Getting Wishes out of a Genie

[orion90000]

How does one go about getting these three wishes? Would a Noble Djinn offer the wishes in exchange for his life (<10% hp left?)? Does the party literally have to succeed a grapple check to pin the genie? Or by magical means imprison him?

 

[Queranil]

In keeping the flavour and mystery of genies and their wishes, I would say that physically trapping a genie won't cut it. You would have to magically prevent him from planeshifting back to the elemental pane of air or escaping in some other way.

If I were a Djinni and some buffoons tried to pry three wishes out of me after a combat that I nearly lost, I would use all my charm and guile to weasel my way out and tricking them into thinking they will get their wishes. That's why the magical imprisoning would come in handy.

 

[orion90000]

So, how do I go about getting a magical bottle that imprisons beings in gaseous form?

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

I'd think it depends how you want to run the genie and the circumstances. They're chaotic good creatures, so if they're bested through good natured trickery or an honorable fight with good guys, then he'd laugh about it and hand over the wishes.

Against evil characters, on the other hand, I think he'd try to wheedle his way out, unless actually bound by magic in some way (eg, dimensional anchor or the like). And in which case he'd likely grant the wishes "Monkey's Paw"-style, according to the letter of the "contract" but not necessarily the spirit. That's his chaotic side showing, imho.

Alternatively, use this:

 

[Jacob]

So, how do I go about getting a magical bottle that imprisons beings in gaseous form?

Iron Flask is what you're looking for. Imprisons no matter their form. On getting one, you probably find it in an old ancient dungeon, make one yourself, or somehow get owed one by a powerful wizard. We're talking about something that can only be created by a 20th Level Wizard after all. Rare as all heck...

On a cheaper and more feasible means to get your desired action...*head desk*

 

[Jack Simth]

How does one go about getting these three wishes? Would a Noble Djinn offer the wishes in exchange for his life (<10% hp left?)? Does the party literally have to succeed a grapple check to pin the genie? Or by magical means imprison him?

It's usually simpler to use Planar Binding, generally - just make sure to read all of it. And don't go after the Efreeti - they've got that pesky racial hatred of servitude, are lawful (and thus liable to set up mutual defense pacts against being bound into service), and have several things on their home plane they can both grant Wishes to, and easily intimidate into doing exactly as they want. AKA, Efreeti can specify their own Wishes for themselves... and you don't want to make three Will saves every day to avoid being tossed into The Plane of Ultimate Suffering and Imprisonment For the Rest of Eternity And Yes You Need To Burn Your Character Sheet Now Because You Will Never Get Him Back, even if they are relatively easy saves.

 

[Ahnehnois]

Say please?

 

[jefgorbach]

high diplomacy skill to encourage your "friend" to grant your wish

 

[Senko]

I'd go with that last option or maybe if you find an imprisoned one offer to free them and hope they'll be grateful enough to grant you wishes.

An important thing to remember either way is that when someone else is granting you wishes its someone else who's granting you wishes. That is there is a big difference between a genie that has been freed by you and asked politefully and respectfully if now you've done that maybe it could perhaps grant you some wishes and one forced against its will to do so. Some examples of this are . . .

1] I wish I had the most amazing piece of artwork in the world.
Grateful Grant: Summons an amazing ancient piece of artwork from the depths of a forgotten dungeon.
Angry Grant: Turns you into a piece of artwork.

2] I wish I was the most beautiful woman in the world
Grateful grant: Adds up to say +5 to charisma
Angry Grant: Turns you into a woman in some cruel lords harem and her into you

3] I wish I had a massive pile of treasure
Grateful Grant: Summons a whole bunch of forgotten treasures and gives them to you
Angry grant: Summons an ancient red dragons horde that contains tracking methods and drops it ON you.

and so on.

 

[Sorrowdusk]

The only SAFE way to make a wish is to NEVER wish for anything GOOD for YOURSELF or others.

Only wish for HORRI-BAD things for other people, that way you are completely removed from the wish. If you wish bad things for people YET to be your enemies or who dont know about you, chances are, you wont have to worry about being affected.

Just watch for play-on-words so when you ask that John Doe be barren, that he doesnt become Baron.

This should be security against wishes being twisted against you-and in the cases of evil beings (not Noble Jinn, but Efreet or Glabrezu) you're guarenteed they wouldnt twist it into doing something good for your enemies because even though it would make your life more diffucult it would be a GOOD act on their part which they wouldnt do. In the case of the Noble Djinn, he may or may not do it under threat.