Would these restrictions make Efreetis playable?

[gogogome]

1. You can only wish for an item half your wealth by level.
2. You cannot wish for an item whose cost would push you over your wealth by level.
3. You cannot use wish to indirectly bypass the above 2 rules (duplicating spells that increase your wealth, like flesh to salt)
4. Wish will be used exactly how it is spelled out in its description, no greater effects.
5. No loops.

This would limit make Efreetis playable? This would essentially make wish a wealth-restorer in the scenario of total wealth wipe, a magic shop when no civilization is accessible and the PCs have gold, and limits its practical use to duplicating spells with material and XP costs for free and accessing 8th level arcane spells early, which I don't think is a huge thing considering how ghaeles and planetars already do that.

[Zaq]

Define "playable." Are you envisioning a PC playing as an efreet, binding/calling one, or something different?

[Crake]

Define "playable." Are you envisioning a PC playing as an efreet, binding/calling one, or something different?

I'm assuming he means binding/calling one, because efreeti cannot use their wishes for themselves. If you would like to prevent wish abuse, simply have them pervert the wishes in subtle, unassuming ways that will come back to bite the players in the ass. That's exactly what an efreeti would do to punish those who would dare to call it away from it's important business.

And no, offering to spend a wish on it won't help, because there's nothing a wish can supply that it needs, it has plenty of slaves it can force to make wishes for itself if it wanted anything, but wishes don't get you souls to trade and bargain with.

[Goaty14]

I guess, but don't forget about mundanes. i.e "I wish for an army that obeys me, and my party's commands" and then goes and sacks the next kingdom.

Also early 8th level spells can be a pretty big deal if you start at level 1, just keep that in mind.

[Psyren]

The way to make Efreet playable is to let them screw with the wish. Thus the player will self-regulate, and only use it when the alternative is even worse. I make this clear to players up front.

A smart player can mitigate how much they can interpret the wish negatively, but can't ever render it completely benign.

[gogogome]

Yeah I meant using Efreetis when called with Planar Binding.

I forgot to add that I will be using wish exactly as how it was spelled out, no greater effects.

[Hackulator]

Yeah I meant using Efreetis when called with Planar Binding.

I forgot to add that I will be using wish exactly as how it was spelled out, no greater effects.

Using planar binding to get wishes is always cheese. If you don't want to cheese, don't use planar binding for wishes. If you are going to that level, then worrying about nerfing it a little is just silly, you are trying to be penny wise when you are already pound foolish.

[Psyren]

Using planar binding to get wishes is always cheese. If you don't want to cheese, don't use planar binding for wishes. If you are going to that level, then worrying about nerfing it a little is just silly, you are trying to be penny wise when you are already pound foolish.

This. Binding an efreet for a wish should be a desperation/last resort tactic, and the party should be willing to accept the consequences that come from that; an attempt at revenge or a mess to clean up at the benign end, to full on monkey's paw if they're careless with their wording.

Efreet are cruel, "hate servitude" and "desire revenge", so I would say that simply expecting one to grant wishes without even an attempt at reprisal would be an unreasonable command. Leave yourself open to what the creature might do down the road and you'll get your wish in the short run. You could even try to kill it immediately upon getting what you want, though making a habit of that would certainly attract undesirable attention.

[RoboEmperor]

This. Binding an efreet for a wish should be a desperation/last resort tactic, and the party should be willing to accept the consequences that come from that; an attempt at revenge or a mess to clean up at the benign end, to full on monkey's paw if they're careless with their wording.

Efreet are cruel, "hate servitude" and "desire revenge", so I would say that simply expecting one to grant wishes without even an attempt at reprisal would be an unreasonable command. Leave yourself open to what the creature might do down the road and you'll get your wish in the short run. You could even try to kill it immediately upon getting what you want, though making a habit of that would certainly attract undesirable attention.

I think the OP is trying to make Efreetis a fun/unique binding target like Ghaeles without breaking the game. I think he's saying the only reason free wishes are broken is because it breaks WBL and has "greater effects".

Though I think the OP forgot that free wishes = +5 inherent bonus to every ability score. Probably need to add that restriction too.

[Psyren]

I think the OP is trying to make Efreetis a fun/unique binding target like Ghaeles without breaking the game. I think he's saying the only reason free wishes are broken is because it breaks WBL and has "greater effects".

Though I think the OP forgot that free wishes = +5 inherent bonus to every ability score. Probably need to add that restriction too.

Even the listed "safe" uses are broken, particularly if the wish in question is an SLA.

I'm not saying binding efreet for wishes should be banned. But you should make it so that only the desperate, insane, or depraved would try - much like how it would work in-universe in an actual campaign setting, I'd wager.

[gogogome]

Even the listed "safe" uses are broken, particularly if the wish in question is an SLA.

I'm not saying binding efreet for wishes should be banned. But you should make it so that only the desperate, insane, or depraved would try - much like how it would work in-universe in an actual campaign setting, I'd wager.

How would you break the game with the "safe" uses? A little more detail would be helpful.

[Psyren]

How would you break the game with the "safe" uses? A little more detail would be helpful.

By wishing for magic items, for one thing. The intended listed uses of Wish include duplicating arcane spells 8th and below. But by duplicating a magic item - say, a candle of invocation or a ring of three wishes - you are effectively using your wish to duplicate a 9th-level spell (i.e. another Wish, or Gate) - and furthermore, you're able to do this multiple times. The XP cost is meant to offset this, but not only is it miscalibrated for some items (like the candle); it's also waived entirely if the Wish used to create it is an SLA.

[gogogome]

By wishing for magic items, for one thing. The intended listed uses of Wish include duplicating arcane spells 8th and below. But by duplicating a magic item - say, a candle of invocation or a ring of three wishes - you are effectively using your wish to duplicate a 9th-level spell (i.e. another Wish, or Gate) - and furthermore, you're able to do this multiple times. The XP cost is meant to offset this, but not only is it miscalibrated for some items (like the candle); it's also waived entirely if the Wish used to create it is an SLA.

But in the 1st post I said that the restriction I will be giving is that you can't break your WBL with it.

[Psyren]

But in the 1st post I said that the restriction I will be giving is that you can't break your WBL with it.

It's broken even if you stay within WBL. You can wish for a single NG candle and start chain-gating Solars to solve every encounter without impacting WBL at all.

[RoboEmperor]

Psyren makes an excellent point.

Infinite wealth restorer = Infinite scrolls of level 9 spells = Infinite level 9 spells.