If you had just one wish...

[ak grown]

Ok, so here's the skinny...

I'm a lvl 13 halfling rouge w/ prestige class Thief/Acrobat.

And I have a WISH RING!!!

I've had said ring for about 2.5-3 months and still haven't come up with something worth wishing for...which is why I need your help!

My DM says anything goes (obviously this can seriously backfire if I word my wish wrong etc.) but I would LOVE to use my wish for something NOT out of the book. We play 3.5 rules...so homebrew and whatever else is acceptable.

I should probably hang onto my wish in case i die, but we have a lvl 14 Cleric who can bring resurrect me, so that's kinda pointless. I could save my wish in case he dies...but since I'm a thief rogue, I'm pretty greedy and want to keep it that way! This is why I call upon all of you!!!

I am interested in any/all ideas anybody has for this wish of mine.

Also, maybe there are some cool items in the game (weapons, rings, cloaks etc) that I am not aware of that could greatly benefit me and are very rare. These sort of things would be great to know about too.

Thanks!

[Psyren]

Stick with the "safe" uses. +1 inherent bonus to an ability score, or add powers to a magic item you possess (I wouldn't even risk creating something, he might just teleport you to the dragon's hoard where it currently resides), or simply save it for "undo misfortune" or "remove afflictions."

[Magesmiley]

I should probably hang onto my wish in case i die, but we have a lvl 14 Cleric who can bring resurrect me, so that's kinda pointless. I could save my wish in case he dies...but since I'm a thief rogue, I'm pretty greedy and want to keep it that way! This is why I call upon all of you!!!


My first observation is that once you die it is a bit too late to use your ring. :smallamused:

That said, some sort of a contingency-type effect might be worth considering - to handle situations where your character is dead and so are other members of your party.

Another one worth considering if you're after something that is beyond the normal limits of a wish (such as an artifact). Make a wish for a reasonable opportunity to gain such an item. A lot of DMs will look at that very differently than a wish to directly gain the item. Of course, success isn't guaranteed, but it is a potential way to steer something that you really want into an upcoming adventure. You'll have to earn it still, but it will be there. This also can work for personal goals for your character.

[Ketiara]

But for an item worth getting id say collar of umbral metamorphosis.

[Blackjackg]

If it were me, I'd keep it someplace safe until the rest of the party almost forgets I have it; then bust it out at some climactic moment of drama when things seem otherwise hopeless.

[Kioras]

You could always wish for a contigency, to cover for a TPK

If everyone is dead, it teleports everyone's corpses and items back to your local hideout/sanctum, then casts resurection on the cleric.

Something like that is a good panic button. Never had wishes, so not sure what would be a good way to maximize one of them.

[Sith_Happens]

If it were me, I'd keep it someplace safe until the rest of the party almost forgets I have it; then bust it out at some climactic moment of drama when things seem otherwise hopeless.

This. /10_characters

[ahenobarbi]

Wish for a ring of Three Wishes :smallbiggrin:

[John Longarrow]

Hmm...
Wish to be able to inflict sneak damage on all beings, even those normally immune to critical hits.

Wish to be able to add dex to damage, like the shadow hand feat, even when you are not in an appropriate stance and/or when not wielding the proper type of weapon.

Wish for an adventure that changes you into a shadow creature, or even better a whisper gnome.

Wish for +10 to your movement... permanently.

The trick is to look for something a feat or class feature that you want but don't normally have access to. If you go for something like that, you should be good.

[Samalpetey]

Stick with the "safe" uses. +1 inherent bonus to an ability score, or add powers to a magic item you possess (I wouldn't even risk creating something, he might just teleport you to the dragon's hoard where it currently resides), or simply save it for "undo misfortune" or "remove afflictions."

I think avoiding negative effects of a wish is easy really, just include "This wish will be resolved according to my intent, and in the case of a conflict between my intent and the wording of this wish, my intent will take precedence" Then you can wish for whatever you want with no chance of reprecussions :biggrin:

[Psyren]

I think avoiding negative effects of a wish is easy really, just include "This wish will be resolved according to my intent, and in the case of a conflict between my intent and the wording of this wish, my intent will take precedence" Then you can wish for whatever you want with no chance of reprecussions :biggrin:

Excessive legalese can screw you over by invoking "partial fulfillment." For example:

"This wish will be resolved according to my intent, and in the case of a conflict between my intent and the wording of this wish.", my intent will take precedence"

[ak grown]

If it were me, I'd keep it someplace safe until the rest of the party almost forgets I have it; then bust it out at some climactic moment of drama when things seem otherwise hopeless.

Forgot to mention that everyone in our party has a wish ring that we acquired after a week long dungeon that some super old lych made. It was our reward if we could survive.

I really like your ideas though Longarrow.

[NichG]

The context of how you got the Wishes is important in this case. Wishes are, for better or worse, a very meta-game thing. Will the DM screw me over, or will the DM use it to make the game more fun?

In this case, it sounds like the DM wanted to scatter wishes liberally, and have hijinks ensue when they go wrong, so complications are likely but they're not going to be overtly hostile (compared to e.g. a DM who wanted nothing to do with wishes, but a player pulled out the Zodar Shapechange trick and then made the mistake of asking off the list).

I would try to make a wish where the opening for a complication is obvious and interesting, rather than a random 'gotcha'. The list of safe wishes is, for the most part, very dull.

Maybe use the 'transport travelers' clause and explicitly ask for a certain kind of adventure (be careful not to ask for the adventure to be pre-concluded, so instead of 'send us to the greatest treasure vault in the world' make it 'send us to where we have a shot at performing a heist on the greatest treasure vault in the world'). Basically the more its clear that the Wish will make game go in interesting directions, the less likely the DM is to turn it into something sad and useless.

[John Longarrow]

ak grown,

Any time.

I've spent enough time behind the screen to know what kinds of wished I'd grant, so it is kinda easy to advise other what I would allow...

[Psyren]

The context of how you got the Wishes is important in this case. Wishes are, for better or worse, a very meta-game thing. Will the DM screw me over, or will the DM use it to make the game more fun?

Or both? :smalltongue:

Well, it'll be more fun for one of you anyway.



I would try to make a wish where the opening for a complication is obvious and interesting, rather than a random 'gotcha'. The list of safe wishes is, for the most part, very dull.

This is a good suggestion - if your wish has a plothook built in and you phrase it subtly enough, the DM will think it was his idea.

For instance, if I wanted something, I'd probably wish for its location - then make acquiring it my character's goal. Or perhaps wish for a magic map leading me to its location (in case the object is moved.)

Note also that Wishes don't have to happen all at once. If you wish to be King for instance, even a wish that gets granted without a hitch wouldn't just drop a crown on your head and hand you the adoration of millions on a platter. Rather, it would start setting up a series of very unlikely coincidences that maneuver you to the throne - plothooks galore.

[Captnq]

I would read this:


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.


That explains what a wish can do fairly well.

[ahenobarbi]

Note also that Wishes don't have to happen all at once. If you wish to be King for instance, even a wish that gets granted without a hitch wouldn't just drop a crown on your head and hand you the adoration of millions on a platter. Rather, it would start setting up a series of very unlikely coincidences that maneuver you to the throne - plothooks galore.

It could make you a king of extremly small kingdom (say 1 person, 25 square feet).

[Maginomicon]

My first wish would be something to the effect of "I wish to never be misunderstood." (or some legalese variant of that) Yes, I would blow a wish on that. Why? Because that intrinsically means that anything I try to say, anything I try to imply, anything I try to insinuate, all are automatically understood with full context. Anything less than full context means they inherently misunderstand (and thus would violate the wish). Sure bluff checks may be auto-failed forever, but the benefits of automatically being fully understood by any witnesses are well worth it. Imagine being able to walk into a war room, say simply "damn", and everyone in the entire war room knows the full context for why you said that. You don't even have to make it a word. A simple scowl could be misunderstood, and thus, isn't misunderstood now. Even animals would understand (within the limits of their intelligence).

It's kind-of like that episode of Star Trek TNG with the telepathic race that can communicate whole concepts with telepathy instead of just words (http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Dark_Page_(episode)).

My second wish (or my first wish if the GM feels like being a jerk) is simple. I'd wish for a Kiira N’Vaelahr. (PGtF p123)

http://gyazo.com/2d82b1d1a911f55b55030ce1b4a328b8.png

[Psyren]

My first wish would be something to the effect of "I wish to never be misunderstood." (or some legalese variant of that) Yes, I would blow a wish on that.

Partial fulfillment: "I wish to never be misunderstood."

[NichG]

Eh, as a GM I'd run with the 'never misunderstood' thing with no 'partial' shenanigans if the Wish came from a non-infinite source (I have a pretty strict policy that if you can somehow get a reliably renewable source of wishes, for example by crafting rings or casting the spell, they have to be from the list)

It'd be interesting to have someone whose body language provides wealths of information to anyone in their presence at all times. That in its own right is enough of a complication for a wish. Aside from the obvious 'can't keep a secret ever', they'd start to accrue worshipers despite themselves (since they would understand perfectly that the person doesn't believe themselves to be divine, but at the same time here's someone whose very presence radiates a form of enlightenment). You could really go weird places with it too, if the degree of understanding exceeded that which the person themselves possessed (so e.g. they do something and they don't know why, but people around them can immediately explain it, thus revealing the manipulations/deceptions the person is laboring under).

[Ezberron]

I really like the tie-in of wishes into a knowledge: arcana skill. Wishes are 9th level spells and well, you really should be familiar with magic theory before you mess around with them... :smallsmile:

That also pulls it from a metagame issue of what the Player can do with wishes vs what the Character knows about magic and magical laws. Very nice.

Of course, if you have a specific occupation revolving around wish contracts, you're clearly playing in Tippyverse(tm) or a close neighbor... but you can replace "wish sage" with "any high level caster that you trust" all the same.

heh. wouldn't that big ironic. you go quest to talk to a sphinx or a genie, not for magical power or glory...but for magical advice on how to use this wish ring properly... knowledge is power, after all...

[Psyren]

For me it would depend on the wish itself - and trying to nail down your wish up front would be a warning flag to me that you're trying to get something you shouldn't be.

[Gullintanni]

Wish for a Ring of Miracle. All the power. None of the screw you. :smalltongue:

[Lonely Tylenol]

...I would like a tasty fish...

[Psyren]

Wish for a Ring of Miracle. All the power. None of the screw you. :smalltongue:

The problem with Miracle is the deity/philosophy can simply say no, wasting your wish.

[Maginomicon]

I really like the tie-in of wishes into a knowledge: arcana skill. Wishes are 9th level spells and well, you really should be familiar with magic theory before you mess around with them... :smallsmile:

That also pulls it from a metagame issue of what the Player can do with wishes vs what the Character knows about magic and magical laws. Very nice.

Of course, if you have a specific occupation revolving around wish contracts, you're clearly playing in Tippyverse(tm) or a close neighbor... but you can replace "wish sage" with "any high level caster that you trust" all the same.

heh. wouldn't that big ironic. you go quest to talk to a sphinx or a genie, not for magical power or glory...but for magical advice on how to use this wish ring properly... knowledge is power, after all...
So far as use of Knowledge Arcana, this is how I handle powerful effects like wish (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=307549). A backlash (the wish going sour) is thus a built-in defined component of the attempt, not a GM-induced-"screw-you"-button.

[NichG]

The 'screw you' part of Wish is basically there not because Wish is so powerful, but because Wish is so very open-ended.

Basically, there is no such thing as a mechanical balancing factor that would appropriately penalize a 'true Wish' in the sense of you get exactly what you want and intend to any scale where you can think of how to phrase it, because such a thing inherently contains the means of bypassing such a mechanical balancing factor.

The (reasonable) alternative is to say 'Wish' is not the same as a 'true wish' - either its power and scope are limited (e.g. the fixed list of effects) or you don't always get exactly what you ask for so you can't precisely control the outcome (e.g. the DM can adjust trim to prevent egregious/ridiculous things). Basically the fulfillment side has to be restricted, not just the cost side, to prevent the fulfillment from neutralizing the cost.

The other option of course is rarity. If there's one unviolable rule (a Wish cannot get you another Wish) and you cannot really get Wishes in any sort of controllable fashion, then you can have a 'true wish' without it necessarily being game-breaking; but its a gamble that the person who gets it won't have the imagination or desire to use it in such a way (possibly by applying a harsh time limit on how long they have to use the wish). After all, it just takes someone deciding to say 'I wish for the IC equivalent of being the DM', but most players won't immediately go there.

[Snowbluff]

Partial fulfillment: "I wish to never be misunderstood."

Psyren, I think you're doing it wrong. That is not partial fulfillment, only selective hearing. A clause has to be fulfilled to an extent in order for their to be any level of fulfillment. For example, "I wish I was a dragon" (Actually valid, but w/e), and you only become a half dragon.

Not to mention talking about partial fulfillment is pointless when you're not the GM. I could take any non-standard wish you make ever and just as easily say "Nuh-uh," but that would be terribly and equally nonconstructive.

[Psyren]

Psyren, I think you're doing it wrong. A wish with only one clause can not be subject to partial fulfillment, only selective hearing.

"You may try to use a wish to produce greater effects than these, but doing so is dangerous. (The wish may pervert your intent into a literal but undesirable fulfillment or only a partial fulfillment.)"

I don't see anything there about number of clauses.


A clause has to be fulfilled in order for their to be any level of fulfillment.

A partial fulfillment could also involve changing an absolute like "never" into something softer like "almost never" or "never in most circumstances."



Not to mention talking about partial fulfillment is pointless when you're not the GM.

Did I ever say I was? :smallconfused:

[Snowbluff]

I explained it better in my edit that ninjaed your post.

Essentially, partial implies that there is something there. What you have is *none.* It clearly states literal or partial, not nothing.

Because you like to reason with logic, right?

[Psyren]

And I answered your "partial."



Because you like to reason with logic, right?

With logic, yes. With childish snark, no.

[Snowbluff]

Snark? No, of course not. I am just expecting you to fulfill an expected behavior, and explicitly stating that expectation.


A partial fulfillment could also involve changing an absolute like "never" into something softer like "almost never" or "never in most circumstances."

Except you said nothing with your original statement. You made a statement into an irrelevant one. A person who is misunderstood wishing not to be misunderstood, with the not removed there is no actual wish (as in the spell, which is an effect by definition).

[Psyren]

Snowbluff, I don't have the time or energy to wrestle with your passive-aggressive expectations. Enjoy your weekend, and I'll do the same.

[Snowbluff]

Snowbluff, I don't have the time or energy to wrestle with your passive-aggressive expectations. Enjoy your weekend, and I'll do the same.
If that was aggressive, I would call it aggressive-aggressive. :smalltongue:

Either way, I am stuck at home. If you don't feel like bantering, fine, but I still have this damned cold and I am bored out of my mind. Did that vestige thingy you were doing finish yet? Void still on top?:smallconfused:

[Kerilstrasz]

"I wish for the circumstances to be that way that i will never need another wish again"

roll with this.. its a coin toss for fast death or great greater greatness!
(i think..)

[NichG]

I'm not even sure how not to twist that wish. It seems like its asking for obscurity and a lack of adventure - never be in a situation where you would need another wish = never be in any sort of peril and never have any wants or desires beyond what you can immediately achieve.