Wish

[arscott]

Y'know, I've never really understood the great joy some DMs (at least on message boards; I've never actually seen a level 17+ PC wizard in a game I've played in) seem to take in perverting Wishes. They're 9th-level spells with a heavy XP cost, and are typically cast by Wizards (because a Sorcerer would never learn Wish) with a 19+ Int score. Nitpicking Wish wording to find loopholes doesn't seem like it would be a fun thing to do...

In earlier editions, when the spell had fewer restrictions on it, it was the classic method of dealing with wishes that were too powerful or otherwise messed up the plot too much.

 

[Saeviomagy]

In earlier editions, when the spell had fewer restrictions on it, it was the classic method of dealing with wishes that were too powerful or otherwise messed up the plot too much.

Unfortunately, there were basically no hints as to what "too powerful" was, so a lot of DM's seem to have gotten into the habit of perverting every single wish made by anyone for any reason.

And they don't seem to be able to get over that.

Also - I'm not talking about wishes granted by evil entities or items or stuff like that: If you mess with wishes granted by someone other than yourself, expect disappointment regardless of how reasonable the wish sounds.

However - I think allowing feats, skill ranks and bonuses to skills is probably outside the scope of the standard wish spell. As a DM, I'd probably tell the guy that he knows wishing for the bonus directly probably won't work, and he should just wish for an item that does it for him. If he insisted on going beyond what he knows the limits of the spell to be, then he'll get messed with.

 

[fanboy2000]

Would you allow a wish to:

Gain a feat?
Gain a bonus to a skill?
Gain skill ranks?

What other meta-game things would you allow a wish to grant (apart from the above three and ability score increases)?

Those sound like extremely reasonable wishes. I'd allow them. Like everything else, I'd ask the player to phrase it the form of an in-game wish. Example: "I wish to be better at crafting spells."

 

[FreeTheSlaves]

No in all cases. Wish does not specifically allow this and I see skills & feats as an intrinsic part of the character development and only to be gained with experience.

Wishes can boost abilities and create skill boosting items, and that is enough for me.

 

[ThirdWizard]

Would you allow a wish to:

Gain a feat?

I would allow the exchange of a feat for another similar feat. Craft Wand for Craft Staff perhaps.

Gain a bonus to a skill?

I would allow a +1 inherant bonus per (consecutive) wish like ability scores to a max of +5.

Gain skill ranks?

Heck no.

 

[Crothian]

I have two types of wished. Wishes as rewards I alloow the players to pick nearly any meta game like thing and have it work risk free. IT is meant to be a reward so they just have to tell me what they want. THen I have the normal wishes were bad things can happen. And if they phrase the wish like a lawyer, really bad things will happen.

 

[Roman]

Those sound like extremely reasonable wishes. I'd allow them. Like everything else, I'd ask the player to phrase it the form of an in-game wish. Example: "I wish to be better at crafting spells."

I would also think they are pretty reasonable wishes.

 

[Roman]

I have two types of wished. Wishes as rewards I alloow the players to pick nearly any meta game like thing and have it work risk free. IT is meant to be a reward so they just have to tell me what they want. THen I have the normal wishes were bad things can happen. And if they phrase the wish like a lawyer, really bad things will happen.

None of my players has ever had a PC that has actually cast a wish by himself/herself. All of the wishes they had access to so far were rewards.

 

[Crothian]

None of my players has ever had a PC that has actually cast a wish by himself/herself. All of the wishes they had access to so far were rewards.

Then go ahead and let it, if they are getting wishes a few skill points or a feat will not break the game (unless the feat or skill by itself would break the game).

 

[D-rock]

Get one of them permently......probably not.