Whats a good Wish to make? (No backfire/Careful wording)

[Sims]

Now Im sure we're all familiar with the wish spell right? Well, as a 21st level character, I have access to the spell, as well as 3 scrolls with the wish spell in them.

Now my question to the community is, what is a good "Wish" I can make that my DM won't back fire. More specifically, how exactly do I word it?

I won't to make it more powerful than what it can already do, which in itself will likely lead to chaos.

[lvl 1 sharnian]

•Duplicate any wizard or sorcerer spell of 8th level or lower, provided the spell is not of a school prohibited to you.
•Duplicate any other spell of 6th level or lower, provided the spell is not of a school prohibited to you.
•Duplicate any wizard or sorcerer spell of 7th level or lower even if it’s of a prohibited school.
•Duplicate any other spell of 5th level or lower even if it’s of a prohibited school.
•Undo the harmful effects of many other spells, such as geas/quest or insanity.
•Create a nonmagical item of up to 25,000 gp in value.
•Create a magic item, or add to the powers of an existing magic item.
•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. Note: 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.
•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.
•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.
•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.
•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.

I think I worded these correctly

[Jallorn]

Now Im sure we're all familiar with the wish spell right? Well, as a 21st level character, I have access to the spell, as well as 3 scrolls with the wish spell in them.

Now my question to the community is, what is a good "Wish" I can make that my DM won't back fire. More specifically, how exactly do I word it?

I won't to make it more powerful than what it can already do, which in itself will likely lead to chaos.

Honestly, unless your DM is a jerk, he likely won't twist a wish unless it's designed to make you ridiculously powerful. In most cases, carefully worded wishes come across as a challenge.

[Arbane]

Honestly, unless your DM is a jerk, he likely won't twist a wish unless it's designed to make you ridiculously powerful.

Hmph. Kids these days. I remember back in the OLD days, when getting hold of a Wish was an invitation to disaster! There was none of this "Fair Play" nonsense then - EVERY Wish was Monkey's-Paw-Style!

(Only half joking, here.)

[Jothki]

If your DM is reasonable, you should probably be able to carry out any arcanish effect roughly in line with the power of a level 8 spell, or any divinish effect in line with the power of a level 6 spell, not just effects for spells that are actually written.

[gbprime]

Spoiler

Show

•Duplicate any wizard or sorcerer spell of 8th level or lower, provided the spell is not of a school prohibited to you.
•Duplicate any other spell of 6th level or lower, provided the spell is not of a school prohibited to you.
•Duplicate any wizard or sorcerer spell of 7th level or lower even if it’s of a prohibited school.
•Duplicate any other spell of 5th level or lower even if it’s of a prohibited school.
•Undo the harmful effects of many other spells, such as geas/quest or insanity.
•Create a nonmagical item of up to 25,000 gp in value.
•Create a magic item, or add to the powers of an existing magic item.
•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. Note: 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.
•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.
•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.
•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.
•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.

I think I worded these correctly

Yes. Anything on that list should work automatically. So if you're fishing for things to do with 5 wishes, I'd go for a permanent +5 bonus to your primary casting stat.

[akma]

Trade them for miracle castings, it`s the same without the DM needing to feel he needs to screw you.

[The Glyphstone]

Trade them for miracle castings, it`s the same without the DM needing to feel he needs to screw you.

On the other hand, it's also a blank check for the DM to just say 'lol no', in his persona as the god you're petitioning for a miracle.

[Tibbaerrohwen]

^ Agreed.

Wish and Miracle are both pretty dangerous areas to get into. If you have the ability to talk to your DM outside of the gaming environment, you may want to discuss with them what they think would be fair and unfair. To me, that seems like the most sure-fire way to make it so your DM doesn't come back at you and go "BLAM! Now you're dead."

[Swordguy]

"I wish that any future Wishes I may make or have granted to me will be granted according to the intent behind their wording, and not twisted in any way according to the actual wording itself or by the desires of the force or entity granting the Wish."

There. You've "wasted" a wish on something that doesn't get you anything right away. Especially if Wishes are fairly rare in your campaign (as they should be), most DMs will let this one be granted pretty straight-up.

And you can see the obvious utility for future Wishes, right?

[Moose Man]

i wish that you won't grant this wish. screw over the dm with that

[Ytaker]

http://www.homeonthestrange.com/phpB...7faaab577b3c7f

”I wish to live on the locations of my choice, as the physically healthy, uninjured, and apparently normal version of my current body containing my current mental state (which shall retain its usual ability to change), a body which will heal from all injuries at a rate three sigmas faster than the average given the medical technology available to me on earth, and which will be protected from any diseases, injuries or illnesses causing disability, pain, or degraded functionality or any sense, organ, or bodily function for more than two days consecutively or fifteen days in any year;

at any time I may rejuvenate my body to a younger age, by saying a phrase matching this pattern five times without interruption, and with conscious intent: 'I wish to be age,’ followed by a number between one and ninety nine, followed by ‘years old,’ at which point the pattern ends - after saying a phrase matching that pattern, my body will revert to an age matching the number of years I stated and I will commence to age normally from that stage, with all of my memories intact;

at any time I may die, by saying five times without interruption, and with conscious intent, 'I wish to be dead’. If I cannot say this, thinking the above phrase "I wish to be dead" five times without interruption and with conscious intent will have the same effecy.

; the terms 'year' and 'day' in this wish shall be interpreted as the ISO standard definitions of the Earth year and day as of 2006.

In your fulfilment as the genie of these wishes, you shall not change now or in the future my location in space or time, or my base level of comfort as a human with the environment. You shall not in your fulfilment as the genie of these wishes alter my sense or reality of time to fulfil the terms of this wish.

Improved.

Free source wishing.

[Toliudar]

Wishes that break the power level of the game are no-win situations. Maybe the DM recognizes for what they are, and finds some way to hose you (even if you think that your wording is fool-proof, it's being interpreted by the person who feels compelled to hose you, so the "you didn't say that you didn't want to be on fire" logic takes hold, and the result is unhappy. Maybe the DM doesn't recognize its potential, and you get your invulnerability/massive stat boost/infinite wishes, and balance goes a little more out the window. Congratulations!

The best uses of wishes I've seen are to deal with an extremely bad plot-related situation. If you're part-way to a TPK, or another player has inexplicably chosen to read the book summoning Cthulhu, the DM will likely have neither the time nor the inclination to second-guess your wish to polymorph the BBEG into a chew-toy for the druid's animal companion.

Good wishes should do at least one of the following, and ideally all three:

• Advance the story
• Make no major changes to the party's status quo
• Make everyone in the game laugh

[Hazzardevil]

I don't belive theres anythign wrong that breaks the rules with wishing for more scrolls of wish.
I think that might be shot down by teh creation of magical items rule however.

Knwoing my luck they didn't come up with that rule to stop people wishing for wishes with scrolls.

Or better yet maybe you can wish for an eternal wand of wishes.

[Defiant]

This excerpt

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.)

means that any attempt to word a wish carefully is pointless.

[RndmNumGen]

Even wishes that are perfectly worded are still subject to the "partial fulfillment" clause. Therefore, you should wish for one of the following:

1) One of the acceptable Wishes outlined in the spell description.
2) A wish that the DM would want to grant you(See Toliudar's post)

EDIT: Gah, ninja'ed! Ah well, my point still stands.

[GideonRiddle]

My group has found that ending a Wish with the phrase "exactly as I intended." they always get what they ask for.

This may change depending on the GM though.

[Toliudar]

This seems unhelpful to me. If "exactly as I intended" were a workable mechanic, then it should be possible to simply say "I wish for what I wish for, exactly as I intend" and it will come true, since the universe will somehow divine what you are wishing for, as if you were blowing out birthday candles, and make it come true.

[afroakuma]

"I wish that any future Wishes I may make or have granted to me will be granted according to the intent behind their wording, and not twisted in any way according to the actual wording itself or by the desires of the force or entity granting the Wish."

Granted

...except that you will never again make a wish. The power of this spell will intervene in any future attempts and spoil them for you.

Horribly easy-to-exploit wish.

Granted

You are sealed, forever, in a single moment of frozen time, save for five seconds' latitude. You may elect to use this brief time to speak the words that will end your life; otherwise, you will be trapped for eternity one half-second out of phase with reality. Be anywhere that you want to be; you will still be unseen and unseeing, unsensed and unsensing, fallen into a chronological oubliette between the frayed edges of reality. Perhaps one day you shall "emerge" as a Vestige... but we doubt it...

Efreet Worldwide - Being Humongous Jerks since 1 GE

This topic tends to come up a lot, and as I always repeat, I have only once seen the "perfect" wish - using a fictional impossible-to-misinterpret language along with strict and heavy legalese including clauses and subclauses, plus the ability to examine and reject (forcing restructuring) in advance the outcome of the wish. And bear in mind - this can only prevent me as a DM from sadistically misreading it. No wording whatsoever can prevent the partial fulfillment clause from giving you an existential colonoscopy.

[Zeful]

As Afro says there is no perfect wish. Even those "Do as I mean, not as I say" guard wishes (as Swordguy posted) are actually beyond the power of wish (you are asking a single spell to look into the future and determine what you want and then change your future casting of the same spell to give you what you want, this is clearly more powerful than anything on the list of "approved" effects).

[Ytaker]

You are sealed, forever, in a single moment of frozen time, save for five seconds' latitude. You may elect to use this brief time to speak the words that will end your life; otherwise, you will be trapped for eternity one half-second out of phase with reality. Be anywhere that you want to be; you will still be unseen and unseeing, unsensed and unsensing, fallen into a chronological oubliette between the frayed edges of reality. Perhaps one day you shall "emerge" as a Vestige... but we doubt it...

Oops. I thought I edited in the clause which would cancel that.

"in a situation in which my life has a baseline minimum of comfort equal to that in which my quality of life is at this point in time"

I suppose you'd have to add in something like "within a normal flow of time and normal consiousness."

Edit. General clause to protect you.

In your fulfilment or for any other reason as the genie of these wishes, you shall not change now or in the future my location in space or time, or my base level of comfort with the environment. You shall not in your fulfilment or for any other reason as the genie of these wishes alter my sense or reality of time to fulfil the terms of this wish.

[Keinnicht]

Wish

Nothing happens.

Keep in mind the DM doesn't have to do what you see when you use a wish. You could say that wish and I could say "During your long-winded wish phrasing, the magical energy spirals out of control and blows you into eight hundred billion tiny pieces."

And making that wish is like showing up to a Blind Hunters' Convention blowing on a duck whistle and flapping fake wings.

[Callista]

Immortality via Wish wouldn't be overpowered, though. It would be a role-play effect more than anything else--most adventures take fewer than five years in-game, and almost all will span less than one age category for even the shortest-lived races. Personally, I'd allow it without twisting anything.

[afroakuma]

In your fulfilment or for any other reason as the genie of these wishes, you shall not change now or in the future my location in space or time, or my base level of comfort with the environment. You shall not in your fulfilment or for any other reason as the genie of these wishes alter my sense or reality of time to fulfil the terms of this wish.

Granted

As I am not permitted to change now or in the future your location in space, and my granting this wish would facilitate the continual changing of your spatial position, the wish is self-contradictory and the casting fails. I cut off your head for wasting my time.

Efreet Worldwide - Desiring Any Excuse To Kill You Horribly since 1 GE

As I said, I've been round the bend with this one a few times. There's always a loophole, and when there isn't there's just a lacuna created by weakening of the spell's boundaries. In either case, if you're making unsafe wishes, you will die. Horribly, if I'm the efreeti in charge...

Immortality via Wish wouldn't be overpowered, though. It would be a role-play effect more than anything else--most adventures take fewer than five years in-game, and almost all will span less than one age category for even the shortest-lived races. Personally, I'd allow it without twisting anything.

Sure, but he's not asking for temporal immortality; he's asking for total immortality without aging consequences, in comfort, with what amounts to Greater Teleport as an at-will SLA. The "winning" wish asked for what amounted to "becoming the DM." And had to, since without that total control over the outcome, I killed him, stasis'd him, or drove him to irrevocable madness every single time.

Ahh, fond memories...

[Ytaker]

Granted

As I am not permitted to change now or in the future your location in space, and my granting this wish would facilitate the continual changing of your spatial position, the wish is self-contradictory and the casting fails. I cut off your head for wasting my time.

Efreet Worldwide - Desiring Any Excuse To Kill You Horribly since 1 GE

As I said, I've been round the bend with this one a few times. There's always a loophole, and when there isn't there's just a lacuna created by weakening of the spell's boundaries. In either case, if you're making unsafe wishes, you will die. Horribly, if I'm the efreeti in charge...

Simply fixed. Your interpretation is based on inserting the word "facilitate" into the wish".

In your fulfilment or for any other reason as the genie of these wishes, you shall not purposely change by magical means now or in the future my location in space or time, or my base level of comfort with the environment. Through means outside the direct control of this wish my location in space and time and base level of comfort can still change. You shall not in your fulfilment or for any other reason as the genie of these wishes alter my sense or reality of time to fulfil the terms of this wish.

You just, go through this route several times with a friend. Then you can present it to the DM.

Nothing happens.

Keep in mind the DM doesn't have to do what you see when you use a wish. You could say that wish and I could say "During your long-winded wish phrasing, the magical energy spirals out of control and blows you into eight hundred billion tiny pieces."

And making that wish is like showing up to a Blind Hunters' Convention blowing on a duck whistle and flapping fake wings.

I'm assuming this DM enjoys puzzles and the concept of matching wits with a wishee. If not you could simply wish for "Immortality without any catches" and the DM would say yes. If they're the sort who enjoy screwing up wishes then having some basic protection against that helps- it's like showing up to a blind hunter's convention with metal armour. If they're not they'll probably just skim it and say "Ok, you're immortal."

Edit. Ah, yes, the concept of being able to live anywhere could be misconstrued as teleportation in the dnd world. The clause I inserted mostly negates the purpose of it, that the djinn not teleport you to the moon, so you can remove it. The original wish wasn't subject to the limited power clause, and so was written slightly off. It's an interesting concept. Using twisted phrasing to try to make the wish more expansive than it is so that the wish can go wrong.

[SilverClawShift]

"I wish that hadn't happened."

Wish scrolls need to be put in fragile cases with "In case of emergency, break glass" painted on it. Wish can do just about anything. Save it until "anything" is your only option.

[Jothki]

They seem like a decent way to get back your dead Cleric in the middle of a dungeon.

[Lamech]

"I wish that any future Wishes I may make or have granted to me will be granted according to the intent behind their wording, and not twisted in any way according to the actual wording itself or by the desires of the force or entity granting the Wish."

Partial fulfilment:

I wish that any future Wishes I may make or have granted to me will be granted according to the intent behind their wording, and not twisted in any way according to the actual wording itself or by the desires of the force or entity granting the Wish."

If you go off the already mentioned safelist the DM can screw you. There is nothing you can do about it.

So on the safe list is making magic items. Since they are scrolls you don't need to pay the XP cost. I recomend wishing for rings of three wishes.
Also the transport travellers option is fairly powerful; they don't have to be willing, and it bypasses "local conditions". You can use it to at the same time, save the party, and SoD nuke all the bad guys.

[Defiant]

Wishing for a ring of three wishes is beyond the powers of a wish. The powers of a wish are clearly outlined, and to wish for something that has 3 times those powers, is clearly subject to trouble.

[Lamech]

Yes they are clearly outline. One of those clearly outlined powers is making any magic item.