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

[Celebrim]

DM response to so many qualifiers: All Storm Giants are now exactly as strong as you are.

Funny, but as a DM, my general rule is that a wish is granted using the minimum amount of magic to complete the request. Any wish that can't be granted by the amount of magic available to the sort of being granting the wish, typically a powerful mortal spellcaster or a minor demigod, would automatically fail in a perverse way.

The outcome: "All Storm Giants are now exactly as strong as your are." requires vastly more magic than making a single mortal as strong as a storm giant.

The typical manner in which a request like that would be fulfilled by me is the player would receive a Girdle of Storm Giant strength. This requires the least amount of magic. I would in general not be happy with this sort of request unless it was being made to a full god of some sort, as its generally above the ability of a wish to create such a mighty item on its own. So rather than creating the item, the typical result would be that the wish would facilitate stealing the item, and now the PC is the enemy of whomever used to own the item.

The slightly perverse version is to note that "a giant" is fulfilled if there is at least one storm giant as strong as the character. So the character would now be as strong as that one venerable, crippled storm giant, who is now unable to even lift himself from his bed. This version gets really perverse if I set that giant's strength at 0. "OK, you wish to be as strong as a giant, you are now as strong as Clangbang the Venerable." Saying you wish to be as strong as a giant is more arrogant and less precise than simply saying you wish to be stronger, which for me would probably get the response, "Ok, you are now stronger.", unless the wish granting party just hated the PC.

 

[marcelvdpol]

While a wish is very powerful, it is not a "destroy the world" button, not should it be a "destroy the fun" button. Ultimately, if a DM feels that a wish would severely unbalance the game and make it not fun anymore, he is clearly granted the mandate to do so by the wish spell's description. Since wish is so open-ended and intended to be so, it really needs good judgement from the DM to see what he does with the request as stated.

Wishing for 50 strength for example would make that character hugely more powerful than the other characters, dominating the game in that particular area (perhaps at the expense of the party's Fighter) and causing massive issues to the DM to come up with challenging encounters (if that is high on the DM's priority list). Wishing for "World Peace" would create a world which is probably not any fun at all to play in after a session or two, so again this would cause massive issues for the DM to create something fun.

In any case, as a DM i would definitely take the wish request as "homework" to do between sessions rather than an "on the spot improvisation" to make sure I think it through. Only very rarely does a wish request make a statement as to WHEN it will happen. "I wish to have 50 strength" doesn't strictly speaking mean that he wishes to have it RIGHT AWAY. It could be that the characters gets the 50 strength 1/10th of a second before he dies, fulfilling the wish's requirements.

 

[Lillika]

A wish is a once per day spell. If it can regularly give permanent buff effects without a downside then the dm is doing something wrong.

This

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Lillika]

Or you have adapted 5e into an AWESOME game of Paranoia.

Jus' sayin'.

This should be the parties response to a Deck of Many Things. I do feel that a Wish should not be taken lightly, and that permanent ability score increases should also not be taken as trivial as well.

 

[delericho]

For me, it depends on the origin of the wish.

In theory, I agree. In practice, I'm afraid I've seen too many bad DMs treat any wish as an opportunity to screw over the players. To the point, in fact, that I'd rather a campaign simply not feature that spell at all.

 

[Celebrim]

In theory, I agree. In practice, I'm afraid I've seen too many bad DMs treat any wish as an opportunity to screw over the players. To the point, in fact, that I'd rather a campaign simply not feature that spell at all.

I found the 3e version of Wish to be exceptionally well balanced. If I provide Wishes to the players, it would be with the idea that they would use them for something like the ideas explicitly approved by the spell - usually resurrecting players or otherwise remedying situations that are difficult to remedy without resorting to a Wish.

If they choose to get greedy, and instead wish for the moon, then I feel they get what they deserve.

 

[Sunseeker]

Funny, but as a DM, my general rule is that a wish is granted using the minimum amount of magic to complete the request. Any wish that can't be granted by the amount of magic available to the sort of being granting the wish, typically a powerful mortal spellcaster or a minor demigod, would automatically fail in a perverse way.

The outcome: "All Storm Giants are now exactly as strong as your are." requires vastly more magic than making a single mortal as strong as a storm giant.

The typical manner in which a request like that would be fulfilled by me is the player would receive a Girdle of Storm Giant strength. This requires the least amount of magic. I would in general not be happy with this sort of request unless it was being made to a full god of some sort, as its generally above the ability of a wish to create such a mighty item on its own. So rather than creating the item, the typical result would be that the wish would facilitate stealing the item, and now the PC is the enemy of whomever used to own the item.

The slightly perverse version is to note that "a giant" is fulfilled if there is at least one storm giant as strong as the character. So the character would now be as strong as that one venerable, crippled storm giant, who is now unable to even lift himself from his bed. This version gets really perverse if I set that giant's strength at 0. "OK, you wish to be as strong as a giant, you are now as strong as Clangbang the Venerable." Saying you wish to be as strong as a giant is more arrogant and less precise than simply saying you wish to be stronger, which for me would probably get the response, "Ok, you are now stronger.", unless the wish granting party just hated the PC.

World changing wishes with unexpected consequences are exceedingly more fun than what I just read.

 

[Guest 6801328]

Anybody see the (wretchedly bad) movie "Bedazzled"? Some pretty funny mis-interpretations of poorly worded wishes. On each iteration he gets more specific about what he wants.

 

[The Human Target]

"I want to be as strong as an ox."

Foolproof.