Need help with wording of a wish

[Oberyn]

Who detirmines who is a friend you or your DM? if your good alignment he could say "well most creatures are your freinds. So he could make it so that unless they outright attacked you, all of your blasts would turn into harmless light. follow the almighty rule of K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid)

 

[ThirdWizard]

Psh. Perverting wish is so 2nd edition.

Best way to do it is to talk with the DM about it. What does he think is too powerful for the magic of wish. If he wants, make Knowlege (Arcane) checks to try and tell if the wish is too powerful. Find something that works for both you and the DM and settle on that. 3E wish isn't like its predecessors, its much more codified now.

 

[Mark]

Psh. Perverting wish is so 2nd edition.

Oh, it's older than that.

Best way to do it is to talk with the DM about it. What does he think is too powerful for the magic of wish.

Ah, now, meta-gaming. THAT'S so 2nd edition...

 

[Particle_Man]

Here's one that is simple, but may be too powerful

Got this from another thread (I am board-surfing with this question):

"I wish that my eldritch blasts would only strike their intended targets."

 

[Templetroll]

My advice is to never use a wish to limit what you have. The less you ask for the better.
Just wish for your friend to be restored to life as with the Resurrection spell. Nice and simple, it can still be messed with but at least it is not a greedy use of the spell. That will annoy the efreet, since it is more fun to screw over greedy folks.

 

[Gez]

Just wish to get all your sh•t back.


Oops, sorry.

"I wish that my friends and myself were immune to my eldritch blasts, without otherwise affecting or modifying said eldritch blasts."

Short, concise, and to the point.

 

[Fieari]

I'd like to emphasize here that apparently, our Warlock in question isn't actually casting "Wish". He's making a wish, that is, a REQUEST, to a specific individual entity, who has already warned him that there will be a price. The price was not specified, and although the implication is that words will be twisted, quite frankly, with an open-ended price tag like that, even the most air-tight perfectly worded wish could have profoundly bad effects... NOT EVEN RELATED TO THE WORDS YOU USE.

If I had an NPC offer a wish to my players with such a cavate, I'd be certain that the price had nothing whatsoever to do with the words the player uses to make the wish. For example, your eldritch blasts no longer harm your friends exactly in the manner you desire... but from that day forewards, you will never see sunlight again. Or all food becomes as bland as mush. Or perhaps a varient of Jadis's curse from The Magician's Nephew... every time you lie down there will be ice blocks at your feet and every time you sit down the seat will feel red hot.

That sort of thing.

The efreet said there would be A PRICE. The price was not specified! Don't think that words will help you! And I wouldn't say that this is nessessarily the DM trying to screw you guys over... if you actually learn the spell Wish, I doubt such things would happen to you if you follow the RAW saying exactly what the spell does for you. As it is, I actually think what your DM has going on here is pretty cool.

 

[Gez]

Yeah yeah. He'll have a big favor to repay to a powerful evil creature. That's not his immediate concern, though. The immediate concern is getting the devil (OK, not a devil, but still lawful, evil, and fiery) to actually do his part of the bargain rather than cheat on the contract as he's wont to do.

An air-tight wording helps a great way.

By the way, you should use this wording: "I wish my DM would stop using fumble rules."

 

[Templetroll]

I'd like to emphasize here that apparently, our Warlock in question isn't actually casting "Wish". He's making a wish, that is, a REQUEST, to a specific individual entity, who has already warned him that there will be a price. The price was not specified, and although the implication is that words will be twisted, quite frankly, with an open-ended price tag like that, even the most air-tight perfectly worded wish could have profoundly bad effects... NOT EVEN RELATED TO THE WORDS YOU USE.

If I had an NPC offer a wish to my players with such a cavate, I'd be certain that the price had nothing whatsoever to do with the words the player uses to make the wish. For example, your eldritch blasts no longer harm your friends exactly in the manner you desire... but from that day forewards, you will never see sunlight again. Or all food becomes as bland as mush. Or perhaps a varient of Jadis's curse from The Magician's Nephew... every time you lie down there will be ice blocks at your feet and every time you sit down the seat will feel red hot.

That sort of thing.

The efreet said there would be A PRICE. The price was not specified! Don't think that words will help you! And I wouldn't say that this is nessessarily the DM trying to screw you guys over... if you actually learn the spell Wish, I doubt such things would happen to you if you follow the RAW saying exactly what the spell does for you. As it is, I actually think what your DM has going on here is pretty cool.

I agree with your analysis that there will be something adverse happening no matter what the wording is. In that case mentioned, your eldritch blasts no longer harm your friends, would lead the efreet to work to subvert your friendships. Yes, this is cool as it is being done like that and the player has the choice to bring trouble upon themself to get the 'wish'.

 

[Brother MacLaren]

Don't do it.

If you are in a situation where a wish is likely to be twisted (efreeti or ratbastard DM), just don't take the risk. Okay, your PC doesn't know it's an efreet, but you have seen another PC's wish get twisted.
There's no way you can win - never, ever accept a wish from an efreet, pit fiend, or monkey's paw, and never use wish of any origin if the DM thinks that all wishes should be twisted.

A bad DM will harangue you forever on this - next time you fumble he'll taunt you "Why didn't you wish for that not to happen" - but a good DM will recognize your PC having a shred of sanity and will not feel insulted at you turning down this opportunity for him to screw you over.

In fact, because you know there's going to be a price and you know the wish will be twisted, basically what you have here is the DM saying not "Here, have a wish" but instead "I dare you." The wish-wording game is not one I would choose to play because the DM, if he so chooses, can always make you lose.