D&D General Wishing Away The Adventure

[Mistwell]

Inspired by the High Level Adventures thread, but focused on a particular thing.

There seems to be a concern that high level PCs, or even lower level ones in possession of a wish, would use a wish to just not go on the adventure. If the quest is that they retrieve the Sword of Awesome from the Tomb of Badness, they will just wish the sword into their hand. Or otherwise use powerful magic to circumvent play.

Has anyone ever actually done this, or seen it in play? Is it a valid concern? Why would players choose to avoid playing?

We've never used a wish to avoid the adventure but we did once land on the site of the adventure, immediately steal a pirate ship and sale away before finding out the details of the adventure.

The DM just rolled with it and grabbed a new adventure.

 

[Umbran]

Has anyone ever actually done this, or seen it in play? Is it a valid concern? Why would players choose to avoid playing?

It isn't avoiding play. It is engaging in play that you didn't expect. Might as well ask why they choose to fly or teleport, instead of walk through your carefully prepped encounter map.

Avoiding risk is pretty central to many styles of play.
Clever use of your available resources to reach your goals quickly is also central to many styles of play.
Bypassing play that doesn't seem meaningful ("Oh, gods, another McGuffin quest? Really?") is important to a lot of play.

 

[Oofta]

I've seen clever or lucky play make what I thought would be a difficult encounter easy. I've also seen the reverse. Occasionally players will choose option D when I offer options A, B and C. As long as option D is legitimate that's fine. Players do unexpected things all the time, which is why outside of broad outlines and motivations for the actors at play I don't plan much for the long term.

But I don't remember ever seeing a time when a single spell completely bypassed or nerfed an encounter. I guess it's probably happened and I just don't remember it, but at the very best it's been vanishingly rare. I think DMs get both too concerned about people coming up with clever solutions and spend too much time assuming players will do what's expected. Sometimes they do, sometimes they throw a curveball and take you by surprise. But the latter has little to do with wishes or even magic.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

I've seen clever or lucky play make what I thought would be a difficult encounter easy. I've also seen the reverse. Occasionally players will choose option D when I offer options A, B and C. As long as option D is legitimate that's fine. Players do unexpected things all the time, which is why outside of broad outlines and motivations for the actors at play I don't plan much for the long term.

But I don't remember ever seeing a time when a single spell completely bypassed or nerfed an encounter. I guess it's probably happened and I just don't remember it, but at the very best it's been vanishingly rare. I think DMs get both too concerned about people coming up with clever solutions and spend too much time assuming players will do what's expected. Sometimes they do, sometimes they throw a curveball and take you by surprise. But the latter has little to do with wishes or even magic.

For real. I love slugfests and tactical play. My friend loves tricking his way around encounters.

The worst thing that happens is our sometimes DM deciding we made it too easy. Let people be clever and use their toys and make way work of it here and there. Its part of the satisfaction.

 

[Maxperson]

Inspired by the High Level Adventures thread, but focused on a particular thing.

There seems to be a concern that high level PCs, or even lower level ones in possession of a wish, would use a wish to just not go on the adventure. If the quest is that they retrieve the Sword of Awesome from the Tomb of Badness, they will just wish the sword into their hand. Or otherwise use powerful magic to circumvent play.

Has anyone ever actually done this, or seen it in play? Is it a valid concern? Why would players choose to avoid playing?

I've not seen it tried since 1e when we were reckless teenagers. 5e has made it even less likely with the following.

1) This would qualify as a wish that gives the caster a 33% chance of never being able to cast wish again. Stiff price to pay in order to avoid going to get more XP and treasure.
2) It also qualifies for the DM trickiness. "The DM has great latitude in ruling what occurs in such an instance; the greater the wish, the greater the likelihood that something goes wrong. This spell might simply fail, the effect you desire might only be partly achieved, or you might suffer some unforeseen consequence as a result of how you worded the wish.

Number 2 even gives wishing for a legendary magic item as an example where the wish goes awry, teleporting you in front of the items owner who is probably the BBEG and likely very happy to be meeting you alone in a dark place with a legendary item in hand.

 

[Maxperson]

Yes.
There's a player I've been gaming with since the 90s who hilariously, predictably finds any way to avoid the adventure.
Recent example...
GM: "There's a monster coming."
Player: "This looks dangerous. I'm going to Teleport back to town!"
GM: "So ... uh ... what are you going to do for the rest of the night?"
Player: "I'll just sit here and watch you guys play. At least my character is safe."
GM: "So ... it's kind of a part of the social contract that you are playing with everyone else. This is a team game."
Player: "Well, next time I'll bring them with me on the Teleport."

How did he get powerful enough to teleport when he's avoiding the XP?

 

[Ancalagon]

ok it's a 9th level spell that only duplicates the effects of 8th level spells and below.

I encourage you to re-read the spell.

 

[Maxperson]

Which never made any sense to me. It is an arcane spell, not divine. Who in universe is interpreting this wording?

There are lots of entities that can grant wishes. Various genies, demons, devils, gods and demigods, high fey and others. I figure out who is granting the wish once cast in order to better interpret if twisting happens and what sort of twists might happen.

 

[Maxperson]

One question here is conflicting Wishes. What happens if the target sword also had a Wish cast upon it it that it could not be moved by means of another Wish? Which Wish wins there?

That's why the infinite wish simulacrum trick doesn't work in my game. Wizards have been around for thousands of years and the one that got there first used their infinite wishes to make sure no one else could do it.

 

[MarkB]

I did do the "teleport away to town" thing once, in miniature. It was with an inexperienced DM, starting us off at 7th level with an in media res scene of us in a desert, 500 feet away from the gates of a city, being chased down by a ravenous horde of giant scorpions. It was to be an epic chase scene consisting of lots of competing skill checks.

My bard won initiative, so I picked a player, said to his character "hey, wanna get out of here?", then we dimension doored to the city gates, bought lemonades from a street vendor, and watched the chase. Once the rest of the party got within 100 feet I conjured a major image of a wounded mammoth lurching up out of the sand and running across between them and the scorpions to run interference.