D&D 5E I need to increase my strength with a wish, what should i say?

[MoonSong]

Your strength is unchanged. As long as the combined total of anything you carry is less than 331lbs, it is as though you are carrying nothing at all. Unfortunately, that also includes your weight, and since you now weigh nothing at all, gravity has no effect on you.

Well, I only promised no tragedies....

"I wish I were strong enough so I could easily lift 1650 pounds and I carry more than 330 pounds with total ease without losing my humanity, identity, freedom, free-will, self-image, sense of self or turning into a non-human"?

 

[Rocksome]

There is precisely zero ways to prevent being screwed over. There is nothing you can say that will protect you or can't be twisted to some alternate meaning. It's just a fact of language and communication. Either your DM is going to grant your wish or he's going to screw you over. May as well just say what you want in plain language and let him decide what he wants. I never understood the need to "twist a wish"

 

[Giant2005]

Don't say anything at all. This entire thread is severe meta-gaming. Your character doesn't have the benefit of an entire forum of experienced wishers to help him come up with the perfect wish - all he has is his own wisdom to go on.
With that in mind, propose to your DM that your character's wisdom (which is obviously different to your own, and certainly different to an entire forums worth of wise people) should be the deciding factor.

Make a Wisdom check.
If you only beat a very easy (DC 5) check, your DM has free reign to screw you over as much as he wants.
If you only beat an easy (DC 10) check, you get your desired reward while still being screwed over by the DM.
If you beat a medium (DC 15) check, you get your desired reward with minimal screwing over.
If you beat a hard (DC 20) check, you get your desired reward without consequence.
If you beat a very hard (DC 25) check, you get your desired reward with an even greater magnitude, or an additional related reward.
If you beat a nearly impossible (DC 30) check, you get your desired reward but raised to a scale that reaches the limits of possibility, or many additional related rewards.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

This entire thread is severe meta-gaming.

No, it isn't.

Unless the conclusion reached by reading this thread can be demonstrated as genuinely impossible for the character to have come up with - such as phrasing the wish in Latin while Latin is not a language that exists within the game world of the character - then it is not possible to be certain that the character had not arrived at the resultant wish by such means as dumb-luck, common sense, or the sum of life experiences not detailed during the period of time which campaign play has covered. Because that is true, that the person that the character would be if only they were a real entity separate from the player could have gotten the wording of the wish that the player uses by different means than the player did, then the only possible meta-gaming in this instance is for the player to willingly choose poorly in misguided attempt to not meta-game, or the DM insisting that because the player is actually using advice from a forum rather than just blurting out some thought of their own that a different course of action must be taken.

Basically, either you really do separate the player and character's knowledge - including giving the character the benefit of guessing correctly at things the player knows to be true - or you force meta-gaming to happen in the claimed attempt of avoiding meta-gaming, because meta-gaming is an illusion that some DM made up back in the day to screw-over their players by making them over-think things and completely miss that knowing the idea is a good one is not actually necessary for the character to decide to try whatever the idea happens to be, so that the player knows it is a good idea is entirely irrelevant - assuming the goal is to avoid the use of player knowledge that the character doesn't share dictating the character's actions, that is.

 

[Ancalagon]

The answer is, of course, "I wish I was strong enough I could pick up the Tarrasque and throw it into the sun"

Either you win, or the Tarrasque becomes hilariously light

LOL

"On the nearby island of Blablablatan, the gnome Tarrasque (cursed with parents who had a dubious sense of humor) suddenly felt very nervous. He would later recount the incident to a few friend at the local pub, explaining how briefly felt in mortal danger. His friends were unable to explain this but all agreed that it was definitely a bad omen"

 

[pming]

Hiya!

I think there's always some fun to be had with Wish spells, even if you give them exactly what they want.

"I wish I were stronger." is a bad wish because it's too open ended. Stronger than what? How much stronger?

In my view, as a DM, this is a GOOD wish...because it lets me interpret it and tailor it to fit the campaign. The Player is trusting me...so I'll return the favour.

"I wish I were stronger than an orc." Is also a bad wish, again, which orc?

See above.

"I wish I were as strong as the average orc." Okay, that's better, if your DM is reasonable enough to take the MM Orc as an average, then they could put you 1 or more points above that. Seems reasonable.

Agreed. Good wish...player isn't trying to "abuse the system", so neither will I.

"I wish I were as strong as a dragon." Again, which type? Which size?

...does the player character even know there are different types of dragons? Does he know that Colour A dragon is stronger than Colour B dragon? At any rate, I'd have no problem with this wish...because it, again, lets me, the DM, decide how "powerful" the wish will be.

Personally, I always play with wishes a little bit. I give them what they want, but make something the group is going to have fun with as well.

One person wanted to speak better (in a game with stronger language rules) so I gave him a magical top hat. His character now speaks the King's English (silly British accent and all).

There's a happy medium wish wish spells where a person can get more-or-less what they want, and still have fun with imperfect results.

I personally don't think I'd complain if, after wishing to be as strong as a Storm Giant, I was turned into a Storm Giant.

Sounds fine to me. Unusual "interpretational consequences" are fun...as long as it doesn't make the wish's bonus 'less significant' than the drawback. The more uber the player is going for, the more likely an unwanted drawback is going to happen.

If your players find a Ring of Wishes and their first reaction is "Aahhk! Quick! Destroy it!"...then you are doing something wrong.

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[Sunseeker]

Well, I only promised no tragedies....

"I wish I were strong enough so I could easily lift 1650 pounds and I carry more than 330 pounds with total ease without losing my humanity, identity, freedom, free-will, self-image, sense of self or turning into a non-human"?

Your strength is now a 23. Decrease any other score by 1, for each 1 point your Strength had to go up.

Like [MENTION=45197]pming[/MENTION] says, the more a player tries to rules-lawyer their way out of a any consequences, the more likely I am to attempt to make the consequences more harsh. Leaving room for some possible misinterpretation is more likely going to produce positive results with the consequences being little more than humor, while attempting to rule out any possible downsides is going to get you what you want, but with game-impacting negative consequences that aren't fun and humorous for the table.

Anyway, my players just defeated a powerful dragon foe with the aid of some powerful allies, since I don't do "pick and item from a book, you get that" and I don't do random loot, I ask them to tell me what they want to find and I tell them what is available. There were quite a lot of magical items here, and one of them asked for something that would grant them one "Greater Wish". Something that could give them anything they wanted without the typical drawbacks of wish. Not really being a fan of the weird Wish punishments in the book to begin with I gave him a Monkey's Paw with one finger left. By doing so, they have a heads up that the DM is going to have some fun with this. So fortunately they aren't immediately jumping all over it trying to wish for power and money and blah blah blah. What will they wish for? We'll find out next week on D&D!

 

[Sunseeker]

When people started saying being as strong as an Ogre, Minotaur etc, I couldn't help but wonder if that race was about to undergo a spectacular decline...

Yep.

Meanwhile, the Minotaur kingdom, no longer renowned for their physical strength, has become a kingdom of thoughtful intellectuals. Many mighty mages, powerful psions and grand chessmasters are known to be Minotaurs and they are some of the most delightful conversationalists you could ever hope to encounter.

 

[MoonSong]

Your strength is now a 23. Decrease any other score by 1, for each 1 point your Strength had to go up.

I guess it is a fair ruling. (Need to add personality to that list)

Like @pming says, the more a player tries to rules-lawyer their way out of a any consequences, the more likely I am to attempt to make the consequences more harsh. Leaving room for some possible misinterpretation is more likely going to produce positive results with the consequences being little more than humor, while attempting to rule out any possible downsides is going to get you what you want, but with game-impacting negative consequences that aren't fun and humorous for the table.

Sorry, but I'm a natural rules lawyer I like finding loopholes and gaps everywhere. OP wanted a rules lawyered wish and I can't help but trying to do that. I haven't had the chance to deal with a wish in actual play, but sure I wouldn't spend a wish on something like more strength, I would do it in something related to the fiction -or in somehow being able to get a familiar as a sorcerer on a way I find acceptable for a sorcerer-. But really most of these conditions come not from not wanting negative consequences, but rather because I don't want the DM to fiddle with my character, my character is mine, I am very protective of my PCs, and I guess rather picky -each one of them is a living thing to me with a unique essence- and I shouldn't have to give that away just because the DM decided to put a Wish for kicks and giggles. -And I'm not talking about death and injury this is different - losing control of my character in that way is absolutely not fun at all.

 

[Celebrim]

I'd just speak to the DM directly - "I want to use the wish to increase my Strength by 1 point".

Also, don't play with jerks. If the DM thinks it's funny to screw over a player for making a reasonable request with a wish that he gave you, that's a warning sign. It's probably not a deal-breaker itself, but it would lead me to think about whether to continue.

For me, it depends on the origin of the wish. If the wish is being granted by a benevolent being out of sincere gratitude, or its being cast by the spellcaster, I would tend to thing it odd of the wish's meaning was perverted from the intention if the character's request was reasonable.

But if the wish is extorted from an ifrit or granted by a devil, then you can expect the wish to be perverted from its intent by whatever means the strict wording of the wish provides for.

Where a magic item like a ring of wishes perverts the intent would depend on the origin of the item. A ring created by a spellcaster to store his own wishes probably wouldn't tend to pervert a wish. A ring created by some outer planar being to sow chaos, probably would.