wishes and ability scores

[YuriPup]

Well I would say 3 things on the topic

1) Well writen rules will say when things do or don't work. As everyone is an idiot sometimes.

2) There are mechanics where stacking does apply--Greater Magic Weapon, for example. Take your existing +2, add 3, and get +5.

3) The way inherent is worded, being powerful magics etc, implys that it could work differently unless you also happen to be reading the wish discription or the faq at the same time.

With out reading wish I would have ruled they stack--particularly given the odd pricing on the books.

-Y

 

[Hypersmurf]

2) There are mechanics where stacking does apply--Greater Magic Weapon, for example. Take your existing +2, add 3, and get +5.

Boy, did you pick a poor example.

A +2 weapon with a +3 GMW cast on it is a +3 weapon for the duration of the spell.

Enhancement bonuses don't stack.

Just like Inherent bonuses, really.

-Hyp.

 

[Hypersmurf]

By the way... what odd pricing on the books?

A scroll of Wish costs 28,325gp - 25,000 for the XP component, and 3,825 for a 9th level spell.

A +1 manual costs 27,500gp - a slight discount because the Wish can only be used for one purpose. A +2 manual costs exactly twice as much. A +3 book exactly three times as much, and so on.

If you wanted a +5 inherent bonus, you could use 5 scrolls of Wish in quick succession (which costs you exactly 5 times as much as one scroll of Wish), or a +5 manual (which costs you exactly 5 times as much as a +1 manual).

What's odd about it?

-Hyp.

 

[Skaros]

Well I would say 3 things on the topic

1) Well writen rules will say when things do or don't work. As everyone is an idiot sometimes.
-Y

Wow, if they repeated over and over that "this bonus doesn't stack" anytime a bonus is used in a magic item or spell description, the books would already have been over the 320 page revised edition limit

-Skaros

 

[Crothian]

Wow, if they repeated over and over that "this bonus doesn't stack" anytime a bonus is used in a magic item or spell description, the books would already have been over the 320 page revised edition limit

Which is why they had that nice little table of what stacks and what doesn't in the DMG on page 177. Most things do not stack so that should be people default thinking until they look it up.

 

[Dr_Rictus]

3) The way inherent is worded, being powerful magics etc, implys that it could work differently unless you also happen to be reading the wish discription or the faq at the same time.

Or unless you happen to try to answer your stacking question by reading the stacking rules.

Sorry, but I don't see how being "powerful magic" implies that there is probably some hidden exception to the explicitly listed rules. That merely confirms to me that the problem is not that the rules are not clear, but that people refuse to believe the clear rules when they read them.

 

[Philip]

The problem with the wish is that it does make an exception to the normal stacking rules. Somehow the 'casting in immediate succession' allows for stacking an inherent bonus.

I always thought this weird. As if the speed of your tongue determines the height of the inherent bonus. Just what is 'immediate succession'? How much time do you have between ending the last wish en starting the next; 2 seconds, 3 perhaps?

I just think wishing for enormous inherent power should not be an exercise of speed.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Just what is 'immediate succession'?

Well, gee, if I cast a spell, I can cast another spell one round later. That seems like a pretty sensible definition of "immediate succession" to me...

-Hyp.

 

[AuraSeer]

The problem with the wish is that it does make an exception to the normal stacking rules. Somehow the 'casting in immediate succession' allows for stacking an inherent bonus.

No, it just creates a bigger inherent bonus. That's a fundamental difference.

If you cast one wish from a scroll now, you get a +1 bonus. If you walk around using that bonus for a year, and then find another scroll and wish for more of the same stat, it doesn't stack. This is a tradeoff, because you've been using that stat bonus in the game already. If you want a +5 inherent bonus, you need to invest all 25,000 XP before seeing any benefit at all.

Just what is 'immediate succession'?

Exactly what it says. Wish has a casting time of 1 action, so you can cast one per round. "Immediate succession" means you cast them one after another, one per round.

Talking about the "speed of your tongue" is a straw man argument; you're inventing stuff to make the situation sound more complicated than it is. It's really very simple and straightforward.