3 wishes

[Slife]

The question is, the the person drawing the card gain the ability to cast wish (for free) three times, or gain the right to request that the artifact cast wish three times. Because if it's the former, there's no need to worry about monkey's paw syndrome so long as you stick within the safe boundaries of the spell.

If it's the latter, then you need to ask, is this artifact likely to attempt to deliberately screw me over? Is it likely to misinterpret my request from a language or culture barrier? Is it only endowed with a computer-like intellegence?

Asking for wishes from djinn is asking for trouble, because it isn't you casting the spell, and they can twist things for fun, and will try to do so.

I've never seen the point of trying to word your wishes twistily. Why not append "with no negative consequences, direct or indirect, as judged by me, to me"? Anything goes wrong, you can claim it violated the wish. And if the DM is going to go against the text of what you asked for, what's the point of doing twisty wording in the first place?

 

[JustKim]

A Candle of Invocation.

Don't need anything else once you have one of those.
(...)
I am being a little munchkiny

Obviously I am missing something, please explain what makes this dull item so special.

 

[FalcWP]

Obviously I am missing something, please explain what makes this dull item so special.

It lets you cast Gate once. Bring in a Noble Djinni, ask for another candle, rinse, and repeat.

 

[Warren Okuma]

Wisdom, wisdom, wisdom (or whatever).

 

[Corsair]

+3 Stat. Intelligence for my current wizard.

 

[Bagpuss]

Generally humble things directly related to the character concept. Lost a family to an orcish invasion? "I wish my family was alive and well." Had a comrade fall to Lord Foulheart? "I wish Bill was still with us." Local town having financial woes? "I wish Glendale could pay its taxes."

The problem with that is most of those wishes will either fail or take several of your three wishes. Wish is a lot more restricted than it use to be, but on the plus side GM's are less likely to screw you character over for using them.

"I wish my family was alive and well." - It's a wish to raise a single dead person as resurrection, two if the body was destroyed, so that's probably all your wishes gone and you won't even ensure all your family are okay.

"I wish Bill was still with us." - Hmm wish mimics Greater Teleport and his corpse vanishes from the grave and appears next to you. He smells a bit. You then blow another wish with the Resurrection effect.

"I wish Glendale could pay its taxes." - Assuming it's less than 25,000gp that one shouldn't be a problem, although the king might wonder where the gold statue (or other single item, of significant worth) came from and so could lead to more trouble.

Oh course a wish might be able to fulfil those desires closer to the way you expect, but then there is a greater chance of things screwing up. Like your family ending up alive and well but still in their graves.

I agree with the principle of using your wish for more campaign specific goals, just I'd be a bit more careful in how I worded them.

 

[Bagpuss]

It lets you cast Gate once. Bring in a Noble Djinni, ask for another candle, rinse, and repeat.

Wish doesn't allow you to cast Gate as that is a 9th level spell. So that's you wish wasted.

 

[Bagpuss]

Wishing for extra wishes is probably a bad idea no matter the circumstances.

Wish can only mimic spells of 8th level or lower, so you can't wish for a wish.

 

[Bagpuss]

Good friends, cold, cold rum, and a warm sunny afternoon free from peril.

Good friends - Might require an alignment change to a number of the party members, that would be interesting.

cold, cold rum - Easy to do you could even have a barrel of the stuff so long as it's less than 25,000gp.

Warm sunny afternoon - Hmmm Control Weather is a 7th level Cleric spell so can't be copied by wish. Still if it was summer, easily within the bounds of a wish.

Free from peril - sorry you've had your three wishes oh look here comes a dragon....

 

[Justin Cray]

Wish doesn't allow you to cast Gate as that is a 9th level spell. So that's you wish wasted.

Well he said the candle lets him do that.