D&D General Can a Wish spell move a moon to cause an eclipse?

[MarkB]

To toss out another idea.

The ritual isn't complete until the eclipse ends.
And it doesn't end until the wizard dies (noticeable with DC 20 arcane check).

Meanwhile, the whole world is slowly freezing (ticking clock)

Well, generally speaking, solar eclipses don't affect the whole world - that's why people fly thousands of miles to see one.

But hey, fantasy world, maybe these ones do.

 

[mellored]

Well, generally speaking, solar eclipses don't affect the whole world - that's why people fly thousands of miles to see one.

But hey, fantasy world, maybe these ones do.

It's a pretty classic Wish twist to get far more than you expected.

I.e. wish for gold, get buried in gold.

So you Wish for an eclipse, you get a perpetual and global eclipse.

 

[Staffan]

In a fantasy world you're not even limited to scientifically realistic options. In some mythologies, an eclipse is caused by a dragon eating the sun.

It's a nuisance, but what can you expect from reptiles?

 

[OB1]

My ruling, "As you focus in on turning your imagination into reality, manifesting the movement of the moon to the proper position, you also feel the weave stretching out from you, it's tendrils encircling all of the life around you, close at first, but soon for hundreds of miles, touching every blade of grass, hawk in the sky and humanoid in hundreds then thousands of miles. It stretches into yourself as well, the power of the weave of the entire world prepared to course through you to rearrange reality into that which you have wished for, killing everyone and everything here. Do you continue?"

 

[Oofta]

In a fantasy world you're not even limited to scientifically realistic options. In some mythologies, an eclipse is caused by a dragon eating the sun.

So now you're using a wish to control a sun eating dragon? Since this is an uber-powerful charm effect and the target of such a spell generally knows they were manipulated and who did it, get ready to be killed by a dragon with god-like powers.

 

[Clint_L]

I would STRONGLY think through the implications of allowing wish that much power, because if it can simply move a moon, there’s not much it can’t do.

Wishing someone, anyone, anything dead should be trivial by comparison. And that’s the tip of the iceberg.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

In a fantasy world you're not even limited to scientifically realistic options. In some mythologies, an eclipse is caused by a dragon eating the sun.

Even in the unlikely event that a fantasy world obeys real world physics, Earth-like eclipses are extremely unlikely, being a product of the Sun and Moon subtending very similar angles from the Earth. It’s far more likely that the eclipsing object is much bigger or smaller than the sun.

A Wish to block out the sun for a certain duration seems perfectly reasonable to me though. Doesn’t need to be a moon, a giant-sized darkness spell would do the job.

 

[abirdcall]

To the example of the thread I think the spellcaster would do best to create a moon facsimile that lasts for the duration of their needed eclipse rather than moving one.

Doing the least influence needed to achieve the goal gives the greatest chance of success.

What matters is not literally moving a giant celestial object (which in my campaign it wouldn't be. The world isn't round either.)

What matters is the idea of it and creating a 2-dimensional effect to block out the sun for a short period will fulfill the effect of an eclipse for the people experiencing it.

 

[Sepulchrave II]

Unless you constantly track the position of celestial bodies, I can't see a reason for an eclipse to not occur.

Instead of thinking about causality - i.e. the wish making something happen - maybe it's more useful to understand the wish as being an alignment with, or a synchronistic expression of, larger cosmic processes.

I think the proper function of a wish is to relinquish narrative control to the player, allowing them to push the game in unexpected directions. That’s what makes them fun.

 

[Tonguez]

Ask the DM who should do whatever makes the best story (and complicates the PCs lives)

• Tidal Disruptions: The moon’s gravity controls the tides thus moving it could cause massive tidal waves and innundate coastal cities.
• Biorhythm Disruptions: The rhythms, migration and survival of many creatures depends on the Moon, pulling it out of its natural orbit could confuse biorhythms causing premature migrations, throw out plant growth and fruiting cycles or cause an upsurge in Lunacy or even lycanthropy
• Unstable Eclipses: The moon could end up in an unstable orbit, leading to frequent, unpredictable eclipses.
• Rotational Disruption: It could affect the rotation of the planet or its atmosphere causing dramatic weather changes, time shifts or massive natural disasters
• Orbital Decay: If the moon’s motion is changed, it might either drift away from the planet or crash into it with catostrophic effect. It might even cause the Moon to be ripped apart

I hate the Wish spell