[DM]- Are Rings of Three Wishes dangerous?

[killem2]

I want to drop one of these as loot. Part of me, thinks it'll be fine because I don't DM a bunch of over the top, power-gaming, optimizers. Pretty far from it actually.

They've been playing this session for almost two years, they are almost level 9, and I feel, like, a wish is needed. No real reason for it, except that I think it's just a rite of passage that I think they should get to experience.

So, there you have it, I guess I am asking, is Wish, busted in the hands of the naive rather than the optimized? :smalltongue:

[pwykersotz]

Technically they are only as broken or dangerous as you make them. Most of the effects of Wish aren't too problematic at 9th level.

[Gnoman]

Wish is only dangerous if you let your players get away with running a wish engine allowing for infinite wishes. Outside of that, the spell isn't breakingly powerful.

[(Un)Inspired]

Wishes are like Wizards; the more clever the player, the more dangerous they are.

[SinsI]

Technically they are only as broken or dangerous as you make them. Most of the effects of Wish aren't too problematic at 9th level.

Ring of three Wishes is almost 100k gold.
Characters are expected to gain only 9k of wealth from 8th to 9th level...

[pwykersotz]

Ring of three Wishes is almost 100k gold.
Characters are expected to gain only 9k of wealth from 8th to 9th level...

Yes, but it wasn't asked if it would be an issue if they sold it and used it to break WBL. The context of the question is in the wishes themselves. I personally believe, having given them out at that level to both optimizers and newbies alike, that the Wishes are only as broken or dangerous as the DM lets them be.

[Zanos]

Wishing for 25,000 gold is an effect wish can produce without invoking shenanigans, so a wing of three wishes can break WBL very easily if players are aware of that.

[tricktroller]

The thing is if you give out wishes as a dm you have to be more clever than your party.

I cite the age old oops wish, "Make me a ham sandwich!" "Poof" Where the fighter once stood there is now a sandwich.

[Icewraith]

I usually make it a point to grin as obviously and as largely as possible whenever my players start discussing using a Wish.

You can also raise one eyebrow at the players in conjunction with a smaller grin.

Bonus points if you use the phrase "are you sure you'd like to do that?" or similar.

However, if you outright cackle the jig is up and the players won't even look at the page the Wish spell is printed on, so if you have a tendancy towards uncontrolled maniacal laughter, try and keep it contained. Especially if there's anyone you're romantically interested in/involved with within earshot and you don't have a legally binding agreement already in place.

Mind games with your players suck and you should never ever ever use them, right until the point where they're hilarious and you should use them whenever you can.

[tricktroller]

Also though as a group we once wrote out a 4 page document detailing our wish as one giant run on sentence. Thank god one of the players was going to law school because the DM had a particularly evil gleam in his eye.

[Icewraith]

I'd find a stopwatch, stopwatch app, or some other method of keeping track of small amounts of time IRL, have one of the players read the document out loud, stop them at six seconds, and adjucate the wish based on that.

I mean, I'm all for complicated wishes, but you still have to cast it within one round's worth of time since it's a standard action.

:biggrin:

[nedz]

I'd go with the Ro3W if you like. The players will probably either save it until the need it, or use it to fix an outstanding issue. If you were to give one, non- tradable, wish to each PC then you might see some more action; but 3 wishes between the party will just be saved/


Also though as a group we once wrote out a 4 page document detailing our wish as one giant run on sentence. Thank god one of the players was going to law school because the DM had a particularly evil gleam in his eye.

I usually treat the word 'and' as signifying the start of a new wish.

[pwykersotz]

I usually treat the word 'and' as signifying the start of a new wish.

Heh, or just redact all prepositional phrases. :smallamused:

[NichG]

If you're worried about the party hoarding or selling it, turn it into a time-locked magical location.

Chamber of the Will of the World

This room gathers energies from the struggles of all life on the planet to survive, building them up for a single moment of need. The power of this location waxes and wanes with mysterious geological cycles - in effect it can be tapped only once every 100 years, and then only for a short period of time (about a day).

While the Chamber is at its height of power, it can be used to grant a single Wish to any who enter it. No person may receive a Wish from the Chamber more than once, and the power stored within is only enough to grant up to 6 Wishes total (or 3 or whatever).

Because of the source (energies of life and the will to survive) Wishes granted by the chamber will specifically not be twisted in ways that directly cause death or destruction. Instead, if twisted, it tends to be towards things which would make the wisher serve the cause of life.

[CombatOwl]

Ring of three Wishes is almost 100k gold.
Characters are expected to gain only 9k of wealth from 8th to 9th level...

Who's going to buy it from them? They'd have to journey to a large city or better to even have a chance at getting the standard half price for loot (because of the GP limits on settlements). If they want to try to bargain it up, they have to adventure to a major metropolis. For a prepared DM, that alone is worth dropping the ring. It's a great hook. Granted, they could choose to burn a wish to teleport to the city, but that reduces the value of the treasure (33k now). It's a great quest hook. You find a ring of three wishes in the ruins you just cleared. In order to properly sell it, you have to venture to the renowned and honorable Academy of Magic in Generic Capital City. Hijinks ensue.

Moreover, who is stupid enough to sell a ring of three wishes? Okay, you sell it to the sleazy magic shop owner. He uses the first wish to wish for his money back and you fools never to bother him again.

[BWR]

It all depends on your players. If you're like a friend of mine who found a ring, didn't know what it did and tried it out, you'll waste three wishes on something to eat (the player was new and didn't know that a Ring of Wishes existed).

Or like another friend whose group was out in the wilderness and couldn't identify the Ring of Two Wishes they found so they tried it on and did various things. Tries to jump, couldn't jump higher. Fell off a small ravine, didn't slow. Jumped in a pond, didn't walk on it or breathe water. Tried sparring, wasn't harder to hit.
Since it was late at night and they were getting frustrated one PC put it on and said "I wish I was invisible! I wish I had a two meter long schlong!"

[Icewraith]

Who's going to buy it from them? They'd have to journey to a large city or better to even have a chance at getting the standard half price for loot (because of the GP limits on settlements). If they want to try to bargain it up, they have to adventure to a major metropolis.

Moreover, who is stupid enough to sell a ring of three wishes? Okay, you sell it to the sleazy magic shop owner. He uses the first wish to wish for his money back and you fools never to bother him again.

He uses up two wishes, his spine becomes solid gold, and he is then petrified, teleported to a random spot on the astral plane, Imprisoned, and Sequestered.

[CombatOwl]

He uses up two wishes, his spine becomes solid gold, and he is then petrified, Imprisoned, and Sequestered.

Fortunately, as the DM, I am entitled to be as lenient to my own NPC's wishes as I please.

[Icewraith]

Fortunately, as the DM, I am entitled to be as lenient to my own NPC's wishes as I please.

Well, I would make an effort to have my NPC's wish require the same rigor I expect my PCs to put into them.

"I wish for all of the gold and gems I gave the [number] persons known to me as [name of adventuring band or name] within the last 24 hours to be instantaneously transported to the room adjoining my secure vault."

"I wish for the next liquid that each of the persons known to me as [the adventuring band or name of persons] drink to instantaneously be replaced with a sufficient quantity of the waters of the river styx to make them forget the last three days."

[Thanatosia]

The thing is if you give out wishes as a dm you have to be more clever than your party.

I cite the age old oops wish, "Make me a ham sandwich!" "Poof" Where the fighter once stood there is now a sandwich.
Unless the item is overtly cursed, this kind of thing is absurd. Wishes are not automatically supposed to default to 'monkey paw' setting (unless it actualy IS a monkey paw or other cursed source). Yeah, you can and should subvert them when the PCs ask for utterly unreasonable things... but if you're doing vile interpretations of asking for a ham sandwich (and yeah, I know the above is pretty much a joke) you've gone too far into the role of Adversarial DM and should probably let someone else do it.

Wishes are actually a great litmus test of how suitable a DM you are. If your first instinct is to punish any wish with a negative spin.... you probably need to take a step back and remind yourself that D&D is not a team sport where you and the players are trying to beat each other. Nothing sucks the fun out of D&D faster then a DM who feels like an opponent rather then a friend, at least in my experience.

Even if the PCs do overreach a bit, be gentle unless they are obviously trying to abuse the Wish to break the game. For example, if they wish for a +4 sword and you feel a +4 sword is just too good, rather then finding some way to transform one of them into a +4 sword or other overtly punishing trick, let them have it, but in a way that they don't get to keep it for too long. They still get a benefit from the wish, you preserve balance, and everyone should be mostly happy.

[CombatOwl]

Well, I would make an effort to have my NPC's wish require the same rigor I expect my PCs to put into them.

"I wish for all of the gold and gems I gave the [number] persons known to me as [name of adventuring band or name] within the last 24 hours to be instantaneously transported to the room adjoining my secure vault."

"I wish for the next liquid that each of the persons known to me as [the adventuring band or name of persons] drink to instantaneously be replaced with a sufficient quantity of the waters of the river styx to make them forget the last three days."

I normally see no reason to twist wishes. Players usually bring enough trouble on themselves by interpreting it correctly.

"I wish to be the most powerful fighter in the world!" Well, fine, the game just turned into a game about that fighter and his many, many enemies trying to take that title away from him. It doesn't need to get twisted into a wish making all other fighters worthless, or something crazy along those lines. It's an example of the terrible consequences of getting exactly what you wanted.

"I wish for infinite arcane power!" Replace all them wizard levels with warlock levels. Or, alternately, just give him EB as a level 1 warlock. Infinite 1d6 energy rays.

etc, etc.

[Icewraith]

Unless the item is overtly cursed, this kind of thing is absurd. Wishes are not automatically supposed to default to 'monkey paw' setting. Yeah, you can and should subvert them when the PCs ask for utterly unreasonable things... but if you're doing vile interpretations of asking for a ham sandwich (and yeah, I know the above is pretty much a joke) you've gone too far into the role of Adversarial DM and should probably let someone else do it.

Wishes are actually a great litmus test of how suitable a DM you are. If your first instinct is to punish any wish with a negative spin.... you probably need to take a step back and remind yourself that D&D is not a team sport where you and the players are trying to beat each other. Nothing sucks the fun out of D&D faster then a DM who feels like an opponent rather then a friend, at least in my experience.

Players simply need to be careful about their phrasing when they reshape reality. If they're asking for something within or reasonably close to the limits outlined in the spell description I'll let it through without alteration unless they badly misspeak. It's still a roleplaying game, and I do insist that players speak out loud the exact words their character uses in the wish.

It does discourage wishes of the "Make me a ham sandwich" variety though (which is the main point).

Edit: "I wish for infinite Arcane Power"? The sudden influx of magical energy causes your mortal frame to detonate. The explosion is so powerful it creates a permanent rift in the fabric of reality... everyone else within 40 feet suffers the effects of a Maw of Chaos spell, roll your fort saves. Anyone feel like resurrecting him, or is it new character time?

If the character does get rezzed he immediately gains the attention of the inevitables, who either want to Soul Bind him and toss the gem in the Vault of Mages Who Are Too Dangerous To Allow To Exist OR completely fix the damage he's done to the multiverse. In the meantime, the rift is acting like a permanent Maw of Chaos and if left to its own devices may even widen into a proper Slaad- spawning Gate. Adventure hook!

[Thanatosia]

The great and horrible thing about language in general, and probably english more then most, is it's very easy to twist interpretations and meaning. Legalise is so complicated for a reason, and it STILL gets twisted and suberted with almost trivial ease. No matter how careful your PCs are, if you really want to negative spin a wish, you can probably do it. Better to just default to a benevalent role IMO, unless the wish is cursed or truely deserves to be punished by intent.

[Sith_Happens]

To answer the OP's question, most of the more abusive uses of Wish involve Wishing for magic items, which you can't do with a Ring of Three Wishes (because it costs additional XP that the ring's creator most likely didn't pay).

[Icewraith]

The great and horrible thing about language in general, and probably english more then most, is it's very easy to twist interpretations and meaning. Legalise is so complicated for a reason, and it STILL gets twisted and suberted with almost trivial ease. No matter how careful your PCs are, if you really want to negative spin a wish, you can probably do it. Better to just default to a benevalent role IMO, unless the wish is cursed or truely deserves to be punished by intent.

I agree, the sort of stuff I'm coming up with is for players who do "ham sandwich" after being explicitly warned that Wishing is dangerous, reminded of the rules in the PHB concerning Wish and "safe" Wishes, and informed that Wishes must be spoken out loud and in character (at my table), the character must intend to use Wish (either activate the item or cast the spell), and once stated the words of the Wish cannot be adjusted-but Wishes within the vicinity of the effects mentioned in Wish will usually result in the intended effect unless the phrasing is particularly bad or they wish for a Candle of Invocation or similar.

Note that most of the stuff I mentioned results in the duplication of other spell effects, which is something Wish explicitly does.

Edit: Unfortunately, the character trying to activate the ring of two wishes would probably still fly, and the intent to use wish thing goes out the window if the character utters the words "I wish ____" in the presence of an outsider that owes them a wish for whatever reason and does not like them.

[NichG]

Best to do interesting things with a twisted wish, rather than just one-off 'no!' responses.

"I wish for infinite Arcane Power": One of the character's 1st level spells chosen at random becomes an at-will ability.

"I wish for infinite Arcane Power" (Faerun edition): The next time Mystra dies, this character is next on the list to replace her, if still alive at the time. All high priests of Mystra and Shar become immediately aware of this fact.

"I wish for infinite Arcane Power" (how exactly do I use this? edition): The character gains access to a +9 metamagic that allows them to increase the Range of spells with a >Touch range to 'Infinite (line of sight required)'.

Most of these I would restrict to 'rare' sources of Wish, not the Wish spell you can cast yourself (which I prefer to interpret as being strictly what's on the list).

[Icewraith]

Best to do interesting things with a twisted wish, rather than just one-off 'no!' responses.

"I wish for infinite Arcane Power": One of the character's 1st level spells chosen at random becomes an at-will ability.

"I wish for infinite Arcane Power" (Faerun edition): The next time Mystra dies, this character is next on the list to replace her, if still alive at the time. All high priests of Mystra and Shar become immediately aware of this fact.

"I wish for infinite Arcane Power" (how exactly do I use this? edition): The character gains access to a +9 metamagic that allows them to increase the Range of spells with a >Touch range to 'Infinite (line of sight required)'.

Most of these I would restrict to 'rare' sources of Wish, not the Wish spell you can cast yourself (which I prefer to interpret as being strictly what's on the list).

I'd think that that wish in Faerun would result in the local weave collapsing onto the character, with the effect I described above possibly surrounded by a several hundred foot wide dead or wild magic zone (that does not affect the Maw of Chaos or Gate if things get that bad).

Probably any wish containing "Infinite" or involving godhood is going to get badly twisted at my table. If the player has the attitude that wishing should be approached with the same mindset as safely handling firearms or explosives instead of trying to land a bullet in someone's drink after ricocheting off four surfaces, they will probably never have a wish go wrong on them at my table. Even if they screw up their phrasing, they'll get a far more benign and probably beneficial result than the "ultimate Arcane Power!!!!" guy.

[Hurnn]

It's as dangerous as you want it to be.

PC: I wish to raise my strength.

DM: You wish to raze your strength?

PC: Yes

DM: done str 3

[Icewraith]

"Increase" is a perfectly acceptable alternative, and since the wish is within the bounds of the spell description and doesn't have any complications, there's no reason to twist it.

Unless the character already has a +5 inherent bonus to STR.

[Pex]

Will the players try to break the game to win D&D?

If yes, then the ring is dangerous. Don't give it to them.
If no, then the ring is fine. Let them enjoy it.

Will you screw over the player character because he made a wish?

If yes, then the ring is dangerous. Don't give it to them.
If no, then the ring is fine. Let them enjoy it.

[Angelalex242]

Since inherent bonus to strength is on the wish spell list description, if the DM tried to say 'done, str 3', I'd ignore him and raise my inherent bonus by 1.

If he throws a hissy fit about it, he will shortly be shy a player.

[Hangwind]

"Increase" is a perfectly acceptable alternative, and since the wish is within the bounds of the spell description and doesn't have any complications, there's no reason to twist it.

Unless the character already has a +5 inherent bonus to STR.

Inherent? Are you sure the bonus wouldn't be sacred?

EDIT:Never mind, just reread the spell. Still, could you change the bonus to sacred, unnamed or something else?

[NichG]

The reason its 'inherent' is so that the total stat boost from Wishes is ultimately limited, in the case that a character has access to an arbitrary number of Wishes (which is easily enough achieved in the system, even putting aside infinite wish loops - just being able to cast the thing means you can convert XP into Wishes).

If you can change the type, then instead of just a +5, you can have about +40 or so before you run out of types - Sacred, Profane, Morale, Insight, Competence, Circumstance, Inherent, Luck, ...

[beforemath]

I prefer to play under the assumption that a wish has limited power and that a wish made by a player character will accomplish, more or less, exactly what the player wants within those limits.

A wish made of behalf of a character by a third party (an efreet, etc.) is subject to "interpretation," however. A wish for something reasonable tends to be regarded relatively favorably. A wish for something ridiculous tends to be reacted to in the way you'd expect someone at the end of a long day to react to a smartass who's making outlandish demands.

[TuggyNE]

Inherent? Are you sure the bonus wouldn't be sacred?

EDIT:Never mind, just reread the spell. Still, could you change the bonus to sacred, unnamed or something else?

Not safely. And a DM in such a case would be well within their rights to pervert the wish something fierce.

[Icewraith]

Inherent? Are you sure the bonus wouldn't be sacred?

EDIT:Never mind, just reread the spell. Still, could you change the bonus to sacred, unnamed or something else?

How would you change the bonus type without referring to game terms in character with your wish? It would work fine in the OoTS universe (It's ok, you can just call it a +5 sword), but in a game where people don't want the line between the story and the game mechanics used to tell the story blurred this becomes quite tricky.

Even if you do try something like "I wish for a surge of pure holy/sacred/profane/kangaroo/etc. power that will permanently increase my intellect to immediately affect me." the DM can just go "alright, a surge of pure sacred magic appears and permanently increases your intellect. You gain a +1 inherent bonus to your intelligence score- that doesn't stack with the +5 tome you read two levels ago and you should know better."

Alternatively, pick some race with a higher racial stat bonus than the PC's current race with regards to the ability score in question but with other significant drawbacks and permanently change their race. And gender, if you're feeling nasty. Furthermore, the Wish locks their shape so polymorph type spells no longer work on them. Or you can always bump the PC up an age category, which will also irrevocably kill anyone who is already in the maximum age category since even True Res won't bring back creatures that die of old age.

[Hangwind]

Nah, I was thinking more along the lines of it only working to give you +5 from wishes in any single stat (Using the non-stacking rules), but you bein allowed to choose the type of bonus. Still, the punishment ideas are kind of cool actually.

[HereBeMonsters]

My DM buddy had an issue like this he had his players meet a jin and get a wish. Well one player thought it would be cute to wish for "I wish I had the power of Thor" so the dm had Thor appear and fight the party with the premise that whomever killed Thor would gain his power.

Hilarity insued so i am told. Kinda curious what you would do about that?

As for the OP if you trust them then its safe.

[Hopeless]

I want to drop one of these as loot. Part of me, thinks it'll be fine because I don't DM a bunch of over the top, power-gaming, optimizers. Pretty far from it actually.

They've been playing this session for almost two years, they are almost level 9, and I feel, like, a wish is needed. No real reason for it, except that I think it's just a rite of passage that I think they should get to experience.

So, there you have it, I guess I am asking, is Wish, busted in the hands of the naive rather than the optimized? :smalltongue:

You need to fine tune the wish to avoid certain pitfalls as long as your players aren't the sort to say ask for more wishes then you should be fine.

For example the ring has non-detection quality specifically to hide the wish aspect you could add an ability like a +1 luck bonus in situations where its to the ring's advantage ala the One Ring or it functions as a +1 ring of protection so unless someone is accessing the dmg they won't realise there's something off about that ring.

Their first clue should be that player's first unwitting use of a wish which should be subtle enough for them to not realise what happened unless its when you want them to realise what one of them has.

Ideally they should only understand this after the second wish so there's only one left and I do suggest you add the proviso that a wish is only usable if the situation merits it or it forwards the plot of your game.

I had a player with a Luck sword and he had to use the wish to counter a near TPK event it was only afterwards that he realised what the sword did but by then it had used up its one wish, that might sound harsh but this was a Sharpe in d&d 2e and they were tougher than normal characters so it evened out.

How do you want to handle this?

[Icewraith]

My DM buddy had an issue like this he had his players meet a jin and get a wish. Well one player thought it would be cute to wish for "I wish I had the power of Thor" so the dm had Thor appear and fight the party with the premise that whomever killed Thor would gain his power.

Hilarity insued so i am told. Kinda curious what you would do about that?

As for the OP if you trust them then its safe.

Well... you could do the whole deity thing, or you could turn the PC into an exact duplicate of Thor Beardhelmsson, a dwarf warrior 1 with profession (mining) who lives in the a dwarven mining town two hundred miles to the north. Since there are only so many syllables, it could also be Thor'konlothtik, an aboleth who lives in a system of lakes in the underdark, etc.

[Brookshw]

Fortunately, as the DM, I am entitled to be as lenient to my own NPC's wishes as I please.

But isn't it more fun to do them monkey paw style :smallamused:

[Icewraith]

Since inherent bonus to strength is on the wish spell list description, if the DM tried to say 'done, str 3', I'd ignore him and raise my inherent bonus by 1.

If he throws a hissy fit about it, he will shortly be shy a player.

Just noticed this... technically, wishes cast IN SUCCESSION stack for the purposes of the inherent bonus. If you get a tome +4 and a year later cast a wish to increase that stat, you won't have a +5, you'll have a +4 and a +1 that don't stack with each other. Many reasonable DMs will probably houserule this, but it's best to be aware of this little feature.

[Segev]

I've had Wishes show up in two separate campaigns I've run.

In one, the PCs came across a tomb wherein enormous magical power was tuned specifically to humans. Humans within that space could use Wish once per round as a spell-like ability. I was deliberately mum about consequences and twistings, though I did kindly point out, if asked, what consequences a PC might be able to logically foresee given his Int and Wis. Generally things like, "Yes, if you wish for a new city loyal to you to spring up out of nowhere, local powers will notice and react accordingly."

It was amazing how little they actually used it. They were very careful with what they said while in the chamber, and closed it up quietly. They came to dread finding other ones (there were 7 in all in the campaign). I never screwed them over for any Wishes they DID make (and one did make a few), but they never even went so far as to Wish for all of their stats to be improved by +5.


The other time, a wizard was doing experiments with elemental portals and had summoned a Janni for...entertainment purposes. While he was distracted, the Janni, who wasn't amused, murdered him. Unfortunately, his portals were then without anybody controlling them, and she was barely able to keep up with preventing the problem for spiralling out of control even faster.

The party, who had a trained arcanist, could decipher the dead mage's notes to figure out that he had a safety clause: a summoning ritual to bind an Efreeti to grant three wishes. One of which would be to close the portals.

The players refused to discuss their wishes in character, lest the efreeti hear them. They spent an hour and a half trying to come up with two wishes (other than the one about closing the portals) they wanted to make that wouldn't screw them over. I was about as quiet as I could be. I tried to talk them into discussing it IC, because the Efreeti was mildly irritated for being summoned and just wanted to get it over with. To that end, he would have been, if not happy, at least quite willing to discuss their wishes with them to hasten them making all three so he could go back home.

He would have twisted wishes that tried too hard to manipulate him, or which were made by anybody who directly antagonized him, but he wouldn't have bothered for relatively straight-forward ones and was quite up-front about the limits of his own power in granting them (i.e. "I could, but I'd have to do it in this back-handed way to keep it within my power, so...")

And they still refused to discuss it with him more than the barest minimum.

So, wishes have a great danger of making your players paranoid.

[Pex]

My DM buddy had an issue like this he had his players meet a jin and get a wish. Well one player thought it would be cute to wish for "I wish I had the power of Thor" so the dm had Thor appear and fight the party with the premise that whomever killed Thor would gain his power.

Hilarity insued so i am told. Kinda curious what you would do about that?

As for the OP if you trust them then its safe.

Take the player's character sheet. Tell him to remake the character as a cleric or paladin of Thor.

To be even more silly, his character's name is changed to Chris Hemsworth.

For a more benign interpretation, once a day the character can cast Lightning Bolt at a caster level equal to his character level.

[nedz]

You can melt snow, one handful a minute.

Honestly that's so far beyond the safe zone you could do anything.

You find yourself in a bedroom with Wassername — Thor's wife. She tells you "He'll be home in a minute"

[HereBeMonsters]

The dm just more enjoyed having thor give them a trashing just not kill them. He said it was amusing to see them scramble for their lives while the guy who wished for it tried to fjgbt just to get smashed.

The lesson was watch your wording and dont power grab.
Oddly enough he had the same group of players later beat thor.

[Honest Tiefling]

I think it depends on how cooperative the players are. Un-optimized doesn't mean stupid, after all...

Have they ever tried or mentioned attempting to break the campaign, or have they shown the ability to reign themselves in?

[Mr Adventurer]

Do you have a plot?

"I wish for +30 to Diplomacy checks for the next hour"
"I wish for I and my present allies to be transported in front of a Great Wyrm Gold Dragon"
"I wish for I and my present allies to be transported in front of [current BBEG]"

:)