D&D 5E I wish for more wishes.

[Sekhmet]

Albeit a truly demented way of going about limiting Wish spells, if thats what you want in your world, you do that. You may as well just remove Wish from your game. No adventuring party is going to carry their Wizard through another (in 3.5 terms) 136,000 exp for him to be back to his former strength, or even the 45,000 it will take him to be even SOMEWHAT useful again.


I've used the AD&D downsides for years. -3 Str, 2d4 days bed rest, 5 years/100 years lifespan irrevocably taken off maximum lifespan. No one has ever complained, and no one has ever tried to abuse the spell through multiple castings.
If you're a lich, have at it hoss.

 

[Rune]

No adventuring party is going to carry their Wizard through another (in 3.5 terms) 136,000 exp for him to be back to his former strength, or even the 45,000 it will take him to be even SOMEWHAT useful again.

They might if that wish spell saved their asses. But I think you exaggerate just how useless the wizard would be as he climbed back to full spell-casting ability. S/he would still have at-will cantrips and first level spells right from the outset. Furthermore, the increase would come pretty quickly, at first. One average-difficulty level-appropriate (17) encounter for the party and the wizard can cast 3rd level spells again. Five more and the wizard can cast 5th level spells again.

It is the case that the wizard will not regain the use of 9th level spells until after reaching 20th level (if s/he continues to gain XP, at all). If this is a problem, the wizard could gain spells at an accelerated rate (say, double XP), either from the beginning, or once access to fifth level spells have been regained.

Another, simpler approach would be to recover one level's worth of spell slots per encounter overcome.

I've used the AD&D downsides for years. -3 Str, 2d4 days bed rest, 5 years/100 years lifespan irrevocably taken off maximum lifespan. No one has ever complained, and no one has ever tried to abuse the spell through multiple castings.
If you're a lich, have at it hoss.

Now, see, the lifespan loss is an actual cost to the spell (not currently present in the playtest version). Of course, it is one balanced to favor the longer-lived races, but it is something.

 

[Rune]

Huh. I wished for more wishes and my DM gave me a double-post in my wish-thread.

 

[Sekhmet]

@Rune
How much use is a cantrip/first level spell to a party of individuals capable of casting Wish? How many third-fifth level spells per day are necessary for a group of 17th+ level heroes, especially without access to Wands/Scrolls?

Regarding the lifespan loss of AD&D, remember that only Humans had access to 8th and 9th level spells in AD&D, which means 5 years is a great deal of time. Limited Wish could be accessed by Elves, which is why it has the 1 year/100 years lifespan detriment, and so I applied the same math to Wish in later editions where everyone had access.

 

[Stormonu]

You want to fix Wish real fast? Have the DM roll for the alignment of the being that grants the wish.

2d6.
1st die
1-2 Lawful
3-4 Neutral
5-6 Chaotic

2nd die
1-2 Good
3-4 Neutral
5-6 Evil

 

[Rune]

@Rune
How much use is a cantrip/first level spell to a party of individuals capable of casting Wish? How many third-fifth level spells per day are necessary for a group of 17th+ level heroes, especially without access to Wands/Scrolls?

Depends entirely on how creative the wizard is.

Regarding the lifespan loss of AD&D, remember that only Humans had access to 8th and 9th level spells in AD&D, which means 5 years is a great deal of time. Limited Wish could be accessed by Elves, which is why it has the 1 year/100 years lifespan detriment, and so I applied the same math to Wish in later editions where everyone had access.

Good point.

You want to fix Wish real fast? Have the DM roll for the alignment of the being that grants the wish.

2d6.
1st die
1-2 Lawful
3-4 Neutral
5-6 Chaotic

2nd die
1-2 Good
3-4 Neutral
5-6 Evil

That'll do it!

 

[bbjore]

I guess it's all about how powerful you're going to make wish in your campaign. Me, I want it to be epic, so unless they come up with a tremendously awesome new version of it, it's going to an ultra powerful spell that will only work once for any individual when cast by the same caster. If you want more wishes, you'll have to find somebody else that can cast wish. I think only having one wish each would put a pretty hard limit on what the PCs use it for. I'm also a fan of it aging you in theory, but I think at the table, you'd run into issues with having that really matter.

You could also tone down what it could do and make it more useful. Another neat way to do it for a wizard would be to allow them one wish, but when they make a second one, the first is reversed. This would make it a tremendously useful spell, appropriate for 9th level, but prevent it from being abused multiple times. Want a +4 to Int? Sure. Wait, now you want to know Vecna's true name? Ok, but your intelligence goes back to 20. I think it would lead to some interesting strategy on the part of the wizard if this was the case.

 

[Sekhmet]

Wait, now you want to know Vecna's true name?

Wasn't it said, at some point, that Vecna had even managed to erase his true name from the Lexicon of Names, and thus all knowledge of his true name from history?

 

[Rune]

I guess it's all about how powerful you're going to make wish in your campaign. Me, I want it to be epic, so unless they come up with a tremendously awesome new version of it, it's going to an ultra powerful spell that will only work once for any individual when cast by the same caster. If you want more wishes, you'll have to find somebody else that can cast wish. I think only having one wish each would put a pretty hard limit on what the PCs use it for. I'm also a fan of it aging you in theory, but I think at the table, you'd run into issues with having that really matter.

Yeah, I was thinking along those lines in the first place. I'd play it.

You could also tone down what it could do and make it more useful. Another neat way to do it for a wizard would be to allow them one wish, but when they make a second one, the first is reversed. This would make it a tremendously useful spell, appropriate for 9th level, but prevent it from being abused multiple times. Want a +4 to Int? Sure. Wait, now you want to know Vecna's true name? Ok, but your intelligence goes back to 20. I think it would lead to some interesting strategy on the part of the wizard if this was the case.

That's interesting!

Wasn't it said, at some point, that Vecna had even managed to erase his true name from the Lexicon of Names, and thus all knowledge of his true name from history?

A wish could undo that.

 

[Sekhmet]

[MENTION=67]Rune[/MENTION] I wonder how a Wish, something granted by some cosmic entity (such as a Demon, Devil, God, or other such entity) could grant something that is totally unknown by any being except one, which would refuse to give it up regardless.