How to get what you wish for? [Archive] - Wizards Community

How to get what you wish for? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Sjay1
08-30-05, 08:37 AM hi i'm having a problem getting what i wish for...my dm is a real pain in the ass when it comes to getting what we want..and now i've got the power to cast wish he just keeps giving me something i dont want...

my question..how do i discribe my wish so that i get what i want..say.. inherent bonus to Int / wisdom??
ShadowDragon8685
08-30-05, 08:42 AM Say specifically, you want one of the PHB-listed un-twistable Wishes.
Venom of the Yuan Ti
08-30-05, 08:42 AM You dont have to. An inherant bonus to an ability score is part of the basic wish peramiters and so the DM has no right to meddle with what you ask for (you ARE paying 5K XP after all), only when you try and do somthign OUTSIDE that is listed under the spell does he have the right (under RAW at least) to mess you over.
Sjay1
08-30-05, 08:43 AM ok thanks i'll tell him that...the xp cost itself indeed is a price i'm paying,..so i should get something in return...
JadeSpider9643
08-30-05, 09:05 AM just remember, each casting of Wish can only grant 1 point of inherant ability bonus, if your trying to get +5 wis with 1 casting...you lose.
Kessalin Talira
08-30-05, 09:15 AM I think, if you have a character with 9th level spells and the ability to cast Wish, that you should hold off on casting it for now. Every time you would cast a wish spell for a bonus to a score, write a scroll instead, and hide it. Then, when you have five of them, read them all, 1 per round, and get your +5 inherent bonus to an ability. That's what I would do unless you can convince your DM to allow wishes for ability increases to work like I do when I DM, which is that they don't have to be cast in consecutive rounds. Otherwise you might as well save up for a tome (which is slightly cheaper than 5 scrolls of wish, anyway).

Regarding getting what you wish for, either keep it simple (which you are), or be friends with a law student. :D Really, your DM should have very little to say about using a wish the way it was intended to be.
Tifus Artwin
08-30-05, 11:28 AM One thing to Remember about Wishes, is that they will ALWAYS take the path of lest resistance to grant the Wish. Say you wished for a staff of the Magi, easiest path would to put you, the caster there where the staff is, along with its current owner more then likely.
When making wishes remember the following three rules.

Keep it Short
Keep it Simple
Never Wish for Artifacts (never ends well these -.-)
Venom of the Yuan Ti
08-30-05, 11:34 AM Keep it Short
Keep it Simple
Never Wish for Artifacts (never ends well these -.-)

rule number 4, stick to the pre listed stuff!!!
Tifus Artwin
08-30-05, 11:40 AM Venom, Stop that, hows a DM sposta have any fun if you are warning the players all off from using the full potential of the Wish??? The Three rules I listed are good enough for most players, if those players that also just happen to know better then to wish for anything else, so be it. But dont ruin the fun for the other players Then NEED to Learn the HARD way.
Pryrates
08-30-05, 11:42 AM And never use to wish to "make me a ham sandwich" you will never see you DM's smile bigger then it will be when you utter those words.
Venom of the Yuan Ti
08-30-05, 11:54 AM Then NEED to Learn the HARD way.
The sort of people who are like that will say "I wish for a planet of my own to rule" regardles of what you tell them (massive surge of energy, PC now on Mercury like dead magic planet).

FYI the best thing to do if a creature gives you a wish is to go for a really expencive magic item, because they dont pay the X2 XP cost on its creation.
Dartanel
08-30-05, 11:54 AM Well, you're just asking for it at that point. When both the effect you desire and the twisted version are both perfectly reasonable interpretations and within the effects listed.

Although I suppose 'create food and water' is path of least resistance compared to 'polymorph any object' in this case.
Kidthulu
08-30-05, 12:25 PM Damn I had to write a 2 page detailed wish(my DM gave everyone 1 wish for his campain and I was the last to use mine for a very good reason....) so the DM had no friggen way to screw it up cause he was a sadistic bastard......all the wishes from the other guys(there were twelve) pretty much wiped out the entire party took all our things and made us run like little girls.....lets see if i can rememeber some of them.

1. I wish I was the strongest on the team said the wizard.....yay for point reduction
2. I wish I had money that didn't fall from the sky(oh tricky eh?).....teleported into the kings vualt(yay for the strong wizard man suffocating)
3. I wish I could kill {player}...he got a knife
4. I wish I was a powerful dragon....unfortunately red dragon feral
5. I wish everyone was alive again from the party....4 undeads
6.I wish I owned managed and had all rights to {town}....there was a riot due to poor management >=(

I can't rememebr the rest but basicly only I and one person got anything good outta it and what he got was a sassy int weapon of wounding....
Lord Schpungus
08-30-05, 12:28 PM #5 is crappy. Undead aren't "alive", no matter how thin you slice the baloney. I never want to be the "I twist your wish" DM. Those people suck.
Abulafia
08-30-05, 02:06 PM The thing about twisting wishes is that it's usually done for DM amusement, not game integrity.

I've DM'd (and GM'd, and Refereed, and Storyteller'd) for years, but I've only taken a couple of D&D campaigns up into the high levels where Wish becomes an issue. The first time was in 2002, and all of the Wishes were created by, and for, the player wizard. He's casting the spell, thought I: why would his spell warp into something unexpected and unwanted? So for him the spell pretty much worked, unless he asked for something Wish couldn't do, in which case it simply failed.

The next time I got there was 2003. The first Wish encounter was with a ring of three wishes one of the players (15th-level rogue-type) acquired after a battle with a mind flayer sorcerer. I decided on my own that the ring was made by a drow wizard for the mind flayer, and specifically designed to interpret any Wish requested in the most negative light possible. The player used his two Wishes to teleport to the surface and (after escaping from the isolated mountain range his last Wish brought him to) to summon the ring's creator, a surprised and angry 21st-level mage. A twist, yes, but a twist with reason and context that advanced the story.

If your DM is twisting all of your Wishes for no reason, he's just being pointlessly mean. Ask him why anyone would ever cast Wish at all (or indeed research it in the first place) if all it ever did was screw people out of 5,000 XP. If he can't produce a suitable answer, play a cleric next time -- at least your god will tell you why she's maliciously misinterpreting your Miracle.
Vaalingrade Ashland
08-30-05, 02:23 PM And never use to wish to "make me a ham sandwich" you will never see you DM's smile bigger then it will be when you utter those words.
I wish for a turkey sandwhich - but - BUT, I don't want any zombie turkeys, I don't want to turn into a turkey myself -- or any other weird crap!

Hmm... god bread... dijon mustard... turkey's a little dry -- THAT TURKEY'S A LITTLE DRY!? Oh foul thing! What demon from the dpths of hell created thee?!
Mirikon
08-31-05, 12:57 AM hi i'm having a problem getting what i wish for...my dm is a real pain in the ass when it comes to getting what we want..and now i've got the power to cast wish he just keeps giving me something i dont want...

my question..how do i discribe my wish so that i get what i want..say.. inherent bonus to Int / wisdom??

If you're asking for a +1 bonus to int or wisdom, you should be fine, as that is listed in the PHB as a clear can do by the spell. That is, unless you're getting the wish from some malevolent entity, like a Djinn. But if you cast it yourself, you should be fine.
lugnut71
08-31-05, 10:26 AM I wish for a turkey sandwhich - but - BUT, I don't want any zombie turkeys, I don't want to turn into a turkey myself -- or any other weird crap!

Hmm... god bread... dijon mustard... turkey's a little dry -- THAT TURKEY'S A LITTLE DRY!? Oh foul thing! What demon from the dpths of hell created thee?!

Silly thats a gorillia's paw and those things always screw up wishes.
was_fired
08-31-05, 11:35 AM Unless your Ned.
Nyarlathotep
08-31-05, 02:10 PM I never want to be the "I twist your wish" DM. Those people suck.

I don't know, it depends on why. I've twisted wishes on players but only if they were getting greedy. Even back in 1st/2nd edition days before they had a specific list of untwistable wishes, I had a rule of thumb that if the wish was reasonable I'd grant it in the spirit they made it, if they wished for something stupid or gamebreaking, I was going to make them wish they hadn't. For example if they simply wished for a magic sword, I'd give them one appropriate to their level that I thought they might like, if they wished for a sword that always hit, you can rest assured it would show up being weilded by a pit fiend or something.

Now the way wish works it's a lot easier, but if they go outside of the parameters of hte spell, I still use the same rule of thumb.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Sjay1 08-30-05, 08:37 AM	hi i'm having a problem getting what i wish for...my dm is a real pain in the ass when it comes to getting what we want..and now i've got the power to cast wish he just keeps giving me something i dont want... my question..how do i discribe my wish so that i get what i want..say.. inherent bonus to Int / wisdom??
ShadowDragon8685 08-30-05, 08:42 AM	Say specifically, you want one of the PHB-listed un-twistable Wishes.
Venom of the Yuan Ti 08-30-05, 08:42 AM	You dont have to. An inherant bonus to an ability score is part of the basic wish peramiters and so the DM has no right to meddle with what you ask for (you ARE paying 5K XP after all), only when you try and do somthign OUTSIDE that is listed under the spell does he have the right (under RAW at least) to mess you over.
Sjay1 08-30-05, 08:43 AM	ok thanks i'll tell him that...the xp cost itself indeed is a price i'm paying,..so i should get something in return...
JadeSpider9643 08-30-05, 09:05 AM	just remember, each casting of Wish can only grant 1 point of inherant ability bonus, if your trying to get +5 wis with 1 casting...you lose.
Kessalin Talira 08-30-05, 09:15 AM	I think, if you have a character with 9th level spells and the ability to cast Wish, that you should hold off on casting it for now. Every time you would cast a wish spell for a bonus to a score, write a scroll instead, and hide it. Then, when you have five of them, read them all, 1 per round, and get your +5 inherent bonus to an ability. That's what I would do unless you can convince your DM to allow wishes for ability increases to work like I do when I DM, which is that they don't have to be cast in consecutive rounds. Otherwise you might as well save up for a tome (which is slightly cheaper than 5 scrolls of wish, anyway). Regarding getting what you wish for, either keep it simple (which you are), or be friends with a law student. :D Really, your DM should have very little to say about using a wish the way it was intended to be.
Tifus Artwin 08-30-05, 11:28 AM	One thing to Remember about Wishes, is that they will ALWAYS take the path of lest resistance to grant the Wish. Say you wished for a staff of the Magi, easiest path would to put you, the caster there where the staff is, along with its current owner more then likely. When making wishes remember the following three rules. Keep it Short Keep it Simple Never Wish for Artifacts (never ends well these -.-)
Venom of the Yuan Ti 08-30-05, 11:34 AM	Keep it Short Keep it Simple Never Wish for Artifacts (never ends well these -.-) rule number 4, stick to the pre listed stuff!!!
Tifus Artwin 08-30-05, 11:40 AM	Venom, Stop that, hows a DM sposta have any fun if you are warning the players all off from using the full potential of the Wish??? The Three rules I listed are good enough for most players, if those players that also just happen to know better then to wish for anything else, so be it. But dont ruin the fun for the other players Then NEED to Learn the HARD way.
Pryrates 08-30-05, 11:42 AM	And never use to wish to "make me a ham sandwich" you will never see you DM's smile bigger then it will be when you utter those words.
Venom of the Yuan Ti 08-30-05, 11:54 AM	Then NEED to Learn the HARD way. The sort of people who are like that will say "I wish for a planet of my own to rule" regardles of what you tell them (massive surge of energy, PC now on Mercury like dead magic planet). FYI the best thing to do if a creature gives you a wish is to go for a really expencive magic item, because they dont pay the X2 XP cost on its creation.
Dartanel 08-30-05, 11:54 AM	Well, you're just asking for it at that point. When both the effect you desire and the twisted version are both perfectly reasonable interpretations and within the effects listed. Although I suppose 'create food and water' is path of least resistance compared to 'polymorph any object' in this case.
Kidthulu 08-30-05, 12:25 PM	Damn I had to write a 2 page detailed wish(my DM gave everyone 1 wish for his campain and I was the last to use mine for a very good reason....) so the DM had no friggen way to screw it up cause he was a sadistic bastard......all the wishes from the other guys(there were twelve) pretty much wiped out the entire party took all our things and made us run like little girls.....lets see if i can rememeber some of them. 1. I wish I was the strongest on the team said the wizard.....yay for point reduction 2. I wish I had money that didn't fall from the sky(oh tricky eh?).....teleported into the kings vualt(yay for the strong wizard man suffocating) 3. I wish I could kill {player}...he got a knife 4. I wish I was a powerful dragon....unfortunately red dragon feral 5. I wish everyone was alive again from the party....4 undeads 6.I wish I owned managed and had all rights to {town}....there was a riot due to poor management >=( I can't rememebr the rest but basicly only I and one person got anything good outta it and what he got was a sassy int weapon of wounding....
Lord Schpungus 08-30-05, 12:28 PM	#5 is crappy. Undead aren't "alive", no matter how thin you slice the baloney. I never want to be the "I twist your wish" DM. Those people suck.
Abulafia 08-30-05, 02:06 PM	The thing about twisting wishes is that it's usually done for DM amusement, not game integrity. I've DM'd (and GM'd, and Refereed, and Storyteller'd) for years, but I've only taken a couple of D&D campaigns up into the high levels where Wish becomes an issue. The first time was in 2002, and all of the Wishes were created by, and for, the player wizard. He's casting the spell, thought I: why would his spell warp into something unexpected and unwanted? So for him the spell pretty much worked, unless he asked for something Wish couldn't do, in which case it simply failed. The next time I got there was 2003. The first Wish encounter was with a ring of three wishes one of the players (15th-level rogue-type) acquired after a battle with a mind flayer sorcerer. I decided on my own that the ring was made by a drow wizard for the mind flayer, and specifically designed to interpret any Wish requested in the most negative light possible. The player used his two Wishes to teleport to the surface and (after escaping from the isolated mountain range his last Wish brought him to) to summon the ring's creator, a surprised and angry 21st-level mage. A twist, yes, but a twist with reason and context that advanced the story. If your DM is twisting all of your Wishes for no reason, he's just being pointlessly mean. Ask him why anyone would ever cast Wish at all (or indeed research it in the first place) if all it ever did was screw people out of 5,000 XP. If he can't produce a suitable answer, play a cleric next time -- at least your god will tell you why she's maliciously misinterpreting your Miracle.
Vaalingrade Ashland 08-30-05, 02:23 PM	And never use to wish to "make me a ham sandwich" you will never see you DM's smile bigger then it will be when you utter those words. I wish for a turkey sandwhich - but - BUT, I don't want any zombie turkeys, I don't want to turn into a turkey myself -- or any other weird crap! Hmm... god bread... dijon mustard... turkey's a little dry -- THAT TURKEY'S A LITTLE DRY!? Oh foul thing! What demon from the dpths of hell created thee?!
Mirikon 08-31-05, 12:57 AM	hi i'm having a problem getting what i wish for...my dm is a real pain in the ass when it comes to getting what we want..and now i've got the power to cast wish he just keeps giving me something i dont want... my question..how do i discribe my wish so that i get what i want..say.. inherent bonus to Int / wisdom?? If you're asking for a +1 bonus to int or wisdom, you should be fine, as that is listed in the PHB as a clear can do by the spell. That is, unless you're getting the wish from some malevolent entity, like a Djinn. But if you cast it yourself, you should be fine.
lugnut71 08-31-05, 10:26 AM	I wish for a turkey sandwhich - but - BUT, I don't want any zombie turkeys, I don't want to turn into a turkey myself -- or any other weird crap! Hmm... god bread... dijon mustard... turkey's a little dry -- THAT TURKEY'S A LITTLE DRY!? Oh foul thing! What demon from the dpths of hell created thee?! Silly thats a gorillia's paw and those things always screw up wishes.
was_fired 08-31-05, 11:35 AM	Unless your Ned.
Nyarlathotep 08-31-05, 02:10 PM	I never want to be the "I twist your wish" DM. Those people suck. I don't know, it depends on why. I've twisted wishes on players but only if they were getting greedy. Even back in 1st/2nd edition days before they had a specific list of untwistable wishes, I had a rule of thumb that if the wish was reasonable I'd grant it in the spirit they made it, if they wished for something stupid or gamebreaking, I was going to make them wish they hadn't. For example if they simply wished for a magic sword, I'd give them one appropriate to their level that I thought they might like, if they wished for a sword that always hit, you can rest assured it would show up being weilded by a pit fiend or something. Now the way wish works it's a lot easier, but if they go outside of the parameters of hte spell, I still use the same rule of thumb.