Wish

[candidus_cogitens]

I don't like it! You shouldn't be able to add a permanent bonus to ability score. And you shouldn't be able to undo an event. Agree? Disagree?

 

[Tom Cashel]

Disagree. 9th level spells should be powerful.

 

[FireLance]

To avoid being mistaken for a troll, would you like to explain why you don't think a person should be able to permanently increase ability scores and undo an event? Becoming stronger/smarter/faster/wiser/more beautiful and undoing misfortune are classic uses for wishes.

 

[candidus_cogitens]

I do not object in principle to increasing ability scores. It's just that it seems too much to be able to cast such a spell every day!

 

[Lord Pendragon]

Well, every day that you have a spare 5000XP, anyway.

 

[Illuminae]

I do not object in principle to increasing ability scores. It's just that it seems too much to be able to cast such a spell every day!

From the description of Wish:

Read carefully:

" Grant a creature a +1 inherent bonus to
an ability score. Two to five wish spells
cast in immediate succession can grant a
creature a +2 to +5 inherent bonus to an
ability score (two wishes for a +2
inherent bonus, three for a +3 inherent
bonus, and so on). Inherent bonuses are
instantaneous, so they cannot be
dispelled. Note: An inherent bonus may
not exceed +5 for a single ability score,
and inherent bonuses to a particular
ability score do not stack, so only the
best one applies."


They are limited, and if you want a +5 you have to have 5 wishes at hand and 25000XP, and thats it.

Dont bother having access to it everyday, you wont have limitless increases nor XP to go with it.

 

[Kilmore]

If you're the DM and still feel like it's broke, you still have room to fix it. Make it take more that the 5000 XP. You can say the person casting the wish must pick six leaves from the Tree of Machete Wielding Monkeys and burn them in a crater left behind by a legendarily unfortunate sorcerer.

 

[Dark Eternal]

If anything, I think that the Wish spell is too simplified. It shouldn't be more difficult to cast - casting a wish spell really should be as simple as focusing your magical energies and proclaiming "I wish monkeys had four asses!" or whatever it is you want to have happen. BUT, the effects of a wish should reflect the fact that you're tampering with the essential existance of reality here. No wish should ever just do something simple and then stop - not unless someone is careful enough to deliberately limit the wish's power to a small and simple scale. Which should take some very cautious research to do.

There's nothing I like more than my player holding aloft his Ring of Three Wishes and saying "I wish someone knew what the hell was going on and could get us out of here!" (Really happened, although not in a game I was running. Rather, I was playing in that particular episode - which made me one of the six people who desperately wanted to strangle the player of the halfling rogue with the ring to death, until he died from it.)

Anyways, I'm rambling. All I wanted to say is: The wish spell, in my experience and in my games, is not in any way overpowered. It just requires a little bit (or a lot, sometimes) of careful planning on every end to fit in well. If the player, the character, and the Dungeon Master all take the time to make sure it's done right, the wish can be one of the best opportunities in the game for some real role playing. Which is, after all, why we're here, right?

Edit: Truncated sig.

 

[S'mon]

I agree that the idea of using a Wish to change past events is a bit iffy; since you're changing the timestream of the entire multiverse. It's not something I'd have considered allowing in 1e or 2e. Well, I guess the PC could always be shunted to an alternative reality where things occurred the way he wanted.
+1 to a stat for 5000XP seems fine, though.

 

[Tom Cashel]

To avoid being mistaken for a troll...

EN World definition of "troll":

Any post written in a such a way as to require a response.