Plot, Paper, Wishers and Other Irrelevancies

[unseenmage]

How far up the deity pecking order do we have to go before a their granted Wish spell beats a plot device?

Mostly interested in very bad ends a character could meet that the teleportation effect of Wish could theoretically effect.

The Dark Powers/mists of Ravenloft, the Lady of Pain's Maze effect, heck even a Portable Hole + Bag of Holding can all exile a character to an unspecified or purely plot powered locale.

To my knowledge the Lady is immune to even greater deities.
Are Ravenloft's mists and similar also immune? Can a strong enough deity power a Wish spell to relocate a Petitioner? Free a soul from the Wall of the Faithless?

How does one even get one's teleport based Wishes granted by a greater deity?


Answers to the above, additional plot based unspecified stuff to add to my list, and general discussion all welcome.


Dark Powers and Mists of Ravenloft
Far Realm
Lady of Pain's Maze (the Lady herself being clearly immune)
Petitioner
Wall of the Faithless

[Jowgen]

A deity's power depends very much of where it is trying to use said power.

In its own divine realm, little to nothing can mess with a deity and they can exert their full power. On it's home plane, it stands on roughly equal footing with other deities from that plane, as well as whatever Examplar lords might rule here. From then onwards, a deity's power and reach take a rather sharp dip.

On a material plane worlds where it doesn't have worshippers, a deity can't do squat. It can't perceive the place, much less exert any power there, so no wish-teleports into or out of there (though they should be able to Wish-teleport a mortal to a portal that leads into the place).

The Lady controls all conduits and pathways into or out of Sigil, period. Gods have literally no power there unless they enter personally, which they're banned from doing. Not even a coalition of over-deities could Wish-teleport someone out of Sigil (in maze or out of maze).

The Dark Powers have a similar degree of control over their mists, although with a couple of ill-defined caveats and limitations. If they have worshippers inside the mist, they can get some degree of perception and power, but all of that is subject to Dark Power approval. A deity can Wish-teleport someone into the mist, but the Dark Powers can just kick them right back out if they don't want them. If a deity starts messing with the Dark Powers, they might retaliate my misting a bunch of worshippers.

Now stealing petitioners is something a deity very much can do. Aside from other divine realms and a few select locations, deities can exert some portion of their power just about anywhere on the outer planes. Their senses might not reach very far into the nooks and crannies of opposed planes, but with some effort they can extend their reach a bit if needed. So unless someone is actively looking to block them, a deity can spend some time to remotely locate a specific petitioner and then straight up nab him (assuming they're not in a divine realms specifically).

Of course, that is very much against the rules and gentle-god's agreements that deities generally adhere to. Others will probably notice and demand/enforce some sort of reparation. So it is not an advisable thing for a deity to do, but they can do it, unless actively prevented by an equal or greater force.

[Feantar]

I'll adress some of the points in your list:

The wall of the faithless is a soul devouring item. I am assuming that a wish can tear a soul out, if it's still in the process of being destroyed. If it has been, then you can either rule it is the equivalent of being eaten by a barghest (50% chance) or a demilich (forever gone). I'd rule a demilich, as this is the ultimate blackmail and a barghest's abilities seem a bit weak compared to a pantheon's.

On taking a petitioner out of their plane, that's easy, although by strict rules you might need two wishes. The First wish duplicates Trait Removal(Serpent Kingdoms) and removes their Planar Commitment(Ex) for, at least, 17 hours. The next wish planeshifts them to wherever you want. I'd allow a single wish to do this, but that's just me.

Finally, a personal opinion on the Lady's mazes: Depends on the reasons for the maze. Was that individual dangerous for their personality? Or their power? Then I'd allow the caster to get in and return from the maze. Was the individual imprisoned for their knowledge? I'd allow a wish to let the caster go into the maze, but not get out of one. In a sense, a maze is not necessarily there to imprison the creature, but something about the creature; and if you get infected by said something, you're stuck. Under no circumstances would I allow an individual to be released from a maze.

In general, you should not underestimate wish. Checking at deity abilities, only some are actually capable of mimicking its effects; namely those with the luck domain(Miracle), or the Alter Reality ability. That doesn't mean deities are weak, just more specialised. On the other hand, it is very easy for a deity to destroy the wisher before they conduct the wish, as it will definitely intrude on their portfolio and thus would ping their portfolio sense.