D&D 5E The good, bad, and ugly of the Wish spell

[Warmaster Horus]

I generally remind players that Wish is a reality-bending spell with pretty narrow effect. If it wasn't, wouldn't every lich out there Wish for world domination every day? The narrower the focus, the more coherent the Wish and the wider you spread it the more it dissipates to nothingness.

 

[Grue]

Thanks to everyone for their input.

I had not really taken the Deck's power into account, and I really hadn't taken the epic natural of this opportunity for the PC. .

Well you're at least learning the lesson of Deck of Many Things as well as a twofer. I'd always warn any DM that has never seen the Deck in use to Never EVER put one in their game except under the following conditions A) A final reward in the campaign's main BBEG's hoard (post climax) or B) You have no idea what to do next and your campaign is getting stale\you're ready to end your campaign.

At least in this case you controlled the distribution of cards.

The 5e version is slightly different from prior editions but not overly so (other than all declared draws flying from the deck at once if the user fails to draw them in an hour time limit and it doesn't look like the deck disappears anymore after certain cards are pulled at a glance). But I have yet to see a Deck in a game that didn't derail the plot, power boost a PC or two beyond the curve of the party, and destroy at least one character (usually all three). I've never have seen a deck used without the destruction of a character and more often than not the appearance of a Deck in a game marks the decline and eventual end of a campaign unless at least one of the players grabs the bull by the horns right away to prevent the usual pitfalls.

Good luck with the Wishes but it seems you got off easy with the Deck overall.

 

[Imaculata]

I recently introduced a Genie in my campaign, who actually had strong feelings regarding the quality of the service she provided. Instead of trying to screw over the wishes of her customers, she tried her best to interpret the wish the way her client intended it. She would even advise her client on the matter of wishing, as a free service.

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[TD]But the wish was restricted to a couple of rules:

-She could not directly interfere with matters of life and death, for that was the domain of beings much more powerful than her.
-She refused to fulfill wishes that would bring her into direct conflict with other wish-granting beings, or magical beings more powerful than herself.
-She could not grant more wishes than 3. No more, no less.
-She did not wished to be freed from her lamp, for that was her domain, and she was quite happy being its lord and mistress.
-Every wish has to come from somewhere. If you wish for a castle, someone else on the planet loses their castle, and they might come back for it.

Inside the lamp, the Genie had a small world of her own. A massive palace in a large desert, which she ruled over. She could bring willing guests into this realm, if they touched the lamp and she allowed them to enter. Of course while someone was inside the lamp, there was the risk of someone outside of it stealing the lamp for themselves.
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[CapnZapp]

I'm convinced more rules only allow for more opportunities to abuse the spell.

The rules-lawyer's worst nightmare is a completely open Wish.

It puts all the onus of being deliberate and covering your ass on the player. And still, you can subvert anything "too powerful", since once the wish is worded, the language is fixed. Just break off the session and spend the next week carefully pulling it apart before the next time you play.

Making up lots of rules beforehand only means a lot of work for you. And still any competent minmaxer will find ways to abuse it. So it's a losing strategy.

 

[Imaculata]

It puts all the onus of being deliberate and covering your ass on the player. And still, you can subvert anything "too powerful", since once the wish is worded, the language is fixed. Just break off the session and spend the next week carefully pulling it apart before the next time you play.

I don't think the purpose of the 'Wish-spell', is for the DM to bend over backwards to find a way to make the wish a disaster for the player. The purpose of the Wish spell, in my opinion, is that the player can wish for anything. If you don't want that to happen, then don't allow wishes in your campaign to begin with.

Or, you can do as I did, and carefully lay out some clearly defined rules regarding what a player can and cannot wish for. If there's also a logic to what the wish can and cannot do, most players will be fine with it.

 

[CapnZapp]

I don't think the purpose of the 'Wish-spell', is for the DM to bend over backwards to find a way to make the wish a disaster for the player. The purpose of the Wish spell, in my opinion, as that the player can wish for anything. If you don't want that to happen, then don't allow wishes in your campaign to begin with.

Or, you can do as I did, and carefully lay out some clearly defined rules regarding what a player can and cannot wish for. If there's also a logic to what the wish can and cannot do, most players will be fine with it.

Okay, I'll explain my point more bluntly then

There are two kinds of players. The first kind you can just give the Wish and trust him or her to make something atmospheric of it that doesn't wreck the campaign. No detailed rules needed.

The second kind you can't trust to be able to withstand the temptation to maximize the Wish for personal benefit, for no regard of the overall campaign, even if the player's intent is benign. In this case, more rules are actively bad for you, since it only eggs him or her on to find ways around your limits. And the more involved the DM gets, the more he or she legitimizes the result, even if it ends up being abusive! No detailed rules is the only defense.

So in all cases I suggest you do what is perhaps counter-intuitive - that is, instead of trying to lock down the usage, take a step back!