds of wishes.

[WebTiefling]

In the one game that I played in which both Wish and Miracle came into play, the DM was strict with the spells. It worked out very, very well.

Miracle did the XP-free parts of the spell as RAW, but for anything else, the DM stressed:

In any event, a request that is out of line with the deity’s (or alignment’s) nature is refused.

The cleric asked to cause a massive earthquake to take out a city of undead. Tough luck. She worshiped Mystra. They didn't threaten the existence of magic and Mystra's not aligned against undead. Ditto for massive firestorm.

Miracle did add a LOT of flexibility for the Cleric, and that certainly bumped up her power level, but it was a long way from game breaking by that point.

For Wish, dangerous part of greater effects was key. Extra XP costs, and a big series of tough Spellcraft, CL, and Int checks needed to keep the spell on track. If any of them failed, then the spell would backfire in spectacular ways.

When the XP cost was around 10K, and it involved six to twelve rolls around 6+ to pass, the Wizard was very, very cautious.

He did use it once for the "greater" effect, but he did that in a specially prepared (remote) site where he set up a ton of extra effects to help get the rolls to succeed on a 2+. (he arranged for one free reroll that he had to use)

He spent 10K+ gp on setting it up, 10,000 XP, and he made his rolls. It was a major highlight of that campaign.

All that to say, Miracle and Wish don't necessarily break things. There are lots and LOTS of other spells that can already break things. If the OP wants to rein in those spells, I would suggest what that DM did.

Wish/Miracle are big capstone spells and exciting for players to get. Just keep it well reined in by stressing the limitations. It keeps the spell in there and it keeps it a BIG DEAL(tm) to cast a major usage of Wish or Miracle. That sort of stuff adds spice to games.

[Chronos]

In a homebrew system I'm intermittently designing (and will probably never finish), Miracle is a first-level spell and is available spontaneously to all divine casters. The catch is, you have no control over it at all. All the spell actually does is call your deity's attention to your current situation. The deity might or might not choose to respond: The DM can decide that by fiat, or I'd make up a table for DMs who want to roll, based on factors like how well the caster has been serving the god's ideals, and whether the caster has ever before cast Miracle in his life (multiple miracles granted to the same person are extremely rare). If the deity does decide to take action, he resolves whatever, in his view, is the caster's greatest problem at that moment, in whatever manner the deity sees fit (note that this method of solution, and even the problem itself, might not be what the caster expected). Either way, the caster would be exhausted to the point of uselessness for a day or two, from the strain of channeling such powerful divine energies.

Arcane casters would have a similarly powerful-but-risky spell, called Chaos. You spend all of your remaining magical energy for the day, and attempt to channel it into an effect as specific or as general as you choose... But the more specific you get, and the more detail you try to specify, the greater the chance that something will go horribly wrong. If you just want "blast those guys over there", then you've got a pretty good chance of getting some sort of negative effect (but who knows what), and directed in the general direction of "over there". Try to get more specific or detailed ("Teleport my party members, including the familiar scouting over there, but not this thing right next to the rogue that's shredding him in melee, to that ridge over there overlooking the field"), and you're likely to end up with the wrong targets, or teleporting to the wrong place, or ending up embedded in rock, or maybe getting a completely different effect altogether. You could also end up accidentally casting Chaos, if you attempt to cast a spell that's too high-level for you.

[Saskia]

It wouldn't really do anything for balance, actually.

Also DoMT is only used if you want to end a campaign with style. It isn't really worth discussing much.

Malicious wishes seem like a bad idea because it will just halt the game while the players write out pages of legalease for their wish.

That's why, with this variant, you don't grant wishes often as DM. And if you just tell your players that wishes and miracles are granted instead of spells to be cast on a whim, they won't have the background knowledge of how it all works to know that they have to be so specific. What blackjack is saying is that they're overused and take the mystique out of the game, so with that caveat then, with this variant you should be granting them rarely and from different sources and for different reasons. That way if they do go the route of writing out a page of specifics, it's rare enough that it won't hold everything up very often, and when it does it'll be because the players are thinking about consequences. Even then the granting entity might act later out of resentment that the party got around its intended goal. Then you've got your players perhaps deciding whether it's worthwhile to accept the aid of malevolent or unfamiliar forces in the future, even when it can grant them tremendous power.

Remember that it's sometimes best if the players don't know all the rules ahead of time. If they get mad because they weren't told explicitly that accepting aid from powers who exist only to spread chaos and despair might have consequences, then they're probably not the sorts of people who are interested in exploring higher ideas anyway and adjudicating wishes and miracles down in any way is probably going to make them whinge.

[tyckspoon]

I don't have a problem with characters being able to cast Wish; the image of a mage at the peak of his mastery taking a chunk of raw magic power and using it, along with a significant portion of his very own life, to force his will upon the world.. that's a powerful and satisfying concept to me, especially in D&D where most magic just does one thing in exactly the same way every time you cast it. The power and malleability of Wish becomes a marker of prestige and prowess. The problem, as I see it, is the stupifying number of ways there are to get around the costs.. so, personal suggestions for modifying how Wishing works:

- The XP cost is non-optional, and is paid by whoever or whatever is guiding the effect of the Wish. If you cast the Wish yourself, you pay 5k XP. This is, for lack of a better phrase, XP 'burn' - it cannot be restored or recovered in any way besides the usual awarding of XP for overcoming challenges. If you have XP saved in a Thought Bottle or similar device, you will find said device mysteriously contains 5,000 less XP than you thought it did when you go to use it.
- If you use an item that casts Wish, the XP cost is either left unapplied (in which case you pay it, and may choose what the Wish does) or it has been paid by the creator, in which case that item has a pre-set Wish in it that does only what the creator set it to do. Similarly, if you are having a Wish granted on your behalf by another being, you may choose to take on the XP cost instead of the granter. If you do, you get to choose the effect of the Wish. If you don't, you get to tell the other being what you want and hope they are willing to give it to you.
- XP-less (Supernatural ones or ones with components otherwise removed) Wishes either do not exist or are only capable of performing 'safe list' options. If you want something more powerful, XP is being paid. (Also Magic Item Creation has a GP value limit re-instated.)
- The upside is that if you are paying for the Wish, you have a huge amount of influence on what it does. You may try for 'greater effects' Wishes with relative safety. Because it is your power and your sacrifice that is guiding the Wish, the worst that can happen to you is that the Wish is not powerful enough to fully accomplish what you desire; you will not experience a twisted result or a backlash unless you permit another being to Wish on your behalf.

I might also create a safe/no XP cost division of Wish effects, to make it more in line with Miracle's applications as a general utility, but Shapechange probably covers most of what you might want from that already.

[Urpriest]

I'd go in a different direction. Wish isn't a "grant a wish" effect, it's just a flexibility-themed 9th level spell. Genies shouldn't be able to grant Wishes in general, they should grant effects on par with their level. In general, asking a being for a "wish" or "miracle" should just result in them using whatever powers are appropriate to their power level. This also means that conceivably a low level Wizard could ask for a Wish from a high level Wizard, and have it mean something.

[TuggyNE]

Miracle did the XP-free parts of the spell as RAW, but for anything else, the DM stressed:


The cleric asked to cause a massive earthquake to take out a city of undead. Tough luck. She worshiped Mystra. They didn't threaten the existence of magic and Mystra's not aligned against undead. Ditto for massive firestorm.

Hmm, that seems less like "out of line" (which would be e.g. destroying a library of magic scrolls) and more like "not specifically a major goal". If you want to burn XP on something that's not a major overarching goal of your patron, well, why not?

[Captnq]

First of all, I'm curious as to how many of you who are commenting on these rule changes have actually ran/played in a campaign that lasted for any length of time after 17th level?

My current campaign is going to hit session number 200 this month and one player just rounded 32nd level. I would have to say wishes are the least of my problem.

When you run something this high level the trick is to actually play by the rules. All of the rules. Every last one. Trust me, TO might make you think that wizards are gods, but in reality, when you enforce rules like how long it takes to create magic items and what not, you quickly discover being able to do everything does not translate into having the TIME to do everything. Currently, it takes two or three sessions just to get through one IC day.

As for wishes, it turns out that a wish is the building block of an inherent bonus. That means each +1 to something costs you 27,500 gp, which you, as the DM, should be making players keep track of against their wealth by level. When a player calculates how much a +5 to his stats would be, and how much he can buy with that same amount of WBL, suddenly only the primary stats for his character become important.

And when you round about 25th level, the players stopped getting anything but role playing bonus each session. Why? Because if you know what you are doing, a half dozen well made 17th level NPC can put the fear of DM in your players and the equipment isn't anything special, and the CR just isn't high enough to give them anything.

Now, role playing bonus is 50 x your current level, so at my current campaign average PC level of 30, that means they are only getting 1,500 xps a week. Are you going to blow 5,000 xp on a wish when it takes you a MONTH in RL to get together enough xps to cast it?

There's a reason why the fighters are so much higher level then the spellcasters. The spellcasters start burning major xps as soon as they reach 17th level. That wish looks nice on paper, but in practice, it's a trap. It's a nice "get out of jail free" spell, but as the players noticed the bad guys tend to keep an extra wish/miracle handy in case of problems as well. You have never seen a player cry quite like the time one of mine got caught in a situation where he was dueling with wishes. He spent 3 wishes, the NPC burned 2 to counter. The PC burned 15,000 xps in one session. He won, but 15,000 xp when you are epic? That takes FOR-EVER to earn. He griped about it for weeks afterwords.

You don't need to limit wishes. You just need to make sure that the NPCs aren't handing them out like candy. If you could get paid 27,500 gp for 5,000 xp when you were 17th level, would YOU sell a wish? I don't think so. Which would you rather have, three wishes, or become 18th level? If you are running the game right, that is the choice your players have.

You don't need to axe wishes to make the system "balanced". You just need to enforce the rules.


Besides, have you actually looked at the spell?


WISH
- PLAYER’S HANDBOOK (3.0)
- PLAYER’S HANDBOOK 1 (3.5)
Universal
Level: Envy Domain 9, Sorcerer/Wizard 9, Wu Jen 9
Components: V, XP
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: See text
Target, Effect, or Area: See text
Duration: See text
Saving Throw: See text
Spell Resistance: Yes
Wish is the mightiest spell a wizard or sorcerer can cast. By simply speaking aloud, you can alter reality to better suit you. Even wish, however, has its limits. A wish can produce any one of the following effects.
• Duplicate any wizard or sorcerer spell of 8th level or lower, provided the spell is not of a school prohibited to you.
o Editor: This ability is rarely worth it, as it is extremely situational, and rarely worth the XP cost, furthermore, it is even less likely that you will have wish prepared when not trying to use it for a more powerful effect.
• Duplicate any other spell of 6th level or lower, provided the spell is not of a school prohibited to you.
o Editor: Again, rarely worth it.
• Duplicate any wizard or sorcerer spell of 7th level or lower even if it’s of a prohibited school.
o Editor: This is useful if you’ve banned both illusion and evocation and therefore have no other access to contingency. Best for focused specialists (or dare I say it, focused specialist Incantatrices)
• Duplicate any other spell of 5th level or lower even if it’s of a prohibited school.
o Editor: 5000 XP for a 5th level spell? Uh, how screwed do you have to be to fall back to using a wish for a 5th level spell? The answer: VERY.
• Undo the harmful effects of many other spells, such as geas/quest or insanity.
o Editor: Some effects can only be undone with wish. Therefore it’s good at getting rid of them.
• Create a non-magical item of up to 25,000 gp in value.
o Editor: Meh, I don’t generally feel that 1 XP is worth 5 GP. If you plan on creating valuable items, this is hardly the way to go about it. When this comes in handy is when you absolutely, positively need to create a bridge. Another use is to use wish to repair something that is broken. While a new city wall would cost far more then 25,000 gp, putting a pile of rubble of recently knocked down city wall back together would fall under this use. If you need to put a price tag on it, calculate how much the labor costs would be to perform the repair project. No repairs greater then 25,000 gp should be allowed.
• Create a magic item, or add to the powers of an existing magic item.
o Editor: Sometimes you just want to get a magic item done RIGHT NOW. A good rule of thumb is using a wish can reduce the creation time of a magic item to one day. Normally not that important, but when making something that will take 100 days in game, you just might want to shave a few months off. That said, a DM is much more likely to allow you to have your +6 belt of magnificence if you get all the parts together (ie spend the 100,000 gp) and just slam them together with a wish. A kind GM can skip the gathering of magical thingies and simply have the required amount of gold disappear. If you are speeding up creation time only, then xp and gp costs are normal.
o Editor: A wish can rearrange magical powers from one item to another. For example, if you have four magic swords, each with a different special ability and want to transfer all the powers over to the same sword, It can do that, provided that the new sword doesn’t exceed the value of the combined cost of all four swords. Four +2 swords is worth 16,000 gp, but one +5 sword with 3 levels of special powers is worth 128,000 gp. As a DM, you can hand wave that and allow any combo you want, but it’s suggested that you use the above cost guidelines. The DM has final word on what the end product is and if any of the original items survive. That said, it should only cost 5,000 xp and nothing more. The wish is just restructuring magic, not creating something new.
o Editor: If you wish to add powers to a magic item, then it’s simply the 5,000 xp and double the XP cost of the additional power. No additional time. No additional gold.
• Grant a creature a +1 inherent bonus to an ability score. Two to five wish spells cast in immediate succession can grant a creature a +2 to +5 inherent bonus to an ability score (two wishes for a +2 inherent bonus, three for a +3 inherent bonus, and so on). Inherent bonuses are instantaneous, so they cannot be dispelled. An inherent bonus may not exceed +5 for a single ability score, and inherent bonuses to a particular ability score do not stack, so only the best one applies.
o Editor: Can be good IF your DM rules that you can cast the wishes out of immediate succession. Else, go for a tome instead. A kind DM can simply rule that inherent bonuses do stack, because they are instantaneous. Regardless, he should enforce the +5 maximum, no matter what. This makes it easier for players to use tomes and wishes in combination to achieve +5 to any given stat. For the record, the official stats that can be thus increased are Cha, Con, Dex, Int, Str, Wis
o Editor: Possible other stats that could be subject to inherent bonuses are: Base Attack Bonus, any Damage Reduction the caster has or DR/1, Initiative, Movement (5’ increments), Natural Armor Bonus, and Skills (A kind DM would allow you to increase a skill by 4 points per wish, maximum of +20.) Any attempt to wish for more damage or improved to hit should increase the corresponding base stat. A wish for more hit points would increase the target’s con score. Any wish for more spells per day should increase the mental base stat that is used by that spellcaster. If a spontaneous caster wishes for more spells known, It is recommended that it grant the caster a feat instead. There are several that give spontaneous casters extra known spells. Use whatever is appropriate for your campaign. However, if you do allow this, the players might wish for more feats. If you allow this, it’s recommended that you cannot wish more then five extra feats, and you must qualify for the feats you wish for.
o Editor: In theory, one could wish an inherent bonus onto an object, but it would have to be an object that had a stat on it. You cannot wish a given magic item an inherent bonus that grants more uses per day, that would fall under wishing a magic item had a new power. You cannot wish a magic item that grants an inherent bonus to the wearer. The inherent bonus is for the object alone. You could wish up the stats of an intelligent magic item. You could wish an object had more hit points, or improved toughness. You could wish a reduction of the penalties or limitations of an object. A suit of armor could have reduced armor check penalty. You could wish a 5% reduction of arcane spell failure. You could change the alignment or class restrictions on an object. You could remove the curse off an object (DM’s discretion). It is tempting to allow a caster to add inherent bonuses to a weapon’s to hit and damage, or the armor class of a suit of armor, but that is not recommended. The item doesn’t use to hit or armor class bonuses. Those bonuses are used by the user, and thus hardly qualifies as an “Inherent Bonus”. However, it’s your campaign. All of these uses of wish falls outside the normal use to the spell, so my only suggestion is to carefully write out these new uses and make sure your player’s agree. The specifics are left up to the apt pupil.
o Editor: The other consideration is what if someone wishes for a level in a class. A wish cannot restore the level lost from being raised from the dead. This would imply that a wish cannot just give you a level. However, consider the possibility of a wish transferring XPs that could be used only for a specific class. For example, you could get a ring of wishes and ask to be a better fighter. The wish would then grant you 5,000 xps towards being a fighter. If you use this, then I suggest the following limitations. First, you would have to be equal to, or a lower character level then the one casting the wish. In the case of a ring of wishes, you would have to be 17th level or lower. Second, no more then 25,000 xps could be transferred in this method. Third, the xps have to go for a specific class and that class only. It can be a base class, a prestige class, or a monster HD, but it must be specified when the wish is cast, or the wish will pick something. Then the character benefiting from the wish is stuck with taking that class next level, like it or not. Furthermore, they cannot spend xps on anything else until that level is obtained. No item creation, no spells with xp cost. Nothing. Once you start down the road, you have to see it to the end. Having play tested this, I recommend caution. You should discuss it with your players, as they may not like the idea of someone finding a ring of three wishes and fast tracking past the other players a level or two, depending on when it’s found.
o Editor: Finally, there is the issue of balance. I recommend that for every +1 inherent bonus to anything a player has, you add 25,000 gp to his total wealth for the purpose of determining wealth by level. A 5th level character should not have 15 wishes boosting his stats, even if by some luck he managed to find that many rings. But a 20th level character having 750,000 gp in wishes is not unreasonable, and he should have a corresponding reduction in available equipment.
• Remove injuries and afflictions. A single wish can aid one creature per caster level, and all subjects are cured of the same kind of affliction. For example, you could heal all the damage you and your companions have taken, or remove all poison effects from everyone in the party, but not do both with the same wish. A wish can never restore the experience point loss from casting a spell or the level or Constitution loss from being raised from the dead.
o Editor: This is what Clerics are for. That said it CAN be useful for healing a large group, or if the cleric is down, for example. When all else fails, this can snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, but at a very hefty price.
• Revive the dead. A wish can bring a dead creature back to life by duplicating a resurrection spell. A wish can revive a dead creature whose body has been destroyed, but the task takes two wishes, one to recreate the body and another to infuse the body with life again. A wish cannot prevent a character who was brought back to life from losing an experience level.
o Editor: Good only if you’re reviving the cleric and you have NO other means of doing so. Now, the upside is, if you use a wish to bring someone back, they return back in one round and with full hit points. It’s important to note that that Revivify is a 5th level cleric spell. Since wish can imitate any 5th level cleric spell, if you are wishing someone back to life within one round of death, use Revivify instead, so that the target doesn’t suffer from any level loss. They’re be at -1 hit point and unable to engage in combat immediately, but assuming the battle is going well and that death was a fluke, it might be the preferred use.
• Transport travelers. A wish can lift one creature per caster level from anywhere on any plane and place those creatures anywhere else on any plane regardless of local conditions. An unwilling target gets a Will save to negate the effect, and spell resistance (if any) applies.
o Editor: If you can cast still spell, chances are you have other spells at your disposal that can do the same thing. That said, maybe you just want to skip to the end of an adventure and jump past a series of death traps, this will do it. Some DMs might see that as “cheating”, by wishing yourself right next to your target. It’s recommended that you use wish as a last resort. Make every attempt to locate the target and at least narrow down the possible locations before you use a wish to “Scry-and-Die”. That said, the part about “regardless of local conditions” bares some attention. That means you teleport without error right to where you want to be. If you want to be in solid rock, the spell can make a small pocket for you to land in. If you want to land in an antimagic field, the wish will work where teleport would fail.
• Undo misfortune. A wish can undo a single recent event. The wish forces a reroll of any roll made within the last round (including your last turn). Reality reshapes itself to accommodate the new result. For example, a wish could undo an opponent’s successful save, a foe’s successful critical hit (either the attack roll or the critical roll), a friend’s failed save, and so on. The reroll, however, may be as bad as or worse than the original roll. An unwilling target gets a Will save to negate the effect, and spell resistance (if any) applies.
o Editor: Another one that is potentially good if you have it prepared, which is damn unlikely. 5k XP can be worth un-killing a partner who natural 1 died. If he does it twice, smack him.
• If you are playing with dead magic zones or wild magic zones, a wish can expand, or shrink said zone by 10 feet per wish.
o Editor: There is one other use requires DM approval: Metamagic. If someone else is casting a spell, a wish should be able to modify that spell. The question is, how much? If a wish can create an 8th level spell, then it should be able to add 8 levels of metamagic onto an existing spell someone else is currently casting, right? That would be INSANE. I recommend a flat 5 levels of metamagic can be added to any spell that someone else is casting. You cannot add on any metamagic that the spell already has when cast. You cannot stack these metamagic levels with a second wish. The last wish cast takes effect and any previous wishes are lost. That said, you can apply any valid metamagic feat that exists without changing the casting time of the spell, the caster level, or the spell level. You cannot add sudden metamagic or metamagic rods to a spell. Only valid metamagic feats from the metamagic feat section.
o Editor: Wish is the ultimate counter. You simply have the target offending spell fail.
You may try to use a wish to produce greater effects than these, but doing so is dangerous. Such a wish gives the DM the opportunity to fulfill your request without fulfilling it completely. (The wish may pervert your intent into a literal but undesirable fulfillment or only a partial fulfillment). For example, wishing for a staff of the magi might get you instantly transported to the presence of the staff’s current owner. Wishing to be immortal could get you imprisoned in a hidden extra-dimensional space (as by an imprisonment spell), where you could “live” indefinitely. Duplicated spells allow saves and spell resistance as normal (but save DCs are for 9th-level spells).
Editor (Player Only): At this point we enter the realm of DM fiat. The DM will grant one of three effects:
1: Exactly what we wanted: This is the best option for us, as it gives us what we want, sadly, unless we are very inglorious about the effects of our wish, it is also the least likely.
2: A literal granting of the wish: For most DMs this is the most likely situation we as players will have to deal with if we attempt to abuse wish. It will be the focus of our guide. In a properly worded wish, this will be identical to possibility 1.
3: A partial fulfillment of the wish: This is the worst possible effect. The wish simply will not do what we want. This option is less likely than possibility 2, unless we seriously overreach ourselves. As players it will be our goal to avoid this possibility.
The most likely circumstance we will experience is a literal interpretation of the Wish. As the saying goes: be careful what you wish for. But lets look at exact how that might be overcome. I will be using a fairly standard wish: I wish I had one million gold pieces. To avoid a negative effect (yes, a failure is a negative effect, the spell costs 5000 XP) we must first establish the parameters of the spell: Where, When, What, and How.
Where: It is essential that we explicitly state where we want our effect to occur. This is especially important when we creating something or conjuring something. Take our example: I wish I had a million gold pieces. One million gold is going to weigh, by the PHB, 10 tons, and take up, by the Draconomicon, approximately 83 1/3 cubic feet of space. How does this affect our wish? Well, most sinisterly if that much gold happens to land on top of us, we had best pray that we have a contingency spell in place to prevent our imminent squishy death. Furthermore, the transportation of the gold is going to be a major factor. Even the largest bags of holding are far from capable of transporting such an amount of gold, so either you’ll need to wish for the gold to appear in the secure place you’d be wanting to transport it to (Such as your tower, if you’re a wizard you should have one), or to have a portable hole.
Example rewording: I wish that I had one million gold pieces in my possession, located in the basement of my tower.
However, we are seriously overreaching this wish (by 975,000 gold to be precise) and therefore we do not know where this gold is coming from, we only have specified that we wish to possess it. If it perhaps came from the personal trove of a CR 50 dragon, we are, as we say in the business, screwed. Therefore it is necessary to specify not only where in the end location, but the starting location. It is best in this case to specify the creation of the gold (although this will likely get the partial fulfillment option, gaining us only 25,000, I’ll discuss workarounds below).
Example rewording: I wish for one million gold pieces to be created in the basement of my tower.
When: It’s a somewhat trivial parameter, however it is sometimes necessary to indicate a temporal aspect. If you are wishing to obtain something, or cause something to occur, the DM could simply have it occur far later in the future, thus making it a moot point. For example, if we wished for a mortal creature to die, the GM could rule that the wish does nothing, other than assuring that that creature eventually dies, possibly of natural causes. Therefore it is sometimes necessary to establish something like “ten seconds after the completed speaking of this spell.” (One should not use “after the completion of this spell,” as that could be seen as paradoxical, the spell not being fully completed until after the gold has appeared, thus causing the spell to go on infinitely, unable to ever complete).
Example rewording: I wish for one million gold pieces to be created in the basement of my tower ten seconds after the completed speaking of this spell.
What: This is a surprisingly easy parameter to detail, it is mostly important to be exact and unambiguous in what we want to occur, and to realize exactly what we want to occur. For example, in our above wish, in game terms, we want to obtain 1,000,000 GP. However, by stating gold pieces, we open ourselves up to ambiguity. A piece could be the size of a pinhead. So a closer statement would be that we want 1,000,000 gold coins. Once again, we run into the troubling question how big is a coin? So a less ambiguous version of what we want is 10 tons of gold minted as coins. If your DM is a **** however, you might end up with two 5 ton coins. So an even better approximation of what we want is 10 tons of gold minted as solid 1 inch wide, 1/10 inch high cylinders.
Example rewording: I wish for 10 tons of gold, minted as solid 1 inch wide, 1/10 inch high cylinders, to be created in the basement of my tower ten seconds after the completed speaking of this spell
How: This is a somewhat ambiguous parameter, but it helps us wrap up our other parameters nicely. It primarily concerns measurements, sources (see where above), and over all preciseness. This is the parameter in which we ‘exactify’ our wording. The most important aspect of this parameter is providing definitions of measurements. The phrase “As per my understanding of the quantity/quality x” is our absolute best friend in this case. This prevents the DM from using the timeless perspective argument (one day in the eyes of god is as a million years to mortals).
Example rewording: I wish for 10 tons of pure gold, as per my understanding of the quantity ton and the quality gold, minted as solid 1 inch wide, 1/10 inch high cylinders, as per my understanding of the quantities cylinder and inch, to be created in the basement of my tower ten seconds, as per my understanding of the quantity seconds, after the completed speaking of this spell, as per my understanding of completed speaking.
However, we are still vastly overreaching ourselves, and our DM may simply rule that only 25,000 GP appears, as that is the guideline of the spell. Therefore it is necessary that we reevaluate our What and Where parameters. We do not really care if the spell creates the gold, we only care that we obtain said gold. Thus we could try to simply transmute the gold, or to transport it from elsewhere. I personally recommend the former (the epic level handbooks says that we can get many tons of adamantine when attempting to create an adamantine golem, which is worth more than gold, so there’s a precedent), however, for the sake of example let us choose the former, leaving the following example wish:
Example rewording: I wish that 10 tons of pure gold, as per my understanding of the quantity ton and quality gold, be transported from deposits of ore unclaimed as property by sentient entities, as per my understanding of the qualities unclaimed, property, sentient, and entity, to the basement of my tower, as per my understanding of ‘basement of my tower,’ and be minted as solid cylinders one inch in diameter and one tenth inch in height, as per my understanding of the quantity inch and of the qualities solid and cylinder, ten seconds from the completed speaking of this spell, as per my understanding of the quantity second and quality completed speaking.
Which leaves us with one final problem. What if we misspeak? Any DM at this point may in desperation have you make a skill check to pronounce it clearly, or have you speak it out loud for real and hope you sneeze. A cruel DM might say if you stop to take a breath, that’s the end of the wish. To avoid this, not only should you have your wish worded as above, but you should take the time to write it out, clearly and labeled at the top, “WISH CONTRACT”. No other writing should be on it. Then, if you feel the wish is too long to be read aloud, you should hold the wish contract in your hand and wish the following: “I wish the wish contract that I hold in my hand, as per my understanding of my hand and what a wish contract is, is fulfilled as the writing reads, as per my understanding of what writing and reading is.” If that doesn’t cover everything, I don’t know what will.
Editor (DM Only): So the above section is some serious rules raping, as you may have noticed. May I suggest the following: Wish sages. To use wish sages is rather simple. A wish sage is someone with a high knowledge skill in Arcana. The players makes a request, and the wish sage writes out a contract to fulfill it, based on his knowledge of wishes. He rolls against a DC set by how difficult the wish is. Getting a 50,000 gp object would be a DC 25 check. A million gold pieces might be DC 50. The roll is in secret, then he gets paid his fee and hands a wish contract to the player. The player says, “I wish this wish contract fulfilled.” Poof. The wish contracts vanishes and the wish is fulfilled depending on how well the sage rolled. Most sages won’t fill out suicidal contracts, but players are fine to roll on their own. This way, it gets rid of all the annoying crap while allowing the players a chance to get lucky, instead of just trying to abuse the system.
Material Component: When a wish duplicates a spell with a Material Component that costs more than 10,000 gp, you must provide that component.
XP Cost: The minimum XP cost for casting wish is 5,000 XP. When a wish duplicates a spell that has an XP cost, you must pay 5,000 XP or that cost, whichever is more. When a wish creates or improves a magic item, you must pay twice the normal XP cost for crafting or improving the item, plus an additional 5,000 XP.