Post/Author/DateTime	Post
LaegolasGreenleaf 02-22-05, 11:57 PM	To all players out there, and DMs too I'm trying to build a list of the DOs and DON'Ts on how to phrase a wish. I require your input, experiences, etc. Thanks in advance for the help.
Dauntless 02-22-05, 11:59 PM	As long as you are wishing for something listed in the spell description as within the powers of the spell, the DM is really just being a jerk if he twists it for no real reason. On the other hand, if you wish for something greatly outside the real of whats listed, expect to get screwed. :)
Ze_Mighty_Vegetable 02-23-05, 12:05 AM	That's the Wish rule 0, in a nutshell. Don't get too greedy. Even with a wish's power, a DM is not gonna allow you to unbalance his game. DMs generaly won't twist the wording of a reasonnable wish, but will take glee in finding the slightest ambiguity to screw a munch wish.
LaegolasGreenleaf 02-23-05, 12:25 AM	A friend of mine told me of a wish that a player of his made once. The guy wished to be a god (that's it). So the DM graciously ( :schemes: ) made him a god, the god of :censored: and :censored: . Draw your own conclusions but don't post them here. I'm sure my friend remembers doing that. And the moral of that story is: Be careful what you wish for. You just might get it. Apologies but I had to leave out the actual words. I'm keeping in accordance with the Code of Conduct. If you wish to know, you can message me on Yahoo.
Super_Demolition_Christ 02-23-05, 12:58 AM	phrase something like "In a way that wont harm me or the cosmos" seriously, keep it to other spells, and Inherent bonuses to stats
Aramil_silverwind 02-23-05, 01:23 AM	When I first began playing, I heard this tale. A PC wizard who was known for his min/maxxing (but not always his intelligence) got wish, and was dedicated to get all he could from it. He wished to know everything. The DM made him a book. An intelligent book that knew everything there was to know in the cosmos. Before the party could learn anything however, Vecna himself came down and took the book for his own. For certain things aren't made for the minds of mortals.
Deep Black 02-23-05, 01:24 AM	One of my PCs was wondering what to wish for. He said, jokingly, "I wish I was a fish." It was from a Deck of Many things, and after that cards drew themselves. He ended up as an evil (balance), penyless (ruin) fish.
danielinthewolvesden 02-23-05, 02:47 AM	Just Wish within the spell's parameters, and that should be fine. Well, unless the Wish was being granted by an angry Evil imprisoned Efritti or something.
JadeSpider9643 02-23-05, 04:09 AM	Wish for "a full basket of assorted (non-poisionous) magical cookies that each grant an immediate permanant boost to a random ability score." myself I have never had the opportunity to use a wish...but whenever that day comes that is gonna be my wish....I don't care who needs resurecting....I'm wishing for cookies!
LaegolasGreenleaf 02-23-05, 04:51 AM	phrase something like "In a way that wont harm me or the cosmos" Precisely.
Dunelord 02-23-05, 05:59 AM	A lot of runners will try to twist a wish, and act like the spell reads "This a chance for a PC to loose 5,000 XP in order to have something really bad and/or silly happen." So be careful under who you use it under, since other wise good runners have some bad ideas about this spell.
MarkB 02-23-05, 06:32 AM	Wish for "a full basket of assorted (non-poisionous) magical cookies that each grant an immediate permanant boost to a random ability score." "A mile-wide basket containing 954 assorted cookies, each weighing approximately 500 lbs, appears 100 feet overhead. Make a Reflex save." :devil: If a character of mine ever gets a full Ring of Three Wishes, his first wish will be "I Wish to know which two wishes will be most beneficial for my character without harming others, including exact wording."
LaegolasGreenleaf 02-23-05, 06:41 AM	"A mile-wide basket containing 954 assorted cookies, each weighing approximately 500 lbs, appears 100 feet overhead. Make a Reflex save." :devil: If a character of mine ever gets a full Ring of Three Wishes, his first wish will be "I Wish to know which two wishes will be most beneficial for my character without harming others, including exact wording." :rofl: I could just see the look on that player's face when it gets dark overhead and the last words he can muster up is "Oh :censored: !!!!!!!"
Daeger 02-23-05, 06:46 AM	If a character of mine ever gets a full Ring of Three Wishes, his first wish will be "I Wish to know which two wishes will be most beneficial for my character without harming others, including exact wording." And as it turns out, there IS a way to wish for your character to become a god, but the other deities aren't going to let that happen, so after that wish is made they destroy you before you can wish for it.
mcnoo 02-23-05, 08:27 AM	One i came up with a while back and just love to spring on the unsuspecting. Player - "I wish i had a million gold pieces" Me - a pile of gold pieces appear in front of you, then dissapear, you now HAD a million gold pieces. Works with everything, pure evil. Also bear in mind how many scrolls of wish you can afford with the money casting wish can give you...
JadeSpider9643 02-23-05, 02:57 PM	If a character of mine ever gets a full Ring of Three Wishes, his first wish will be "I Wish to know which two wishes will be most beneficial for my character without harming others, including exact wording." "The ancient secrets of the arcane magics which shape the cosmos are revealed to your insignficant mind. As you begin your new life as a drooling lunatic, you realize that mere mortals will never be able to cope with such knowledge. But at least you now know what two wishes would be most beneficial, too bad you are no longer able to speak." "Roll a DC 1000 will save to stop drooling" :nonono:
Krelios 02-23-05, 03:03 PM	I wish to: 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. There. I'm safe.
fallabel 02-23-05, 03:22 PM	I was once in a game where some of the characters were granted a wish. This wasn't a Wish spell, it was from an NPC that the DM invented, basically a stereotypical "genie", albeit an evil one (though we didn't know that). Anyway, our Wizard, after overcoming the surprise that he could get anything he wanted, wished, "I wish to be a 50th level Wizard". DM: "Ok, you are now a 50th level Wizard. You notice your skin losing its color, and getting wrinkly. Your hair begins to fall out. You are now 250 years old. If you wish to cast a spell that requires your arms to move, you have a 50% chance of failure. You now also move at 1/4 your normal speed." Obviously, the DM's logic was that it'd take more than a human lifetime to attain level 50, so any 50th level wizard must be very, very old.
Evil Wizard 02-23-05, 04:07 PM	DMs who try to twist the wording of basic wishes are jerks. However, if you try to get too greedy with the wish, then you're probably asking to get punished. This isn't to say that the DM should try to find ways to screw over his players, though. In most cases, a wish should be good. If the players push their luck a little, give them a lesser effect. If they push things a LOT (make me a level 50 wizard!), only then should you really mess with them. Wish, being mortal magic, has it's limits, so have it function up to its limit. Wishing for a million gold pieces causes 25,000 gold pieces to rain down in succession before the spell sputters out, for example. Wishing for all the knowledge in the universe gets you a short stream of pure knowledge, and when it cuts off you've learned enough to make you one Int point smarter, and so on. The mere existence of epic magic should be a clue that wish can't do everything. Arguably, horrible hosing the player with a wish wanders outside the limits of the spell as well. If the wish is within the limits of what level 9 magic should do, allow it. If not, grant a level 9 effect and stop it there.
Thracos 02-23-05, 04:14 PM	One of the first campains i was in was a "Kill my old PC campain" with a guy that thought DnD was DM vs. Players. anyway about halfway, and six pc deaths from just me, through the game someone got their hands on a wish scroll. so thay looked at the DM and said "I wish i were immortal." the DM looked straight in the face and said "ok you feel youself change. make an int check.....your a vampire....in and open field....at noon....you have one round to find cover or be reduced to ash" the PC had enough time to look over the party and wave good-bye before turning into dust.
aleph_woodenglenn 02-23-05, 04:37 PM	It is my opinion that the only thing worse than a wish planned is a wish granted. That said, the best wishes are small, simple and specific. Avoid pronouns, especially ones that include the prefix any-...(ie. I wish I was anywhere but here-->transport five feet away, under the ocean, etc.) Avoid the impossible (see above immortality wish, god wishes etc.) Always keep in mind that your DM might hold the firm belief that everything comes from some where and must go somewhere (i.e. that modest 200k platinum wish may end up in..er...bursting...your coin purse, but if it ends up at your house, it probably came FROM some very angry baddies) I stick to wishes like "I wish (name, surname), (name, surname), and myself were all safely in the inn back at (the name of the village we just left)" Or "I wish I had my very own(name of specific valuable item of particular interest) right now.)" you know that sort of thing...
cambric 02-23-05, 04:46 PM	In one of our earlier campaigns, 20+ years ago, there was a "falling" out between a couple of players...IN game and OUT...got to be very annoying and childish, and the DM said he had enough...no sooner he said that, the ring that we've carried for months was now identified...ring of 3 wishes!! One of the annoying PC's, and he was the worst of the two, GRABBED the ring, looked at the DM and said, "I wish $#@ was dead!" (the other PC, who will not be named) and grinned this evil grin at him...we all looked at the DM and even the PC who was wished dead turned pale... The DM, to his credit...smiled, and said, "tis done..." looks to the guy who had grabbed the ring and says, "you find yourself a thousand years in the future, everyone you know is dead, including him *points to other PC*, you may now go home and re-roll a new PC...and if you cause me anymore headaches with your pettiness, you will never be allowed back in the game." :bow: It WORKED!! Everyone got along fine after that...but we still laugh about wishes and we've never had another one. Cam
Super Guy 02-23-05, 06:09 PM	Hm... the only wish I remember in our group, since we never get wish items and no one wants to pay for one, was when one guy stupidly wished that platinum should never run out from his pouch. So, he got platinum in his pouch, but he couldn't take it out! Effectively, there'd always be platinum in his pouch :)
SwollenOstrich 02-23-05, 06:29 PM	Wish for "a full basket of assorted (non-poisionous) magical cookies that each grant an immediate permanant boost to a random ability score." myself I have never had the opportunity to use a wish...but whenever that day comes that is gonna be my wish....I don't care who needs resurecting....I'm wishing for cookies! You would spend 5000 XP for some cookies?
Callista 02-23-05, 06:31 PM	Best use for a wish: "I wish I had a ring of wishing with one wish left." Then keep it for those "Oh @#$%, we're going to die" situations. Use it when you can't use anything else to get you and your party out of there. Also: "I wish I had a one-use amulet that would cast first Invisibility, then True Resurrection on its bearer, beginning the round after s/he is killed." (This is basically a fancier version of the Contingency spell.) Then give it to the party Cleric--and you have a second chance out of many TPKs. (Everyone dies, the Cleric is raised and turned invisible... he hides out until the bad guys go away, then raises the rest of you with the scrolls he should be carrying, or carries the bodies away for later raising.) Of course these wishes can be perverted--any wish can--but they are sensible enough so most DMs won't pervert them, especially since it means the DM knows he's less likely to end up with a situation that spoils all his well-laid plans when it ends in TPK. And if he *wants* a TPK... well, he'll probably pervert your wish anyway, so just wish for something that benefits someone other than you or a party member... i.e., "I wish the people of the valley of Littleville would have a good wheat crop this year."--because any nerfing of the wish should be more likely to affect NPCs and thus provide a plot hook. Bonus points if you're Exalted. Bonus RP XP if you act all angsty after your wish kills the innocent puppies of Littleville when animated wheat stalks tear their guts out...
cambric 02-23-05, 09:11 PM	You would spend 5000 XP for some cookies? YES!! If it granted me abilities to be raised, up to 5 per ability...why WOULDN'T you?? That was the wish: magical cookies... Cam
LaegolasGreenleaf 02-23-05, 09:32 PM	What would be the proper way to wish for the experience to increase their level to say 5 levels higher, for instance?
fallabel 02-23-05, 09:35 PM	That's a tough one, because wishing for XP is metagaming. Your character doesn't know anything about XP, nor really about levels. Perhaps you could wish to be a more experienced bard or cleric or whatever.
speeblefreak 02-23-05, 09:37 PM	All of the above souds sensible (except for the cookies thing :uh-huh:), but I think any PC who goes out of his way to wish for whatever w/o repercussions ("I wish that all the powers of the gods be transferred to me, along with the physical, emotional, and mental stamina to control said powers, the knowledge of how to use the powers, and total control of the actual result of this wish according to my definitions and interpretations) should get utterly smoten. In short, NO WORD-LAWYERING! :rant: Proposed answer to the above wish: "That happens, but the wish doesn't know what your interpretaions are, so the magical backlash obliterates you and the gods reclaim their powers. They then move your soul into a frog and dress you up in a tutu out of spite." :devil:
Roboradish 02-24-05, 11:27 AM	All of the above souds sensible (except for the cookies thing :uh-huh:), but I think any PC who goes out of his way to wish for whatever w/o repercussions ("I wish that all the powers of the gods be transferred to me, along with the physical, emotional, and mental stamina to control said powers, the knowledge of how to use the powers, and total control of the actual result of this wish according to my definitions and interpretations) should get utterly smoten. In short, NO WORD-LAWYERING! :rant: Proposed answer to the above wish: "That happens, but the wish doesn't know what your interpretaions are, so the magical backlash obliterates you and the gods reclaim their powers. They then move your soul into a frog and dress you up in a tutu out of spite." :devil: Well, if you're a wizard with an INT of 24...
MarkB 02-24-05, 11:46 AM	All of the above souds sensible (except for the cookies thing :uh-huh:), but I think any PC who goes out of his way to wish for whatever w/o repercussions ("I wish that all the powers of the gods be transferred to me, along with the physical, emotional, and mental stamina to control said powers, the knowledge of how to use the powers, and total control of the actual result of this wish according to my definitions and interpretations) should get utterly smoten. In short, NO WORD-LAWYERING! :rant: Proposed answer to the above wish: "That happens, but the wish doesn't know what your interpretaions are, so the magical backlash obliterates you and the gods reclaim their powers. They then move your soul into a frog and dress you up in a tutu out of spite." :devil: Better (but more drastic) response: "The entire power of all the gods combined is transferred into your mortal body - but in order to avoid exceeding your physical and mental capacity, the entire powers of all the gods combined is first reduced to that of a [insert character's race, level and class]. You feel power flowing through you, restoring all your lost hitpoints and expended spells. Since your powers now are exactly what they were when you woke up this morning, you have full knowledge of how to use them. Congratulations, your power as a [insert character's race, level and class] now matches that of all the gods, and this plane of existence is looking for a new pantheon. Also, there are some priests who want a word with you."
StormKnight 02-24-05, 01:21 PM	Well, here are some things on how I tend to handle wishes while GMing. This is completely useless to you, because you are not in my game, and usually I'm just wierd and don't do things like anyone else does... No gamespeak in wishes. "I wish to gain a level" doesn't mean anything. "I wish to be more wise" would get you the standard +1 stat bonus to WIS. "I wish to become a better fighter" would probably get you an appropriate stat bonus, or some reasonably comparable benefit. If you are casting a wish spell yourself, the words of the wish are a focus for your will to carry out the intent of the wish. The words themselves really don't mean much. If a wish "comes from the heart" and is pure of intent, it is much more likely to work as intended. Work to avoid loopholes and you are spending far too much time thinking about what could go wrong, and something probably will. "I wish we were out of danger!" is probably a very heartfelt wish with a lot of immediate intent behind. Its likely to get you someplace safe. "I wish I had a powerful magical longsword that is capable of bursting into deadly flame which won't damage me or my companions, can cut through even the heaviest armor, will never dull or break and that appears in a safe place that I can immediately use without drawing any repercussions." is spending way too much time worrying about the problems of something that you want with your head and not your heart. Something is going to go wrong here. If you are getting something else to cast the spell for you, keep in mind that the act of granting a wish does not grant them comprehension of a wish. If your "wish" is filled with so many conditions and legalese that I can't make immediate sense of it, odds are the Djinn or whatever can't either. And that's just asking for trouble.
Lasrifriir 02-24-05, 02:28 PM	Well, if you're a wizard with an INT of 24... ... then you'd be smart enough to avoid ever using Wish in the first place :D .
Xavori 02-24-05, 03:42 PM	Well, as many others said: If it's beneath the Wish powers (and not above) the DM shouldn't Twist it. However, even if you wish for things in the limits of the spell, bad stuff can happen if you don't specify: - If you wish for a fireball, say where you want it :mage: - If you wish for a fly spell, don't use the words "I wish to fly"or otherwise you'll end up in a rather feathery vestment... :turkey: - Never wish for unbalancing stuff, should your DM be aware of the unbalanced Wish and punish you mercilessly :dancin: :cheer: :w00t: :evillaugh (<--- that's all the stuff DM's usually do when they succesfully punish an evil doer)
speeblefreak 02-24-05, 07:35 PM	Well, if you're a wizard with an INT of 24... So what are you saying?
Saiph 02-24-05, 08:09 PM	I've got a sense of humor, so even if it's within the power of the spell I tend to make it odd, though not deadly and rarely inconvenient (or significantly so). Someone wished for a trained griffen, while in a heavily forested area, but not during battle or anything. It's rider fell through the trees with a crash, the griffen swooped down and ate a pack mule (no belongings damaged). Things like to fall. Sometimes when they wish for a spell effect, they get a wand with 1 charge (or maybe a couple if I'm genergous), unless it's poor timing. Once a wizard appeared, looked befuddled, saw the dragon, cast the requested spell in a panic, and then promptly vanished. But nothing like: I wish for 15,000 gp (the max IIRC) and having a huge lump of gold land on their head. It lands next to them, and they've gotta clean it up, and repair the tavern roof it fell through (quite cheap, less than 100 gp). Why? Cause it's fun, and the players expect wish to screw them over (they've heard the stories). I don't, but by doing so they get a taste of how bad it can get, should they overstep their bounds.
Roboradish 02-24-05, 11:14 PM	So what are you saying? Sorry. I was implying that if you are Krug, Orc Barbarian, you shouldn't be able to do lawyer speak. If you're a level 18 wizard with 24 INT, you should be able to draw up complex wishes in your sleep.