Wish

[Son of the Serpent]

In d&d 3 and 3.5 there is wish and greater wish.

Other than miracle are there any other kinds of wish or, like miracle, spells similar to wish in d&d? Are any of them in some way more useful in a particular type of story than wish as a plot device? Or simply better for certain uses? Also simply are there any others at all?

 

[Leatherhead]

There is also Limited Wish. The level 7 variant of Wish.

As far as similar spells go, the only ones I know of are the Shadow Conjuration and Shadow Evocation lines. Which are illusion (shadow) spell that lets you mimic lower level Conjuration or Evocation spells respectfully.

And, arguably, Prestidigitation. Given that you can kinda make it do whatever generic magical effect.

 

[Son of the Serpent]

Lol. I actually came up with a nick name for prestidigitation once. Least wish

Also thanks. Ill look into shadow evocation. I actually have looked into shadow conjuration some before but maybe its due for me to look at it again too.

 

[Son of the Serpent]

For what it is, a universalist cantrip (wish is also universalist. Fitting) prestidigitation may be one of the most proportionally powerful spells in the game. There is so much you can do with it. Maybe as a dm i should actually link the two in some obscure fashion as a bit of a door for deeper in game magical knowledge for the player who looks really hard at magic for secrets.

 

[Imaculata]

And don't forget you can also use wish-granting items, such as a ring of wishes, a magic lamp with a genie (3 wishes), and a deck of many things, which does not grant wishes but comes pretty close.

 

[Son of the Serpent]

Hmmm...maybe i throw a curse or weird enchantment on a ring (like something that makes the character do something as payment for the wish lest a secondary negative effect occurs but the ring only tells them after the wish is granted? Could be a plot hook thats different than the typical genie one). Is there a standard price for a ring with only one or two so i dont raise suspicions?

 

[Imaculata]

A ring of wishes is usually extremely expensive. In the range of 97,950 gp. It is not generally something you buy in a magic shop. A two-wish variant would be slightly less expensive, but still very expensive. If I encountered one in a magic store, for an affordable price, my first reaction would be: "What's the catch?"

So it would make more sense as a treasure reward, or loot from a powerful spellcaster. A good way to introduce it into the plot, would be to have a side story where the ring's previous owner is killed to obtain this item. But perhaps he hid it very well, or locked it in a safe, which the killer was unable to open... or so it seems.

In my own campaign I had a side plot revolving around a magic lamp with a genie, and the genie revealed that sometimes its owners don't live very long, because everyone wants a wish granting item, and there is always someone willing to kill for one. I also introduced a rule that whenever a wish is made, it has to come from somewhere. Wish for a castle, and someone loses their castle... and they may come looking for it. That was the dark side of wishing. In my campaign it didn't even need to be cursed. Just the knowledge of the dangers of greed, and knowing the abysmal fate of the lamp's previous owners, was enough of a curse to make my players very anxious to wish for anything at all.

 

[Son of the Serpent]

High magic world. Ive actually been working with an idea where magic items are saturating the market a bit. As a result they are somewhat devalued due to lowered demand and wizards are often poor in spite of high cash flow with the difference between the top 5 levels worth of wizards (obvioisly levels only exist ingame somewhat nebulously) and the bottom 11 levels being one lives in the biggest shack at the docks while the former lives in a palatial estate.

The only thing that would be suspicious would be less the price and more the fact that ordinarily this ring would have to have been made by that elite class.

Wait...wait i got something. The aparent (but not true) catch could be its a stolen item which is why its so cheap. A good chance the item is being scried on or that the theif is is a reason they might think the price would be lowered. Hmmmm...

 

[Son of the Serpent]

Ack! But that still leaves me unsure what the price woukd be.

Hmmm.

Maybe ill do a different option...

 

[Son of the Serpent]

Oh wow. I didnt see the second half of your post during the first read. Mobile phone bug.

That actually is pretty good. Might use some of that. It will at least send my thinking in a different direction.